Middle East Features
Palestinians in Lebanon refugee camp still in despair
By DPA
Jun 24, 2008, 14:01 GMT

Nahr al-Bared camp, Lebanon - Despair, agony and pessimism are the words that best describe the mood at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon a year after the end of fighting between Islamist militant group Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army which reduced the camp to rubble.

The people are very frustrated with the lack of progress in rebuilding the camp to enable the refugees to live a normal life with their families, despite the fact that Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Seniora said Monday that four Gulf States will foot around half of the bill for the reconstruction.

'The contribution made by the four Arab Gulf States - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - will be about 50 per cent and the remainder will be made by the international community,' Seniora told a news conference in Vienna.

Arab and European leaders met in the Austrian capital to raise funds for the refugee camp which was reduced to rubble during clashes between Islamist militants and the Lebanese army in May 2007.

The sum which the four Gulf states will give is not known yet, but according to a close aide of Seniora the four Gulf states would meet in Riyadh on July 1 to fix the exact sum.

On their behalf, the Western countries who met in Vienna on Monday promised to contribute 122 million dollars.

According to estimates by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), 450 million dollars (290 million euros) in all are needed to rebuild Nahr al-Bared.

News of the Vienna conference was received inside the camp with not much hope.

'We were promised before that funds will rebuild the camp quickly but we are still the same,' said Haifa, a 40-year-old woman with four children and a resident of the old camp.

'We hope that this conference will put this matter in the right context, and end our ordeal,' Haifa added.

Fighting between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants broke out at the camp on May 20 and many refugees were relocated to Beddawi, around 10 kilometres south of Nahr al-Bared.

More than 450 people - about 300 militants and 168 soldiers - were killed in the bloody clashes before the army crushed the rebel uprising and regained control of the camp on September 2.

A first conference of donors was held in Beirut in September and raked in 55 million dollars in emergency aid.

Walking through the camp one can see the massive damage and the long process of reconstruction needed to create a decent life for the refugees.

The so-called old section of the camp, is mostly still in ruins and according to officials inside the camp, is the responsbility of the UNRWA to rebuild.

UNRWA has a limited remit to operate in the other section, which is commonly known as the new camp, and is the responsibility of the Lebanese government.

Some 2,000 families of the 5,553 displaced have now returned to accessible areas, mainly in the new camp.

UNRWA director in Lebanon Richard Cook said rebuilidng the camp 'will be UNRWA's largest humanitarian project.'

'UNRWA has now connected the water pipes to individual houses in the new camp, working alongside partners Islamic Relief. We were able to do this because it is classified as an emergency response. The Lebanese government is responsible for further rehabilitation, such as roads,' Cook added.

'We are working hard to end the people's frustrations,' Cook said.

UNRWA officials estimate that up to 85 per cent of Nahr al-Bared's homes have been destroyed or were rendered uninhabitable.

'I'm not satisfied with the pace of reconstruction so far. Clearing the rubble is taking much longer. The evaluation has only been completed in the past few weeks, after we were given access to the old camp.

'The rubble needs substantial demining and there's lots of it. The Lebanese army has made only a superficial sweep,' Cook said.

'It will take between eight to 12 months just to clear the unexploded ordnance,' he added.

Souad al-Sayyed, who has lived in a classroom in Beddawi camp with her three children for the past year, said she will go back to her home even if she has to live in one room with her family.

'We are dying daily, we want to go back to our homes no matter what condition they are in, instead of living in such despair,' she said.

'We do not believe any more in all those promises in Lebanon or Vienna. We want to see things done on the ground,' she added.