The following statement was issued November 26th by Pax Christi International.
Responding to the ongoing violence in Syria and the great suffering of the Syrian people, Pax Christi International appeals for full humanitarian access in the country and pleads for strong international support for Geneva 2 negotiations based on a framework that ensures justice.
Starvation cannot be used as a weapon
In addition to 2.2 million refugees, most of whom are in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, more than 5 million Syrians are displaced internally. Many have been displaced multiple times and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The military siege of areas, such as the Ghouta region, denies civilians in those regions access to food, water and health care. In this increasingly dire situation, humanitarian agencies must have unfettered access to populations in need.
Pax Christi International joins the United Nations, International Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations, and countless civil society organisations and faith-based institutions in calling for the full cooperation of the Syrian government and all actors involved in the civil war in opening cross-border and internal access for aid providers to all in need of assistance.
Starvation must never be used as a weapon. Russia and Iran, as allies of the Syrian government, and Arab and Western countries, supporting the Syrian opposition, should use their full diplomatic and political capacity to pressure the parties in Syria to respect the Geneva Convention¹ and refrain from using starvation as a weapon…
Reblogged this on The Sacramental Rebel.