Syrian Arab Red Crescent Clarifies Accusations

The 7 principles of the international movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent which are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

Photo: presstv

(DAMASCUS) - During the past 19 months of the crises in Syria the Syrian Arab Red Crescent has been working on the front line all over Syria to provide life saving first aid services to people in need where health and medical services no longer functions, SARC also has been delivering aid materials to the internally displaced people and the most vulnerable people in a transparent and impartial method based on assessment and registration of beneficiaries according to disaster response standards which are known and agreed upon by all donors and partners of SARC.

All donors are involved in the day to day dispatching and delivery of aid materials and witness for themselves who is getting the aid and based on what kind of assessment this aid was given.

SARC and it's volunteers who are working beyond the line of duty feels very hurt and sorry from the wrongful, uncertified and politicized accusations that where done by the Mr. Tawfik Shamaa, Spokesman of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations (UOSSM) a group which we only known about today.

We would like to draw his and everybody's attention and state that such unfounded accusations can cost volunteers there lives and hinder the humanitarian efforts which is already stretched out in a strongly polarized conflict in Syria which as a Red Crescent society is struggling to have equal cooperation from all parties to be able to serve the people in need in the best way and according to the 7 principles of the international movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent which are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

Original release:

Almost all international aid sent to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is being confiscated by the regime and never reaches civilians in need, an umbrella relief group for the war-ravaged country said Wednesday.

"Ninety, even 95 percent of everything that is sent to Syrian Red Crescent headquarters in Damascus goes to support the Syrian regime, especially the soldiers," said Tawfik Chamaa, spokesperson for the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations.

"It will not reach the civilians who are bombed every day or besieged," he told reporters in Geneva.

He charged that cash or materials sent to the Red Crescent in Damascus was being "confiscated by the regime.”

However, the World Food Program denied that its aid to Syria was being seized by President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Some 1.2 million people inside Syria are in need of emergency humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations, as the bloody conflict nears its 20th month.

Chamaa, a founding member of the umbrella group of 14 aid organizations from countries including France, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States, urged bigger humanitarian agencies to ensure that aid sent actually reaches people in need in Syria.

He said a convoy of 11 trucks belonging to the UN World Food Program (WFP), whose aid is largely distributed by the Red Crescent, had recently disappeared in northern Syria.

But WFP spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs said: "I believe there is absolutely no confiscation" and defended the local Red Crescent.

"WFP food monitors are able to visit most areas to check that food is reaching the people who need it most. Even in some dangerous areas, they use WFP armored vehicles."

She insisted that the Red Crescent, "as the designated coordinator of humanitarian assistance in the country, operates through branches in an independent manner.”

-AFP