A Coalition Delegate in Denmark to Rally Support for Syrian Revolution and Impoverished Refugees

Hadi al-Bahra, president of the Syrian Coalition, called on the Government of Denmark to raise the issue of the World Food Program’s suspension of food aid for 1.7 million Syrians during the meeting of EU foreign ministers scheduled in mid-December. The visit to Denmark aims to rally support for the Syrian revolution and to discuss prospects of a political solution to the Syrian conflict. The Syrian Coalition’s delegation and the Danish foreign minister also discussed the plan of the UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura and ways to make it part of this solution. The two sides stressed the need to ensure that the “de Mistura initiative will not allow the Assad regime to move its troops from the “freeze” areas to deploy them in other areas. Furthermore, the delegation called for increasing the support for programs that are being funded by the Danish Government, most importantly programs of civil defense and civilian police. The Syrian Coalition’s delegation also met with the head of the Danish Parliament Mogens Lykketoft and raised the issue of the World Food Program’s suspension of food aid to Syrian refugees and stresses the need to secure funding for the resumption of the program. Bahra said earlier that “we are extremely concerned by the UN World Food Program’s (WFP) announcement that it is suspending food assistance to 1.7 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries due to shortages of funds. Those vulnerable refugees desperately rely on this help, especially as they face a harsh winter. With refugees recently freezing to death in Lebanon, the catastrophic consequences of winter have already begun to cause immense suffering.” The suspension of UN vouchers will cause thousands of families to starve to death and will put much more pressure on already strained hosting countries, struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. Bahra stresses that the international community has a moral obligation to prevent the looming starvation of hundreds of thousands refugees by providing the necessary funds to keep the UN WFP assistance program running. It is completely unacceptable that refugees, who have fled violence and death in Syria, are left alone to bear unimaginable suffering and fight for survival in such extremely harsh circumstances.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)