Yarmouk Camp: under siege 'until further notice'

(Reporting by Zeina  Al Chofi; translation by Yusra Ahmed)

Celebration in Yamouk after the agreement on exclusion Palestinian camp from the Syrian conflict, has not yet started to go in vane again after declaring that the agreement would not be put in force till the rebels hand themselves to regime to sort their legal situation out.

At the ball roundabout at the entrance of Yarmouk camp, after the agreement, people daily gather hoping the regime would to let them in, however, they leave empty handed because the regime denied them access to the camp. But still, hope forces them to go again next day.

On the other side of the entrance barrier, Yarmouk’s people have cleaned streets, preparing themselves to welcome their relatives.

It is confirmed that all fighters have left the camp, only its residents stayed in, as the agreement requested all outsider fighters to leave the camp.

From their side, people under siege, waited for electricity, water and telephone workshops to fix damage affected the public services. However, the regime has not abide by any article of the agreement about the Camps’ exclusion, according to Mahmood Nassar, the activist who described the agreement as walking in place as regime still insisting on sorting out the legal situation of wanted people, while people in camp refuse that.

The activist confirms that siege has come back, even more severe than before, and food was not let in for more than a month.

In general, activists are suspicious about the agreement, and most of them refuse it as they cannot trust the regime, especially as far as sorting out the legal situation of wanted rebels, according to an activist who talked on condition of anonymity as he is wanted by the regime, as he is not sure about his safety if he handed himself to the regime

The activist sees the agreement on sorting out the legal situation as nothing more a trick the regime uses for media, and in the same time as a trap to catch fighters. The activist mentioned what happened to Homs’s fighter when they trusted the regime and handed themselves, however, regime executed 20 fighters according to the coalition’s confirmation.

The activist added that many cases of young men from the southern Countryside of Damascus, handed themselves but their fate still unknown in regime’s prisons.

“No one can get guarantees from the regime as no one can question it in case it did not commit to promises it gives” the activist added.

The activist fears that the regime aims from the agreement to empty the camp from fighters, then maltreat and punish civilians who would be under its control with no protection.