AFP, Addis Ababa, 29 Jan 2012 – UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime had absolute control over Syria until a sustained and increasingly violent challenge to its rule, must end the killings in his country.
‘First and foremost, he must stop immediately the bloodshed,’ Ban told reporters. ‘The Syrian leadership should take a decisive action at this time to stop this violence. All the violence must stop.’
Assad’s opponents have sought to ramp up pressure on the international community for UN action after the Arab League withdrew its observers amid mounting violence.
Ban called directly on Assad, saying that as leader he had an ‘important responsibility (to) resolve this situation (and) engage in political dialogue.’
According to an AFP tally taken from reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state media, at least 232 people — among them 147 civilians — have been killed since last Tuesday.
That adds to the figure of more than 5,400 given by the United Nations last month since anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March last year.
Ban was speaking in the Ethiopian capital, where he attended the opening of an African Union summit.