* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
UN negotiators are in race against time to finalise deal – children’s lives depend on it
The pictures of Syrian children lined up dead and others writhing in agony, foaming at the mouth as they struggled to breathe, shocked us all to the core. These horrific chemical attacks were crimes against humanity. That is why we should all welcome the UNSC resolution passed in New York.
But the children of Syria desperately need the same level of action that we have seen on chemical weapons to ensure humanitarian access – food and urgent medical care - to the millions still suffering and cut off.
Within days and weeks of the chemical attack the international community had sprung into action. Weapons inspectors were deployed across Syria’s conflict lines armed with notebooks and equipment to collect evidence and testimonies. Across the same lines aid agencies are being prevented from working. I was horrified by the chemical strike, but I couldn’t help feeling frustrated that aid workers weren’t going with the inspectors, bringing the food, water and medicine the people there so desperately needed.
The use of chemical weapons is horrific but the wider suffering and humanitarian crisis caused by conventional weapons is even more devastating. One little boy told me on my recent visit how at its worst 60 shells were falling a minute in his district. How a shell fell on his neighbours killing the whole family. Another little boy told me how he witnessed a whole family have their throats slit. Millions of Syria’s families have been forced from their homes, 100,000 killed, 7000 of them children, hospitals have been attacked and over 3000 schools destroyed. One Syrian aid worker told me how a little baby died in one siege as his mother had been killed and they had no baby milk. The sewage system has stopped working in some areas, and basic medicines have run out. A third of Syria’s population has been forced to flee their homes. It is has become a living nightmare for the people of Syria.
Despite these huge needs aid agencies are not able to reach their victims. Inside Syria, families endure siege conditions just a few miles from hospitals and life-saving aid supplies. A recent NGO study found that more than 10 million people urgently need relief - millions of these are cut off from aid. The UNSC chemical weapons resolution gives the weapons inspectors “unfettered access” to any location in Syria, military or otherwise, to ensure the resolution is implemented. Meanwhile the UN, Save the Children and the other humanitarian organisations tasked with helping the Syrian people can only dream of such freedom.
The UNSC chemical weapons resolution gives us cause for hope. It demonstrates the power of political will, that when the world does resolve to act, it can make a real difference. This must not be the end but the beginning of a new international resolve.
The Security Council must urgently agree a strong resolution to give aid agencies unfettered access to the desperate civilian population of Syria. The resolution should explicitly support cross-border and cross-conflict line access, so that aid is provided to currently out of reach areas. We need the same sense of urgency as we had in the aftermath of the chemical attack to get agreement from all parties.
The stakes are high, and go beyond aid delivery. Ultimately Syria needs peace, and that will only come through talks. In the meantime we can and must save more lives. An intense diplomatic effort on both peace talks and humanitarian access must run hand in hand. But even if peace takes time to come to Syria, getting consensus on providing aid to children in desperate need is not beyond our reach.
This summer’s horrific events could represent the nadir of a war already notable for its singular cruelty, or it could be the beginning of a slide into an even deeper nightmare. What the chemical weapons resolution shows is that in many ways the choice lies with the international community and its willingness to engage. But if it is the high water mark of international diplomacy on Syria, then ultimately we will have failed. It’s vital that the momentum gained from international agreement on chemical weapons is harnessed in the next few days while the diplomatic goodwill is still exists. The coming week will demonstrate whether the world has the will to save Syria’s children.
