TASS, March 17. The United States and its allies blatantly violate key norms of international law by depriving residents of the Rukban camp, where Syrians have been held by Washington-controlled militants, of a possibility to move freely and choose the place of residence, chiefs of the Russian and Syrian coordination headquarters Mikhail Mizintsev and Hussein Makhlouf, said in a joint statement on Sunday.
According to the statement, since May 2018 only 800 Syrians have been able to leave the Rukban camp and return home, and they had to pay $300 for their freedom to the militants. Now no one is leaving the camp due to the lack of money, the chiefs of the Russian and Syrian coordination headquarters said. Those Syrians who have left the camp are afraid of reporting this information.
"We are calling on the international community to pay careful attention to this outrageous fact. The US and its allies are blatantly tramping on key fundamental norms of international law by depriving the Rukban camp’s residents to move freely and choose the place of residence on their own," the statement said.
"We are again calling on the United Nations to abandon its ineffective practice of supplying the Rukban camp’s inmates with humanitarian convoys since most cargos are used by the Americans to feed militants," the coordination headquarters’ chiefs said. "We demand exerting influence on the US for evacuating the camp as soon as possible. The internally displaced persons should be able to leave the camp without paying "fees" to pro-US groups," they stressed.
The Rukban refugee camp emerged on the Syrian-Jordanian border in 2014 after Amman closed its border due to security and economic concerns. The area, which is controlled by illegal armed groups, is facing a severe humanitarian crisis.
On February 20, 2019 two mobile checkpoints Jleighem and Jebel al-Gurab were set up for evacuating refugees from the Rukban camp, which is located within the 55-km zone around the US Al-Tanf base.
On March 5, the Russian Defense Ministry said that a cemetery with 300 fresh graves had been found near the camp. According to the ministry, the camp has lost its status to have been turned into a "reservation where hostages are held by force." The Russian Defense Ministry said most of the shelters in the camp were unlivable in wintertime, the sanitary conditions were appalling and food and other goods could be purchased only at improvised outdoor bazaars controlled by the militants. Later, Russian satellites’ images uncovered new burial sites at the Rukban refugee camp, with the overall number of graves reaching 700, the Russian and Syrian inter-agency coordination headquarters said.