In front of me now, as I am writing this piece, are the names of fifteen person who died due to starvation exacerbated by dehydration. Regime forces have, on top of the food blockade, also cut off all water supplies to Yarmouk. The starved were all inhabitants of Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in Syria, located approximately seven kilometres south of Damascus.
Writing stories of the dead is an easy task as they will never see your words or correct your miss-spelling of their names and ages, or your far too weak attempt at describing the insufferability of life under a hundred and seventy days of a hermetic siege. The fifteen dead are no more than numbers added to the death toll. Among the fifteen victims of Assad is an infant, no more than a few months old. Others were men, in the prime of their youth who simply perished in a slow and excruciating death. Activists have borne witness to children, who, just before passing away were wailing and crying, begging their mothers for grilled chicken for lunch. The mothers watched helplessly as their children finally silenced.
One of the videos, etched forever on to my retina, is the horrifying scene of a little girl living under the siege of Homs, in central Syria. When asked by the photo journalist what food she dreamt of, she replied "banana and some bread". He asked whether she missed her friends and she angrily replied "No, I don’t miss my friends. They are outside, out of the siege, having the food they want! Why shall I miss them"?
One man on the photos that will be known as the Yarmouk starvation massacre, Fayez Sadeh, had tied a rope around his stomach, hoping that this would avert the unfathomable hunger. His chest ballooned, his bones were as thin as arrows. Fayez passed with eyes closed and features tormented, but without the relief that overcomes some dying. Fayez's last moments depicted the hunger that killed him. Activists have described a child at the age of six, who's last words "I'll tell God what you did to us".
The urgency of documenting this topic today grows out of desperation. Some people are or will soon be dead. Yet, recently there were news of a European aid convoy, intending to break the siege on Yarmouk. The only video (1) news source I found about this convoy was dated 12 December 2013 and it lasts only 32 seconds. But it clearly shows the aid convoy making it only to the entrance of the camp, failing then in reaching the population. Later, on the 27th of December, the campaign announced on its webpage (2) that they couldn’t reach an agreement to enter the camp, another statement, also dated 27th of December, by an activist inside Yarmouk, Mohammad Jalbout said to the Syrian radio station "Sham FM" that: “The European Convoy complied with the conditions set up by the Syrian government to distribute food assistance for the besieged inhabitants of Yarmouk at a meeting point which is known as (Cables Point) at Sbenah. The location is situated north of the besieged camp. Jalbout illustrated that this rendezvous point is very hard to access for those who are besieged. “It’s not the entrance of Yarmouk but rather, requires a four kilometre walk, and is tantamount to putting ones life in danger, due to the ongoing shelling that the inhabitants of Hajjar Aswad neighbourhood are subjected to. For someone deprived of nutrition for months this is not an easy feat. Jalbout emphasizes that “the safest place for the delivery of aids is the entrance of Yarmouk” from the side of Midan and Bawabah. Distribution, anyway, should have started yesterday 28th of December 2013.
Starvation as a weapon of war is becoming one of Assad’s main tool to punish and pressure revolting areas, the continuous talk about a cease fire between FSA and Assad forces supported by PFLP-GC (3) Palestinian forces loyal to the Syrian regime is nothing real. Qusai Zakarya, pseudonym, 28-year-old Palestinian Syrian who serves the civilian Local Council of Moadamiya, Syria announced on his blog Stop The Siege (4) a hunger strike since the 26th of November 2013 as a way to draw world’s attention to the inhuman suffering of the whole northern sector of Damascus, which including Yarmouk 20 thousands inhabitant. in solidarity with all those people German philosopher Jürgen Habermas and American thinker Noam Chomsky among long name of list joined the International Hunger Strike, find the full list of names here (5)
When I spoke to Alaa Aboud, co-founder of PAHR/Syria (Palestinian Association for Human Rights/Syria) (6) about the tragic results of Assad forces blockade on Yarmouk he explained that: “the total documented number of starvation’s victims is 25 many are kids” followed by an up-to-date list of “127 victim of death under torture for Palestinians from Syria in the prisons of the Syrian regime” Alaa, a Law graduate from Damascus University and ex-master student at the same department told me that: “today we will publish a full report (7) about the victims of the starvation” the association which is receiving very small support depends on a trustworthy team of active members inside the camp contributing to the documentation of all human rights violations at Yarmouk and other Palestinian camps in Syria.
Speaking in the domain of International Law, Alaa Aboud thinks that this blockade” violates the 4th Geneva Convention 1949 which states the protection of civilians in the time of war, also, violates the second protocol to the very same convention, relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977, in addition to violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child, more over the violation of the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty”
Mid-December, Talal Alyan, Palestinian American writer based in Brooklyn, New York warned in a piece titled “We Need to Talk about Yarmouk” (8) that: “For almost half a year now, Yarmouk camp has been on the receiving end of a devastating new tactic employed by the Assad dynasty. The method itself is simply enough: isolate an area long enough to bring it to its surrender. It would seem that the ambition of this approach is to drain Yarmouk, and the oppositional forces within it, of weaponry. But in the process, and almost certainly done intentionally, the siege evacuates Yarmouk of resources that residents are in desperate need of”
Ever since I started blogging and writing about the Palestinian question in the Syrian uprising, one concern emerged on the top of all my thoughts, the double suffering of a Palestinian from Syria, Alaa exacerbates this by saying: “The Palestinians of Palestine suffered enough from the apartheid state of Israel and the fascism of the Arab regimes, but the Palestinians of Syria suffered double that, the struggle for and because of their Palestine and the struggle for their Syria, the Syria they integrated in throughout the years of co-existence with their Syrian peers”
According to UNRWA last report titled “Syria regional crisis response: January – December 2014” (9) the number of Palestinians in need of assistance is 540.000 while the estimated refugees reached in 2013 is 482.000 which leaves 58.000 Palestinian without reach or evaluation of needs. One of the biggest problems of this crisis is 63.769 children under the age of five, 5.191 are pregnant women, and 44.855 are elderly persons living alone. All live or internally displaced in Syria. Another emergency aspect of Yarmouk crisis is the possible outbreak of Polio, even though UNRWA at the time of writing that report indicated that: “the Agency has had initial success in the delivery of 2.000 polio vaccines to residents of Yarmouk, and remains on standby to deliver more assistance as soon as access can be obtained” UNRWA total requirement only for Syria is $310 Million (10) according to the very same report, which rise the question on whether financial support to UNRWA will keep pace with an increased demands for 2014. Let’s hope!
(1) http://www.wgrz.com/video/2832006478001/1/Aid-Convoy-Reaches-Yarmuk-Refugee-Camp-in-Damascus
(2) http://www.europal.org/ar/
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Palestine_%E2%80%93_General_Command
(4) http://stopthesiege.wordpress.com/
(5) http://pulsemedia.org/2013/12/19/stop-starvation-in-syria-end-the-blockades/
(6) https://www.facebook.com/pages/الرابطة-الفلسطينية-لحقوق-الانسانسوريا-pahr-s/549030198472642
(7) http://upload.3ode.net/files/64731.pdf
(8) http://beyondcompromise.com/2013/12/17/we-need-to-talk-about-yarmouk/
(10) UNRWA: “Syria regional crisis response: January – December 2014” the full report, p10
(11) Abed Naji is a Palestinian artist and graphic designer from Yamouck Camp, his works are published on his FB page: http://on.fb.me/1agQ2g9
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By Salim
Salamah, Syrian blogger and activist from Palestinian
origins. This article first appeared at Oximity
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