Angry Syrian refugees plead with John Kerry for U.S. action

Secretary State John F. Kerry looks out a helicopter's window at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, where about 115,000 displaced Syrians now live, on Thursday. (Mandel Ngan / Associated Press / July 18, 2013)

ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan -- A group of angry Syrian refugees lectured Secretary of State John F.Kerry on Thursday about world powers’ failure to halt the bloodshed in their homeland and demanded that the United States intervene as soon as possible to end the 2-year-old civil war

The refugees, residents of the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, pleaded for the U.S. to use its air power to create a safe zone for refugees. They contrasted the strong military support that Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are providing the Syrian regime to what they say is a far weaker effort from the rebels’ foreign supporters.

“Where is the international community? What are you waiting for?” asked a woman, one of six refugees who met Kerry for 40 minutes in a white trailer on the edge of the barbed wire-wrapped encampment. “I think the U.S. as a superpower can change the situation in 30 minutes after you return to Washington.”

Kerry, who urged the refugees to be frank, listened grimly and said he sympathized. But he said military solutions weren’t as simple as they seemed, and recalled the costs in blood and money that the United States had borne in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 12 years.

”I wish it was very simple .… It’s not as simple as it sounds,” he said. But he promised: “You are not abandoned.”

Kerry said the U.S. has options under consideration, including establishing a buffer zone, and was trying to help in several ways, including by ensuring that the rebel forces have arms.

The woman, whose name was withheld under rules set by the State Department, said that if foreign powers hadn’t intervened by the end of the Ramadan holiday month, which is now underway, “we will return to Syria and we will fight with knives. You, as the U.S. government, look to Israel with respect. Cannot you do the same with the children of Syria?”

A male refugee warned that while the world community can “keep its eyes closed as long as it wants to,” the refugees would return to Syria later, and “we will not forget.”

After the session, one of the refugees identified herself as Jamalat Adulraouf Hariri, 43, of Dara, Syria.

“We are not satisfied with the American answer,” she said. “We are just begging you for a buffer zone or a 'no-fly' zone. That’s a simple thing.”

The year-old Zaatari camp is by far the largest in Jordan, and with about 115,000 refugees is in effect at least the fifth-largest city in the country. The facility, which costs $1 million a day to operate, is near Dara, and nearly half of the residents are from that city.

Like the refugees who spoke to Kerry, many are angry and bewildered at their plight.

Yet at the same time, many of the thousands are trying to build something close to normal lives with the possessions and money they have carted across the border. There are 3,000 small shops and 584 restaurants and food stalls scattered across the camp, many of them along a main drag thatUnited Nations staff members call the Champs Elysees.

The camp housing is about half small prefabricated structures, each of which costs about $26,000, and half tents. About half the homes have TV dishes, and many have air conditioners and even washing machines, some carted in and some stolen, officials said. They operate on electricity pilfered from the camp power lines.

In some homes, refugees have even poured concrete aprons and added tiny central fountains, following Syrian tradition.

Yet their situation is precarious. The war may drag on for years, many experts predict, yet the Jordanian government doesn’t want the camp to become permanent.

Kilian Kleinschmidt, an official for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees who is the camp's manager, said violent incidents are declining at the camp, and even the number of daily arrivals, surging in many camps on the fringes of Syria, has trailed off from a high of 4,000 a day to about 100.

But he said the damage will be long lasting from a war that swept over the population, destroying homes and families. The threat of violence remains high, and many refugees react badly to the sight of anyone in uniform.

“Some of these people will always have a disturbed relationship with authority,”