Former UN aid chief Egeland says cessation of hostilities is "holding better than even sceptics would have believed" but political process needs to succeed for lasting peace
By Megan Rowling
BARCELONA, March 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The momentum to reduce hostilities and deliver more aid that has been built up in recent weeks in war-torn Syria must not be lost at "a moment of truth" as the conflict enters its sixth year, said a top humanitarian adviser to the United Nations.
The first of three rounds of peace talks opened on Monday, aimed at negotiating a "clear roadmap" for a future Syria.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former U.N. aid chief, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the current cessation of hostilities in Syria is "holding better than even sceptics would have believed".
And a majority of besieged areas had been reached with aid, following an agreement in Munich in February between major and regional powers, with "good hopes" to access the remaining cut-off places soon, he added in a telephone interview.
"But it's all going to be in vain if there is not a political process that succeeds," said Egeland, who is advising the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on humanitarian issues.
"It is so important to repeat every morning in front of the mirror: there are no military solutions here, but neither are there humanitarian solutions. More bombs and more blankets will not fix it."
"NOT ENOUGH"
In a joint statement issued to mark five years of the conflict, the heads of U.N. humanitarian agencies said they would keep trying to get food, medicine and other vital assistance to 4.6 million civilians trapped in hard-to-access parts of Syria "by all and any means possible, however challenging".
"We are able to reach more people now in besieged areas: but we are yet to reach one in every five besieged Syrians who urgently need help and protection," they added. "While we are starting to get basic supplies to communities who have been cut off for months or more, it is just not enough."
They said they were extremely concerned about the situation in northern rural Homs and in Aleppo, where around 500,000 people are caught behind active frontlines, they said.
And it was "unacceptable" that medical supplies and equipment were still being removed at checkpoints, they added.
Some Syrians struggling to eke out an existence amid the fighting have seen progress in the international community's ability to assist them, Egeland noted.
For example, more than 150 truck-loads of aid have been delivered to some 40,000 people in Moadamiya, who had received nothing in the previous one and a half years, he said.
"For them it is dramatic, but it is so tentative and it is so vulnerable, and it can end tomorrow if there is not political progress," he added.
To enable Syrians to resume their lives, diplomats must reach agreement on a transitional governance system to overcome political divisions, Egeland said.
Only then would it be possible to start discussing a "Marshall Plan" for rebuilding, reconciliation and the return of the 4.8 million refugees who have fled the country, he added.
The signatories of the joint U.N. statement - which include its emergency relief and refugee chiefs as well as the heads of the World Food Programme, the U.N. Children's Fund and the World Health Organization - called for the political talks to bring "real peace and an end to the suffering".
"No one wants to see a sixth year of conflict start on 15 March," they said.
"Young people across Syria need to hope and believe that their future lies in their homeland. That they will have education, healthcare, homes and jobs. That life holds more than fear, violence and hunger."
(Reporting by Megan Rowling; editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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