ANKARA
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu charged Friday that starvation is being used as a weapon of war in Syria in a tactic reminiscent of the Middle Ages.
"We are witnessing the first major humanitarian tragedy of the 21st Century, comparable perhaps to the biggest tragedies of the past century," Davutoglu said.
Also Friday, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned the repeated obstruction of convoys trying to bring supplies to a besieged population of some 18 thousand people in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital, saying that “impeding humanitarian assistance to civilians in desperate need may amount to a war crime.”
“Over the past four months numerous attempts by the UN and other organizations to bring convoys of food and medical aid to malnourished children, women and elderly people close to starvation in Yarmouk, have been thwarted, and very little aid was getting through during the nine months prior to that,” Pillay said in a statement.
“Civilians, including many women and children, are caught in a quagmire between besieging Syrian government forces and affiliated militias surrounding the Yarmouk camp, as well as anti-government armed groups operating inside,” she said.
In London, the Syria researcher for Amnesty International said people in the Yarmouk camp were subsisting on grass and shrubs.
"Humans don't usually eat grass, but these people pick it up and boil it up to seven times to get rid of the taste of bitterness, and it becomes a juice in order to feed their children," Cilina Nasser, the researcher, said late Thursday in London. "They eat anything, Whatever can be eaten, they will eat it."
Davutoglu said dozens of people had died of starvation at the Yarmouk Camp within the past few weeks.
The UN, too, said there had been reports of a number of deaths from starvation, as well as from the consumption of rotten food, and because of the chronic shortage of medical supplies and expertise for sick and injured people and pregnant women trapped in the camp. Civilians also continue to be killed by ongoing fighting and sporadic aerial attacks.
“The extent of malnutrition, and the numbers who have died directly or indirectly because of it, are not known for sure,” Pillay said. “But it is crystal clear that the situation in Yarmouk is now extremely desperate, and that civilians are dying as a result. Government forces and affiliated militias appear to be imposing collective punishment on the civilians in Yarmouk.”
Speaking at the second Ministerial Meeting of Syria Bordering Countries, Davutoglu said thousands of Syrians have been forced to flee to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt to find food, water and medicine. The number of Syrians fleeing to Turkey alone is around 700 thousand."
Co-chaired by Davutoglu and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, the meeting was held at Harran Accommodation Center, a refugee camp in Harran district of Turkey's southeastern province of Sanliurfa.
"Getting together in Harran today ahead of Geneva is a call to the international community and humanity," Davutoglu said. "This is a call that says, 'Enough. Let's not be silent in the face of this big humanitarian tragedy of women, children and the elderly.'"
"There is evidence that starvation is clearly used as a war tactic in Syria, reminiscent of the Middle Ages," he said. "Cities and districts are under siege, and the delivery of humanitarian aid has not been allowed for months. People have been dying a miserable death."
He said the cities, homes and hearts of Syria's neighbors were open to the refugees. "No matter who does what, or remains silent, we will not be silent to your pain," he said.
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