WUNRN
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/7D9E4ADE0D78111085257D0700659A2F
Palestinian
Refugees in Syria’s Yarmouk Camp – Extended Periods without Aid, Water, Food –
UN
30 June
2014 – The United Nations agency charged with ensuring the well-being of
Palestinian refugees across the Middle East has warned today that, despite
reports of a truce between the Syrian Government and armed groups inside
Yarmouk camp, it is still unable to carry out humanitarian operations there.
“It is now
a month since we last distributed aid inside the camp,” Chris Gunness,
spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA), said in
a news release yesterday. “Following reports of a 21 June agreement… inside
Yarmouk, UNRWA is urgently seeking the resumption and expansion of its
humanitarian activities inside [the camp], where conditions remain dire for the
18,000 civilians trapped there.”
He said the
agency stands ready to implement a rapid humanitarian response so that the
immediate and longer-term needs of the civilians of Yarmouk can be met.
“UNRWA will
continue to advocate for continuous, substantial and safe humanitarian access
to Yarmouk, and to ensure the protection of Palestinian and Syrian civilians,”
Mr. Gunness said.
Prior to
the armed conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011, Yarmouk, on the
outskirts of Damascus, was home to over 160,000 Palestine refugees. Since
December 2012, fighting has caused at least 140,000 Palestine refugees to flee
their homes in Yarmouk, as armed opposition groups established a presence in
the area, with Government forces controlling the periphery.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2015/01/yarmouk-camp-victim-water-wars-syria-201514102955303689.html - - Website Link Includes Video. |
SYRIA
– REGIME USING WATER, FOOD AS A TOOL OF WAR – CUTTING SUPPLY IN YARMOUK
PALESTINIAN CAMP IN SYRIA
Yarmouk
camp Palestinian refugees are victims of water wars in Syria
The camp
came under siege by regime forces, leaving at least 200 people dead from
starvation.
The
Yarmouk camp's water supply was cut off, leading to a humanitarian
catastrophe. |
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The
Syrian regime is using water as a tool of war in the Yarmouk camp, according
to a recent report issued by the
Palestinian League for Human Rights (PLHR). According
to PLHR, a diaspora network established in 2012 with contacts all over the
Palestinian camps, the camp's water supply was entirely cut off with no
justification provided, leading to a humanitarian catastrophe. "We
live an atrocious tragedy and all forms of death are available here,"
Abdullah al-Khateeb, a Palestinian activist living in Yarmouk, told Al
Jazeera over the phone. Caught up
in the war between rebel armed groups and the Syrian army, the camp paid a
high price. Of the 160,000 Palestinians who used to live in the camp, only 18,000 remain. Established in 1957, Yarmouk camp is
one of nine camps hosting Palestinian refugees in Syria; the number of
registered Palestinian refugees, according to UN figures, is 517,255. Since
December 2012, fighting from the Syrian civil war, which followed the popular
uprising in March 2011, spilled over into the camp when some rebel groups
moved there. The regime claims it was fighting "extremist groups"
inside the camp. In July
2013, the camp came under siege by regime forces, leaving at least 200 people dead
from starvation, accelerated by dehydration and water-related
diseases. Since the blockade began, food and medical aid were prevented from
entering Yarmouk, and the drinking water was cut off. A relief
activist in Tadamon, a close neighbourhood east of Yarmouk, told Al Jazeera
over the phone that one of the relief agencies gave activists a few hundred
dollars to buy and provide water for both Tadamon and Yarmouk. However,
the amount of water "was barely enough for one of their
streets". Tadamon is home to over 65 families as well as the Free Syrian
Army (FSA) fighters and their families.
"The
first day we went to distribute the water, I was threatened with arrest, then
a group of fighters from FSA attacked me," the activist said. The lack
of water supplies is also threatening agricultural projects that some
organisations carry out to ease the food shortage. Ansar
Hevi, an activist with the 15th Garden, a farmers' solidarity network
supporting besieged areas in Syria to grow their own food, expressed fears of
drought, recalling the 2005 drought and its grave consequences on plantation. As a
survival tactic, people were encouraged to plant gardens in their own houses,
on their rooftops or in between buildings to stave off starvation. But in
light of the current water crisis, tending for these farming projects is
becoming costly as the price for an hour's fuel (needed to pull water from
wells) has risen to $30. Eventually,
"the water cut will not only affect the gardens, but the whole economic
structure that developed under siege because these projects helped reduce
prices of food commodities sold in the black market". A board
member of the PLHR who gave her name as Selena Mohamed told Al Jazeera:
"Even if the regime will allow some food shipments into the camp once in
a while through its own organisations, this move will do little to ease the
immense suffering. The water crisis will remain the most humiliating weapon
of war." Death and
brutality, Mohamed said, have many faces in Yarmouk. Besides starvation,
diseases and blockades of aid, daily indiscriminate bombing with mortars,
snipers and ammunition continue to kill civilians and children. "Yarmouk
reached 540 days of siege and 110 days without drinking water." Between
2013 and 2014, there were - at least - 26 ceasefire initiatives between
regime forces and armed opposition groups. Many of these initiatives were
discussed in Yarmouk as a possible exit since
neither regime forces nor the opposition could achieve any military
breakthroughs on the ground. The talks
involved the Syrian regime, rebel fighters based in the camp and Islamist
groups. Most of the truces ensured that the main entrances to the camp would
be opened and basic services restored. However, UNRWA is still unable to carry out humanitarian
operations in the camp. The UN
intervened in other areas in Syria, such as backing up the truce in Homs to allow besieged and starving
opposition fighters to evacuate the Old City. "But
it did not intervene for Palestinian camps, " said Ala Aboud, a PLHR
board member.
In case a
settlement could not be reached, al-Khatib argues that "the discourse
needs to change from lifting the blockade to evacuating the camp”. The
evacuation, however, and according to activists, can put them at the
risk of being detained by regime forces. Recently,
several activists have been assassinated in the camp, although they say they
do not know who is behind such assassinations since activists are being
targeted by all parties. The PLHR
report recommendations hold several parties responsible for the deterioration
of the situation in Yarmouk and demand an urgent humanitarian operation. The PLHR
report stated that the Assad regime was primarily responsible for the
"genocidal war crimes" against Yarmouk camp, while it calls for
putting pressure on the Syrian regime to reopen water supplies and urge all
parties to resume aid to the area. A member
of the board quotes Article 6 of the Rome Statute, noting: "For the
purpose of this statute, 'genocide' means any of the following acts committed
with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial
or religious group... " According
to camp activists, the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) operates with limited deliveries of assistance. Locals
confirm that emergency sections and all medical centres are closed. Only a
few doctors are available but with hardly any equipment. Locals'
testimonies seem to match that of Daphnee Maret, the deputy head of the ICRC
delegation in Syria, who admits that it is "the first time in over a
year that we have been able to deliver aid to the people in the camp. We hope
to do more." The PLHR
report cites the failure of the ICRC to address the situation in Yarmouk
camp, pointing to their previous work in Iraq and Yemen, where they
"distributed water to many areas that were damaged during the
then-ongoing war. It also repaired water supply networks, re-operated water
pumping stations and ensured water supply to the various Iraqi cities." UNRWA,
considered responsible for the protection and assistance of Palestinian
refugees, announced that it only managed to distribute fewer than 700 parcels over the course of the entire
month of December, which does not meet the minimum needs. "Between
asylum seekers, refugees and under siege, the Palestinians of Syria remain
today's most untold story in the Syrian conflict," Aboud said. Keeping
momentum in reporting on the tormented Yarmouk, according to analysts,
remains crucial in helping solve the crisis. "It's
not a coincidence that aid began to enter Yarmouk slowly when the siege
became a prominent subject for a brief period within the diaspora," said
Talal Alyan, a Palestinian-American commentator. |