He promised that "life will return to normal in Baba Amr, better than it was before".
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad defiantly defended his record on Tuesday as he made a surprise visit to Baba Amr, the district of Homs devastated by the bloodiest government offensive of the year-long uprising against his rule.
Surrounded by a small crowd of ululating women and deferential men, some of them weeping, the Syrian leader stood amid the rubble and told residents that he had been left with no choice but to use force to end the rebels' stranglehold over the suburb. "The state gave those who had strayed from the right path every chance to surrender their weapons, but they rejected and escalated their terrorism," he said. "So we had to act to bring back peace and security and to impose the law."
He promised that "life will return to normal in Baba Amr, better than it was before". Raising hopes of a possible end to the violence, Assad's government accepted a United Nations-backed initiative calling for a ceasefire, even as the UN released an estimate that the civilian death toll since the uprising began had climbed to more than 9,000. "Violence on the ground has continued unabated, resulting in scores of people [being] killed and injured," said Robert Serry, a senior UN official for the Middle East.
Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League special envoy responsible for the proposal, called Syria's reaction "an important initial step", while conceding that it would be a "long and difficult task" to end the fighting.
Victoria Nuland, the US state department spokesperson, welcomed the response from Damascus, but added: "As with all things with the Assad regime, the proof will be in the actual action that he takes." The Syrian National Council, the country's main opposition coalition, insisted that the plan would only work if it led to Assad's removal. Annan's initiative does not call for the Syrian president to leave office. That demand was dropped at the insistence of Russia, Assad's foremost foreign ally.
It seeks instead the withdrawal of Assad's forces from town centres, an end to the use of heavy weapons, and the observance by both sides of a ceasefire to be monitored by UN personnel.
A similarly worded initiative by the Arab League last year failed to end the violence. The body suspended a monitoring mission sent to Syria to verify the implementation of the plan in January amid accusations that Assad was flouting its terms. Rebel forces were also seen as sharing some of the blame after they quickly moved into the towns from which the Syrian army was withdrawn.
Opposition officials have questioned Assad's sincerity, suggesting that he was intending to use the new initiative to buy time and diplomatic cover.
Fighting was reported in several parts of Syria yesterday, and government forces were accused of crossing into Lebanon and destroying farm buildings in pursuit of rebels taking refuge. The Lebanese
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