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Slovenian Armed Forces deploy one member to the UN Surveillance Mission in Syria
On Thursday, 24 May, in line with the decision of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia of 17 May 2012, Slovenia deployed to the UN Surveillance Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) one Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF) officer, who will act as military observer tasked with observation and reporting on potential violations of peace agreement and arrangements between Syria and the UN.
The officer arrived to Damask late last night and is, together with other military observers, already preparing for the tasks within UN mandate.
The UN Security Council Resolution 2043 adopted on 21 April 2012 represents the basis for UNSMIS. The so-called Six-Point Plan has been adopted as a plan to resolve the problem caused by violence and hostilities in Syria. The Plan has been drafted by Special Envoy of UN Secretary General. On 25 March 2012, the Plan was also adopted by Syria. In order to establish the desired state, the Plan stated 6 points in which it calls upon the Syrian government to immediately cease troop movements towards, and end the use of heavy weapons in, population centres, and begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centres; intensify the pace and scale of release of arbitrarily detained persons, including especially vulnerable categories of persons, and persons involved in peaceful political activities; ensure freedom of movement throughout the country for journalists and a non-discriminatory visa policy for them; respect freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully as legally guaranteed. The implementation of the Plan will be controlled by UN observers.
On 11 April 2012, Syrian government guaranteed to stop all military activity and respect the principles stated in the Plan. The situation has settled, but the Six-Poin Plan is year far from being fully implemented. On the 15th April, the UN deployed to the territory of Syria first 30 observers, whose task was to monitor the situation in Syria and the course of realization of the plan. On the 19th April, the UN and Syrian government reached an agreement on the deployment of observers to the territory of Syria with a task to monitor the implementation of the plan. Two days later, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2043, which designed the UN Surveillance Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), set the initial / minimum term of operation of 90 days and set a number of unarmed observers to up to 300
