Crisis in Syria – Palestinian refugee camps – Letter from Syria

Identical letters dated 20 December 2012 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council 

On instructions from my Government, I should like to bring the following to your attention: 

 Since the crisis in Syria began, certain States and organizations that are known for their antagonism to Syria and their political procedures have inverted the facts and distorted the tragic events that are taking place in the country. Those States and parties have falsely assigned responsibility for those events to the Government of Syria, supported by media that are their mercenaries, and have misled global public opinion and misrepresented the facts concerning events in Syria.

 It came as no surprise to Syria that those parties should adopt wayward positions with regard to the emergency situation that has prevailed in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in recent days as a result of an attack on the camp that was launched by the Nusrah Front and the other terrorist groups that support them. That attack caused a disaster that led to the innocent Palestinian refugees being displaced yet again, this time from their homes in the camp.

 While Syria condemns all those who have permitted themselves to point the finger of suspicion at and hold Syria responsible for this disaster, which was the work of the terrorist groups, it would like to make it clear that for decades, since the Nakba that befell the Palestinian people, Syria has been committed to hosting Palestinian refugees on its territory. It has treated them as Syrian nationals and given them all the privileges that Syrian citizens enjoy. Syria has also dealt extremely constructively with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and has placed no restrictions or conditions on its activities, as may be attested by the Agency’s records and all its staff inside and outside Syria. It is unfortunate that blame for what has taken place in the camp should be directed to the wrong party, when the terrorist organizations should be held accountable and condemned. Those organizations have, throughout the crisis in Syria, threatened the security and stability of the Palestinians, numbers of whom they have killed. Recently, the Nusrah Front and their supporters attacked Yarmouk camp and the surrounding areas with mortar and machine gunfire and occupied parts thereof, forcing thousands of Palestinians to leave and destroying a hospital and a mosque. Hundreds of their personnel then entered the camp and have, to date, prevented the Syrian Arab Army, to which the inhabitants of the camp had appealed to intervene, from rescuing the lives and property of civilians in the camp.

 Notwithstanding the difficulties that it is experiencing, Syria has throughout this period remained in permanent contact with various official and unofficial Palestinian political actors inside and outside the camp, with a view to ensuring that our brothers, the Palestinians, are not embroiled in what is taking place in Syria, and to distancing them from the treacherous clutches of the terrorists who have sought from the very beginning to involve them in the events, for reasons that are concealed from no one. 

 During the recent visit to Syria by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the country reaffirmed its basic belief, based on a principled stand, that our brothers, the Palestinians, should not be embroiled in what is taking place in Syria and that the Palestinian refugees should not be involved in any way. In cooperation with Palestinian and international institutions, Syria has taken the initiative in providing all the forms of assistance and facilities that are necessary in order to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian refugees that has been caused by the occupation of Yarmouk camp by the Nusrah Front and their allies, the so-called Free Army. 

 Syria appeals to the United Nations and its Secretary-General to request the States that have supported the armed terrorist groups and encouraged them to occupy Yarmouk camp for purposes that are well known, and which plan their terrorist operations, to use their close relationship with the terrorist groups to prevail upon them to leave the camp forthwith, for the sake of the Palestinian refugees and in order to prevent the death and destruction that those groups spread wherever they go, rather than making base claims at the expense of the lives and suffering of the Palestinian people. It is the terrorists who attacked the camp and they who drove out the Palestinian refugees and they who are responsible for this crime. 

 I should be grateful if you would have the present letter circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 105, and of the Security Council. 

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