De Mistura renews UN appeal for Syrian truce

Geneva, March 2 (IANS/AKI) The United Nations special envoy to Syria said on Thursday that the world body has and will not give up urging the implementation of its resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire in the war-ravaged country.

"We will continue asking until we are red in the face, blue in the face, for both sides... to stop shelling each other's areas and for convoys to be allowed to get to Eastern Ghouta in particular," de Mistura told reporters in Geneva on Thursday.

"Otherwise this (Eastern Ghouta) becomes a copy of Aleppo," de Mistura said, referring to the northern Syrian city that became a major flashpoint in the country's eight-year civil war.

Civilians have been evacuated from the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area outside Damascus for the first time since daily "humanitarian pauses" began on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

More than 580 people have been killed in Eastern Ghouta since the Syrian government and its allies intensified their bombardments on February 18, according to doctors.

The 393,000 civilians trapped in the enclave, the last major rebel stronghold near the capital Damascus, also face severe shortages of food and medical supplies.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Saturday calling for a 30-day countrywide cease-fire, but it has not come into effect.

The resolution set no firm date for the truce to take effect.

It also excluded attacks on opposition forces identified as terrorists, who make up some of the estimated 580 opposition fighters entrenched in eastern Ghouta.

On Monday, UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, demanded that the ceasefire be brought into effect immediately.

"Eastern Ghouta cannot wait. It's high time to stop this hell on earth," Guterres said at the opening of a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

--IANS/AKI

sku/