UNRWA's
Grandi Cites
Range of
Groups in
Yarmouk,
Tripoli
Complex, VICE
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 11 --
With the UNRWA
refugee camp
for
Palestinians
in Yarmouk,
Syria, having
only on-again,
off-again
access to food
and
other aid,
outgoing UNRWA
chief Filippo
Grandi held
his last press
conference in
that role at
UN
Headquarters
on February
11.
Inner
City Press
asked Grandi
which groups
UNRWA has to
deal with to
get
access to
Yarmouk,
beyond the
PFLP-GC and
the
government:
how about
Jabhat al
Nusra, one of
the groups
reputed to
have snipers
eying all
aid deliveries
to the camp?
Grandi
acknowledged
there are a
range of
groups in the
camp, but said
UNRWA
deals with
them through
the
government:
that is, the
government
tries
to arrange
cessations of
firing to get
the aid in.
This is not
always
what is
reported, nor
was it the
tenor or much
of the
questioning of
Grandi on
February 11.
Claiming
the
first
question,
automatically
despite its documented
and
unreformed
record of
trying to get
media thrown
out of the UN,
the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association's
president Pamela
Falk of
CBS cited
starvation as
a weapon of
war and
disputes about
UNRWA's
curriculum,
all the while
name-dropping
a trip with
Ban Ki-moon. Video
here from
Minute 18:48.
An
hour later the
focus was on
Syria's
government
questioning
men
leaving Homs
-- with no
focus on South
Sudan police
action around
the
UN's camp in
Juba (more on
that later
today). This
is
propaganda-ville.
So the new
Free UN
Coalition for
Access also
thanked and
thanks Grandi.
Video
here, from
Minute 32:10.
Going
in another
direction,
Al-Mayadeen
asked about
the destroyed
UNRWA
camp outside
of Tripoli in
Lebanon.
Grandi to his
credit said
that
Arab donors
should do
more, naming
Qatar and
Kuwait. He
said Tripoli
is
"complication"
-- bringing to
mind VICE
NEWS' recent
five part
piece about
Alawites and
Sunnis in
Tripoli, click
here to
view.
Inner
City Press
also asked
Grandi on what
terms he had
settled or put
off
the two month
long strike by
UNRWA workers.
He said it was
a return
to square one,
the same terms
as below. His
successor from
the ICRC
Pierre
Krähenbühl
will
presumably
take over from
there. We wish
both of them
well.
, 
