Refugee crisis worsens as Syrian army attacks village near Turkish border

TODASYZAMAN
 
Syrian refugees walk along a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Boynuyo?un in in Hatay province. More than 10,000 Syrians have already fled to neighbouring Turkey to escape a widening military campaign to crush protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian troops backed by tanks and firing heavy machine guns swept into a village near the Turkish border, forcing more people displaced by the crackdown on anti-government protesters to flee across the frontier. The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents protests, said troops backed by six tanks and several armored personnel carriers entered Bdama Saturday morning.
The village, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the Turkish border, had a bakery that was the sole source of bread for nearly 2,000 displaced people crowded near the border who had hoped not to have to flee to the Turkish tent-city sanctuary. The town was also supplying medicine and other foodstuffs to them.
Without that critical lifeline, some women and children were already crossing into Turkey Saturday afternoon.
The three-month uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule has proved stunningly resilient despite a relentless crackdown by the military, pervasive security forces and pro-regime gunmen. Human rights activists say more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as Assad tries to maintain his grip on power.

Along the border Saturday, those displaced near Bdama said they were running short of supplies.

“We still have some potatoes, rice and powdered milk but they will run out soon,” said Jamil Saeb, one of the Syrians who had so far decided to stay in Syria. “This is our first day without bread.”

Saeb said there are children who are sick and there is no medicine. Others are picking apples for lack of other food.

“We are living in catastrophic conditions,” he said.

“We are besieged by the border fence from one side and the Syrian army from the other,” Saeb said by telephone. “We are expecting a humanitarian crisis within hours if Turkey does not send aid to us.”

The attack on Bdama occurred a day after Syrian forces swept into Maaret al-Numan, a town on the highway linking Damascus, the capital, with Syria’s largest city, Aleppo. Saturday’s assault on Bdama was about 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the west.

Also Saturday, the committees raised the death toll in Friday’s anti-government protests to 19.

Bdama is next to Jisr al-Shughour, a town that was spinning out of government control before the military recaptured it last Sunday. Activists had reported fighting in Jisr al-Shughour between loyalist troops and defectors who refused to take part in a continuing crackdown on protesters seeking Assad’s ouster.

Saeb, the man on the border, said he fled Jisr al-Shughour shortly before the army took control. He declared he would rather die on the run or become an exile than face arrest and torture by members of Syria’s secret services.

“If the army advances here we will flee to Turkey,” Saeb said.

The fighting in the area, which started nearly two weeks ago, displaced thousands of people including some 10,100 who are sheltered in Turkish refugee camps. On Friday, UN envoy Angelina Jolie traveled to Turkey’s border with Syria to meet some of the thousands of Syrian refugees.

A Turkish villager near the border with Syria said hundreds of Syrians were crossing over Saturday afternoon, fleeing the army advance.

“We expect more people to cross overnight,” said the man, who would not give his name, fearing retribution.

Carol Batchelor, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Turkey, said coping with the flow of Syrians was challenging.

“We have offered our full support from the United Nations, from each of our agencies, for any support that might be needed. Turkey has said for the time being they are able to manage the situation, to cope with the circumstances,” she said.

The uprising is the boldest challenge to the Assad family’s 40-year dynasty in Syria. Assad, now 45, inherited power in 2000, raising hopes that the lanky, soft-spoken young leader might transform his late father’s stagnant and brutal dictatorship into a modern state.

But over the past 11 years, hopes dimmed that Assad was a reformist. He is showing himself as a hard-liner determined to keep power at all costs.

Media granted access to a camp for first time

Journalists and photographers were admitted to one of the five Syrian refugee camps in Turkey for the first time on Saturday — the first official access to any camp or refugees since the exodus of Syrians began two weeks ago.

 

Most are from Jisr al-Shughour, the town where Syrian authorities said 120 security personnel were killed in fighting they blamed on “armed groups”. Many refugees have said those killed were deserting troops, resulting in brutal reprisals.

“Peaceful demonstrations started in Jisr al-Shughour three months ago. Then the detentions and torture started,” said an elderly refugee who gave his name as Adem, and who spoke in an urgent, animated manner.

“We were singing national anthems, using cartoons criticising Asaad. Then the security forces started detaining people … I am one of them.”

 

Adem said forces hit his back and head with the butts of their weapons, blindfolded and bound him, then beat him and others with electric cables.

“They passed electricity through our toes. I was tortured, too. They asked for the names of people who had participated in the demonstrations.”

A 61-year-old woman, also from Jisr al-Shughour, told journalists people would protest every Friday then security forces began firing from helicopters.

 

“We were so afraid that we ran away to Hassaniye village. For 10 days we stayed there before coming here … some old people couldn’t leave the town, they stayed in a desperate condition.”

“After we left we heard the army took people from villages to the evacuated houses and shops then brought in cameras and told the whole world that there is no problem here.”

 

The International Federation for Human Rights and the US-based Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies said in a statement that, according to local sources, Syrian forces had killed more than 130 people and arrested over 2,000 in Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding villages over the past few days.

Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed groups and Islamists, backed by foreign powers. Syria has barred most international journalists, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists, regugees and officials.

At Boynuyo?un on Saturday men smoked in groups and women washed the few clothes they had brought. Children began to chant anti-Assad statements and made victory signs. Arabic news channels rang out from the television tents.

“Right now people are content with their situation because things are so critical in their home country they don’t won’t to go back. Some have suffered very bad traumas so we are offering psychological support,” said an official from Turkey’s Red Crescent.

Three babies have been born in Boynuyo?un since it opened on June 10, he added.

“We want to build other playgrounds for the children but we don’t have any space left. We weren’t expecting so many people.”

---