MOSCOW-(ST)- The Syrian and Russian Joint Coordination Committees on facilitating the return of displaced Syrians announced Monday that more than 4000 displaced citizens have been evacuated from al-Rukban camp and taken to their villages and towns and have their basic needs met.
During a joint video conference via satellite, the two committees stressed that since March 23rd, 2019, 4345 displaced Syrians, including women, children, elderly and youths were evacuated from Rukban camp.
The committees reiterated that the Syrian state has spared no effort to ensure decent life conditions for the returning citizens and has provided the returnees with different medical services, basic needs and food. Besides, the Syrian state has been working hard to ensure job opportunities to the returnees and to bring the children back to schools to complete their study, the committees made it clear.
The Syrian and Russian committees held the US occupation forces in al-Tanf area responsible for the humanitarian disaster in the camp as they prevented the buses sent by the Syrian government from entering the camp to transport the citizens. They called on the American side not to interfere in the Syrian internal affairs, put an end to the aggressive acts of the terrorist groups which control the camp and to practically contribute to speeding up the process of evacuating the Syrian citizens from the camp, to allow humanitarian aid convoys to enter the camp and to end their illegal presence in al-Tanf.
Russian Defense Ministry Slams US Actions in Rukban ‘Concentration’ Camp
According to Itar Tass, Head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev told a meeting of the Russian and Syrian inter-agency coordination headquarters on the issue of resettling the “refugees” in Syria that the US is carrying out a concentration camp policy in the Rukban camp.
“On the grounds of the Rukban camp any transport is prohibited, while it is forbidden for the people living there to leave it through any other gate but the main one. How can we interpret that? It is very confusing, they stand for democracy and humanity, but when it comes to actions they advance a policy of the long forgotten concentration camps,” he said.
He clarified that the US is claiming that the country “supports the process of resettling the refugees from the camp”, while in fact they started taking dubious measures that are not portraying the country that strives to be the world leader in the best light.
Moreover, the US satellites in the Western Europe are also involved in the crisis. They ramped up the pressure on the countries that neighbor Syria and are clearly saying that coordinating actions with the Syrian government to tackle the “refugee” issue is not recommended. “In other words, they are willingly creating obstacles for the direct dialogue with the Syrian government and artificial barriers for the process of resettling the Syrian refugees in their home country,” Mizintsev pointed out.
Amid these developments, a coherent and consistent position of the UN is needed as ever in assessing the actions of the US and their allies in the region and compelling the US authorities to dismantle the Rukban refugee camp as soon as possible,” he concluded.
Hamda Mustafa