390 children die in Syrian migrant camp 9/11 wounds not yet healed
AT LEAST 390 children have died this year amid the inhumane conditions of the Syrian al-Hol refugee camp, where 11 000 family members of foreign Islamic State fighters are housed, UN rights investigators reported yesterday.
Major military operations by a US-led coalition and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces against extremists in north-eastern Syria drove tens of thousands of civilians, including many with suspected Islamic State ties, to the camp.
Children died from malnutrition and untreated wounds, while the camp’s total population of about 70 000 people has also suffered from flooding, infectious diseases and the lack of food, the investigators found. They warned countries that hindering the repatriation of Islamic State-linked women and 3 500 children from al-Hol creates further problems. PEOPLE who were too young during the 9/11 attacks to even remember their lost loved ones, and others for whom the grief is still raw, paid tribute with wreath-layings and the solemn roll call of the dead yesterday as America marked the 18th anniversary of the worst terror attack on US soil.
“As long as the city will gift us this moment, I will be here,” Margie Miller, who lost her husband, Joel, said as she attended the Ground Zero anniversary ceremony, as she has every year.
President Donald Trump laid a wreath at the Pentagon, telling victims’ relatives there: “This is your anniversary of personal and permanent loss.
“It’s the day that has replayed in your memory a thousand times over. The last kiss. The last phone call. The last time hearing those precious words, ‘I love you’,” the president said.
Near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the third site where planes crashed on that day, Vice-President Mike Pence credited the crew and passengers who fought back against the hijackers with protecting him and others in the US Capitol that day.
“I will always believe that I and many others in our nation’s capital were able to go home that day and hug our families because of the courage and selflessness of your families,” said Pence, who was an Indiana congressman at the time.
Nearly 3 000 people were killed when terrorist-piloted planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania.
Addressing the crowd yesterday, Mary Ann Marino said: “18 years has not lessened our loss”.
She lost her firefighter son Kenneth Marino.
Parboti Parbhu choked up as she spoke about her slain sister, Hardai. Even after nearly two decades, “there’s no easy way to say goodbye”, she said.
By now, the heritage of grief has been handed down to a new generation.
Jacob Campbell was 10 months old when his mother, Jill MaurerCampbell, died on 9/11.
“It’s interesting growing up in a generation that doesn’t really remember it. I feel a connection that no one I go to school with can really understand,” said the University of Michigan student.
The nation is still grappling with the aftermath of September 11. The effects are visible from airport security checkpoints to Afghanistan, where the post-9/11 US invasion has become America’s longest war. Aim was to dislodge Afghanistan’s Taliban militants for harbouring al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Earlier this week, Trump called off a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghan government leaders and declared the peace talks “dead”. As the 9/11 anniversary began, in Afghanistan, a rocket exploded at the US Embassy just after midnight, with no injuries reported.
The politics of 9/11 flowed into the Ground Zero ceremony, too.
After reading victims’ names, Nicholas Haros jr used his turn at the podium to tear into Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, over her recent “some people did something” reference to 9/11.
“Madam, objectively speaking, we know who and what was done,” Haros, who lost his mother, Frances, said.
Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, has said she didn’t intend to minimise what happened on 9/11, and accused critics of taking her words out of context.
A compensation fund for people with potentially September 11-related health problems has paid out more than $5.5 billion (R81bn) so far.
September 11 has become known also as a day of service. People around the country volunteer at food banks, schools, home-building projects, park clean-ups and other community events around the anniversary.