YouSaid · the spoken record

Obrien

lines on the record: 875
first: 2010-06-29
most recent: 2017-08-30
sittings or episodes: 46
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Shame on us all for not acting to stop the annihilation of eastern Aleppo and its people and much of the rest of Syria, as well. Of all the facts and reports that I gave last month (see S/PV.7795), not one of them has been changed, qualified, denied or proven wrong by anyone in or outside of this Chamber. My statement then detailed the objective reality of what was taking place in Aleppo. It was hoped that the advocacy undertaken by me and others demand that sanity and humanity prevail and reporting based on clear and undisputable facts - although it is sometimes unpleasant to hear and even an inconvenient truth - might have an impact. There was a glimmer of hope. A unilateral Russian and Syrian pause on aerial bombardment over eastern Aleppo instituted on 18 October for an initial 72 hours was maintained beyond the stated end.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: As we meet again this month, the suffering of civilians in Aleppo and across Syria rages on unabated. Horror is now usual; it is a level of violence and destruction that the world appears to consider normal for Syria and for the Syrian people. Month after month, I have reported to the Council that the level of depravity inflicted upon the Syrian people cannot sink lower, only to return the following month, in shocked disbelief, with hideous new reports of ever- worsening human suffering. I am more or less at my wits' end as a human being, but I am here, like my colleagues, to be professional and objective. I had hoped to say today that last month I put it all on the table, and, frankly, it is still just as terrible. Let us leave it at that.”
2016-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7817 (2016) · source
“I call on all parties to respect all provisions for the protection of civilians, and at the same time I wish to add my voice to those that have lauded the incredible bravery of the aid workers who are getting significant amounts of aid through, even in these very challenging times of an absolutely vast humanitarian requirement of 21.2 million people in need. As was reiterated by the President himself, this is a catastrophe, and that is why I am calling for us to take immediate steps to do what we can to get to grips with it.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: Extremely briefly, Ijust wanted to reiterate that the best humanitarian response is to find a way forward to peace, and I would certainly urge all to get behind the plan put forward by the Special Envoy. I just want to give total assurance to the representative of the United States that if we have access, then we can certainly make sure that we go through an extraordinary level of surge in order to meet the needs, providing we are given the resources to do so; I am confident that we will be given the chance.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“They can arrest this war and this suffering. They can get behind the framework agreement put forward by the Special Envoy and secure peace in 30 days. It is a political decision which takes courage and leadership, and we cannot wait.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“It is high time that the parties put the Yemeni people first and reach a peaceful agreement in order to salvage what is left of the infrastructure, the economy and the social services of the country and, most importantly, address the aspirations ofthe Yemeni people to live in a peaceful society. If disregarded, the collapse of the country will have menacing consequences not only for the Yemeni people, but the entire region. The parties, their proxies and those with influence over them - namely, the Yemeni Government, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the regional Gulf nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and other Western partners of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - all have key roles and influence, as do the Houthi authorities, former President Saleh and his supporters and Iran.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“The United Nations, under the strong leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator, together with our humanitarian partners, stands ready to do more, if only the humanitarian access constraints could be eased and we had more financial support. But that requires coordination with the coalition, the myriad of local actors at the central level in Sana'a and other parties to the conflict. Bureaucratic impediments in Yemen were already a problem before the current conflict began and have since then grown more complex. The United Nations continues to negotiate access with all relevant actors, including the authorities in Sana'a. This man-made brutal humanitarian disaster is now the catastrophe, which I had said was "looming" in my first briefing (see S/PV.7494) to the Council 18 months ago. The conflict has gone on for too long.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Since I last briefed the Council, humanitarian partners were reaching 3.5 million every month between January and July. Now they are reaching 4.6 million per month, despite all challenges. There has been a steady increase in deliveries to people in need across the country, and an additional million people are now being reached with food aid every month, with more than 4 million Yemenis receiving food aid each day. Partners have provided essential health services through fixed and mobile teams, including both trauma and secondary health care, and provided medicines and supplies to health facilities that serve millions.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Many lives could be saved if only people could travel freely to obtain that medical treatment. For instance, the United Nations worked tirelessly to organize life-saving evacuations via air of wounded civilians form the 8 October attack on the Great Hall. The Iranians and, quickly thereafter, the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia also offered to assist with evacuations. Yet politics, bureaucratic impediments and other obstacles prevented us from doing so. Clearly, the people of Yemen cannot be asked to depend upon such improvisations in order to receive essential medical care. I take this opportunity to commend Oman which was able to evacuate more than 100 people for medical treatment, but a second evacuation could not be arranged in time before the ceasefire ended.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“I also call on donors to support the rehabilitation of the damaged port infrastructure in Al-Hudaydah, which is the lifeline of the country. The United Nations is trying to accelerate the procurement of mobile cranes to dramatically increase the port's capacity, but that is a short-term solution at best. In the same vein, I echo the calls for the coalition and the Government of Yemen to immediately resume commercial flights to and from Sana'a. Saudi Arabia controls the airspace over Yemen, generally, and Sana'a, in particular. It is within its power and is its choice to permit that. Since Yemenia stopped flying into Sana'a, thousands of Yemenis have found themselves stranded, including students who need to pursue their studies abroad and patients who need medical care not available in Yemen today.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Offloading cargo can take up to 30 days on average, because of inefficient port management, financial disputes between shippers and, above all, slow offloading owing to limited capacity at Al-Hudaydah port, which was severely damaged by air strikes - albeit denied - in August 2015. Those cranes need to be removed quickly to make way for emergency mobile cranes. Profiteering from commercial imports in a country where 90 per cent of food must be imported is unacceptable in the face of a humanitarian disaster. Since February 2016, fuel imports have averaged a fifth of the pre-air-strikes levels. The coalition and the local port authorities need to ensure rapid and safe access for cleared vessels to reach the ports, especially Al-Hudaydah port.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“The United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) is a unique first initiative in such arrangements pulled together by Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and now run by the United Nations Office for Project Services. I take this opportunity to call for the renewal of its mandate. Let us back something that is working. UNVIM. has cleared over 190 commercial vessels to successfully offload over 3 million metric tons of food, fuel and supplies at ports in Al-Hudaydah port, Ras Isa and Al-Saleef since May. However, there are currently approximately 40 vessels waiting to offload approximately 1.4 million metric tons of cargo, including approximately 600,000 metric tons of food.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Over 2 million are malnourished nationwide, including 370,000 children who are severely malnourished. On top of this already unthinkable suffering, cholera is rearing its ugly head. There are now 61 confirmed cases of cholera, with more than 1,700 more suspected cases in 10 governorates. To date, the Ministry of Health has confirmed 4 cholera-related deaths and 42 deaths associated with acute watery diarrhoea. But the caseload is almost certainly much higher owing to a lack of testing kits. The United Nations and its partners are establishing 21 cholera treatment centres, but that is insufficient to stop the escalating spread. As before the conflict, the vast majority of the needs of the Yemeni people are met through commercial deliveries.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“They are particularly dependent on assistance, and on supplies getting in by port or air - neither which is getting in at the moment - and are vulnerable to the spread of disease. Yemen is one step away from famine. I met an 18-year-old woman with her 3-year-old baby, who was bedridden with severe malnutrition, making it difficult to eat; she is barely surviving on milk and tea. I met 8-year-old children who looked like 2-year old toddlers due to severe malnutrition and the resulting health complications. We can only imagine how many more children and teenagers are suffering and dying of hunger and never make it to a hospital. As I learned while in Yemen, over 14 million people food insecure; 7 million are severely food insecure and do not know where their next meal is coming from, as I said earlier.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Al-Hudaydah governorate is the poorest in Yemen. I met with children and mothers, a few fathers and the desperately overworked doctors, nurses and carers at the paediatric centre at Al-Thawra hospital, where the machines and lights frequently cut out due to shortages of generator fuel, and the medicine cabinets were empty. Easily treatable chronic illnesses are becoming death sentences. Yemenis, old and young, are dying every day because of the deprivation of basic goods and services. Since March 2015,10,000 children under the age of five have perished from preventable diseases as a result of the sharp decline in the availability of immunizations and remedies for diarrhoea and pneumonia. Also at risk are migrants from the Horn of Africa and the more than 3 million internally displaced, nearly half of whom are children.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“The Central Bank has been unilaterally moved to Aden. Humanitarians do not have the capacity or the resources to provide services to a population of 26 million Yemenis. Our joint appeal is less than half funded. The complete, permanent collapse of public institutions must be prevented. While the primary duty lies with the Government of Yemen, the de facto Houthi authorities and the previous Saleh regime, I call upon anyone with any influence to heed this call, including by ensuring that the salaries of doctors and nurses and other critical civil servants are paid. Where the failure of public services is felt perhaps most acutely is the health sector. Fewer than half of the rudimentary health facilities remain functional. Earlier this month, as I said, I visited Al-Hudaydah, held by Houthi/Saleh forces.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Armed Houthi and Saleh forces routinely intimidate, delay and harass humanitarians, threatening the Yemenis' last lifeline with arrests and deportation, or demanding the diversion of humanitarian assistance to their fighters. These are all unacceptable breaches of humanitarian law and humanitarian principles. The drawn-out nature of Yemen's conflict is having a devastating effect on public institutions, which are increasingly unable to provide basic social services. A quarter of the population depends on those employed on the public payroll. Yet paychecks are coming with less regularity and the ability to withdraw cash is disappearing amidst a liquidity crisis. This is a foreshadowing of the impeding collapse of Yemen's economy, which is already desperately poor and hollowed out by corruption.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“In August, the Saudi-led coalition bombed a health facility supported by Medecins Sans Frontieres and a school in Sa'ada, and the attack on the Grand Hall funeral gathering in Sana'a earlier this month - for which the Saudi-led coalition has taken responsibility - left at least 140 people dead and 550 injured. And although there is no equivalence between those killing with air power, available only to one side of the fight, and those on the other side killing with land-based weaponry, the Houthi/Saleh forces have indiscriminately shelled Taiz and other locations, as well as towns and installations inside Saudi Arabia, reportedly using ballistic missiles. Humanitarian workers are also prevented from doing their work.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Humanitarian actors are being asked to fill the void left by the political power vacuum, but this is not a viable solution. All the parties are reminded that adherence to international humanitarian law is an obligation, not an option. Perpetrators on all sides must be held responsible for the legions of violations of international humanitarian law. The Council and its members also have responsibilities in this regard. I also stress the need for effective, independent investigations into allegations of war crimes and to prosecute suspects. Since the collapse of the cessation of hostilities in August, Yemenis across the country, in areas controlled by various warring factions or none, have endured near-daily attacks on civilians, civilian institutions and public infrastructure.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Repeatedly over the past 19 months, the people of Yemen have been robbed of their lives, their hope and their right to live in dignity. Thousands have been killed, tens of thousands have been injured, more than 3 million have been forced to leave their homes, and 7 million suffer the daily anxiety of not knowing where their next meal might come from. I have recently returned from Sana'a and Al-Hudaydah, and in my previous visit I reached Aden as well. I saw the desperation, fear and resignation in the deep-sunken eyes of people I met who have lost all hope - moved either to anger or powerless despair. In short, since my last briefing to the Council, the humanitarian situation has become worse and 80 per cent of Yemenis - some 21.2 million people - are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: There can be no humanitarian solution to the conflict in Yemen. There needs to be a political solution, beginning with an immediate cessation of hostilities. I echo the Special Envoy's call. All parties and all with influence over them must work towards peace. Each day that this war continues, it is civilians who suffer. Each day that the conflict drags on, we are inexorably propelled ever closer to an entire generation of Yemenis whose formative years will have been spent in the chaos of combat. This humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen is a man- made disaster, where conflict has exacerbated and exponentially increased the suffering of the 50 per cent of Yemeni population who were already in dire and extreme poverty.”
2016-10-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7797 (2016) · source
“It remains ready to work with all parties to deliver humanitarian assistance, protect civilians and reach people in need. While humanitarians have a particular role, rest assured that we will work as one United Nations, including our support for Staffan de Mistura and his work. I conclude by simply paying an undiluted tribute and saluting again the brave, undeterred, faithful humanitarian workers in Syria working tirelessly for the people of Syria, who are caught up in this terrible endless crisis and need life support and protection.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: I thank you, Sir, for the opportunity to speak again. As an international civil servant acting impartially, I do not retract, qualify or disclaim any fact or part of my earlier statement, which, I can assure you and each and every member of the Council, that I and my team and the wider United Nations have put together with great care, seriousness and professionalism. I am prompted to state the age-old truth: Do not shoot the messenger. Rather, I urge the Council to stand up for the beleaguered people of Syria and to seize the opportunity that I described of taking leadership and those steps that are available to the Council and which they can take to stop the violence now, to stop the war now. The United Nations continues its work undeterred.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“For that to happen, the violence must be stopped, and it is within our power to stop it. If we do not take action, there will be no Syrian people or Syria to save - that will be the Council's legacy, our generation's shame. It is in our hands today to take the right path and avert the looming irreversible tragedy of our time.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“What happened to our commitment to protect the most vulnerable, those who face mass atrocities? What happened to the Council's responsibility to act in a timely and decisive manner? There is surely nothing timely nor decisive about the world's approach to Syria thus far. The international community cannot fail the children of Aleppo, as it did in Srebrenica, Cambodia and Rwanda. There is no question today as to whether the members of the Council know what is going on - we clearly and tragically do. The question today is: What will we do? What steps will we take to ensure that people in dire need get assistance? Humanitarians stand ready to continue to deliver to any and all in need, but that is not enough. Action must be taken, and safe access must be made possible.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“More than 52,000 teachers have left their jobs. Over 2 million children remain out of school, and another 400,000 are at risk of dropping out as the horrors of this brutal and savage war continue unabated. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian children have become stateless. It does not matter that many of us are trying to reach them and would reach them if we could; those children who are somehow just surviving, feeling abandoned by the world, abandoned to face their future alone. What future do these children have - illiterate, orphaned, starved and maimed? What future does a country have when its next generation is a lost generation? These children do not have the luxury of waiting for another Geneva, Vienna or Lausanne agreement to succeed. They need our protection now. What happened to "never again"?”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“Those restrictions are not only violations of international law and Security Council resolutions, they are actions deliberately and cynically designed to inflict more unnecessary suffering on civilians living in besieged and hard-to-reach locations. Throughout the country nearly 8 million children have lost their parents, their homes and their schools. They have suffered immense emotional and physical trauma. Children in besieged eastern Aleppo were due to resume school in late September. They did not. Instead, shell-shocked children are retrieved from rubble and left writhing in bloody clothes on dirty hospital floors. They are stuck in hideouts. They cannot play, they cannot sleep. That has become the reality for 100,000 children in eastern Aleppo. Across the country, as many know, one in four schools has ceased to function.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“So far this year, between January and September 220 tons of medical supplies were delivered to besieged and hard-to-reach areas as part of inter-agency convoys. But 65 tons of medicines and medical supplies were not. These last few weeks alone the Syrian authorities removed or prevented the loading of nearly six tons of medical supplies, mostly surgical materials, diarrhoeal and midwifery kits, intravenous fluids, anesthetics and various medicines, from inter-agency convoys: to Duma on 19 October, Dar Kabira on 20 October, Moadamiya on 23 October, Al-Waer on 24 September, Zabadani and Madayya on 25 September, and Al-Rastan and Duma- aborted- on 27 and 28 September.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“The first cross-line convoy in August deployed only 23 August. The one in September deployed on 19 September. And the one in October deployed on 19 October. That means that no aid reached many of those most in need in besieged and hard-to-reach locations for the first three weeks of each ofthe past three months. And while airlifts to Qamishly continued these past few weeks, air drops to deir ez- Zor needed to be suspended, as one Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer was hit by shrapnel from shelling by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant while at the collection site. Moreover, the removal of lifesaving medicines and medical supplies by the Syrian authorities, such as surgical kits, midwifery kits and emergency kits, has continued unabated.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“A response is expected tomorrow. To put things into perspective, last month only six of the 33 requested locations were reached. In August only four inter-agency convoys were deployed as a result of late approvals of the monthly plan, delays in the issuance of facilitation letters, requirements for additional approvals above and beyond the two steps agreed with the Government in April, lack of adherence to agreed protocols at checkpoints and insecurity. For same reasons, this month only five aid convoys have been able to proceed so far: Duma on 19 October, Dar Kabira on 20 October, Moadimiya this past Sunday, Al-Houla on Monday and Al-Waer today. All in all in the past three months, the United Nations has been unable to deploy the first convoy until the third week of the month.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“On 19 September, the United Nations submitted its inter-agency convoy plan for the month of October, which included requests to reach some 962,000 people across 29 besieged, hard- to-reach and priority cross-line locations. Based on current procedures, a response was expected around 30 September. The Syrian authorities responded on 7 October, granting full and partial approvals for 25 locations and 63 per cent of the beneficiaries requested by the United Nations, while denying access to four locations. Denied locations included, once again, eastern Aleppo, as well as three areas in rural Damascus. Last week, on 18 October, the November monthly inter-agency convoy plan was submitted to the Syrian authorities. The plan includes 18 requests to reach 904,500 people in need in 25 besieged and hard- to-reach areas.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“He and his team have experience with similar bodies and have expertise in areas relevant to this investigation, including international humanitarian law, humanitarian operations, munitions and explosives. The board started its work earlier this week, and it is expected to deliver its findings in early December. The board's report will be an internal document of the United Nations. However, the Secretary-General intends to make available a summary of the board's findings. I urge all parties concerned to extend their full cooperation to the board. As I have stated previously, deliberate interference and restrictions by the parties to the conflict, most notably the Syrian Government, continue to prevent the effective delivery of aid.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“At the very minimum, I call upon all Council members that have operational military assets in Syria to take concrete steps to halt the aerial bombardment of civilian areas in order to deliver on their existing international obligations and, above all, to protect civilians and allow us to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in heed. As already announced on 30 September, the Secretary-General established an internal and independent United Nations board of inquiry into the horrific incident involving a United Nations-Syrian Arab Red Crescent relief operation in Orem Al-Kubra on 19 September. The board will by Lieutenant General Abhijit Guha.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“This litany of horror must surely shake the Council's moral conscience, as it does around the world. Surely the international community must question the value they genuinely place in humankind, when entire neighbourhoods in one of the world's oldest cities risk annihilation, their residents treated with gross contempt as nothing more than bricks and mortar pounded into dust; when the destruction of hospitals has become the new normal; when more than 100,000 children are trapped in basements with nowhere else to hide. This is the legacy that parties to the conflict and their supporters leave as of today. We cannot turn back the Clock on what has happened, but surely the Council and its members can take some action to prevent the endless repetition of the events that will surely occur if the status quo is maintained.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“Government facilities have also come under attack. In Hama non-State armed opposition groups reportedly continued to push towards the city, now just mere kilometres away from the city limits. Two suicide bombings targeting a Government checkpoint and the Baath party building in Hama city were reported on 2 October, with multiple casualties. Each month I have come before the Security Council and presented an ever-worsening record of destruction and atrocity, grimly cataloguing the systematic destruction of a country and its people. While my job is to relay the facts to the Council, I cannot help but be incandescent with rage. Month after month it is worse and worse, and nothing is actually happening to stop the war and the suffering. The Council has been charged with the responsibility for ending this horror. The buck stops with it.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“All in all throughout October, non-State armed opposition groups fired more than 184 mortars and other projectiles into western Aleppo, reportedly killing at least 100 people, including 17 women and 22 children, and injuring 533 persons. While the destruction of Aleppo - both east and west - is perhaps the most distressing front in the conflict at present, it is not the only place in which humanitarian needs continue to rise, driven ever higher by the relentless fighting. Hospitals and schools, critical to both the survival and growth of communities already trapped in conflict, continue to be targeted and attacked, thus increasing the humanitarian crisis in those areas. The precise details of what is happening in other parts of Syria have been documented in the Secretary-General's monthly report.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“In addition to the air offensive against eastern Aleppo, and despite a brief lull in fighting last week by Russian and Syrian air forces, non-State armed opposition groups continued to fire mortars and other projectiles into civilian neighbourhoods of western Aleppo. In the past few days alone, scores of mortars were fired into Hamdaniya, Zahra'a, Midan and Sulaymaniya. Some landed right next to the Shahba Hotel, forcing occupants, including United Nations staff, to take shelter in bunkered rooms. Five people were reported killed and 41 injured, including three representatives of the Russian Centre for Reconciliation in Aleppo, during the four days of the unilateral pause.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“We have seen this happen numerous times already - in Homs, Darayya, Moadamiya, Al-Waer and now in eastern Aleppo. It will be the fate of those hundreds ofthousands ofpeople still trapped in besieged locations all across the country. That is not a world we can accept. All parties and their sponsors must put an end to these medieval tactics. All parties and their sponsors must grant us safe humanitarian access - sustained and non-politicized humanitarian and medical access - to all in need throughout the country, to those in Aleppo and the hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the other 17 besieged locations around the country. Despite what those abhorrent leaflets say, we must demonstrate to the Syrian people that we have not given up on them, that they are not left alone to their doom and that they will not be annihilated.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“The tactics are as obvious as they are intolerable - make life intolerable; make death likely; push people from starvation to despair to surrender; push people to leave on green buses. The leaflets that have been dropped on eastern Aleppo by Syrian and Russian aircraft operating in that area make the intention chillingly clear. They read: "This is your last hope... Save yourselves. If you do not leave these areas urgently you will be annihilated" And they end by saying: "You know that everyone has given up on you. They left you alone to face your doom and nobody will give you any help". And it is clear that the aircraft that drop the bombs, the generals who give the orders and the politicians who have designed the strategy intend to make good on that horrific promise.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“Only 11 ambulances are currently operative, rendering the collection of injured people from the scenes of attack ever more challenging. For many, it is impossible, so their fate is left unattended. Hospital beds are too few, and essential medicines - including anesthetics, intravenous fluids, vaccines and trauma supplies - are running out. Blankets are in such short supply that body bags are being used for warmth instead: Let me be clear - eastern Aleppo is besieged by the Syrian Government. No United Nations assistance has entered in nearly four months. Food is so scarce that many people survive on one meal of rice a day, and what is available in local markets is sold at vastly inflated prices. At the same time, civilians are being bombed by Syrian and Russian forces, and if they survive that they will starve tomorrow.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“It is wrong for armed groups to hold to ransom the sick, injured and children of those they cynically claim to fight for. It was wrong for the air strikes to start again when the bombers knew we still had a chance to get the evacuees out. Not only have the parties to the conflict not had the moral fortitude to allow medical evacuations; the Syrian and Russian forces from air and land could not even demonstrate a willingness to protect what meagre medical facilities still function inside eastern Aleppo. Relentless attacks on health workers and hospitals have left the handful of doctors still alive in eastern Aleppo unable to cope. In fact, fewer than 30 doctors remain in the east of the city, and only six partially functional hospitals are still in service.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“There will be complaints and accusations about who caused the failure of the medical evacuations, but it was those very complainers and those very accusers who put their own interests above that of the injured and sick, who refused to make reasonable compromises, and who refused to allow anything to be done unless it was their way. And their way was not possible. Yes, they will fingerpoint at the United Nations - the one party in all this that is not to blame- to attempt to divert the blame from the perpetrators and refusers and their hideous calumnies. Humanitarian needs - the lives of children not even in their teens - cannot be used as political or military bargaining chips, and yet once again parties to this terrible conflict have sought to do exactly that.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“Once again, humanitarian hopes have been smashed by parties who consistently fail to put civilian lives above political and military interests. For example, two children aged 9 and 14 - suffering from heart problems and intestinal disease, respectively - were to be evacuated for urgent medical treatment, but now remain trapped in eastern Aleppo city. These are neither soldiers nor sympathizers nor militants; they are children in urgent need ofmedical care, and we, the international community, have just failed to reach them. Goodness knows we have tried, but selfish, inhuman interests have trumped the moral and humanitarian imperative.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“However, objections by two non-State armed opposition - Ahrar al-Sham and Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki - scuppered these plans. The United Nations made every effort to get assurances from all parties, only for the parties to then fail to agree on each other's conditions about how evacuations should proceed. And then we could not prevail upon the Syrian and Russian authorities to extend their pause. Our teams stayed for another 24 hours and the bombs were dropping within 500 yards of the fighting line before, disappointed and frustrated, they managed to leave Aleppo, with two staff members of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and one from the World Health Organization bravely staying in Aleppo, where they remain today, to try salvage the talks. And the result?”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“Our brave, tireless humanitarian teams, led by the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Aleppo itself, engaged in long and complex negotiations involving multiple rounds of clarifications on conditions and guarantees. It is with intense frustration that I note that the evacuations were obstructed by various factors, including delays in receiving the list of patients to be medically evacuated from the very representatives and interlocutors of the people in eastern Aleppo, as well as the Government of Syria's objection to allowing medical and other relief supplies into the eastern side of the city. Despite these delays, the United Nations was ready to launch our operations on Sunday, 23 October.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“He stressed that "these violations constitute war crimes [and] if knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against civilians, they constitute crimes against humanity". In amongst this apocalyptic horror in eastern Aleppo, there have been cruel glimmers of hope, but they are too quickly extinguished. Throughout last week, following the welcome announcement of a halt of all Russian and Syrian air strikes on Aleppo, the United Nations, together With the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian non-governmental organizations, immediately set up plans to urgently evacuate critically injured and sick people, as well as their family members, from eastern Aleppo to places of their choosing.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“As the Secretary-General pointed out last week, the Aleppo offensive by Syrian and Russian military forces has been the most sustained and intensive aerial bombardment campaign witnessed since the beginning ofthe conflict more than halfa decade ago. The results in human terms have been horrific. Aleppo has essentially become a kill zone. Since my last briefing to the Council less than a month ago (see S/PV.7780), 400 more people have been killed and nearly 2,000 injured in eastern Aleppo. So many of them - too many of them - were children. Last week, the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that indiscriminate air strikes across the eastern parts of the city by Syrian and Russian forces caused the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“Never has the phrase of poet Robert Burns, "man's inhumanity to man", been as apt. It can be stopped, but the Security Council has to choose to make it stop. And I would ask members to remember that the world is not going to think the worse of them for loss of face or power politics. Global leadership is about doing the right thing to stop the draining of the blood of Syrians. Syria is now a country that will soon no longer resemble even the most basic definition of a country. We should all remember that Syria was one of the first signatories of the Charter of the United Nations - "We the peoples".”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“These are people just like us - not sitting around a table in New York but forced into desperate, pitiless suffering, their future wiped out. These are constant, harrowing reports and images of people detained, tortured, forcibly displaced, maimed and executed. Bombings take place in plain sight, night and day, day in and day out. Hospitals are destroyed, doctors killed, schools destroyed and children denied education, water stations destroyed, families cowering in basements. Peoples' lives are destroyed and Syria itselfis destroyed. And it is under our collective watch. And it need not be like this; this is not inevitable. It is not an accident; it is the deliberate actions of one set of powerful human beings on another set of impotent, innocent human beings.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: Let me take Council members to East Aleppo this afternoon. In a deep basement, huddled with our children and elderly parents, the stench of urine and the vomit caused by unrelieved fear never leaving our nostrils, waiting for the bunker-busting bomb we know may kill us in this, the only sanctuary left to us, just like the one that took out our neighbours and their house last night; or scrabbling with our bare hands in the street above to reach under concrete rubble, lethal steel reinforcing bars jutting out at us as we hysterically try to reach our young child screaming unseen in the dust and dirt below our feet, choking to catch our breath in the toxic dust and the smell of gas ever ready to ignite and explode over us.”
2016-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7795 (2016) · source