Red Cross to visit another Syrian prison amid sporadic fighting

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GENEVA (AP) — The Red Cross has won permission to visit a second prison in Syria as fighting continues unchecked in some areas and 1.5 million people now struggle to meet basic needs for food, water, shelter, power and sanitation, officials said Tuesday.

International Committee of the Red Cross President Jakob Kellenberger said tens of thousands of people are sheltering in public buildings or other people’s homes, and the Red Cross and Syrian Arab Red Crescent is feeding about 100,000 “particularly vulnerable” Syrians.

Kellenberger said there has been no let-up in the unrest in some parts of Syria but that calm has returned intermittently to other areas. He spoke to reporters ahead of international envoy Kofi Annan’s assessment of the revolt in Syria to the U.N. Security Council later Tuesday.

Kellenberger said the ICRC has gained permission to visit a prison in Aleppo in mid-May, its second visit to a Syrian prison since visiting one in Damascus in September, and is pushing for access to others.

Despite his series of visits and high-level negotiations in Damascus, Kellenberger said the Red Cross still lacks enough information to provide an accurate “overview” of the number of detainees or the conditions in which they are being held nationwide.

Syria still has not granted access for Red Cross officials to visit most prisons in the country.

What began as a largely peaceful protest movement, calling for change after similar uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, has gradually evolved into more Syrians taking up arms in the face of President Bashar Assad’s unflinching crackdown.

Unarmed protests continue to be met by gunfire from security forces such as that on Friday when demonstrators at Aleppo University were shot at and a teenager was killed.

In the meantime, the ICRC is appealing for 24.5 million Swiss francs ($27 million) to quickly scale up aid.

“Our priority is to improve living conditions and to restore public services for up to 1.5 million people affected by the fighting,” Kellenberger said. “Many people are still struggling just to make it through the day. Others are trying to rebuild their lives from scratch.”