Thought Piece
What’s new. This piece from New York Times pretends to be an “objective” report, but it simply isn’t.
Even more embarrassing is the story hidden in between the lines. For example, there is no mention of of the overwhelming forces of Bashar al-Assad and the Russians in Syria. There is no mention of the chemical warfare by Syria. There is no mention of the failure of the humanitarian efforts of the United Nation. There is no mention of the abysmal medical relief provide by the international medical community and International Heath Organizations. I could go on, but the gentle reader understands.
Instead, we are forced to hear about the 100 American forces trying to protect Jordanian refugee camps. The two children who died in the camps today. The lack of food, clean water, and medical care in the camp. The inhumanity of the Jordan government who won’t allow supplies to pass through their country. The disgustingly long delays in clearance from Syrian government. The shallow reports from Unicef. The children digging for food in trash. The hypocritical threats by the Russians to attack “islamic State militants.” The 45,000 people mostly women and children soon to be exposed to “the cold winter months fast approaching.”
The New York Times and its reporters have become inhumane.
Misery ‘Every Day, Every Hour’ in Syrian Camp. And Now, It’s Grown Critical.
By Hwaida Saad and Megan Specia
In a stretch of desert in southern Syria on the border with Jordan, a sandstorm battered the shelters of some 50,000 displaced people in a makeshift camp already running low on food, clean water and medical care.
The weather is only one of many concerns for the increasingly desperate families in Rukban camp. The United Nations warned that humanitarian conditions have reached a critical level and aid groups are scrambling to reach the area.
A convoy is scheduled to reach Rukban on Thursday after receiving clearance from the Syrian government. But a long-term plan for relief remains elusive.
The camp sprang up in a demilitarized zone between the two countries as tens of thousands of people fled the devastation of war in Syria — many from areas where Russian- and American-backed forces were fighting the Islamic State. They found themselves blocked from entering Jordan.
So they have stayed in Rukban instead, some for years. The United Nations refugee agency estimates that 80 percent of the people here are women and children.
“The overall humanitarian situation inside the Rukban camp is at a critical stage,” Ali al-Za’tari, the top United Nations official in Damascus, said.
About half of Syria’s population has been displaced by the ruinous civil war, and hundreds of thousands have been killed. What began as a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian rule more than seven years ago then devolved into a multisided war that dragged in international powers, including the United States and Russia.
Last week, Unicef reported that at least two children had died in the camp over a 48-hour period and issued an urgent appeal for aid. The two children, a 5-day-old boy and a 4-month-old girl, died in the camp, where there is no access to intensive medical care.
The United Nations refugee agency runs a clinic on the Jordanian side of the border, but it is not always accessible.
Reached by phone, those living in the Rukban camp described a desperate situation. Shukri Shehadi fled the city of Palmyra with his six children, some of them adults with their own families, three years ago. He has been in the camp ever since.
“The situation is bad,” he said. “You could write a book about the misery here. Every day, every hour, we have sad stories.”
Mr. Shehadi described how a recent sandstorm had damaged tents and some makeshift clay huts. He said roofs were ripped off some of the huts, and the tents were damaged. Videos taken this week show the sand-whipped scenes inside the camp.
Imad al-Ghali, another camp resident, fled his town near Homs more than three years ago. He has lived in a clay tent in Rukban since then, separated from his wife and young daughter, who are living in an area controlled by government forces.
“The biggest challenge in the camp is to find food,” Mr. Ghali said in a voice message, the wind howling in the background. “I saw a girl looking for food in the garbage.”
Video taken in the camp shows two small children digging through scattered trash. Mr. Ghali said many people had died in Rukban from lack of food and medicine. Others have detailed how pregnant women have died there without proper medical care.
“We don’t have doctors here, and people here are poor. They depend on aid that is coming from the U.N. and NGOs,” Mr. Ghali said, worrying that the camp could face a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
The deteriorating conditions in the camp are a product of the conflict playing out around it. In recent months, the Syrian Army has tightened restrictions on goods coming in and out of the area, preventing local aid groups and traders from accessing it.
The site is in a demilitarized zone set up for miles around Al Tanf base, where American-backed forces have maintained a presence and coordinated airstrikes by the United States-led coalition battling the Islamic State.
Last month, 100 Marines were sent to the base, intended to send a signal to the Syrian government and its Russian allies that they were there to stay. The Russian military twice warned the Pentagon — on Sept. 1 and again on Sept. 6 — that it would attack what it said were Islamic State militants in the stretch of desert nearby.
The United Nations plans to send a humanitarian convoy to the camp, in partnership with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which is expected to reach the camp on Thursday, according to a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Damascus.
But there does not appear to be a long-term plan to address the humanitarian crisis. The convoy will carry food, water and some medical supplies, as well as plastic sheeting and clothes.
“While the U.N.-supported clinic near the border inside Jordan continues to provide basic health services for urgent lifesaving cases, more sophisticated health care is required,” Geert Cappelaere, Unicef’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
“The situation for the estimated 45,000 people — among them many children — will worsen further with the cold winter months fast approaching, especially when temperatures dip below freezing point in the harsh desert conditions,” the statement said.
This year, Jordan allowed an aid shipment from the United Nations to pass through its border, but has since said that all aid to the area must come from the Syrian side of the border.
