By Stephen Dockery
BEIRUT: The Norwegian ambassador to
Lebanon announced Wednesday a $2 million donation toward the reconstruction of
the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, a contribution that pushes total
funds to nearly half the amount needed to complete the rebuild.
“It’s an important step in our view
to alleviate widespread poverty prevailing among Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon,” said the Norwegian envoy, Svein Aass.
Aass announced the gift during a
news conference at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency’s headquarters in Beirut’s
southern suburbs which was attended by Palestinian officials and UNRWA director
general Salvatore Lombardo, as well as camp residents.
“We place, as Norwegians, a great
importance on the situation of the Palestinian refugees and the important and
also challenging work of the UNRWA,” Aass said.
The camp, which is near Tripoli, was
almost completely destroyed four years ago by fighting between Fatah al-Islam
and the Lebanese Army. The five-month campaign to purge the camp of the
Islamist group, which was using the area as a military headquarters, left
around 400 dead and nearly 1,000 wounded.
Many buildings in the camp were
severely damaged during the fighting and most of the 30,000 residents were
forced to flee their homes.
Temporary housing was provided to
residents and the camp has been divided into eight sections to rebuild. UNRWA
officials said that with the contribution from Norway they have received $145
million of the $350 million needed to rebuild the camp. Current reconstruction
is focused on the third section of the camp.
UNRWA administers Lebanon’s 12
refugee camps which house about half of the 455,000 refugees registered with
the organization in the country.
The camps are not policed by
Lebanese Internal Security, and many witness periodic violence between
Palestinian groups and serve as havens for regional terrorist organizations.
Norway’s contribution was pledged
under UNRWA’s “Restoring Dignity” fundraising appeal, which aims to raise $147
million by 2016.
So far UNRWA has raised only a
fraction of the new appeal’s ultimate financial goal.
“We will continue to press on states
to contribute to restoring dignity,” said Lombardo.
Following the news conference,
Lombardo listened to camp residents’ concerns, saying much more needed to be
done to address them.
“Certainty it’s a concern that we
have not received all the funds that we need,” he said. “You are right to be
concerned because we don’t have the money to reconstruct the old camp.”
But the reassurance wasn’t enough
for residents in the camps whose homes are scheduled to be rebuilt last.
Noura Louban said she was worried by
the general lack of services, security, access to health care and the young men
who loiter near her temporary home, which she said is so small and poorly
ventilated that she can barely cook in it.
Entering the temporary camp is difficult for
taxis, so residents must walk to the road, even to seek medical help, Louban
said, adding: “There’s no cemetery, even if they want to bury me.”http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Feb-23/164298-norway-donates-$2-million-for-nahr-al-bared-reconstruction.ashx#axzz1nCZpWF5W
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