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UN / SYRIA AMOS
STORY: UN / SYRIA AMOS
TRT: 2.43
SOURCE: UNTV / WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 30 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
30 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Pan left, Valerie Amos walks up to the stakeout position
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, reporter’s notepad
30 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“It is now two months since Resolution 2319 was adopted and as you know, the Secretary-General presented his report to the Council last week. It makes very grim reading. Far from getting better, the situation is getting worse.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
5. Close up, reporter’s notepad
30 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“The parties appear to be engaged in an endless spiral of targeting and harming civilians for tactical purposes. I told the Council that in my reports I have demonstrated time and time again the minimal impact of the approach being taken so far, and that public pressure and private diplomacy has yielded very little.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, reporter’s notepad
30 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“For every lawyer you will get three or four different opinions about international humanitarian law. I don’t feel that we should use precious time getting into an esoteric debate with respect to these issues on international humanitarian law. I think what we should be doing is focusing on how we best get the aid in.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
9. Close up, reporter’s notepad
30 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“It’s absolutely horrific what is happening day by day. Children, women, men, being directly targeted. It’s a flagrant violation of the basis tenants of war. The Security Council in previous situations when we have seen this has come together around humanitarian issues and have passed robust Security Council resolutions. The difference is the political differences amongst Council Members, and again, I state this today, is itself having an impact on the way resolution 2139 is being implemented.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
11. Close up, reporter’s mobile device
30 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“That’s not a decision for me. That is a decision for the Security Council Members. It is a decision for Member States of the United Nations. Thank you.”
13. Pan right, Amos walks away from the stakeout position
FILE – WFP – 11, 12 MARCH 2014, HOMS, SYRIA
14. Wide shot, car on the street
15. Various shots, destruction
16. Wide shot, children riding bikes
17. Med shot, children walking
18. Various shots, aid distribution
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said that in the two months since the Council passed a resolution on humanitarian aid for Syria, “far from getting better, the situation is getting worse.”
Following a briefing to the Security Council today (30 Apr), Amos told reporters outside the Council that both the government and opposition “appear to be engaged in an endless spiral of targeting and harming civilians for tactical purposes.”
She said that in her reports to the Council she has “demonstrated time and time again the minimal impact of the approach being taken so far, and that public pressure and private diplomacy has yielded very little.”
Resolution 2319, approved in February after intense negotiations, called on all parties to end sieges of densely populated areas.
Asked about the legal scope of the resolution, Amos, who is also the Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said “I don’t feel that we should use precious time getting into an esoteric debate with respect to these issues on international humanitarian law.”
Instead, she said “what we should be doing is focusing on how we best get the aid in.”
The UN Official said “it’s absolutely horrific what is happening day by day” as children, women, and men are being “directly targeted” in a “flagrant violation of the basis tenants of war.”
She said the Security Council’s political differences are “having an impact on the way resolution 2139 is being implemented.”
On her way out, Amos responded to a journalist's question about referring the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC). She said “that’s not a decision for me. That is a decision for the Security Council Members. It is a decision for Member States of the United Nations.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today condemned ‘in the strongest terms’ the latest attacks in Syria – which left dozens of civilians dead or wounded from mortar fire and shelling in neighbourhoods in Homs and Damascus – and called on the Government and opposition groups to resist provocations that could undermine peace efforts.
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