China will provide 5 million RMB (about 710,000 US dollars) in aid to help rebuild a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, a Chinese ambassador said?in?Vienna on?Monday.
Chinese Ambassador to Austria Wu Ken announced the donation at the International Donors Conference on the reconstruction of the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
The camp, located near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, was devastated last year by the three-month heavy fighting between the Lebanese army and the Fatah Islam group holed up inside.
The Chinese government offered the donation in order to improvethe living conditions of the Palestinian refugees in the camp, and to promote peace and stability in the region, Wu said.
The volatile situation in the Middle East in recent years has traumatized the Lebanese people. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon could also hardly survive, said the ambassador.
The Chinese government called on all parties concerned to work hard to achieve a comprehensive and long-lasting solution to this issue, by peaceful negotiation, on the basis of relevant UN resolutions and the principle of "land for peace", Wu said.
China will assist in the reconstruction of the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp and the surrounding areas in Lebanon, as it had many times offered aid to the Lebanese government and the Palestinian refugees before, said the ambassador.
He asked the Lebanese government, people and the international community to help rebuild the camp. The estimated 450-million-dollar project is being carried out jointly by Lebanon,the World Bank and the United Nations.
Construction should begin in early 2009 and end in mid-2011, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2008)
