SWITZERLAND: ICRC says Syria has agreed to expand presence of its organization to meet humanitarian needs

Record ID: 280576

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: ICRC says Syria has agreed to expand presence of its organization to meet humanitarian needs
  • Date: 6th April 2012
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (APRIL 05, 2012) (REUTERS) ICRC SPOKESPERSON HICHAM HASSAN WALKING INFRONT OF ICRC HEADQUARTERS ICRC SPOKESPERSON HICHAM HASSAN TALKING TO A JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) ICRC SPOKESPERSON, HICHAM HASSAN, SAYING: "Well our president left Syria this morning around 10 o' clock. He has met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Interi
  • Embargoed: 21st April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland, Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: International Relations,Health,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVAEZ4B920MOZEW0KX60B3PFUATN
  • Story Text: Syria has agreed to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to expand its work in the country and seek a pause in the fighting when needed to evacuate the wounded, a spokesperson of the agency said on Thursday (April 05) following the return of the ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger from a visit in Syria.
    "ICRC will expand its activities, that means that we will increase the number of staff working for the ICRC, we will increase our logistic capacity and we will support more largely the Syrian Red Crescent. The second level is on the ICRC initiative of a daily cessation of fighting for two hours, this also has been determined on a more concrete basis in the sense that when and if the ICRC sees that there's a need to go in anywhere and evacuate people who are wounded and sick, then the ICRC will contact the Minister of Foreign Affairs to activate this pause," ICRC spokesperson Hicham Hassan told Reuters TV.
    "The third level is in terms of access to places of detention, where the ICRC has reached an agreement with the Syrian authorities allowing the ICRC to visit places of detention under the ICRC working procedures, and we hope to start as soon as possible with the Aleppo centre of detention," Hassan said.
    Asked whether the ICRC president had been given any guarantees from the Syrian authorities, Hassan said the agency hoped for "concrete results" in the coming days.
    "The achievement of the agreements we had in the past two days with the Syrian authorities will have to be seen in the coming days and coming weeks. What is important to know is that in the past three weeks the ICRC and the Red Crescent have managed to have very much and large access to areas affected by the fighting. Our activity is based on concrete and direct dialogue and transparency we hope that in the coming days we will be seeing concrete results," spokesperson Hicham Hassan said.
    The ICRC is the only international agency to deploy aid workers in Syria, where the United Nations has been largely shut out and is still trying to gain meaningful access to the needy.
    More than 9,000 people have been killed by Assad's forces during the year-old revolt, according to the United Nations, while Damascus says 3,000 soldiers and police have been killed.
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