Syrian rebels threaten humanitarian workers, kill 11 - top UN official

Armed groups openly threaten humanitarian workers in Syria, said top UN official Valerie Amos on Friday. The UN humanitarian chief also stated that 11 UN staff members have already been killed in the country, and cited several cases of abductions.

Humanitarian abuses and violence are on the rise in Syria, Amos said after a trip to Damascus.

She argued that over the past few weeks and months, UN workers have faced threats from various armed groups. She added that a number of volunteers from Syria’s Red Crescent Movement have been killed, along with UN staff, totaling 11 individuals. Amos also cited cases of staff abductions.

Amos stressed that “we take all the threats seriously” and despite the “very difficult and dangerous conditions,” humanitarian aid will be continued, as all organizations remain committed to the task.

She also said that the UN has around 4,500 staff in Syria who are working with non-governmental and community organizations in both government and opposition-controlled areas.

Amos also stated that the UN has drawn up emergency plans for a military strike on Syria. "We continue to update and look at our contingency planning," she said, noting that the UN has great concern for its staff on the ground.

“Inside Syria, protecting civilians is paramount. The rise in the level of sectarian and sexual violence and ongoing human rights abuses are a major concern,” Amos added.

More than one-third of the country’s 22 million population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance, argued Amos. She noted that Syrian refugees continue to flood neighboring states.

According to her estimates, the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon will exceed one million by the end of 2013.

Over 100,000 people have already died in the Syrian conflict and more than six million have been displaced. Earlier this year, the UN appealed for US$4.4 billion to help the Syrian people, but has so far only managed to raise 40 percent of that target.

There are currently 15 UN groups working in Syria and a team of peacekeepers is monitoring the situation, Amos said.

Amos added that she had “positive meetings” in Damascus on Thursday with officials from President Bashar Assad’s government about “challenges we have faced in getting approval for field operations, convoys and visas for humanitarian aid workers”.

She said Syrian people have told her that

“the international community has abandoned them and that they’d like to see the international community together, agreeing on action leading to a political solution inside of Syria...People remain fearful, and a lot of people are fearful because the future remains so uncertain”.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday for talks with government officials, a UN source said.

Amos's visit comes shortly after the United Nations announced that the number of Syrian refugees had passed the two million mark since the country's conflict began in March 2011.

Amos, who is due to leave Syria on Friday, has visited Damascus before, and has called in recent months for increased attention to the plight of Syria's displaced and refugee population.

Last month, she joined UN rights chief Navi Pillay in calling for increased humanitarian access to Syria.

"Insecurity, coupled with bureaucratic constraints and limitations on the number of NGOs allowed to operate in Syria, continue to prevent aid reaching all those in need," Amos warned.

Earlier this week, the United Nations said more than two million Syrians have fled their country, and another 4.2 million are internally displaced by the conflict.

More than 110,000 people have been killed in the violence, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO that gathers information from a network of activists, lawyers and doctors on the ground.

Voice of Russia, RT, AFP

Source: Voice of Russia