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Trapped Syrian Christians face ‘risk of extinction’

18 January 2013

AP

A city under siege: a Free Syria Army fighter aims his weapon, in the city of Aleppo, last Sunday

A city under siege: a Free Syria Army fighter aims his weapon, in the city of Aleppo, last Sunday

FEARS are growing for the safety and well-being of about 1000 Syrian Christians trapped in their village by intensive battles between the country's armed forces and rebel fighters. Their suffering comes against the background of a worsening civil conflict in which, UN figures suggest, more than 60,000 people have been killed, and 600,000 displaced.

Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic families that remain in the village of Yaakoubieh, north of Aleppo, have been unable to leave, because of the heavy fighting around them in recent days. Most of the 3000 inhabitants have fled over recent months, but now an estimated 1000 are trapped, in living conditions that are becoming desperate. There is no electricity; and supplies of food and other basics are running low, at a time of freezing temperatures.

A Roman Catholic friar in Beirut, Fr François Kouseiffi OFM Cap., who has been helping to care for refugees from Yaakoubieh, told the news agency Fides that the remaining villagers, including Franciscan nuns, were "in a terrible condition, where they risk extinction".

He said that the situation was "very serious. The faithful are trapped. We are trying in every way to help them to come to Lebanon." While emissaries had been sent to Aleppo, reaching the village itself was still too dangerous.

At the end of last week, the refugee agency UNHCR said that it was implementing measures to help more than 600,000 Syrians who were awaiting registration as refugees in neighbouring countries, and the figure was continuing to rise owing to poor weather. "The severe winter conditions across Syria and the surrounding region this past week have brought new difficulties for refugees and other displaced people," a UNHCR spokesperson said. "Even with the winter preparation work that has been done in recent months, many refugees in both camp and non-camp situations are facing particularly cold and damp conditions."

The UNHCR said that many of the refugees arriving in Jordan in recent days were barefoot, and their clothing was covered in mud and snow. They had discarded their belongings to carry their children through flooded countryside. In Lebanon, UNHCR and its partners are working to relieve the effects of floods on refugee settlements and a warehouse housing refugees in Sidon.

On Monday, the UNHCR said that the number of Syrians taking refuge in Turkey had risen to 153,300 - up three per cent since the end of December. It said that the shortage of space in camps continued to be the main challenge for local authorities. The Nizip-2 camp, a container site with capacity for 5000 people, is expected to open soon.

In addition to the danger from the fighting and the deteriorating living conditions, another factor prompting Syrians to flee their country is the fear of rape, the US-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) says. In a report released on Monday, it describes rape as "a significant and disturbing feature of the Syrian civil war".

In the course of three IRC assessments in Lebanon and Jordan, Syrians identified rape as a primary reason why their families fled the country. "Many women and girls relayed accounts of being attacked in public, or in their homes, primarily by armed men. These rapes, sometimes by multiple perpetrators, often occur in front of family members," the report states.

The IRC did not say whether the atrocities were being committed by Syrian troops and the regime's Shabiha militia, or by members of the Free Syria Army. But the likelihood is that both sides have been guilty of the atrocities, and there are increasing reports of the commission of human-rights abuses as much by opponents of the regime as by supporters.

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