Syria: wider access for ICRC in areas of unrest

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (ICRC)
AUSTRALIA OFFICE - REGIONAL DELEGATION IN THE PACIFIC

SYRIA - ICRC BULLETIN
9 July 2011
Syria: wider access for ICRC in areas of unrest

The ICRC has been granted expanded access to areas affected by the current unrest. In cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the ICRC has visited Dara'a and Idlib to assess the humanitarian situation and provide assistance where needed.

Assessing the humanitarian situation in Dara'a and Idlib

Following ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger's two-day visit to Syria and his meetings with high-level officials, the ICRC was granted wider access to areas stricken by violence during nearly four months of disturbances and unrest.

In the southern city of Dara'a, ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff have visited the local Red Crescent chapter, the general hospital and some neighbourhoods.

"The hospital has been able to meet the needs of more than 1,500 injured people," said its director.

Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers and staff have distributed 12,000 food parcels, 3,000 tins of baby milk and other items to the hospital. On a previous visit to Dara'a, the ICRC donated five wound-dressing kits to the medical facility.

ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff also visited the local Red Crescent chapter in the northern city of Idlib before proceeding to a number of nearby villages and towns, where disturbances and displacement have been reported, to assess needs.

Idlib Red Crescent volunteers have been making daily visits to areas affected by the unrest to survey needs and register people who need assistance. They have distributed 5,500 food parcels, 2,600 blankets, 2,600 mattresses, baby milk, medications and other items in some 20 villages and towns directly affected, including Jisr al-Shughur and Khirbat al-Juz, and in towns such as Darkush and Hitya where people fleeing the violence had taken temporary refuge. Most people who fled from Jisr al-Shughur to Darkush and other nearby towns have now returned to their homes.

The Idlib branch of the Red Crescent runs a 22-bed hospital that provides services for some 450 people a month. The ICRC gave the hospital two wound-dressing kits, each containing enough supplies to treat 150 injured people.

Jisr al-Shughur's six-year-old government hospital serves the area's population of approximately 400,000. "The situation is calmer now," said its director. "But when military operations were taking place during three days in early June, the hospital received many casualties." The ICRC gave three wound-dressing kits to the hospital.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has been distributing food parcels in some villages in the area, including in Al-Hambushiyah, where 250 parcels were handed out.

Helping people in the Golan

The ICRC has supplied first-aid kits, stretchers and medical kits to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and to the Ministry of Health. It has also provided Kuneitra Hospital, in the part of the Golan that is not occupied, with a kit containing materials for the treatment of up to 50 violence-related injuries. In May and June, the hospital admitted a large number of casualties after incidents involving attempts to cross the demarcation line separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.

Syrian students from the occupied Golan Heights who have just completed a term of study at Damascus University are going back home for the summer. The ICRC makes arrangements for the annual crossing of 230 students returning to their homes as a part of its regular activities aiming to alleviate the effects of occupation on the Syrian residents of the Golan.

"I just finished my exams and am heading back home for a short while," said Yasin, one of the students, who returned to the occupied Golan on 6 July. "I'll have to go back to Damascus in just three weeks, however, because this year the university is changing from a semester to a quarter system."

Yasin is aware of the role played by the ICRC in making his annual return home a reality. "With the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, I have received training in first aid, and I've been learning about the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement," he said. "I think the most impressive thing about the Movement is its impartiality and neutrality."

The ICRC has been working in Syria since the Golan was occupied by Israel in 1967. Activities conducted by the ICRC to help Golan Syrians deal with some of the consequences of the occupation include arranging for farmers in the occupied Golan to transfer large quantities of their annual apple crop across the demarcation line for sale in other parts of Syria, visiting Syrians from the Golan held in various places of detention in Israel, and helping with the practical arrangements required for newlyweds, pilgrims and students to cross the demarcation line.

Water reservoirs in the drought-stricken north-east

Last month, the ICRC completed the construction of two underground water reservoirs in Al-Bishri Mountains of Dir al-Zur. The two reservoirs serve about 500 local people and their livestock, in addition to people living in nearby areas who use the reservoirs during the spring and summer.

Five ICRC-donated tanker trucks have resumed the distribution of clean drinking water to remote rural and desert communities in Al-Raqqa, Dir al-Zur and Al-Hassakeh, the three governorates hardest hit by the long drought. Each month, the trucks provide water at no charge for nearly 21,000 residents in 263 villages and communities to ease the impact of a drought that has dragged on in the north-east of the country for six consecutive years. The trucks are operated by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in coordination with the Syrian Desert Commission and the water board.

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