Obama shows his true colours by arming Syrian rebels

When I think back to 2009 when Barrack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize … it all seems like a sick joke now!

Obama’s decision to fuel the fire in Syria by arming the rebels, and so prolong the bloody conflict, makes him look more and more like his war-mongering predecessor. Indeed, when we take into account his murderous drone warfare campaign and the ongoing fiasco in Afghanistan, he may by now have surpassed George Dubya in criminality!

Moreover, Obama’s paper-thin peace rhetoric doesn’t seem to be fooling many of his international allies this time either! Of course the Middle Eastern enemies of Syria who met in Doha are in entire agreement with the American position, and yet traditional allies such as Canada and Australia are showing themselves to be far more reticent when it comes to joining the Syrian kill-fest!

The video below is of fiery Irish independent, Clare Daly. She speaks with clarity and power. One can only hope that political leaders around the world will stand up and follow her courageous example in speaking out!

Father Dave

Clare Daly Speaks out about Obama and Syria

Clare Daly Speaks out about Obama and Syria

Irish Independent, Clare Daly

Irish Independent, Clare Daly

Posted in Media coverage, syrian rebels | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mussalaha Delegation on Syrian TV

In May, 2013, I was privileged to travel to Damascus as part of an international ‘Mussalaha’ (reconciliation) delegation, let by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mairead Maguire, and hosted by Mother Agnes Mariam.

Few in the ‘western world’ see what it is like inside Damascus at the moment, as the western media seem to have abandoned Syria, or at least they only appear by safely ’embedding’ themselves in the forces of the attacking rebels!

Apparently CNN is still in Damascus, but CNN was radically uninterested in what ‘Mussalaha’ had to say. Syrian TV, on the other hand, was very interested, and below are a few samples.

They are all in Arabic, and yet they all bring back powerful memories for me – including that of our trip to the Umayyed Mosque in Damascus, where I had the privilege of meeting the Grand Mufti of Syria, Dr Hassoun!

Father Dave

Delegation of peace in the land of peace
World peace delegation at the Umayyad Mosque - May 11, 2013
Peace delegation .. With the national opposition parties - May 9, 2013
An international peace delegation to visit Syria - May 9, 2013
Prayers with the participation of the delegation of the International Peace - May 10, 2013
Endosperm live and tolerance approach Syrian - May 13, 2013

Click on a thumbnail to watch

Posted in Media coverage, syrian civil war | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mussalaha Peace Mission to Syria – the Concluding Declaration

The Concluding Declaration of the Mussalaha Delegation to Syria – Friday, May 10th 2013

Syria exhibits a massive and terrible breakdown of human decency and respect. There are millions of innocent victims and many individual acts of heroism, but amongst the powerful we see an appalling degree of violence, hypocrisy and corruption. Tens of thousands have died, millions have been displaced, and nearly the entire population of 23 million lives in fear. The international community has stated and we confirm that the Syrian tragedy is possibly the worst since World War II.

States, political organisations and combatants are the primary causes of the misery, which they pursue for their own advantage, sewing terror and manipulating the suffering to reflect badly on their opponents while all too often refusing to compromise or even talk to each other.

These are the findings of our delegation, consisting of 16 human rights activists from seven countries. Over the course of nine days we visited refugee camps, affected communities, religious leaders, combatants, government representatives and many others – perpetrators and victims – in Syria and Lebanon.

We were already horrified by what we knew before coming, but what we have learned as a delegation brings shame to almost everyone involved.

We call on the international community to protect the territorial integrity of Syria and to respect the fundamental rights of Syria as a sovereign state. We deplore any intent to breach the integrity of Syria’s frontiers or to damage the unity and rich diversity of the Syrian people.

We recognise the legitimacy of the aspirations of the Syrian citizens for change, reforms, the eradication of State corruption and the implementation of a democratic life that respects and protects the fundamental rights of all citizens and minorities but we believe that effective and lasting reforms an only be achieved through non-violent means.

Our primary appeal is that all countries stop their interference in Syrian affairs – more specifically, that they halt the supply of arms and foreign combatants to both sides of the conflict. If foreign countries agree to eliminate the influx of arms and fighters, we are confident that Syrians can find their own solutions to their problems and achieve reconciliation.

We unequivocally oppose all aggression and foreign intervention against Syria under any justification. At the same time we appeal to all parties, including the government, to show restraint in response to the provocations that aim to escalate the violence and broaden the conflict.

We consider it beyond debate that the Syrian people have the right to determine their own government and their own future. Foreign interference is currently preventing the Syrian people from exercising their right to self-determination. We are concerned that such pernicious intervention is tearing apart the fabric of the country itself, with long-term consequences that can only be imagined.

The cautionary example of Iraq serves to remind us of the dire consequences of such international folly. This humanitarian crisis is already spilling into neighbouring countries. A collapse of Syrian society though will destabilise the entire region. We appeal to the international community to show that it can learn from history and make better choices in the case of Syria, which will spare further tragedy for the courageous Syrian people.

Secondly, we appeal to the international media to stop the flow of misinformation regarding the Syrian conflict. We believe that every Syrian, both in and outside the country, should be given the right to be heard and we do not see this reflected in the international coverage of this crisis.

Thirdly, while we entirely support the embargo on arms, we ask the international community to review and reconsider the crippling sanctions that are taking such a heavy toll on ordinary Syrian people.

Fourthly, we urge the international community to take seriously the vast number of refugees and persons who have been internally displaced by this conflict.

We look towards the cessation of all violence when these people might be allowed to return to their homes. In the meantime, however, humanitarian aid efforts must be expanded to meet the basic needs of such persons.

Our earlier report, the “Declaration of the Mussalaha Delegation to Syria on the Refugee Situation in Lebanon”, outlines the inadequacies of current refugee programmes. We appreciate that various government authorities have attempted to respond to the refugee crisis. We recognise though that the International Committee of the Red Cross and its affiliates, as well as other humanitarian agencies, must be allowed to set up centres inside Syria to care for internally displaced persons, so as to prevent these displaced persons from fleeing to foreign countries.

This work requires immediate and significant funding by the international community. While this will be a costly undertaking, we believe that the costs will in fact be only a fraction of the amount currently being spent on destroying Syria.

Finally, we appeal to all parties involved to put an end to all forms of violence and human rights violations – actions that target and terrorise innocent civilians and prisoners, indiscriminate terrorist attacks on the civilian population, the unjustified systematic targeting of vital state infrastructures, civilian installations, industrial zones, factories, communication facilities, agriculture reserves, health centres and hospitals, schools and universities, and religious and cultural landmarks – all of which results in the transformation of the residential areas into war zones, resulting in the flight of the civilian population.

We likewise oppose the use of religious decrees that encourage, trivialise and justify barbarity, rape and terrorism. We appeal to the entire religious community to call the faithful to nonviolence and peacemaking, and to reject all forms of violence and discrimination.  We express our admiration and respect for the many Syrian religious leaders who have refused to endorse the use of violence and have dedicated their lives to working for a peaceful solution to this conflict, and we appeal specifically for the immediate release of the two abducted Christian bishops, both of whom were dedicated to the work of peace and reconciliations, as we appeal for the release of all Christian and Muslim clerics and other abducted Syrian citizens.

We conclude by commending the work of Mother Agnes Mariam and the Musalaha initiative. We have witnessed their work inside diverse communities across Syria. We offer our unequivocal and ongoing support to these brave people, and we commit ourselves to continue to work alongside them until Syria is truly at peace.

We  thank the Patriarch, Gregorios III Laham, for his kind invitation and his ongoing support for Mussalaha. We likewise thank Mr. Jadallah Kaddour for his generosity that made our visit possible, and we express our gratitude  to all those who have facilitated our path, most especially the Organization Committee of the delegation’s visit and the Popular Council for the National Reconciliation.

Damascus, the 10/5/2013,

Mairead Corrigan Maguire in the name of the International Delegation to Syria for Mussalaha and Peace.

Mussalaha team members at Baalbek (Lebanon) preparing to cross into Syria

Mussalaha team members at Baalbek preparing to cross into Syria

Signatories from the Mussalaha Delegation to Syria:

Francesco CANDELARI (Italy) His current role is International Coordinator of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and he has held previous positions at the United Nations and as journalist covering the Arab Spring. He has been in close touch with people from Syria and interested in looking for possible nonviolent solutions to the conflict in Syria.

Marinella COREGGIA (Italy) Italian journalist and writer in the field of ecological justice; and an ecological farmer, Marinella Correggia, has been active for peace since 1991. Associated with the No War Network, she co-organised many demonstrations in Rome, petitions to the UN, sending information to some Un missions in Geneva, writing articles and conferences.

Mel DUNCAN (USA) is Director of Advocacy and Outreach, Nonviolent Peaceforce. Mel Duncan is the founding Executive Director and current Advocacy and Outreach Director of Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP). Modeled on the Gandhian concept of Shanti Sena, Nonviolent Peaceforce is composed of trained citizens from around the world. Mr. Duncan has 40 years of experience organizing and advocating nonviolently for peace, justice, and the environment. He currently focuses on advancing the recognition, policy and funding support for nonviolent peacekeeping at the UN.

Tiffany EASTHOM (Canada) She is Country Director for South Sudan for Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) which is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) engaged in the creation of a large-scale unarmed peacekeeping force, composed of specially trained civilians. Prior to becoming NP’s Country Director in South Sudan, Tiffany served as Country Director at NP’s Sri Lanka project as well as Country Director for Peace Brigades International in Indonesia.

Denning ISLES (Australia) is a graduate of Welsey Institute, majoring in Audio Technology (2008). He currently works for Fr. David Smith with Fighting Fathers Ministries, in which he supports various youth and community organisations such as Dulwich Hill’s Holy Trinity Youth Center, Binacrombi Camp Site and the Dulwich Hill Gym.

Alistair LAMB (USA)

Franklin LAMB (USA) is an international lawyer based in Beirut-Washington, DC. A former Assistant Counsel of the House Judiciary Committee of the US Congress, Lamb has written widely on Middle East issues as part of his commitment to the cause of Palestine.

Paul LARUDEE (USA)is a former Ford foundation project supervisor, and Fulbright-Hays lecturer in Lebanon, and a U.S. government advisor to Saudi Arabia. He has been a faculty member at several universities in the San Francisco Bay Area,an organizer with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine and co-founder of the movement to break the Israeli siege of Gaza by sea, and was aboard the boats that succeeded in doing so in 2008 as well as the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which was attacked by Israeli forces on May 31, 2010. He is a cofounder of the Global March to Jerusalem.

Amir M. MAASOUMI (Canada) is a sociologist, specialist of contemporary Islam, intercultural and interfaith relations, dialogue among cultures and civilizations. He is also a peace, social justice and human rights activist.

Mairead MAGUIRE (Northern Ireland) is Nobel Peace Laureate (l976) Hon. President, Co-Founder Peace People, Northern Ireland. Mairead (Corrigan) Maguire is a Nobel Peace Laureate (l976) Hon. President and Co-founder of the Peace People, Northern Ireland. Mairead was responsible for co-founding the Peace People. She has received many honours and awards, including an honorary doctorate from Yale University, the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Distinguished Peace Leadership Award and the Nobel Peace Prize Award (l976).

Michael MALOOF (USA) is a senior writer for WND (WND.com…), or World Net Daily, specializing in international political and economic reporting and analysis. He also writes a weekly column for subscribers only for WND’s G2Bulletin providing analysis in these areas. As part of his reporting, Maloof travels many times a year to Lebanon where he is expected to set up a bureau there for WND.

Ann PATTERSON (Ireland) is a family therapist at the Quaker Centre in Belfast, she works to provide counseling support for families from the divided communities. During the peace process in Northern Ireland, she worked with imprisoned paramilitaries from both sides, preparing them to enter into peace talks. She is founder member of the Peace People, a pacifist movement that played a critical role in promoting the Good Friday Agreement and advancing the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Antonio Carlos da Silva ROSA (Brasil) is the editor of TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS since its inception in 2008, he is also the Secretary of the Board of Conveners of TRANSCEND International-A Network for Peace, Development and Environment, founded by Johan Galtung in 1993.

Father Dave SMITH (Australia) started Fighting Fathers Ministries in 2002 – a company that aims to offer an alternative culture to young people, based on values of courage, integrity and teamwork. This work has been the subject of numerous TV documentaries and one short film. Particularly well-known for our use of boxing-training as a means to help young men overcome anger-management issues. He was twice nominated for Australian of the Year on the basis of this work. He is known for his friendship with Mordechai Vanunu (the Israeli ‘nuclear whistle-blower’), which started in Sydney in 1986, started my involvement in social justice work in the Middle East and has subsequently developed a strong profile in Australia as a Palestinian human rights activist.

Professor William Stanley (USA)

Posted in Press Release, syria now | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Declaration of the Mussalaha Delegation to Syria on the Refugee Situation in Lebanon

Mussalaha delegation on the Lebanese/Syrian border

Mussalaha delegation on the Lebanese/Syrian border

May 7th, 2013

The summary conclusion of the Mussalaha delegation is that Syrian refugees in Lebanon are forced to rely mainly on their own resources and Lebanese hospitality, both of which are strained to the limit and portend a humanitarian tragedy when they are exhausted.  Lebanon hosts a disproportionate share of refugees in both absolute terms and relative to its population (4.3 million).  Reliable numbers are unavailable, but the most commonly quoted refugee figure is one million persons.

Since the cause of this crisis is the widespread violence in Syria, we call for an immediate end of all aid – lethal and nonlethal – to all combatants, an immediate and mutual ceasefire, and immediate negotiations among all the parties without preconditions.

With respect to the existing refugees, the lack of aid and support is disgraceful.  The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) claims that normal processing is 31 days, while in fact refugees wait up to four months, often without even tents for shelter.  UNHCR also charges a registration fee of $100.

UNHCR says that it is overwhelmed and has insufficient resources.  It should have facilities ready and waiting for new arrivals, and money should be flowing to the refugees, not from them to UNHCR.  In order to make this possible, donor nations should immediately live up to their obligations.  However, UNHCR also needs to be fully transparent, including an audit on the use and allocation of resources.

A lot of refugee care is happening at the individual level, as generous Lebanese and even Palestinian refugees in their camps open their doors with compassion to accommodate their Syrian brothers and sisters.  However, this support is often untenable over the long term and insufficient for the numbers of refugees, leading to makeshift camps that do not meet minimum international standards.  These camps often receive no supervision by UNHCR or any other agency for eight months or more.

In addition, the refugees become increasingly vulnerable to exploitation, including prostitution and human trafficking.  These conditions bring shame to the agencies and committees and their sponsors charged with refugee rights and support.  All refugees have a right to the basics of life and safety.  They must have immediate access to support services and adequate protection from abuse.

Lebanese citizens, Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, Lebanese charitable institutions and other Lebanese civil society institutions deserve much credit for providing support that the international society has not done.  However, a refugee influx of this magnitude is more than any society the size of Lebanon can accommodate without massive aid from the United Nations and its constituent members.  It is a matter of urgency for them to make their actions match their words of sympathy and compassion.

The Mussalaha Delegation to Syria was a group of 16 human-rights activists from seven countries who participated in a 10-day fact-finding mission across Syria and Lebanon:

  • Francesco CANDELARI (Italy) 
  • Marinella COREGGIA (Italy) 
  • Susan DIRGHAM (Australia)
  • Mel DUNCAN (USA) 
  • Tiffany EASTHOM (Canada) 
  • Denning ISLES (Australia) 
  • Alistair LAMB (USA)
  • Franklin LAMB (USA) 
  • Paul LARUDEE (USA)
  • Amir M. MAASOUMI (Canada) 
  • Mairead MAGUIRE (Northern Ireland) 
  • Michael MALOOF (USA) 
  • Ann PATTERSON (Ireland)
  • Antonio Carlos da Silva ROSA (Brasil) 
  • Father Dave SMITH (Australia) 
  • Professor William Stanley (USA)
  • Luke Waters (Australia)
Posted in Press Release, syria now | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Will US intervention mean the end of Syria as we know it?

From where I stand, the decision by Barack Obama to arm the Syrian rebels will most likely lead us into another World War.

According to Franklin Lamb’s excellent analysis below, the US estimates another 50,000 people must be killed before they get the result they are looking for. That’s an extra 50% over the 100,000 human beings that have already been killed in the conflict. One has to imagine a similar increase in the number of displaced persons and refugees (currently numbering around five million)!

If things go according to plan for the US then it will certainly be the end of Syrian society as we know it, and another two million refugees will almost certainly lead to the collapse of Lebanon as well. Of course it is almost certain that things will not go according to plan, as Iran can’t afford to be left naked in the region (Syria and Lebanon being it’s only allies) and Russia isn’t going to abandon its naval base in Syria without a fight either!

In short, what is most likely is World War III, with Iran, Syria and Lebanon lined up on one side (backed by Russia and possibly China) and the US/Israel alliance on the other. The question then will be how many of Israel’s Arab allies will remain true to the Zionist state while the rest of the Arab/Muslim world is massacred?

Father Dave

Franklin Lamb with his son, Alistair, in Beirut

Franklin Lamb with his son, Alistair, in Beirut

source: Counterpunch 

Why Obama is Declaring War on Syria

by FRANKLIN LAMB

Beirut.

The short answer is Iran and Hezbollah according to Congressional sources. “The Syrian army’s victory at al-Qusayr was more than the administration could accept given that town’s strategic position in the region. Its capture by the Assad forces has essentially added Syria to Iran’s list of victories starting with Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, as well as its growing influence in the Gulf.”

Other sources are asserting that Obama actually did not want to invoke direct military aid the rebels fighting to topple the Assad government or even to make use of American military power in Syria for several reasons. Among these are the lack of American public support for yet another American war in the Middle East, the fact that there appears to be no acceptable alternative to the Assad government on the horizon, the position of the US intelligence community and the State Department and Pentagon that intervention in Syria would potentially turn out very badly for the US and gut what’s left of its influence in the region. It short, that the US getting involved in Syria could turn out even worse than Iraq, by intensifying a regional sectarian war without any positive outcome in sight.

Obama was apparently serious earlier about a negotiated diplomatic settlement pre-Qusayr and there were even some positives signs coming from Damascus, Moscow, and even Tehran John Kerry claimed. But that has changed partly because Russia and the US have both hardened their demands. Consequently, the Obama administration has now essentially thrown in the towel on the diplomatic track. This observer was advised by more than one Congressional staffer that Obama’s team has concluded that the Assad government was not getting their message or taking them seriously and that Assad’s recent military  gains and rising popular support  meant that a serious Geneva II initiative was not going to happen.

In addition, Obama has been weakened recently by domestic politics and a number of distractions and potential scandals not least of which is the disclosures regarding the massive NSA privacy invasion. In addition, the war lobby led by Senators McClain and Lindsay Graham is still pounding their drums and claim that Obama would be in violation of his oath of office and by jeopardizing the national security interest of the United States by allowing Iran to essentially own Syria once Assad quells the uprising.” Both Senators welcomed the chemical weapons assessment.  For months they have been saying that Obama has not been doing enough to help the rebels. “U.S. credibility is on the line,” they said in a joint statement this week. “Now is not the time to merely take the next incremental step. Now is the time for more decisive actions,” they said, such as using long-range missiles to degrade Assad’s air power and missile capabilities. Another neo-con, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) said the opposition forces risk defeat without heavier weapons, but he also warned that may not be enough. “The U.S. should move swiftly to shift the balance on the ground in Syria by considering grounding the Syrian air force with stand-off weapons and protecting a safe zone in northern Syria with Patriot missiles in Turkey,” Casey said.

According to some analysts, Obama could alternatively authorize the arming and training of the Syrian opposition in Jordan without a no-fly zone. That appears unlikely according to this observers Washington interlocutors because the Pentagon wants to end the Syrian crisis by summers end, the observer was advised “rather than working long term with a motley bunch of jihadists who we could never trust or rely on. The administration has come to the conclusion apparently that if they are in for a penny they are in for a pound, meaning would not allow Iran to control Syria and Hezbollah to pocket Lebanon.”

Secretary of State Kerry had meetings with more than two dozen military specialists on 5/13/13. The Washington Post is reporting that Kerry believes supplying the rebels with weapons might be too little and too late to actually flip the balance on the Syrian ground and this calls “for a military strike to paralyze Al-Assad’s military capacities.” A Pentagon source reported that  the USA, France, and Britain are considering a decisive decision to reverse the current Assad momentum and quickly construct one in favor of the rebels” within a time period not exceeding the end of this summer.

Shortly after the meetings began, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia quickly returned to Saudi Arabia from his palace at Casa Blanca, Morocco after receiving a call from his intelligence chief, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan. Bander reportedly had a representative at the White House during the meetings with President Obama’s team. King Abdullah was reportedly advised by Kerry to be prepared for a rapid expansion of the growing regional conflict.

What happens between now and the end of summer is likely to be catastrophic for the Syrian public and perhaps Lebanon.  The “chemical weapons-red line” is not taken seriously on Capitol Hill for the reason that the same “inclusive evidence” of months ago is the same that is suddenly being cited to justify what may become essentially an all-out war against the Syrian government and anyone who gets in the way.  Hand wringing over the loss of 125 lives due to chemical weapons, whoever did use them, pales in comparison to the more 50,000 additional lives that will be lost in the coming months, a figure that  Pentagon planners and the White House have “budgeted” as the price of toppling the Assad government.

“We are going to see a rapid escalation of the conflict”, a staffer on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee emailed this observer: “The president has made a decision to give whatever humanitarian aid, as well as political and diplomatic support to the opposition that in necessary. Additionally direct support to the (Supreme Military Council), will be provided and that includes military support.” The staffer quoted the words of Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes to the media on 5/13/13 to the same effect.

A part of this “humanitarian assistance” the US is going to established in the coming weeks a “limited, humanitarian no-fly zone, that will begin along several  miles of the Jordanian and Turkish borders in certain military areas into Syrian territory, and would be set up  and presented as a limited bid  to train and equip rebel forces and protect refugees. But in reality, as we saw in Libya a Syrian no fly zone would very likely include all of Syria.

Libya’s no-fly zones made plain that there is no such thing as a “limited zone”.  Put briefly, a “no-fly zone” means essentially a declaration of all-out war.  Once the US and its allies start a no fly zone they will expand it and intensify it as they take countless other military actions to protect its zones until the Syrian government falls. “It’s breathtaking to contemplate how this in going to end and how Iran and Russia will respond,” one source concluded.

The White House is trying to assuage the few in Congress as well as a majority of the American public that it can be a limited American involved and that the no-fly zone would not require the destruction of Syrian antiaircraft batteries.  This is more nonsense.  During the no-fly zone I witnessed from Libya in the summer of 2011 the US backed it up with all manner of refueling, electronic jamming, special-ops on the ground and by mid-July a kid peddling his bike was not safe. Over the 192 days of patrolling the Libyan no-fly zones, NATO countries flew 24,682 sorties including 9,204 bomb strike sorties. NATO claimed it never missed its target but that was also not true. Hundreds of civilians were killed in Libya  by no-fly zone attack aircraft  that either missed their targets and emptied their bomb bays before returning to base  while conducting approximately 48 bombing strikes per day using a variety of bombs and missiles, including more than 350 cruise Tomahawks.

At a Congressional hearing in 2011, then US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates got it right when he explained which discussing Libya “a no-fly zone begins with an attack to destroy all the air defenses … and then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down. But that’s the way it starts.”

According to the accounts published in American media, Obama could alternatively authorize the arming and training of the Syrian opposition in Jordan without a no-fly zone. That appears unlikely because the Pentagon wants to end the Syrian crisis by summers end, the observer was advised “rather than working long term with a motley bunch of jihadists who we could never trust or rely on. The administration has come to the conclusion apparently that if they are in for a penny they are in for a pound.”

In response to a question from this observer about how he thought event might unfold in this region over the coming months, a very insightful long-term congressional aid replied: “Well Franklin, maybe someone will pull a rabbit out of the hat to stop the push for war. But frankly I doubt it.  From where I sit I’d wager that Syria as we have known it may soon be no more. And perhaps some other countries in the region also.”

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Syria and Lebanon and can be reached c/o fplamb@gmail.com…

 

Posted in Article, syria news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Don’t arm the rebels: Syrian nun brings her plea to Australia

Mother Agnes Mariam

Mother Agnes Mariam

Sydney, June 16: The international spokesperson for Syria’s multi-faith grassroots reconciliation movement, Mother Agnes from the Monastery of St James in Homs, is in Australia to beg for an end to foreign interference in Syria.

As US President Barack Obama discusses further Western intervention against the Syrian regime, Mother Agnes is touring Australia until July 1 to call for a peaceful resolution. She is available from today for media interviews.

Mother Agnes has pointed out that the path for peace “is, in the first instance, an internal one, between Syrians and Syrians”.

“To stop the foreign interference, to stop fuelling weapons and fighters, to stop the chain of hatred and radicalization is the path. Avoid pouring oil on the fire is the path. To forgive is the path and to enter in the dynamic of reconciliation is the path”.

Last month she organised a peace delegation to Damascus led by Northern Irish Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire.

At a side event of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 7, Mother Agnes challenged aspects of the latest report from the Council. She declared, “Can we know why the 85% of those displaced move naturally to regions stabilized by the government if, as alleged in the report, the government forces are killing them and ruining their properties?”
After at least one attempt on her life, Mother Agnes continues to travel across Syria on fact-finding missions and to speak to politicians, dissidents, imams, priests, public servants, humanitarian workers, victims of the war, soldiers and rebel fighters.

Some have dubbed her ‘a regime apologist’. But that label ignores the need to reconcile all who want peace.

In Australia, Mother Agnes will meet MPs, as well as government and shadow ministers. Her schedule also includes public meetings with academics, students, church leaders, and a moderated discussion with supporters of the militarized opposition in Syria.
Mother Agnes will be visiting Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne between June 15 and July 2.

For details of her schedule and availability for media interviews, please contact:
AMRIS.contact@gmail.com… Susan Dirgham: 0406 500 711

Check updates on the AMRIS webpage for details of public meetings: australiansforreconciliationinsyria.wordpress.com…

Posted in Press Release | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why the Assad victory at al-Qusayr changed everything!

It’s been almost a fortnight since Syrian government forces won a major victory at al-Qusayr. As Franklin Lamb’s analysis makes clear, the victory was a ‘game-changer’.

Unfortunately for the Syrian people, it seems that this battle does not herald the end of the violence but rather an increase. The result has been that the US has now effectively declared war on Syria by promising direct provision of ‘lethal aid’ to the rebels.

Father Dave

Franklin Lamb in Beirut

Franklin Lamb in Beirut

US and Israel Lobby reel from Hezbollah al-Qusayr victory

Franklin Lamb

Beirut — Although al-Qusayr may not be the decisive battle for Syria, it is irrefutably an important turning point in the crisis which has given the regime much sought military momentum. Plenty of adjectives and some clichés are being bandied about from Washington to Beirut to describe the al-Qusayr battle results and significance.  Among them are “game-changer,” “mother of all battles,” “altered balance of power,” critical “turning point in the civil war,” and so on.

It does appear that the victory of the Syrian government forces at al-Qusayr
is a strategic achievement, if also a humanitarian disaster for the civilian
population still waiting for the ICRC and SARCS, (Syrian Arab Red Crescent
Society) emergency help. Al Qusayr is located in Homs province, an area
central to the success of the Syrian government’s military strategy. It is
situated just west of the shortest route from Damascus to the coast, at a
juncture where regime forces have struggled to maintain control. Rebel
control of al-Qusayr had disrupted the regime’s supply lines from the port of
Tartus and was open for the cross-border movement of Gulf arms to rebels
via Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Government control of al-Qusayr also provides a ground base for the Assad
government to move to retake control of the north and east of Syria. This
cross-roads city just 6 miles from the Lebanese border has many strategic
ramifications: breaking the opposition’s 18 month control of much of Homs
province, facilitating government forces momentum generally across Syria,
and psychological, by raising the morale of exhausted Syrian forces while
energizing the Assad government and its allies to finish the conflict and focus
on long-promised reforms and try to relieve Syria from the nearly 27 months
of hell for its people.

Perhaps less appreciated here in Beirut are al-Qusayr’s effects on the Zionist
occupiers of Palestine and their currently traumatized US lobby.

From conversations and emails with former colleagues at the Democratic
National Committee (on which this observer served during the Carter
administration) as well as with Congressional insiders, a picture emerges of
nearly debilitating angst among those committed to propping up the
apartheid state in the face of truly historic changes in this region that have
only just begun to re-shape the region.

The reactions from various elements of the pro-Israel lobby range from the
Arabphobic Daniel Pipes’ fantasy essay in the Washington Times this week
entitled “Happy Israel” to Netanyahu’s increased threats issued from Tel
Aviv about what Israel might do if his three cartoon “red lines” are breached,
to more pressure on the White House by Israel’s agents in Congress who are
demanding that Obama act immediately to undo “the major damage done
at Qusayr”.

Several aspects of “the Qusayr rules and results” are being discussed at the
HQ of the racist anti-Defamation League (ADL) which has summoned an
emergency gathering of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations to craft a solution to the problem. The tentative agenda
reportedly includes for discussion and action the following:

The twin defeats at al-Qusayr and at Burgas, Bulgaria — the latter should not
be underestimated, according to one AIPAC activist who works on the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, given that it substantially knocks out the props
from the lobby’s project to get the European Union to list Hezbollah as a
terrorist organization, thus interfering with the Islamist party’s fundraising.

Bulgaria is claiming there is not probative evidence to conclude that Hezbollah was involved in the attack on Israelis last year.
The lobby is also reacting angrily to Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann and
Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger’s statement about that country’s
decision to withdraw its 380 peacekeeping troops, more than one-third of the
1000 United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, (UNDOF) contingent,
from the Golan Heights.

The lobby is claiming that Austrian move constituents an existential threat
to Israel because it opens the Quneitra crossing, the door to the Golan, for the
Syrian civil war to spill over the border into Israel. At the same time it is
being argued that al Qusayr lifts pressure off Hezbollah, Iran and Syria as
well as the Palestinian resistance and gain all more fighters who sense victory
for the current regime and major gains for all in the political dynamics of
the region.

The Israel embassy in Washington has chimed in with a statement that the
Austrian withdrawal threatened the role of the UN Security Council in any
future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, while at the same
time encouraging Hezbollah to move into the Golan.

Israel stalwart, Eric Cantor (R-Va) told a “brown bag” lunch gathering in
the House Rayburn Building cafeteria late this week that the “fall of al
Qusayr, will facilitate the Assad regimes advance on areas north of Homs
province and will likely return to Damascus control of important rebel-held
areas in the north and the east. Cantor claims that the Assad regime victory
effectively cuts off an important supply route to the rebels which will leave
the armed opposition even more weakened and scattered. Israel is
demanding an immediate US supported counter-offensive consistent with
the demands made by US Senators John McClain and Lindsay Graham.

The apartheid state also is demanding that the White House scrap Geneva II,
claiming that Assad is now too strong for the US/Israel to benefit from such
a dialogue. “If the international community is serious about seeking to enforce
a negotiated settlement, they will first have to do something to decisively
change the balance of power on the ground ahead of any serious negotiations,”
he added.

When asked about giving US aid to Lebanon, Cantor reportedly sneered,
as he expressed his shock that Hezbollah had so many troops and, without
US boots on the ground, would be very difficult for Israel to defeat, he
reportedly replied, “Forget about Lebanon, it never was a real country
anyway, just call the whole place over there Hezbollah and let’s send in the
marines to finish the job.”

One congressional staffer who attended the meeting winced at the thought of
US marines again being sent to Lebanon given their previous experience there
nearly 30 years ago.

The Lobby is also concerned about the fact that the Arab League and the Gulf
countries might be softening in their ardor to confront Syria and Hezbollah,
who they view as now being full partners in this crisis. A media source at
the Saudi Embassy in Washington has complained that the six member Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) has spent more than a billion dollars on the
opposition and have, to date, little to show for their “investment.” Nor does
Israel have much to show to date for its deepening role in the crisis given that
its air strikes are widely viewed in Washington and internationally as being
counterproductive and helping to unite Muslims and Arabs in the face of
their common global enemy.

The ADL reportedly wants the White House to act fast “to do something”
in light of a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on Wednesday,
the day of the Syrian government’s victory at al Qusayr, showing that only
15% of Americans polled advocated taking military action, and only 11%
supported providing the rebels with arms. A quarter of respondents, 24%,
favored taking no action, similar to the White House current position.

Abe Foxman, ADL’s President for Life, and inveterate anti-Semite tracker,
myopically sees anti-Semitism, and surely not Israel’s decades of crimes
against humanity as the cause for other “anti-Semitic” polls released this
week. Those included the recent one commissioned by the BBC which
confirmed that Israel is not only ranked second from the bottom of 197
favorably viewed countries, including as a danger to world peace, and just
about the world’s most negatively viewed country, but its support globally
continues to evaporate. Views of Israel in Canada and in Australia remain
very negative with 57 and 69 per cent of their citizens holding unfavorable

views. In the EU countries surveyed, views of Israeli influence are all
strongly negative with the UK topping the list with 72 per cent of the
population viewing Israel negatively.

As Ali Abunimah noted this week, “The persistent association of Israel with
the world’s most negatively viewed countries will come as a disappointment
to Israeli government and other hasbara officials who have invested millions

of dollars in recent years to greenwash and pinkwash Israel as an
enlightened, democratic and technological ‘Western’ country.”*

With Wednesday’s National Lebanese Resistance (Hezbollah) victory at
al-Qusayr, coming as it does 97 years to the month after the Triple Entente’s
(UK, France & Russia) May 1916 secret Asia Minor Agreement, generally
known as Sykes-Picot, the scheme to control the Middle East following the
defeat of the Ottoman Empire has furthered crumbled. Its “Rosemary’s
Baby” progeny, the colonial Zionist occupation of Palestine, is increasingly
being condemned by history to an identical fate.

According to a growing number of US and European officials and Middle
East analysts as well as public opinion polls, it is solely a matter of time until,
like al-Qusayr, Palestine is returned to her rightful, indigenous inhabitants.

Posted in Article, syrian army | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ron Paul tells Obama to get his hands off Syria!

I am not an unqualified supporter of Ron Paul but when it comes to US foreign policy he tells it like it is!

Mind you, Paul is guarded in his criticism of Israel and he gives scant attention to what I believe is the real aim of Obama’s intervention in Syria – namely, the weakening of Iran and  the securing of US and Israeli hegemony throughout the region. Even so, what he does say is spot on! 

It is just painful now to look back at how Obama once took pride in his opposition to the war in Iraq. Not only has he chosen the same murderous path. He is even using the same language of ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’!

Intervention in Syria is bound to backfire on the US. Indeed, if this intervention leads us into World War III then it will backfire on us all! God save us from all such forms of ‘humanitarian intervention’.

Father Dave

Posted in Speeches, syrian rebels | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mother Agnes of Homs responds to the UN report on Syria

The following speech was given by Mother Agnes Mariam to a side event of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Friday 7 June.  Her report is a response to that of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, dated 4 June 2013.

You can download a PDF copy of the 29-page UN report here.

Mother Agnes with the Mussalaha delegation in Beirut

Mother Agnes with the Mussalaha delegation in Beirut

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, GENEVA

“THE PATH TO PEACE IN SYRIA”

Intervention of Mother Agnes-Mariam of the Cross
President of the International Support Team for Mussalaha

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Presentation

I want first of all to thank Mrs. Navi Pilay, High Commissioner for Human Rights for her valuable presence in this side event.

Since our last side event she has been accompanying us with her team in Lebanon to seek truth and witnesses from Syria to avoid genocide and ethnical cleansing and to be aware of what really is going on in Syria.

I would like also to thank the Commission of Inquiry for her last report issued the 4th of June 2013. This report is more balanced, it relays on better sources. Its description is in many places sharply accurate. Its conclusions and recommendations are those of the immense majority of the Syrian people and of the immense majority of the international community: in the name of human rights and international laws it heads toward a peaceful solution through negotiation and dialogue. The Commission of Inquiry asks to stop fuelling violence by sending weapons and inflaming sectarian attitudes. It points toward the peace process established in Geneva and paves the way for Geneva II. It also suggests that foreign interference in the Syrian conflict can only complicate the situation and inflict more damages to the innocent civilian population. This is the real issue in this side event consecrated to share on the “Path to peace in Syria”.

I want to thank Commissioner Carla Del Ponte for her intrepidity in declaring the responsibility of the anti government armed groups in the usage of chemical weapons in Khan El Assal. Afterwards this statement was retrieved because of the lack of possibility to process a physical inquiry in the ground. Nevertheless this incident has made it clear for the world that this Commission can escape the pressures and can be impartial if it has access to sufficient sources.

Considering some lacuna in the report

Allow me to get back to some assertions of the report.

It seems effectively that in many places the report is showing an evident lack of first hand sources. We want to continue to collaborate with the OHCHR[1] and with the CoI to ensure the transmission of the reality of the situation in Syria today. It is a duty towards the victims. It is the right to protect. It is the way to apply the correct accountability.

1. In the report the first renegade appears to be the government forces while sporadic deeds are attributed to the anti-government forces. It seems that the rebels and the population that is supportive to them and that is not more than the 10-15% of the global Syrian population are the portion of the Syrian population that the International Community feels that it has the right and duty to protect and thus the International Independent Commission of Inquiry in Syria transmits this feeling.

The report talks about 4.25 millions of internally displaced. Can we know why the 85% of those displaced move naturally to regions stabilized by the government if, as alleged in the report, the government forces are  killing them and ruining their properties? The dynamic of the infiltration of the anti-government armed groups inside residential areas to transform them in a combat zone or in a front line, despite the presence of civilians that are often used as human shields or pushed to leave, should be better highlighted in its contradiction with the Geneva Convention’s articles and as the major incentive of the government military operations that are for this reason targeting such residential areas transformed in combat zones or military front lines. Worthy to note that the military operations of the government forces do not happen immediately after this infiltration, all the contrary there is a big delay between the rebels infiltration and the military reaction of the government forces, allowing the progressive and irreversible deterioration of the situation with the subsequent ravages on the civilian population.

In article 12 it is said that the “Government has not fulfilled its governance duties as it cannot ensure security for its citizens in areas under its rule, and it struggles to provide basic services.”   I share this observation but ask myself: how will the Government fulfill its duty to ensure the security of its citizens? From tens of locations the citizens are asking the Government to react and to save them from the lawlessness of the non-government armed groups and the government is not answering as quickly as the population would like.

In the article 20 it is said: Meanwhile,  the army  – supported  by the Popular  Committees  – has increasingly relied  upon  its  long-standing  strategy  of  denying  food  and  medical  supplies  to  restive localities as a tactic to prevent the armed groups’ expansion and to force displacement  of the population.

What I can say is that the rebels controlled areas in the Province of Idlib and Raqqa where civilian population is still living with the non-governmental armed groups, the Government is providing electricity, fuel, gas, bread, salaries, vaccinations and medical supplies. The local Emir in Raqqa asked for a dialyser equipment. The ministry of health provided immediately two.

I know that in Al Waar suburb counting 800 000 inhabitants of opponent population displaced from Baba Amro and Khalidiyeh, the local administration closed all the accesses to the neighborhood but one and this caused a shortage in the supplying of essentials. The reason was that the non-governmental armed groups (more than 1000 fighters) had massacred 42 civilians from the next village. It was a preventive measure that was lifted when the population accepted an agreement to stop the armed opposition and adopt only political opposition.

21. In regions held by armed groups in northern and eastern governorates, Government forces resumed their brutal and often indiscriminate campaign of shelling, using a wide variety of weaponry. Besides the continuous use of aerial bombardments, they have fired strategic missiles, cluster and thermobaric bombs. This appears to be part of a broader strategy aimed at eroding civilian support for anti-Government armed groups and at damaging infrastructure. The majority of these attacks targeted towns and neighborhoods controlled or infiltrated by armed groups, rather than targeting those groups’ military bases.

About article 21: I don’t know what the report understands when it asserts that the Government forces are aiming to damage the infrastructure when everybody knows how the non-governmental armed groups are continuously perpetrating acts of destruction, vandalism and looting everything everywhere: factories, electricity plants and extensions, gas plants, pipelines, oil wells, water plans and aqueducts, hospitals, administration buildings, schools, museums, archeological sites etc, etc…

I also don’t know what could be the strategy of the Government as described in this article to avoid to target the group’s military bases and to target instead the civilian population and the infrastructure that is a State possession?

Doing this the Government will provoke the anger and more hatred from its citizens. This is not the case.

In reality after more than two years of uprising 70% of the Syrian population still does support the President and the government in Syria. If we consider the statistics done last year by the US Ambassador Robert Ford pointing at 55% of aficionados there is an evident increase of sympathy and not a decrease. Why? Because there is a revolution against the revolution. People are getting tired and they have experienced enough that the revolution has been hijacked by radicalism and also by banditry and organized or salvage criminality. I would have liked this to appear in the report. Or else we are still in approaches that do not compete with the reality.

It is true that, in many cases, the government forces shells on civilian population. I know from our village of Qara that many times the armed groups hide inside the inhabited neighborhood and they lead from there armed incursions against the government forces barricades. This induces a response that can inflict injuries on civilians.

We know certainly that the army stopped many days before launching the attack on Qusayr to verify if the civilians had went out. Tracts were thrown from aircrafts asking the civilians to leave the city. It was evident through the reportages that no civilians were in the city when it was retaken by the army.

But the non-government forces are not only shelling sporadically some civilian zones, in reality civilian neighborhood in Damascus (like Jaramana, Yarmouk or Abassin square), in Homs, Hama’s countryside, Aleppo, Idlib, Hassakeh, Deir Zor, are shelled in a permanent way on a daily basis provoking deadly injuries and material destruction.

3. The popular Committees are committing indeed manyd prohibited actions. But it is important to state that the President issued a Decree punishing with death any abductor and lifting any coverage for crimes and robbery. This Decree was targeting the popular Committees and not the anti-government gangs that are out of the government control.

Article 75: Abduction for political reason, for summary execution or for ransom is a permanent and massive habitude implemented by the rebels. It is now applied by the popular committees. President Assad has issues a decree declaring death sentence for abductors. He means the popular committees who are under his control and not the anti-government armed gangs who are not under his control.

4. Article 94:  About sexual violence: the report lacks of sources about the non-governmental armed groups behavior. It is widely known that such violence is not only incidental but structural. The sexual violence of the anti-government armed groups are countless even not only with girls and women but also with men. We have supplied the Commission with some important cases and we can do more. We also know dramatic cases of collective raping (article 148 and 156).

5. Article 29: We feel reading this article that there is a kind of subtle justification of the radicalization of the anti-government armed groups. While the report describes the drifting of those groups it never attributes to them terrorist deeds while Jobhat al Nosra has been listed among the terrorist groups first by the US then by the International Community. The report strikes us when appealing to their obligations under Common Articles of the Geneva Convention it appears to address itself to them as if they were legal armed groups. Can we say to a terrorist that he has an obligation under the Geneva Convention?

There is also a need to know where come from the anti-government armed groups and who is supporting them. There is also a need for the parents of those young men to know why western countries like France, Belgium, Ireland, Great Britain, Sweden, United States, Australia, Canada are accepting that offices are opened in their cities to recruit them by the most radical islamists. How can those countries support freedom and democracy through radical Islam which is discriminating all other forms of moderate Islam?

6. Article 122. “The deliberate targeting of medical personnel and hospitals, and denial of medical access, continue to be a disturbing feature of the conflict.”

I have seen with my own eyes doctors killed by anti-government armed groups because they attended the National Hospital. Their names were already on the black list of the LCC.

The report is silent about 54 hospitals that have been totally destroyed by the anti-government armed gangs after being looted. Nothing is said about the destruction of 15 pharmaceutical factories.

7. There is a point that is missing in part: about the defense done by the non-governmental armed groups to allow students to go to government held establishments for the examinations. In Idlib, to take an example, the Mussalaha Committee could transport secretly 45% of the population to Idlib under danger,  but 15000 students were prevented to present their exams. The parents were very sad, I was there, because it is the second year that their children are losing. It is worthy to note here that Idlib is a besieged city where there is a constant shortage of food and essentials due to the blockage exerted by anti-government forces (ref to articles 144-148).

8. Concerning accountability: it is easy to attribute responsibility on the Syrian government who is hierarchised. But to whom will the CoI attribute the responsibility of the deeds of the non-governmental armed groups? What about the States that are supporting them with weapons, money, training and intelligence? Nothing is said on this issue.

Dear friends,

Our aim is PEACE. To serve PEACE Mairead Maguire put her life at risk to visit Syria with her team. For PEACE I decided to visit the regions that are outside the control of the Syrian government. What I have seen in the province of Idlib is the continuation of my visit to Homs in december 2011.

What is the path to peace? The CoI highlight the following steps that we of course approve: “While the nature of the conflict is constantly changing, there remains no military solution. So we don’t know how the European Union lifted the embargo on ammunition. They should have lifted the ban on essentials because people are dying in Syrian due to the missing of essentials. Instead they lift the ban on weapons and do not lift the ban to give food to people. And they pretend the right to protect!

159:”The conflict will end only through a comprehensive, inclusive political process. The international community must prioritize a de-escalation of the war…” It is not the case dear friends because today France brings the case in their media that the Syrian government is using chemical weapons, it is an ancient history as Mairead has said, “it is déjà vu”. We should stand against this, they are taking us for idiots. They should stop!.

“The international community must prioritise a de-escalation of the war and work within the framework of the 2012 Geneva Communiqué”.

160. All parties are obliged to respect human rights and international humanitarian laws. Both they and their supporters share the responsibility to commit to a peaceful solution.

161. Accountability must be re-emphasized at all levels.”

CONCLUSION

I will finish here. I have many things to say. One thing to end: we are persecuted because we say those things that do not fit with the benefit and the interest of some deciders of the International Community and we ask the Human Right Council to protect us as witnesses. You see: 69 media are repeating every day the same cooking, offering the same food, like in the darkest ages of the propaganda. And when someone says something different because we see it with our own eyes, we are persecuted. We have to stop to politicize these things and to let human right activists like we are to work freely or else how are you asking freedom for Human Right Commission and you don’t give the freedom for human rights activists? That’s why I thank again the Commission of Inquiry to collaborate with us. We ask for more collaboration. I thank the High Commissioner because she collaborates with us through her inquirers. I ask for more tidings and more collaboration and we hope that finally in Syria the pattern that have been used in other places like Lebanon, like Gulf, like Afghanistan, like Irak, like Libya would find a peaceful end and we will not incur in another “right to protect” false war.

We are sure that this path for peace is first of all interior, between Syrians and Syrians. To stop the foreign interference, to stop fuelling weapons and fighters, to stop the chain of hatred and radicalization is the path. Avoid pouring oil on the fire is the path. To forgive is the path and to enter in the dynamic of reconciliation is the path. The Syrian people is an amazing people, in the middle of its tragedy it finds way of forgiveness and reconciliation because they love their country and they love their multi secular unique experience of conviviality between so many religious, cultural and ethnical diverse components. This is Orient, the eternal Orient. And Orient should become a spiritual reserve for humanity not a place of continuous struggle for narrow interests. Let us work together with the Human Rights Council to implement a sustainable permanent peace in this cradle of civilization and the matrix of monotheisms.

Thank you !

[1] OHCHR for Office of the High Commissionner of Human Rights. CoI for (International Independent) Commission of Inquiry (on Syria)

Posted in Speeches, syrian civil war | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pope Francis prays for Syria

Pope Francis

Pope Francis (March 2013)

Pope Francis: Contemplate Jesus’ Suffering in the People of Syria

Pontiff Meets With Relief Organizations Aiding Humanitarian Efforts in War-Torn Country

Vatican City, (Zenit.org…) Junno Arocho Esteves

This morning, Pope Francis met with humanitarian and relief organizations that are dealing with the ongoing crisis in Syria. The meeting was organized by the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”, which coordinates the Church’s charity work.

Among the participants were representatives of the following Catholic charity organizations: Aid to the Church in Need International, the AVSI foundation, CAFOD, Caritas Internationalis as well as the local Caritas organizations in Austria, France, Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, the Middle East and North Africa, Syria, and Turkey.

Also present was the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, Catholic Relief Services, the International Catholic Migration Commission, the International Confederation of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, the Jesuit Refugee Service, and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Pope Francis thanked the relief organizations in aiding those suffering and called for an end to the violence plaguing the Syrian people.

“The Holy See’s concern for the crisis in Syria, and in a particular way, for the people, often defenseless, who are suffering as a result of it, is well known. Benedict XVI repeatedly called for a ceasefire and for a search for a resolution through dialogue in order to achieve a profound reconciliation between sides. Let the weapons be silent!” the Pope exclaimed.

The Holy Father also recalled the efforts of his predecessor to find a peaceful solution to the violence by sending Cardinal Robert Sarah to the region as well as “manifesting his concrete and fatherly solicitude with a donation.”

“The destiny of the Syrian people,” the Pope continued, “is a concern that is close to my heart also. On Easter Sunday I asked for peace: “above all for dear Syria”, I said, “for its people torn by conflict, and for the many refugees who await help and comfort. How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there be before a political solution to the crisis is found”.

Renewing his appeal for peace in the region, and encouraged the intention of the international community to foster a peaceful dialogue with the opposing parties in Syria to bring an end to the war.

The Holy Father also encouraged the charitable organizations working in the region, saying that Church is called in these moments to give a “concrete and sincere witness” to charity.

“May your timely and coordinated work be an expression of the communion to which it gives witness, as the recent Synod on the Church in the Middle East suggested,” the Holy Father said.

Appealing to the international community, Pope Francis asked, apart from negotiating a solution to the conflict, for “the provision of humanitarian aid for the displaced and refugees.”

Concluding his address, the Holy Father expressed his closeness to the Christian communities in Syria and the Middle East, saying that they have the enormous task of offering a “Christian presence” in the region.

“The participation of the entire Christian community to this important work of assistance and aid is imperative at this time,” the Pope said. “And let every one of us, let each of us think of Syria. What great suffering, what great poverty, what great grief experienced by Jesus who suffers, who is poor, who is expelled from his homeland. It is Jesus! This is a mystery, but it is our Christian mystery. Let us contemplate Jesus’ suffering in the inhabitants of beloved Syria.”

Posted in Article, syria news | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment