End violence, Syrians urged

Chinese envoy: Hold peaceful elections

DAMASCUS: A senior Chinese envoy called for all sides in Syria to stop the violence and for elections to go ahead peacefully afterdamascus talks with President Bashar al-assad, state media said.

The meeting came after a day of violence in which a human rights watchdog said at least 30 people were killed as protests spread to several well-to-do neighbourhoods of the capital for the first time and security forces unleashed their heaviest pounding yet of the flashpoint central city of Homs.

Activists called for a “day of disobedience” in Damascus today to galvanise support for the protest movement.

“The position of China is to call on the government, the opposition and the rebels to halt acts of violence immediately,” Vice-foreign Minister Zhai Jun said after his talks with Assad.

Zhai, whose government has twice joined Moscow in blocking UN Security Council condemnation of the Damascus regime’s deadly crackdown on an 11-month uprising, said it was vital that “calm be restored as quickly as possibly as that serves the interests of the

The position of China is to call on the government, the opposition and the rebels to halt acts of violence immediately. — ZHAI JUN

Syrian people,” state television reported. d

“We hope that the referendum on a new constitution as well as the forthcoming parliamentary elections pass off calmly,” he said.

On Thursday, Syrian opposition groups rejected a newly drafted constitution that could end nearly five decades of single-party rule, and urged voters to boycott a Feb 26 referendum on the charter.

One of them, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, said “it is impossible for us to take part in this referendum before a stop to the violence and killings” which rights groups say has killed more than 6,000 people since March last year. — AFP