UN chief calls for more efforts to end violence in Syria

The international community should be shamed by the continued suffering of the Syrian people, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in a statement issued here Tuesday, the third anniversary of an agreement aimed at finding a political solution to end the conflict in the Middle East country.

"It should shame us all that, three years since the adoption of the Geneva Communiqu on resolving the cataclysmic conflict in Syria, the suffering of the Syrian people continues to plumb new depths," Ban said.

On June 30, 2012, the secretaries-general of the United Nations and the League of Arab States, foreign ministers of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar, and a high representative from the European Union, met in Geneva, Switzerland, to create a road map for peace in Syria.

The conflict, which started in March 2011, has left more than 220,000 Syrians dead, while almost half of the country's population have been forced to flee their homes since three years ago, according to Ban.

Syria is now the most unstable region in the world, declared Ban, saying it is "increasingly controlled by a patchwork of Syrian and non-state actors, including Daesh and the Al Nusra Front."

"Civilians face a barrage of barrel bombs and other horrendous violations of human rights such as torture and prolonged detention of tens of thousands," he added.

Ban implored the international community to act, calling on the UN Security Council not to waste any more time ending the violence.

"There must be no impunity for such inhumanity," he said. "It is time to find an exit from this madness."
Source: XINHUA