Kerry gets an earful from angry Syrian refugees

[flowers]

http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-gets-earful-angry-syrian-refugees-143511483.html

ZAATARI, Jordan (AP) — Angry Syrian refugees confronted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday with demands for the United States and the international community to do more to help opponents of President Bashar Assad's regime, venting frustration at perceived inaction on their behalf.

Visiting the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan near the Syrian border, Kerry met six representatives of its 115,000-strong population, all of whom appealed to him for the U.S. and its allies to create no-fly zones and set up safe zones inside Syria to prevent the Assad regime from inflicting additional destruction. The United Nations says the conflict has killed more than 93,000 people and become the world's worst humanitarian crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

"We are begging you for a no-fly zone," Jamalat Abu al-Hariri, one of the refugees, told reporters after the meeting.

Kerry listened grimly to the complaints for 40 minutes and promised to relay the refugees' concerns to Washington and other capitals. But, he also noted serious complications in meeting the demands and reminded them that the U.S. is their largest single benefactor. The U.S. has provided nearly $815 million in humanitarian aid to Syrians through the United Nations. Of that, $147 million has been directed to relief agencies working in Jordan, which is home to about 600,000 displaced Syrians.