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STORY: UN / SYRIA
TRT: 2.45
SOURCE: UNTV / FILE
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE 28 MARCH 2014, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
28 MARCH 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Valerie Amos walking to stakeout position
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, camera
28 MARCH 2014, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“I am also very concerned that hundreds of thousands of people have been newly displaced from areas like eastern Aleppo and Yabroud in the south - driving them further from the reach of humanitarian assistance.”
FILE – UNHCR - 24 MARCH 2014 NUSAYBIN-QAMISHLY, BORDER TURKEY- SYRIA
5. Wide shot, WFP truck driving away
6. Wide shot, IOM truck parked
7. Wide shot, WFP truck driving away
28 MARCH 2014, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“The humanitarian situation remains bleak, and will continue to be bleak, unless we are granted full and unhindered access, through the most efficient and direct means. Only six per cent of the people living in besieged areas have received assistance in the past month. I told the Council that we need to see a significant step-change in the speed and scale of humanitarian aid, if we are to save lives and keep pace with the ever-growing needs.”
FILE – UNRWA - 30 JANUARY 2014, YARMOUK, CAMP, DAMASCUS SYRIA
9. Wide shot of street among ruins, massive crowds in street.
10. UNRWA aid worker on balcony of house ruin with megaphone
11. Crowds in street from above
12. UNRWA worker with megaphone in street with masses of people
28 MARCH 2014, NEW YORK CITY
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations:
“Five weeks on, and against whichever benchmark you use, it is clear that we have not seen the step-change required. And the Syrian government is front and centre in bearing the overwhelming responsibility of this lack of response.”
FILE - UNCHR 9, 13 FEBRUARY 2014, HOMS, SYRIA
14. Wide shot, destruction in Homs
15. Med shot, mother carrying her child get off ambulance with UN employee after evacuating Homs
28 MARCH 2014, NEW YORK CITY
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Bashar al Jafari, Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations:
“We need the British cooperation and the American cooperation, the French, the Turkish, the Saudi’s, the Qatari’s, the Australian, the Luxembourg’s cooperation with the Syrian government, not with the terrorist groups, not with the armed opposition, not with the armed groups. We are a member state, full pledged member state of this organization. We are a government. These people should be responsible and deal with the Syrian government. We need their cooperation, their cooperation, not their complicity, and their assistance with the terrorist groups."
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
17. Close up, laptop’s keyboard
28 MARCH 2014, NEW YORK CITY
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“The Assad regime’s murderous appetite for deploying artillery, barrel bombs and air strikes against civilians in Syria – despite this Council’s specific call that these types of attacks stop – is the number one factor driving displacement and the broader humanitarian crisis.”
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
19. Close up, notepad
Violence against civilians is continuing in Syria despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for increased and unhindered humanitarian access.
The Council discussed today (28 Mar) a report of the UN Secretary-General which noted that "indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks" have caused mass civilian death and injuries, as well as forced displacement.
Speaking to the press outside the Security Council, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Valerie Amos said the situation of millions of people has not improved; adding that conflict and violence have intensified in the past four weeks with many people killed and injured.
She said “I am also very concerned that hundreds of thousands of people have been newly displaced from areas like eastern Aleppo and Yabroud in the south - driving them further from the reach of humanitarian assistance.”
Amos noted that the UN has been able to provide some assistance through cross-line convoys including to areas where people had not had aid for months.
She said that last week the first UN cross-border convoy for affected communities in al-Hassakeh entered Syria via the Nusaybin/Qamishly crossing point in the last week.
The trucks carried food for 50,000 people, medicines for 60,000 and household items like blankets and clothing for over 60,000.”
“However” -Amos said- “the humanitarian situation remains bleak, and will continue to be bleak, unless we are granted full and unhindered access, through the most efficient and direct means.”
She added “only six per cent of the people living in besieged areas have received assistance in the past month. I told the Council that we need to see a significant step-change in the speed and scale of humanitarian aid, if we are to save lives and keep pace with the ever-growing needs.”
Also speaking to reporters, the British Ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant stressed that there had been little progress since the adoption of the Security Council resolution, which demands that all parties, especially the Syrian government, promptly allow safe access for humanitarian aid.
He said “five weeks on, and against whichever benchmark you use, it is clear that we have not seen the step-change required. And the Syrian government is front and centre in bearing the overwhelming responsibility of this lack of response.”
Grant pointed out that about 220.000 remain under siege.
The Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja'afari urged the international community to work constructively with his Government.
He said “we need the British cooperation and the American cooperation, the French, the Turkish, the Saudi’s, the Qatari’s, the Australian, the Luxembourg’s cooperation with the Syrian government, not with the terrorist groups, not with the armed opposition, not with the armed groups.”
Ja’afari underlined “we are a member state, full pledged member state of this organization. We are a government. These people should be responsible and deal with the Syrian government. We need their cooperation, their cooperation, not their complicity, and their assistance with the terrorist groups."
The US ambassador Samantha Power called the briefing by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator “harrowing” and stressed that the Syrian government has “utterly failed to comply” with the resolution.
She said “the Assad regime’s murderous appetite for deploying artillery, barrel bombs and air strikes against civilians in Syria – despite this Council’s specific call that these types of attacks stop – is the number one factor driving displacement and the broader humanitarian crisis.”
Power added that the “moderate opposition has, in fact, cooperate in facilitating aid deliveries, including in Aleppo and Idlib, and the United States will continue to ask them to do more.”
She also noted that in the coming days Council members will discuss the “further steps”
According to the UN Secretary-General’s report, 9.3 million Syrians are currently in need of humanitarian aid, with 3.5 million of them living in hard to reach areas.
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