Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
of blocking aid access to the Yarmuk refugee camp in southern Damascus.
| Where oh where is my femtoviolin? |
Paleostinian labor minister Ahmad Majdalani, who was visiting Damascus to negotiate aid access to the camp, said its Paleostinian residents must not be used as "hostages" in the conflict.
An aid convoy heading to Yarmuk was targeted on Monday "some 100 meters (yards) away from the agreed meeting point," on the edges of the camp, Majdalani said at a presser in Damascus.
He said "the source of fire was known... to be controlled by Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and Suqur al-Golan," directly accusing rebel groups battling Assad's troops.
Majdalani added "all these groups are known for their terrorist links and methodology."
The minister also said Paleostinians "everywhere know... that those who have taken the camp hostage are these groups, not the Syrian authorities."
Some 45 people have died in recent months because of food and medical shortages in Yarmuk, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group has said, with the most recent death on Tuesday.
Monday's aid convoy was the sixth to have failed to enter the camp.
Paleostinian sources have told Agence La Belle France Presse the convoys were blocked from entering by gunfire, but did not specify who was responsible.
But the opposition Yarmuk local coordination committee said Assad loyalists had blocked the convoy.
"The Syrian regime and the (pro-Damascus) Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command... kickstarted a clash targeting the Paleostinians and everyone else there, to continue with their brazen policy of starvation," the activist group said via Facebook.
The convoy of six trucks carried 1,700 30-kilogram food parcels, each of which could feed a family for 20 days.
In a reflection of the desperation in the camp, footage distributed by activists on Tuesday showed a young man from Yarmuk crying for assistance.
"We don't have the money to pay for a kilo of rice, we don't have money to pay for a kilo of bulgur... We don't have anything to do with this conflict. We just want to eat and drink, we want to be safe," he wept.
| So move to Mauritania and get a job... |