2007年VOA标准英语-Thousands Flee Lebanon Camp as Fragile Truce Ho

By Challiss McDonough
Cairo
23 May 2007

Palestinian civilians² from a besieged³ refugee camp in north Lebanon have been fleeing in vast numbers since a shaky ceasefire took hold late Tuesday.   VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has more from our Middle East bureau in Cairo.

Palestinians flee from Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, in northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, 23 May 2007

Thousands of people began to flee the Nahr al-Bared camp shortly after the ceasefire began to take hold after three day's of heavy fighting between the Lebanese army and the Islamic extremist group known as Fatah al-Islam. 

Roughly half the camp's residents crammed⁴ into cars and minivans, others walking to safety on foot.  Most are headed for another refugee camp known as Badawi, a few kilometers away. 

The United Nations and the Red Cross have shifted their attention from trying to get aid into the besieged camp to trying to help people who are escaping the violence.

Hoda Samra is a spokeswoman for UNRWA, the U.N. agency responsible for the humanitarian⁵ needs of Palestinian refugees.  She said the agency has been opening its schools and other buildings to provide temporary housing.

"We will have big, big challenges to address in terms of humanitarian assistance to the displaced, now that they have moved out of the camp and taken refuge in other camps, particularly Badawi," she said.  "We as UNRWA will have to feed those refugees, we will have to provide them with accommodation, that is now our schools.  And we hope this situation does not last and we get assistance so that we can help in turn those refugees."

She said the agency has no firm count of the number of displaced, or the number of civilian¹ casualties.

Television footage and photographs taken inside Nahr al-Bared show extensive damage to residential⁶ buildings.

Analysts⁷ say it is unclear whether the army will storm the camp, which has been off-limits to Lebanese authorities since 1969.  The deputy leader of Fatah al-Islam told the Associated Press that the army would only enter the camp, in his words, over our dead bodies.

The group has denied Lebanese government allegations that Syria is behind its actions, and the Syrian government has denied that as well.

Members of Lebanon's ruling coalition⁸, which is composed of mainly Sunni Muslim, Christian⁹ and Druze factions¹⁰, have denied media reports - most notably¹¹ in the New Yorker magazine - that they actually funded and supplied Fatah al-Islam before this outbreak of fighting, in an effort to counterbalance the influence of the armed Shiite group Hezbollah.

Fatah al-Islam has also been accused of ties to al-Qaida, although it is not clear whether they extend beyond ideological¹² inspiration.  The group's leader, Shakir al-Abssi, was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death in Jordan last year for the 2002 murder of a U.S. diplomat¹³.  Jordanian-born al-Qaida in Iraq militant¹⁴ Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was also convicted for the same crime.

Al-Abssi was released from a Syrian prison last year.

1 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

2 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

3 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

4 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

7 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

8 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

9 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

10 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

11 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

12 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

13 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

14 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。