WEST BANK: Palestinians condemn Syrian military assault on refugee camp in Latakia

Record ID: 279442

  • Title: WEST BANK: Palestinians condemn Syrian military assault on refugee camp in Latakia
  • Date: 17th August 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ANTON, RESIDENT OF RAMALLAH SAYING: "We should not add wood to the fire. People are killing one another, it is not enough that we are displaced and in a rough place etc.. It's a shame no one on this globe would accept this." MORE STREET SCENES
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA39821F726QTCM4FBUUUV3GIMD
  • Story Text: A senior Palestinian official condemned the ongoing military assault in Syria on Tuesday (August 16) as a crime against humanity, urging the international community to intervene.
    "The shelling is taking place using gunships and tanks on houses built from tin. On people who have no place to run to or even a shelter to hide in for safety from these actions (shelling). This is a crime against humanity and we at the same time share with the Syrian people the same goals and aspirations to achieve freedom and dignity," said a senior aid to the president PLO Secretary General Yasser Abed Rabbo from his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    There are approximately 5000 Palestinian refugees who have been displaced and another 5000 who are still being shelled, Abed Rabbo explained.
    The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, a grassroots activists' group, said three people, including Ahmad Soufi, 22, were killed in Latakia on Monday (August 16), bringing the civilian death toll there to 31, including a two-year-old girl.
    The Palestinian newspaper headlines and front pages were dominated by the events in Syria. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, residents condemned the attack on their fellow Palestinians who had taken refuge in Syria.
    "What is happening in Syria is not the Palestinians business, it is an internal Syrian matter. As Palestinian people we are (living) under Israeli occupation and have been displaced by the Israeli occupation. Syria should respect the people who took refuge on their land," Yousef Ismail told Reuters.
    "We should not add wood to the fire. People are killing one another, it is not enough that we are displaced and in a rough place etc.. It's a shame no on on this globe would accept this," said Anton.
    President Bashar al-Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite sect, has broadened a military assault against towns and cities where demonstrators have been demanding his removal since the middle of March.
    The crackdown coincided with the August 1 start of the Muslim Ramadan fast, when nightly prayers became the occasion for more protests against 41 years of harsh Baathist party rule.
    In a now-familiar pattern, tanks and armoured vehicles deployed around dissident neighbourhoods of Latakia and essential services were cut before security forces began raids, arrests and bombardment, residents said.
    Thousands of people fled a Palestinian refugee camp in Latakia, some fleeing gunfire and others leaving on orders from the Syrian authorities, a U.N. official said.
    The Palestinian presidency in the West Bank city of Ramallah urged Damascus to safeguard the lives of Palestinian refugees in al-Raml camp in Latakia.
    Under UNRWA's definition, Palestinian refugees are people whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict, during which they were displaced and dispossessed and the state of Israel was established.
    The official state news agency SANA denied Latakia had been shelled from the sea and said two police and four unidentified armed men were killed when security forces pursued "armed men who were terrorising residents ... and using machine-guns and explosives from rooftops and from behind barricades."
    The assaults by Syrian security forces have drawn increasing condemnation from the West, Turkey and more recently from Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
    Washington wants Europe and China to consider sanctions on Syria's vital oil and gas industry. Germany called for more European Union sanctions against Syria on Monday and urged the U.N. Security Council to discuss the crackdown again this week.
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