{"id":119039,"date":"2018-09-24T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=119039"},"modified":"2018-09-21T12:40:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T11:40:21","slug":"idlib-deal-could-save-three-million-from-catastrophe-says-un-chief-as-militants-are-urged-to-lay-down-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/09\/idlib-deal-could-save-three-million-from-catastrophe-says-un-chief-as-militants-are-urged-to-lay-down-arms\/","title":{"rendered":"Idlib Deal Could Save Three Million \u2018from Catastrophe\u2019 Says UN Chief, as Militants Are Urged to Lay Down Arms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

20 Sep 2018 – A deal reached between Russia and Turkey to create a demilitarized buffer zone protecting citizens \u201cfrom catastrophe\u201d in Syria\u2019s Idlib region is a welcome development, UN Secretary-General<\/a> Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said today, before urging all parties to make a \u201cstrong commitment\u201d to it.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the agreement three days ago between President Erdogan of Turkey and President Putin of Russia, to create a demilitarized buffer zone in Idlib\u201d, Mr Guterres told journalists in New York.
\n\u201cIf properly implemented, this could save three million civilians \u2013 including one million children \u2013 from catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his appeal to \u201call the parties\u201d\u00a0to implement the agreement, the UN chief highlighted the need to ensure the protection of civilians and humanitarian access.<\/p>\n

International humanitarian law must also be respected and everyone involved in the more than seven-year conflict should work \u201curgently for greater progress\u201d in the Geneva process to find a political solution to the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf properly implemented, this could save three million civilians \u2013 including one million children \u2013 from catastrophe.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\n— UN chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Mr Guterres\u2019s comments followed a meeting earlier in the day of the Humanitarian Access Task Force on Syria, led by Senior Adviser to the UN Jan Egeland.<\/p>\n

Echoing the UN chief\u2019s comments, Mr Egeland said that the deal between Russia and Turkey was a welcome development, before appealing to armed militants there not to fight \u201cto the last civilian\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A child sitting at a desk in a school that was attacked, in Idlib, Syria. UNICEF<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat some groups have said is that they are preparing to fight,\u201d Mr Egeland told journalists in Geneva. \u201cAnd our message to them is\u2026we hope you\u2019re not going to fight to the last civilian\u201d.<\/p>\n

After meeting with more than 20 Member States, Mr Egeland explained that the fine detail of the freshly-inked deal had yet to be decided.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were informed of the details of the agreement,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were also informed that many details are being worked out and that the two countries, Russia and Turkey, would be in contact with us as humanitarians, to explain how we can ensure protection of civilians, access for the 12,000 humanitarians who are inside of the zone and the many who will continue assistance, both cross-border and potentially cross-line, from Government-controlled areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement between Turkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin reportedly creates a 15-20-kilometre-wide de-escalation zone in Idlib to be patrolled by Russian and Turkish troops.<\/p>\n

The Special Advisor to the UN highlighted the dangers of further violence in Syria\u2019s last opposition-held area, where half of Idlib\u2019s population of nearly three million are internally-displaced civilians and a million are children.<\/p>\n

It was essential that the aid lifeline from Turkey to Syria \u201cmust not be cut\u201d by fighting \u201cthat could still happen\u201d as part of this agreement, he said.<\/p>\n

Some 10,000 fighters in Idlib are classified as terrorists by the UN.<\/p>\n

Insisting that the \u201cruthless and reckless armed groups\u201d which had committed crimes in Syria should not escape justice, Mr Egeland said that he hoped interlocutors would offer them alternatives to fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe listed organizations, terrorist organizations have many, thousands and thousands of fighters\u2026. They are in many parts of Idlib,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd among them are many who say they would fight until the end, and that is very, very worrisome.”<\/p>\n

\u201cTerrorist organizations have many thousands\u00a0of fighters\u2026 in many parts of Idlib…And among them are many who say they would fight until the end.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\n— UN Special Adviser, Jan Egeland <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>With so many armed groups there vying for control, the Senior Advisor to the UN called on Member States reiterated that it was a \u201cwar crime\u201d to blend into civilian populations and to locate next to homes, schools or hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe so-called \u2018war on terror\u2019 is not called off,\u201d Mr Egeland said. \u201cOn the contrary, there will be in the future air raids against the listed organizations. There will also be fighting between armed groups, armed actors and the so-called terrorists, the so-called radicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Too few’ judgements\u00a0so far on\u00a0serious\u00a0crimes committed during Syria conflict <\/strong><\/p>\n

Also in Geneva, the head of the UN-appointed International, Independent and Impartial Mechanism (IIIM<\/a>) into the worst crimes committed in Syria announced that there had been \u201cfar too few\u201d judgments made against perpetrators to date.<\/p>\n

Criminal investigations taking place in a number of countries – notably in Europe – were \u201cundeniably a source of hope\u201d for victims, Catherine Marchi-Uhel told journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the road is still a long one,\u201d she added, noting that \u201cthe large majority\u201d remained \u201cdisillusioned\u201d by the absence of the possibility of justice for them at an international level.<\/p>\n

After starting work on evidence-gathering earlier this year, the Mechanism has so far collected almost 900,000 records, the equivalent of four terabytes of data.<\/p>\n

This includes \u201chigh-value\u201d testimonies gathered by other UN accountability bodies such as the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Ms. Marchi-Uhel explained, adding that the Mechanism also engages with national war crimes units in various States and with Syrian non-governmental organizations.<\/p>\n

To date, the Mechanism has received seven requests for assistance from national prosecutors. It expects to open \u201ctwo or more specific investigative case files\u201d before the end of the year, the IIM head said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/unradio\/clip-jan-egeland-special-advisor-to-the-special-envoy-for-syria-on-20-september-2018<\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 news.un.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 Sep 2018 – A deal reached between Russia and Turkey to create a demilitarized buffer zone protecting citizens \u201cfrom catastrophe\u201d in Syria\u2019s Idlib region is a welcome development, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said today, before urging all parties to make a \u201cstrong commitment\u201d to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":109474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria-in-context"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}