In
Syria,
Amos Tells ICP
11 UN Staff
Killed, Info
Withheld, On
Rebels'
Kidnaps
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 6 --
When UN
Humanitarian
chief Valerie
Amos took
press
questions by
video from
Lebanon, Inner
City Press
asked her
about threats
to aid workers
by Syrian
rebels
including ISIS
in
Jarabulus,
and whether
the UN has any
access to ISIS
stronghold Al
Raqqa.
Amos'
answer
included the
statement that
there have
been UN staff
killed.
Inner
City Press
asked, how
many?
Amos
said,
"Eleven." She
also said that
"we have not
managed to get
into al Raqqa.
Yesterday in
Damascus the
president of
the Syrian
Arab Red
Crescent
informed me we
now may be
able to get
into Raqqa."
She
said said she
had not been
made aware of
the threats to
aid groups in
Jarabulus;
Inner City
Press has
information
not only of
the threats,
but that some
including
World Vision
were forced to
leave. We hope
to
have more on
this.
After
Amos' briefing
ended -- Syria
questions
only,
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
said, despite
Amos' wider
duties
including
Darfur,
Southern
Kordofan
and Blue Nile
in Sudan, the
Eastern Congo,
etc -- Inner
City Press
followed up
with Haq.
Of
the 11 UN
staff killed,
Inner City
Press asked
who killed
them and
where. Haq
could not or
would not say.
Elsewhere,
the
UN announces
the deaths of
or even
threats
against UN
staff and
also aid
workers. Why
not here?
Inner
City Press
asked Haq if
he was aware
of any UN
staff held
hostage by
armed rebel
groups. He
said yes, but
gave only the
example of the
UNDOF
peacekeepers
taken and
released by
the Yarmouk
Martyrs
Brigade,
which
involvement
from Doha,
Syria says.
Syria has
repeatedly
asked UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous to
investigate
this Qatar
connection,
but says
Ladsous has
done nothing.
Ladsous is the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head UN
Peacekeeping.
Inner
City Press
also asked Haq
what UN
Peacekeeping
is doing about
reports
of Sudanese
government
bombing in
East Jebel
Marra in
Darfur; Haq
had
no
information.
Nor
did he provide
an answer to
yesterday's
question
by Inner City
Press,
first to
Ladsous
without any
response, then
to Haq, about
where the
UN's promised
investigation
into the
killing of
Abyei's
Paramount
Chief while
supposedly
protected by
UN
Peacekeepers.
The UN's
provision and
withholding of
information is
inconsistent
and, it is
clear,
politicized.
Watch this
site.
Update:
after the noon
briefing and
publication of
the above, the
UN provided
this, on
Abyei:
Regarding
your question
on reported
fighting in
Jebal Marra,
UNAMID has the
following to
say:
The Mission is
aware of those
reports and is
verifying
them.
, 
