The people of Syria are losing hope in the fifth year of a civil war that has brought levels of death and destruction that are so extreme they should shock the world’s collective conscience, the United Nations chief said in a report on Syria.
The war has killed more than 220,000 people and left a third of the population homeless. Of the country’s roughly 23 million people, some 12.2 million are in need of humanitarian aid, including 5 million children, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his monthly report published on Wednesday.
“It is difficult to believe that those who drop barrel bombs or launch mortar rounds and artillery shells do not realize the immense harm and suffering that their actions are causing to civilians,” Ban said.
“The level of carnage and devastation throughout the Syrian Arab Republic should shock the collective conscience of the world,” said Ban’s report, which covers the month of April and was largely prepared by outgoing U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.
“The Syrian people are losing hope,” he said. “They cannot afford to wait. A political solution must be found.
Spokesman for the Syrian Coalition Salem al-Meslet said earlier that Assad will not be part of any political solution or in any transitional phase no matter how long it takes or whatever shape it takes. “The true place for war criminals like Assad and his aides is in the international courts and they cannot not participate in the process of transforming Syria to a new state.”
“The Assad regime’s industrial crimes against the Syrian people, using all weapons including internationally forbidden ones along with mass executions of detainees centers and the widespread havoc it wreaked in Syria are all enough reasons why the international community or any parties must not seek to reproduce it or present it as a partner in any process aimed at re-stabilizing Syria and the region as a whole. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
