MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - Russia and Syria have urged the United States to reaffirm its readiness for shutting down the Rukban refugee camp with deeds and have accused Washington of carrying out destabilizing activity in Syria.
"The U.S. activity in the illegally occupied territories of Syria, which aims to preserve hotbeds of tension in this country, such as the Rukban camp for internally displaced persons, remains the most pressing problem," the interagency coordination staffs of Russia and Syria said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
"U.S.-backed militants keep holding the civilians inside the camp for the sole purpose of continuing to receive humanitarian aid, medications, and fuel from the United Nations," the statement said.
"We are urging the United States to reaffirm its readiness for implementing the Rukban shutdown initiative by deeds and to put relevant pressure on the fighters acting under its control in order to ensure unhampered exit of camp residents and safe operation of representatives of humanitarian agencies," the statement said.
UN agencies have failed to fully accomplish the camp evacuation, the statement said. "Relevant UN agencies, which expressed their wish to join the Russian-Syrian initiative and elaborated an operative plan for evacuating the remaining Rukban residents, failed to accomplish the important mission and save the Syrians who are being held hostage," it said.
"Another pretext for stalling the UN's operation aimed to shut down Rukban is the fake information spread by the United States to accuse the Syrian government of alleged massive violations of refugee rights," the statement said. "The source of these false reports is the so-called 'camp administration' controlled by the illegal armed units," it said.
Russia and Syria have categorically denied "every statement regarding 'repressions and arrests of dozens of former Rukban residents'."
"The Syrian administration is doing everything it can to help refugee families, who have left Rukban, forget the horrors they have been through as soon as possible," the statement said.
Only 27 out of 19,045 Rukban residents, who have been rescued and returned to the areas controlled by the Syrian government, have expressed their wish to stay in shelters in the Homs province. "They will be staying in temporary accommodation centers until the Syrian authorities provide them with decent homes," the statement said.
Russia and Syria have drawn attention of UN officials "to the inability of regional representatives of the global organization to fulfill their obligation to fully evacuate Rukban, which discredits them in the eyes of the international public and the Syrian population," the statement said.