SYRIA / AMOS

STORY: SYRIA / AMOS
TRT: 2.28
SOURCE: UNSMIS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 15 AUGUST 2012, DAMASCUS & AN NABAK, SYRIA


SHOTLIST:

15 AUGUST 2012, DAMASCUS, SYRIA

1. Wide shot, Under-Secretary-General Valerie Amos meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Mouallem and members of the diplomatic community
2. Pan right, Amos to al Mouallem

15 AUGUST 2012, AN NABAK, SYRIA

3. Various shots, UN convoy
4. Various shots, Amos arriving at the Syrian Red Crescent center and being greeted by Syrian Arab Red Crescent officials
5. Various shots, Amos walking with officials
6. Various shots, center
7. Pan right, Amos speaking with refugee woman
SOUNDUP (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“Has she got any news of what’s happening in Homs, how soon can she go back?”
8. Med shot, Amos listening to UNHCR representative
9. SOUNDUP (English) UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative:
“Now the situation, the security situation is not actually allowing us to reach people in the system as much as we can. We have a pipeline on a daily basis to send it, but most of the time we can not get the security, so we try our best to send half of it, or some of it, so we’re trying our best…”
10. Various shots, UNHCR staff showing the kind of aid they are distributing
11. Med shot, a woman in another school talking about the conditions of the place which lacks many things
12. Tracking shot, convoy leaving Nabak and passing a tank and another military armoured vehicle


STORYLINE:

On the second day of a three-day trip to Syria, the top United Nations relief official today (15 August) met with the Syrian foreign minister and visited a center assisting displaced people.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos is on a trip to Syria and Lebanon to see for herself the impact of the intensifying conflict and to discuss ways to increase humanitarian assistance. She is expected to brief the press in Damascus Thursday morning.

In her meetings with officials in Syria, she has called on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law and to protect civilians caught up in the crisis.

After meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Mouallem, Amos today visited the An Nabak area eighty kilometers north of the capital Damascus, where tens of thousands of displaced people, many from Homs, are living.

She toured a distribution centre run by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and spoke with displaced people.

SOUNDUP (English) Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“Has she got any news of what’s happening in Homs, how soon can she go back?”

According to a news release issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which Amos heads, the government of Syria estimates that 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes and are living in temporary shelters or with host families.

A representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in An Nabak told Amos that insecurity was hampering efforts to distribute aid.

SOUNDUP (English) UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative:
“Now the situation, the security situation is not actually allowing us to reach people in the system as much as we can. We have a pipeline on a daily basis to send it, but most of the time we can not get the security, so we try our best to send half of it, or some of it, so we’re trying our best…”

Syria has been wracked by violence, with an estimated 17,000 people, mostly civilians, killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 17 months ago. Over the past fortnight, there have been reports of an escalation in violence in many towns and villages, as well as the country’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.