UN decries 'inhumane' camps of PKK/YPG terrorist group

By Bayram Altug

GENEVA (AA) - Tens of thousands of civilians are being held in "appalling and inhumane" conditions in Syrian camps of the SDF -- a label used by the terrorist group PKK/YPG -- leading to the preventable death of 240 children, said a UN official on Tuesday

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said challenges regarding displacement extended to the tens of thousands of civilians displaced by recent battles to capture the last Daesh enclaves in eastern Syria.

"They are languishing in makeshift camps and enduring appalling and inhumane conditions of shelter, health, and hygiene – many of them held in de facto detention by Syrian Democratic Forces,” he told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.

"This has led inevitably to the preventable deaths of up to 240 children thus far, primarily due to the lack of adequate onsite medical and humanitarian assistance."

Pinheiro said at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Hasakah, which was initially built to house up to 10,000 internally displaced people, over 73,000 individuals remain interred.

He added that the vast majority of those at the camp are women and children under the age of 12.

"The situation of some 3,500 children at al-Hol camp is of particular concern. Children urgently require comprehensive psycho-social rehabilitation," Pinheiro said.

The testimony comes just days after the UN signed a controversial pact with a PKK/YPG terrorist ostensibly about the group agreeing to stop using child soldiers. Critics say the deal is actually a back-door attempt to give the terrorist group legitimacy as the war in Syria seems close to ending.

The terrorist group PKK/YPG uses the acronym SDF as a cover for receiving U.S. support. The terrorists have occupied 28% of Syrian territory.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children. The YPG is its Syrian branch.

* Writing by Fatih Hafiz Mehmet in Ankara.