Ban: race against time to prevent all-out Syrian war

Syrians watch as a donkey walks on a picture of Bashar al-Assad during an anti-election protest Syria\'s Deraa, Hama, Homs and Idlib districst were shelled Tuesday, claimed opposition activists, yet state news agency SANA said all these areas had UN observers present.

SANA said Tuesday that there were nine monitors in Homs and four each in Deraa, Hama, and Idlib. It puts number of observers at 70 and quotes a spokesperson for the UN monitoring team as saying the team will be \"notably increased\" in coming days.
Six youths were killed by shelling and gunfire in Idlib, in north-west Syria, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees activist network (LCC). It claimed dozens more were injured.
The deaths take the number killed by the security forces across Syria on Tuesday to 16, according to the LCC. Its reports cannot be independently verified.
Syrian security forces on Tuesday shelled the central provinces of Hama and Homs killing at least five people, an activist told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
\"Four people were killed in the shelling that targeted areas on the outskirts of Hama, while at least six people were wounded when shells fell on al-Rastan in Homs,\" activist Omar Homsi said.
In areas on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, troops stormed Doumeir, killing one man and arresting at least 20 others, activists reported.
The LCC claimed two shells fell on Deraa in the south and reported \"intense gunfire from combat vehicles at the northern entrance to the town\".
Syrian forces Tuesday also swept through a village in Idlib province, firing shells and bursts of gunfire in which two civilians were killed, while another man was shot dead by snipers in Homs, a watchdog said.
Tuesday in Aleppo apparently saw a sit-in outside the prosecutor\'s office in the justice department, demanding the release of students arrested in last week\'s raid on Aleppo University, said the LCC.
The raid on the university on Wednesday night/Thursday morning last week left at least four students dead with dozens more wounded and scores arrested, according to activists.
Nearly 12,000 people, mostly civilians killed by troops, have died in Syria since the outbreak in March 2011 of a popular revolt against the regime of president Bashar al-Assad, said Tuesday the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In total, 11,925 people have been killed since March 15, 2011, 8515 civilians and 3410 soldiers, including more than 700 dissidents, the president of the NGO, Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Moreover, since the announcement of the cease-fire on April 12, 831 people, including 589 civilians, were killed in violence, he said.
Fighting has also driven into exile more than 65,000 Syrians, according to the UN, and more than 25,000 people are currently incarcerated in connection with the revolt, according to Abdel Rahman.
Meanwhile, UN leader Ban Ki-moon warned that international powers are \"in a race against time\" to prevent all-out civil war in Syria, where the government could use the presence of ceasefire observers to prepare a new assault.
Speaking ahead of a key UN Security Council meeting on Syria on Tuesday, Ban again condemned the \"brutality\" of president Bashar al-Assad\'s forces but said attacks by opposition groups have also \"escalated.\"
\"We are in a race against time to prevent full-scale civil war -- death on a potentially massive scale,\" Ban said. The UN already estimates that well over 9000 people have died in the 14-month uprising against Assad.
 A ceasefire began on April 12 under an accord between Assad and UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has broken down, with intense fighting between government forces and anti-Assad rebels.                                  
A full force of 300 observers sent by the UN Security Council is expected to be in place before the end of May, Ban added.
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday the UN should increase significantly the number of its observers in Syria. He made these comments during a visit to Rome for a summit with his Italian peer. \"We need 1,000, 2,000, maybe 3,000 observers, a major mission which is able to visit the entire country and see what happens there,\" Erdogan said at a press conference. \"If someone were to ask me where are my hopes, I would say that I lost all hope,\" he added.                                  
Ban said Assad\'s government must  carry out Annan\'s six-point peace plan, including the withdrawal of troops and guns from cities, \"without further delay\".
The UN chief earlier slammed the Syrian government for holding a national election on Monday despite the ongoing violence and for failing to involve all parties.
\"Only a comprehensive and inclusive political dialogue can lead to a genuine democratic future in Syria,\" he said in a statement released by his office. \"These elections are not taking place within that framework.\"
The United States has warned it could call for the UN observer mission to be halted before the end of its 90-day mandate. Other western nations also have doubts that the Assad government will respect the envoy\'s peace plan.
Another UN diplomat said \"it is difficult to see whether the opposition will step up for talks when they are being shot, shelled and tortured.\"
Syria said counting was under way Tuesday after parliamentary elections which the opposition boycotted and the US described as\"bordering on ludicrous.\"
The Syrian government touted a wide turnout for parliamentary elections held Monday, when more than 7000 candidates vied for 250 parliamentary seats. The voting took place despite incessant reports of violence and international pressure on Assad to step aside.
But members of the opposition urged Syrians to boycott the elections, saying a vote for any of the candidates amounted to a vote for Assad, whose family has ruled the country for 42 years.
\"We are moving ahead till we topple the regime,\" read a slogan on an opposition election poster that purported to show its candidates as victims of Assad\'s violent crackdown on those calling for his ouster.
Anti-regime activists were quick to spoof the elections with a flurry of amateur, online videos lampooning a vote they say aims to put a shiny gloss on the authoritarian rule of Assad and cover up its fierce crackdown on protesters.
In one video, \"voters\" line up at a staged polling station and first in line is a man in a white funeral shroud, \"killed\" by regime forces. \"God have mercy on your soul,\" says an actor playing a reporter before asking him what he thinks of the voting.
\"The elections are free and fair!\" the dead man declares in the video, filmed in the northern village of Kafr Sijneh. Next in line behind him is a wounded man, covered in white bandages with huge blood spots on his arms and head.
US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said Monday that balloting in the current atmosphere in Syria \"borders on ludicrous.\"
\"It is not really possible to hold credible elections in a climate where basic human rights are being denied to the citizens and the government is continuing to carry out daily assaults on its own citizens,\" he said.
Still, the elections were the first under a new constitution, adopted three months ago, that allows political parties to compete with Assad\'s ruling Baath Party. The new constitution also limits the president to two seven-year terms.
Assad, 46, inherited power from his father in 2000.
A referendum in February, hailed by government supporters as a step towards reform, was widely ridiculed by analysts and the opposition as window dressing.
Spurred by the success of popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Syrians first took to the streets in March 2011 calling for reforms and increased political freedoms. But a brutal government crackdown against demonstrators saw the movement quickly devolve into an uprising with an armed resistance.