generalspeaking

Syria internally displaced estimated at 2.5 million

BBC News online - 13 November 2012

UN refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said that the SARC's estimate was "very conservative" and warned that it might be far higher in reality.

People on the run or in hiding were difficult to count and help, she added.

Meanwhile, Syrian government warplanes bombed a rebel-held town near the border with Turkey for a second day.

Plumes of smoke could be seen rising into the sky from the town of Ras al-Ain, in the north-eastern province of Hassakeh, and Turkish ambulances crossed the frontier to transport wounded Syrians to Turkish hospitals.

An official in the nearby Turkish town of Caylanpinar told the Associated Press at least one person had died, bringing the death toll from the last two days of bombardment to 31.

Turkey's Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said on Monday that it had lodged a formal protest with the Syrian government about the air strikes, which he said were endangering its security.
Aid deliveries 'very difficult'
 
Opposition and human rights activists estimate that more than 36,000 people had been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

More than 408,000 Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries, and more are fleeing every day, according to the UN.

However, far more people have left their homes but stayed inside Syria, and humanitarian agencies have struggled to help them.

In Geneva on Tuesday, the chief spokeswoman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the Syrian Red Crescent had doubled its estimate of the number of internally displaced people (IDPs).

"The figure they are using is 2.5 million. If anything, they believe it could be more, this is a very conservative estimate," Melissa Fleming said.
"So people are moving, really on the run, hiding. They are difficult to count and access."
Many of the IDPs are located in schools and public buildings, which often lack adequate heating and sanitation facilities, according to the UN.

Most IDPs are hosted in local communities whose capacity to support them has been stretched, giving the shortages of water, food and medicines and dwindling income.

On Friday, the UN said it believed up to 4 million people inside Syria would need humanitarian aid by early next year, up from 2.5 million.

Ms Fleming said recent deliveries of aid had been "very difficult".

A SARC warehouse in Aleppo was shelled and 13,000 blankets burned, Damascus operations were disrupted for two days and a lorry carrying 600 blankets was hijacked outside the capital. UNHCR staff have also been temporarily withdrawn from Hassakeh.

In a separate development on Tuesday, leaders of the newly formed National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces sought to persuade Arab and European states to recognise it as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

However, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was premature to give it full recognition, saying it first needed to bring on board rebel factions and opposition groups within Syria.
"It is still not sufficient to constitute a provisional government that can be recognised internationally. But it's on the right track," he said in Paris.

In Cairo, UK Foreign Minister William Hague said he wanted to "see the Syrian opposition be inclusive" and "have support inside Syria".

"If they have this, yes, we will then recognise them as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people," he added.

The president of the National Coalition, Moaz al-Khatib, said he also wanted financial and military support from world powers.

Funding would help the group act as a government, while rebel fighters needed "specialised weapons" if they were to "cut short the suffering of the Syrians and their bloodshed", he told the AFP news agency.

Labels: Conflict, Crime, Culture, Human Relations, Political Realities, Revolution, Security, Societal Failures, Syria

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, November 13, 2012