Leaders Seek to Defy Skeptics at Istanbul Humanitarian Summit

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday the burden of handling the world's crises should be better shared, as leaders and aid groups sought to defy skeptics at an unprecedented aid summit in Istanbul.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gathered over 60 heads of state and government with top NGOs at the summit, aiming to better keep conflicts from erupting and ensure legal retribution for those guilty of humanitarian crimes.

Celebrity stardust was sprinkled on the event by actors Daniel Craig and Forest Whitaker, who urged participants to seize a unique chance to make a difference for the world's worst off.

With some 60 million people displaced around the world and at least 125 million requiring assistance and protection in the biggest humanitarian crises since World War II, Ban said that the summit represented a chance to forge a "different future".

But the event has been shadowed by the boycott of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and doubts that the two-day event can make any genuine impact.

"Let us seize this opportunity, let us make our mark as agents of change," said Ban.

He warned that realizing the aims was not "an easy task" and required a "political will on a scale we have not seen in recent years."

James Bond star Craig told the world leaders: "This summit is about potential to start the biggest humanitarian movement in our history," warning against "empty words without action."

- 'Avoiding responsibilities' -

Host Erdogan emphasised the contributions of his country, which is hosting some three million refugees from the Syria and Iraq conflicts and, in a barb at the West, complained others were not sharing the burden.

"The current system falls short... the burden is shouldered only by certain countries, everyone should assume responsibility from now on," he said.

"Needs increase every day but resources do not increase at the same pace. There are tendencies to avoid responsibility among the international community."

"Turkey knows this bitterly," he added, saying Turkey had spent $10 billion (Nine billion euros) on its hosting of Syrian refugees compared to $450 million from the rest of the international community.

Reprising a familiar theme, Erdogan also urged reform of the U.N. Security Council, saying the "fate of humanity" cannot depend on its five veto-wielding permanent members.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the highest profile guests at the summit, called for an end to empty pledges on aid that fizzled into nothing.

"Too many promises are made and then the money does not come for the projects -- that must end," said Merkel, adding that the world currently had no humanitarian system that was "compatible with the future".

The commitments adopted by the states will be non-binding and while leaders like Merkel and Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah are attending the summit, many other prominent world leaders were conspicuous by their absence.

U.N. Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said the first session had made progress on finding agreement on the need to prevent conflict rather than dealing with the bloody consequences.

"I think we need to see the necessity to move from dealing with symptoms to dealing with root causes. I think that is the main conclusion of that meeting," he said, saying spending on prevention of conflict was dwarfed by what is spent on relief.

- 'Fig leaf?' -

Participants expressed alarm over deteriorating observance of humanitarian law, with schools and hospitals regularly targeted in conflict.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said in a report almost half its schools had been hit by conflict in the last five years.

"It is absurd to expect humanitarian responses to improve at a time when the repeated bombing of field hospitals and routine targeting of civilians go unchecked," Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty added in a statement.

MSF, which is boycotting the event, said the summit risked being just a "fig leaf" for the world's failure on humanitarian action.

"I regret very much that they came to that decision," said Eliasson.

"One of the main purposes of this conference is our outrage against violations of international humanitarian law," adding he hoped the "convictions they (MSF) stand for" would come out of the meeting.

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