Syrians about to replace Afghans as world's largest refugee population: UN

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrians are about to replace Afghans as the world's largest refugee population, fleeing a conflict where barrel bombs leave bodies in pieces and a generation of children are physically and emotionally scarred, top UN officials said on Tuesday, Feb 25, according to Reuters.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the UN General Assembly that the world body would do everything to implement a UN Security Council resolution - adopted on Saturday to boost humanitarian aid access - and get help to millions in need.

"Supplies are ready to go into areas that have been hard to reach, and into the towns and cities that have been under siege," Ban said. "What we need is guaranteed safe passage for humanitarian supplies along key routes."

"It is incumbent on the Syrian government and all parties to the conflict to reach these agreements," he said.

Some 9.3 million Syrians - almost half the population - need help, the United Nations said. Some 2.4 million of those people have fled the country during the three-year civil war.

"Five years ago Syria was the world's second-largest refugee hosting country. Syrians are now about to replace Afghans as the present biggest refugee population worldwide," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.

"It breaks my heart to see this nation that for decades welcomed refugees from other countries, ripped apart and forced into exile itself," Guterres told the 193-member UN assembly.

The unanimously adopted Security Council resolution demands cross-border aid access in Syria, an end to the use of weapons such as barrel bombs in cities and towns and threatens "further steps" in cases of non-compliance.

UN diplomats say Syria's ally Russia is unlikely to agree to any action if the Damascus government was found to be in non-compliance. But Western envoys expressed a strong intent to push for Security Council action if the resolution is ignored.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay told the General Assembly that imprecise weapons, notably barrel bombs, had reportedly killed hundreds of people in February alone.

She added between December 15-28, 2013: "Barrel bombs landed on more than 12 districts, exploding on residential buildings, marketplaces, a bus station, a school and in close proximity to hospitals. This resulted in inhumane loss of life."

"As described ... by one witness after an attack on a bus station, I quote, 'bodies arrived in pieces, there were parts of bodies and parts of vehicles hanging on the power cable,'" Pillay said.