FNs omfattende “response plan” har ikke fået klar bane fra styret i Damaskus – indeholder talrige projekter og programmer, som skal bistå en million mennesker i seks måneder, ikke mindst med mad og sundhedspleje.
DUBAI, 23 April 2012 (IRIN) – The UN has presented a multi-million dollar plan to respond to humanitarian needs in Syria, but still lacks government approval to implement it.
The director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, John Ging, presented the plan to governments, NGOs and regional organizations at a meeting of the Syria Humanitarian Forum, the international platform used to discuss humanitarian concerns in Syria, on 20 April.
“Syria has recognized there are serious humanitarian needs and that urgent action is required,” Ging said, adding:
“We now need to get agreement from the Syrian authorities to implement the Response Plan. In the meantime, we are mobilizing resources to make it happen.”
The 180 million US dollar plan includes dozens of projects to respond to the needs of one million people over six months, with the bulk of the money going towards food and health care, but also for the repair of basic services and to support livelihoods to avoid a descent (nedsynken) into poverty by many Syrians affected by a deteriorating economy.
What began as peaceful protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011 has become an increasingly violent conflict between an armed opposition and government security forces, resulting in a death toll of more than 9.000, according to Robert Serry, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, with many more injured or detained.
The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent has told IRIN there could be as many as 400.000 people displaced, and the International Committee of the Red Cross says there is a “continuous flow” of people leaving their homes in search of safety, some of them living in schools, mosques and churches.
The response plan comes after a nine-day government-led assessment in March of areas affected by the unrest. The government has not accepted the UN figure that one million people are in need in Syria.
“We do not have any crisis in Syria; it is not Somalia,” Syria’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui, said after the 20 April meeting of the Syria Humanitarian Forum.
State media has often said there is no problem in Syria except for the “terrorists” it blames for the violence.
In recent days, however, the government has become increasingly willing to recognize humanitarian needs in the country, with al-Assad and his first lady appearing on state TV packing food parcels for distribution.
But the government insists the state should lead humanitarian assistance.
Syrian Arab Red Crescent
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95332/SYRIA-New-UN-response-plan-awaits-government-agreement
