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ENTERTAINMENT / Gossip
Angelina Jolie ends her Iraq-Syria trip
(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-30 10:01
DAMASCUS, Syria - Angelina Jolie saw firsthand the plight of conflict
refugees stranded in the blazing desert near the Syrian-Iraqi border in a
visit this week to highlight their ordeal.
AP - Tue Aug 28, 4:46 PM ET Picture, released by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, shows UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina
Jolie, center, talking with Red Crescent volunteers taking care of
refugee children while their parents wait to register as refugees at a
UNHCR registration center, in Damascus, Syria, on Monday, Aug. 27, 2007.
[AP]
The American actress, who is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees, traveled to Syria and Iraq on Monday and
Tuesday, the agency said in a statement. Jolie also separately visited
U.S. troops in the area.
"I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw attention to this
humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for
UNHCR and its partners," Jolie was quoted as saying by the Geneva-based
agency on Tuesday.
She headed home from Syria on Wednesday according to UNHCR officials,
after a visit wrapped in secrecy and with no media coverage.
The 32-year-old star of the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" traveled to the
al-Waleed refugee camp on the Iraqi side of the border and spoke to some
of the 1,200 refugees stranded there, prevented from entering Syria,
UNCHR said.
"It is absolutely essential that the ongoing debate about Iraq's future
includes plans for addressing the enormous humanitarian consequences
these people face," she said.
The camp is in a no man's land between the two countries, one mile from
the Iraqi border post and 4.5 miles from the Syrian border.
Jolie, who wore a blue flak jacket and a helmet when she arrived
unannounced at the camp, was not immediately recognized by many of the
refugees, a large number of whom are Palestinians who have been stranded
in the desert encampment since December.
Unlike Iraqis, who are allowed to enter and settle in Syria, Palestinian
residents of Iraq are mostly prevented from entering the country, leaving
them stranded at the border.
Jolie spent two hours there talking with the refugees through a
translator, taking notes, all the while surrounded by bodyguards,
according to Qusai Mohammed Saleh, 33, a Palestinian refugee.
"I didn't recognize her right away, but after she was introduced as
Angelina Jolie, I remembered a little, from some of her movies," he told
The Associated Press by phone from the camp.
"She did not like the tragic situation," Saleh said, adding that she
inspected the camp's medical and hygiene facilities.
Fellow refugee Awad Talha Awad, 48, said he had hopes the visit would
make a difference. "Our situation is so difficult," he said, adding that
Jolie was "moved" by some of the conditions she witnessed.
"She felt the sun," he said of the raging midday summer temperatures.
"She did not make any promises but she said, 'we will make an effort to
resolve your situation.'"
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