UN peace envoy to send letter on Syria to Security Council

PanARMENIAN.Net - UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan will send a letter to the Security Council Tuesday, April 10 on Syria, his spokesman said, the day a UN-Arab plan to end 13 months of bloodshed is to take effect, AFP reported.

"Mr Annan will be sending a letter to the Council later today," spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told AFP.

Under a peace plan agreed with Annan, the Syrian regime is supposed to withdraw its troops and armour from population centres on Tuesday ahead of a ceasefire on Thursday.

But the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that regime forces have yet to pull back from anywhere across the country, according to reports from witnesses on the ground.

Annan meanwhile arrived on a visit to neighbouring Turkey, where gunfire from Syria wounded four Syrians and two Turkish staff at a refugee camp across the border on Monday.

Some 25,000 Syrian refugees are currently in camps in Turkey's three provinces bordering Syria, after fleeing the crackdown on dissent which began last March and has left more than 9,000 dead, according to UN figures.

The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday it was providing assistance.

"Until now the camps ... have been run by the Turkish authorities, said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"We have been asked to respond by sending a small technical team to assist."