MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - The United States must provide a safe and unhindered passage for convoys which will be evacuating residents of the Syrian Rukban refugee camp on Friday, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said.
"We are addressing the command of the U.S. forces stationed in the at-Tanf area. You bear full responsibility for the safe and unhindered passage of convoys through the 55-kilometer zone under your control," Mizintsev said on Friday at the joint meeting of the Russian and Syrian interagency coordination staffs promoting the return of refugees to Syria.
It's time the command of the U.S. contingent in at-Tanf "proved with deeds, instead of words, its capacity for acting to the benefit of the Syrians staying in Rukban, an absolute majority of whom, about 40,000, have definitively spoken in favor of immediate evacuation from the camp," he said.
The Syrians living in Rukban "are suffering from hunger, cold, poverty, slavery, and violence," Mizintsev said.
"The civilized world has no right to watch this situation any longer without taking resolute measures to save people, above all elderly people, women, and children," he said.