United Nations ceasefire monitors in the Syrian town of Douma Saturday saw that the army had not withdrawn tanks in line with a truce agreement and were confronted by residents who complained that the UN observers were just “watching us die”. A Reuters team that accompanied a two-car UN convoy saw checkpoints on every street corner and a heavy army presence in Douma, at one time known as a stronghold for the armed opposition but now back under government control. The town of around 500,000 people near the capital Damascus has been a focus of the 14-month revolt against President Bashar Al-Assad. At the entrance to the town, soldiers in full army fatigues were posted at a large checkpoint, some positioned behind sandbags. Along the streets, anti-Assad graffiti had been obscured with black paint, but some remained. “Down with Bashar. No to sectarianism. Long live the Free Army,” read slogans, referring to the Free Syrian Army, a motley collection of army defectors and armed civilians fighting to topple Assad. “Assad's army is traitorous,” it said in Arabic, adding in English: “We will not be put down.”
