Syrian opposition activists accused the United Nations on Wednesday of “playing with Syrian lives” by dragging out the deployment of ceasefire monitors in the country. They hurled the accusation amid reports that Syrian troops bombarded a Damascus suburb with mortar shells and machine guns Wednesday, a day after special envoy Kofi Annan described the situation in Syria as bleak. Responding to an announcement that it will take another month to deploy 100 unarmed military observers to oversee a shaky April 12 truce agreement, most activists reacted with a mixture of anger and apathy. “It takes them a month to arrive? Are they coming on horses?” said a resident from the city of Homs, which has endured sustained shelling by the army. He asked to be referred to only by the nickname “Sami” for fear of arrest. Wednesday was the second day of government attacks on Douma despite visits to the suburb by UN cease-fire monitors. Activists say these visits deter attacks in some cases, but in others appear to bring on retaliation by government forces after the observers leave. Persistent bloodshed has tarnished efforts by UN observers to salvage the truce that started to unravel almost as soon as it began on April 12. Despite the violence, however, the international community still sees the peace plan as the last chance to prevent the country from falling into civil war — in part because there are no real alternatives. The truce is a key element of Annan's plan to halt more than 13 months of violence in Syria, triggered by a brutal regime crackdown on what began as peaceful protests but gradually turned into an armed uprising. There are currently 15 monitors in Syria, visiting areas torn by a 13-month uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad, whose government has responded to protests with gunfire and shelled central districts of opposition strongholds, saying it is fighting an “armed terrorist” revolt. On Tuesday, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the Security Council, which has authorized 300 monitors to go to Syria, that it will take a month to deploy the first 100. “After one month we will have maybe 1,000 or 2,000 people killed — it's ridiculous. How can the international community watch without moving quickly,” said Mousab Al-Hamadi, an opposition resident from Hama province, where activists say 31 people were killed on Monday when the army shelled and stormed the Arbaeen district of Hama city, a day after the monitors visited.
