Syria's opposition parties call for halting violence
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E-mail Xinhua, September 24, 2012
Around 20 Syrian opposition parties called for halting the violence on Sunday from all parties in Syria as the country's Prime Minister Wael al-Halki said the Syrian crisis is in its "final stages" due to the "Syrian troops' sacrifices in confronting terrorism."
The oppositional National Coordination Body along with 20 other Syrian opposition parties wrapped up the conference for "rescuing Syria" Sunday evening with a number of demands, mainly halting violence form all parties as a prelude for a political transitional period.
The final communique of the conference said "the strategy of the security and military solution, which is espoused by the regime against the people's revolution that demands freedom dignity and democracy, has aggravated the violence and created a climate for special agendas."
The statement's signatories also called for halting the violence by the regime forces and the armed opposition alike under an international and Arab supervision.
It also called for the immediate release of all political detainees and urged the UN-Arab League joint special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to push for holding an international conference on Syria that would discuss ways to start a transitional period in the unrest-hit country.
Sunday's conference was marked with the absence of many opposition parties inside Syria, which said they have differences with the National Coordinating Body regarding the nature of the armed rebels and their acts on ground.
A day earlier, a total of 28 opposition parties said their relation with the NCB is marred by the wrangling on the rebels' tactics and their role in the 19-month crisis in Syria. They said they are against the militarization of the crisis and against the terrorist acts carried out by operative armed opposition on ground.
The 28 parties did not take part in Sunday's conference.
Rajaa al-Naser, a NCB member, said at the opening session of the conference Sunday that "we believe and seek to put forward emergency plans that would allow the return of the displaced people and provide the medical treatment and livelihood for millions of restive Syrians, and we found no other prelude to this except the immediate halt of gunfire and the barbaric, brutal shelling."
Russian Ambassador to Syria Azamat Kulmukhametov, who also attended the conference, stressed that "we see that the main goal now is to put an immediate end to the violence in Syria, whether it was from the government or the armed groups."
He added that another "no less important" goal is "turning the current confrontation between the authorities and the armed opposition to the track of peaceful, political solution."
The ambassador also stressed the importance of "solving the Syrian crisis by the Syrians themselves away from any foreign intervention, including halting the armament and the harboring of the armed groups that also group foreign mercenaries."
After the opening session, al-Naser told Xinhua that the parties which refused to take part in the conference aim to " confuse the conference," adding that "this conference is for the opposition and we didn't exclude anyone."
As the opposition renewed calls for curbing the violence, Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halki stressed Sunday that "the Syrian crisis is in its final stages due to the Syrian people rallying behind its leadership and the Syrian army's sacrifices that have made strides in eradicating terrorism and armed terrorist groups."
Al-Halki, whose remarks were carried by the state-run SANA news agency, pointed out to the "signs of the international political transformation toward what is going on in Syria through peaceful solutions to the crisis and calls for dialogue and national reconciliation."
On ground, violence continued to rage on in several hotspots nationwide Sunday, the latest of which was the explosive device that ripped though a footbridge at the Beirut Street in central Damascus that killed one person and injured two others.
The blast site is close to the high-end Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus.
It comes as part of the ongoing violence that has engulfed most of the Syrian areas after 19 months of crisis.
The state news agency said the Syrian troops continued Sunday tracking down "armed terrorist groups" in several Syrian areas, killing large numbers of them, while the oppositional Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 36 Syrians have so far been killed Sunday.
It said the toll includes 14 civilians, one unidentified body, nine rebel fighters, and 12 regular soldiers. Yet, such accounts are impossible of being checked independently.
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