Syrian archbishop warns of humanitarian emergency
January 04, 2013
A Syrian Catholic prelate is warning that Syrians in Al-Jazira, a Mesopotamian region that includes portions of Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, are facing the prospect of a humanitarian catastrophe.
At least 400,000 refugees have fled to the region from other parts of Syria in the wake of the conflict between the government and rebels.
“The grain silos were looted and wheat was sold to Turkish traders who conveyed it in Turkey, under the gaze of the Turkish customs officers,” said Archbishop Jacques Hindo of Hassaké-Nisibis in an appeal to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.
“The first victims were children,” he added in comments made to the Fides news agency. “You experienced on your body, in your soul and in your children all the injustice that was caused by such behavior, because only the people are punished, not the government. The states therefore put their interests above the interests of men, and even above the rights that God has on what is his work.”
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Further information:
- Archbishop Hindo’s appeals to the Iraqi Premier al-Maliki and FAO: our wheat looted and sold to the Turkish (Fides)
- Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia (Wikipedia)
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