Amos urges UNSC to exert on Syria same pressure on CW issue to ease humanitarian situation

UN aid Chief Valerie Amos urged the Security Council to exert on Syria the same pressure it exerted regarding the elimination of its Chemical Weapons (CW) so that Damascus eases the devastating humanitarian situation on the ground. She also urged its members to engage with donor countries ahead of the Kuwait II donors Conference to ensure adequate funding. In a confidential letter to the Council revealed Tuesday, Amos said "one of the key messages is the need to learn the lessons from the Security Council's handling of the chemical weapons issue and the success of that, and understanding how these positive lessons could be applied to make progress on humanitarian issues." On the funding of the humanitarian situation in Syria, Amos also urged the Council to "engage with countries ahead of the pledging Conference in Kuwait in January 2014 to ensure adequate level of funding to meet increasing needs for 2014." She said the Council should use leverage with parties to the conflict to allow the evacuation of civilians from areas besieged by either the Government or opposition forces, to facilitate humanitarian access to hard to reach areas under their control, and to implement a weekly humanitarian pause or area specific pauses to access those in need, especially in hard to reach and besieged areas. She estimated that in the areas besieged by government forces, there are 50, 000 people in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad; 3,800 in the Old City of Homs; 227,500 in Ghouta, including Douma, Erbin, Kafr, Batra, Zamalka; and 7,000 in Moadamyah. There are however, 45,000 people in Nubul and Azzahra, near Aleppo, besieged by opposition forces. Pressure, she added, should also be exerted on the parties to the conflict to publicly declare that it is "unacceptable" to target medical facilities, staff and ambulances, and to occupy such facilities, and to immediately deamilitarize and evacuate such premises. She also urged Council members to "use contacts" with the Syrian Government to lift bureaucratic impediments, especially to grant visas for humanitarian workers and to facilitate customs clearance procedures for humanitarian supplies and equipment. She also stressed the need that humanitarian assistance be transported directly to affected communities through the most direct route when supplies are imported from neighbouring countries - Lebanon, Jordan or Iraq - rather than having to go through Damascus first then be redistributed throughout Syria. The Security Council adopted a non-binding Presidential Statement on October 2nd calling on the parties to the conflict in Syria to ease the humanitarian situation on the ground. Its provisions have yet to be implemented