Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 18 January 2018
After US cuts, Palestinian refugee agency seeks donations

JERUSALEM (AP) — The U.N. on Tuesday suspended cial crisis” in its nearly 70- days. Deputy Prime Minister Al-
agency that serves Pales- $65 million for UNRWA, de- year history. The agency The agency said it is too exander De Croo said
tinian refugees and their manding it undertake a provides health care, edu- soon to say which countries Wednesday that “for a lot
descendants said Wednes- “fundamental re-examina- cation and social services will be approached to fill of Palestinian refugees, the
day it would launch a tion.” to 5 million Palestinians the void or what services UNRWA is the last life buoy.”
global fundraising appeal The U.S. provides roughly across the Middle East. are at risk. Among the group’s projects
in hopes of making up for one-third of UNRWA’s bud- UNRWA’s secretary-gener- Belgium has already are helping half a million
funding cuts announced get, and the agency has al, Pierre Krähenbühl, said stepped in to help, with an children get an education
by the United States. warned that it now faces the fundraising appeal immediate disbursement of and fending off attempts
The Trump administration the “most dramatic finan- would begin in the coming $23 million. to radicalize them.q

Nearly 4 years on, much of Syrian rebel ‘capital’ abandoned

By BASSEM MROUE After they moved into their
Associated Press latest apartment, the U.N.
HOMS, Syria (AP) — Suma- helped the family fix it up
ya Bairuty walked through by installing new windows
abandoned streets pocked and doors and closing the
with shell craters amid rows gaping holes in the walls.
of destroyed buildings, at Sumaya’s younger broth-
times climbing over giant er was about to turn 18 in
sand barriers before reach- 2015 and wanted to move
ing her parent’s apartment to Turkey to find a job and
in the once rebel-held dis- escape compulsory military
trict of Bab Dreib in this cen- service. The family contact-
tral Syrian city. ed relatives in the rebel-
The 38-year-old English-lan- held village of Saraqeb, in
guage teacher, who works Idlib, who promised to help
in Damascus, comes to him move to Turkey.
Homs by bus once a week Bairuty and her mother,
to spend two days with her Tamador Shilar, said their
parents, who live alone in relatives tipped off the
their newly repaired apart- extremist, IS-linked group
ment in the heavily de- Jund al-Aqsa about him,
stroyed and mostly desert- telling them that he and his
ed area. family were government
It has been almost four Sumaya Bairuty, 38, an English-language teacher who works in the capital Damascus, walks to supporters.
years since the last rebels her parents house in the war-damaged Bab Dreib neighborhood of Homs, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. Within days, the young
17, 2018. It has been almost four years since the last remaining rebels and civilians withdrew from
and civilians withdrew from the remaining strongholds in the ancient heart of Homs in Syria. But few people have returned, man was put on so-called
strongholds in the ancient and large parts of the once vibrant old city are still abandoned and destroyed, as if time had trial by the group, which
heart of Homs in May 2014, stood still since the guns fell silent. sentenced him to death for
surrendering to President (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) being a government sup-
Bashar Assad a blood- held northwestern province 20-minute walk away. years ago, after their main porter and ruled in favor
stained city once dubbed of Idlib. As Sumaya walked into her home was destroyed. of punishing his elder sister,
the “capital of the revolu- “This was the biggest loss. parent’s second-floor, two- In 2012, the Bairuty family who teaches at a govern-
tion.” Few people have re- Neither the house nor the bedroom apartment, she fled to Damascus after their ment-run school.
turned, and large parts of work or any other thing was found her father sitting on neighborhood fell into reb- Weeks later, the fam-
the once vibrant old city as painful as losing Rabih,” the floor next to a diesel el hands. A year later they ily received Rabih’s iden-
are still abandoned and she said. heater eating fried cauli- returned to Homs, rent- tity cards and belongings
destroyed, as if time has The family’s home in Bab flower and bread for lunch ing several homes before through a taxi driver who
stood still since the guns fell Dreib is in the heart of the while watching a soccer moving into the building of drives between the rebel-
silent. former rebel-held districts match on TV as her mother Sumaya’s maternal grand- held Idlib province and
For Bairuty’s family, the of Homs. The streets are sat nearby. parents in October 2016, Homs. A letter said that
main sorrow remains the so shell-pocked and de- She explained that the fam- a bit more than two years he was killed because he
loss of her youngest sibling, stroyed that cars cannot ily had to change homes after government forces did not join the “holy war”
Rabih, in 2015. He was killed drive, and the nearest area eight times since the Syr- recaptured all of central against the government,
by insurgents in the rebel- with shops and vehicles is a ian conflict erupted seven Homs. Shilar and Bairuty said. q

Syrian Kurds appeal to UN as Turkey prepares to attack

By SARAH EL DEEB including an enclave that ern and eastern Syria, and for extending support and nearly 25 percent of Syrian
SUZAN FRASER Turkey has threatened to in particular the enclave of arming the Kurdish forces territory. It is the U.S.-led
Associated Press attack. Afrin, where an estimated 1 as part of the campaign coalition’s chief ally in the
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s domi- Turkish President Recep million people live. that drove the Islamic State campaign against IS mili-
nant Kurdish party on Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey views the U.S.- group from large parts of tants in Syria.
Wednesday called on the he will launch a military of- backed Syrian Kurdish Syria. The U.S.-led coalition re-
U.N. Security Council to act fensive in the coming days forces as terrorists, and an The Kurdish militia, which cently said it is planning a
quickly to ensure the safety against territories controlled extension of the Kurdish in- forms the backbone of the 30,000-strong Kurdish-led
of Kurdish-controlled terri- by the dominant Syrian surgency raging in its south- U.S.-backed Syrian Demo- border force, further anger-
tories in the country’s north, Kurdish militia in northwest- east. It has criticized the U.S. cratic Forces, now controls ing Turkey.q