The International Commission of Inquiry – appointed by the United Nations – has accused the UN itself, the Syrian regime and others involved of being responsible for delaying the delivery of emergency relief to the Syrians after the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, according to Reuters.
The agency quoted the head of the commission for Syria, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, as saying: “Though there were many acts of heroism amid the suffering, we also witnessed a wholesale failure by the Government and the international community, including the United Nations, to rapidly direct life-saving support to Syrians in the most dire need”.
He stated that the aforementioned parties had failed to agree to stop hostilities and allow life-saving aid through any available route, leaving Syrians feeling “abandoned and neglected by those they were supposed to protect, at the most desperate of times.”
“The Syrian population has a right to the truth – why they received this treatment,” Pinheiro added at a later press conference.
After the earthquake, dozens of reports have emerged of the Assad regime taking advantage of the situation and not delivering aid to the affected. Rather, reports state that most of the aid had been distributed or sold by forces affiliated with it.
