Syria: Archbishop Mourad calls for UN peacekeepers to stop internal violence and Israeli attacks
After days of violence and more than a thousand dead, including some Christians, the al-Sharaa government has declared the operation against the Alawites on the west coast of the country over. Damascus also signed a merger agreement with the Kurds. For the archbishop of Homs, peace requires an international presence and the end of sanctions. So far, the authorities have not fulfilled their promises.
Milan (AsiaNews) – It is essential for the UN to deploy a peacekeeping force with the task "of protecting civilians,” in particular “in areas where there are minorities", as well as ensuring the stability "of the border with Israel,” this according to Syriac Catholic Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, Hama and Dabek.
The prelate, who is in Germany to speak at the plenary session of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Germany currently underway about the situation in his country, is not hiding his concern about what has happened recently, most notably a massacre of civilians, especially Alawites, in the coastal cities of Tartus and Latakia, strongholds of the former regime of Bashar al-Assad, a development that did not spare Christians.
“For now the future is dark,” he admits, “and we are still unable to see the light" after years of civil war and the sudden fall of Damascus in December to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel group whose leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, now serves as interim president.
Bloodshed in the “new” Syria
The Syrian Ministry of Defence just announced the end of military operations in the western coastal region. The security forces have reportedly "neutralised" groups loyal to Assad and the ground is being “prepared for a return to normalcy”.
So far, NGOs have reported 1,500 dead, including 1,068 civilians, women, children, and Christians. This has “alarmed” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres because of the escalation and the number of victims and " widespread summary killings, including of entire families.”
For Archbishop Mourad, this is a “hard blow” to the “project of a new Syria” promised by the authorities. The prelate is a member of the Mar Musa community founded by Jesuit Fr Paolo Dall'Oglio who has been missing since 2013, and was himself a hostage of the Islamic State in 2015, freed after more than four months.
“Two, three weeks after the great change (as he calls the rise of HTS and Assad's exile in Russia in December), people have begun to lose faith in the new government and the president because he said things that he did not realise or maintain. This affects various areas of daily life, starting with wages, development opportunities that have not materialised.”
The critical issues concern the economy but there is no shortage of critical political problems, like “drafting the new Constitution in the National Congress" and “talks between various local communities.”
"What is happening is certainly not what the population dreamt of, or imagined. There is a lot of pain and sorrow after this bloodshed, a climate of fear and concern for the future has reemerged.”
Settling of accounts
Reflecting on the events that led to the military operation against the Alawites, Archbishop Mourad cannot help but note that security forces and HTS-affiliated groups have used "weapons against the people" in a sort of "settling of scores".
If the excuse was to strike at former Assad loyalists, the reality is that "the victims are almost all civilians", no agents provocateurs nor members of the old regime.
The escalation is due primarily to "the lack of trust between the different communities," the prelate noted, in addition to the “manipulative” practices of the government and the armed groups linked to it.
“There was talk of seizing weapons from civilians, removing them from the control of the different groups and strengthening a single Syrian national army," he noted, "but nothing has been done in practice; especially the military is not protecting the people and the country. In fact, so far the opposite has happened.”
The recent violence has also impacted Christians hard, although no reliable data is available on the number of victims. For the Syriac Catholic archbishop, religion is not a factor in the attacks.
The victims “got caught up because they live in the area" where the escalation took place. Since “they live in the same buildings, the same sector, they were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
In his view, the violence “is not about religion or confession, but the massacre was perpetrated against civilians, innocent people, not the allies of the old regime.”
Uncertainty remains as to the number of dead. At least 12 were reportedly Christian but the number of “Alawites massacred could be more than 1,200, a very heavy toll.”
Kurds, Israel, and the challenges of peace
The Syrian government announced an agreement with Mazloum Abdi, head of the pro-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to merge all civilian and military institutions of the Kurdish autonomous administration into the Syrian state.
The Syrian presidency issued a statement signed by the various parties, noting that “all civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria” be merged “into the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, the airport, and oil and gas fields”.
This remains an open question and no one knows how the merger and other steps will take place; nevertheless, it is of great significance since it involves Syria’s main ethnic minority , which has been autonomously administering the north-east of the country for the past six years.
In the past, the Kurds played a key role acting with US support and as its proxy against the Islamic State and other radical groups (like the HTS).
“The agreement with the Kurds will perhaps lead to real peace, but we have to wait and see how it will be implemented and if it will bear fruit,” Archbishop Mourad said. “Because for me all agreements are theoretical; what matters is to evaluate their application.
“Today, the priority remains to meet people’s basic needs: electricity, wages, drinking water, everyday needs. The government must assume its responsibilities, meet these priorities, but for now life is perhaps worse than before.”
Among the critical factors, two in particular are of great concern: international sanctions and Israeli interference through air raids and incursions into Syrian territory.
“There are internal and external factors that hinder recovery, especially Israel's daily attacks. All this is happening without the international community intervening or saying anything, no UN position, no position taken by the European Union.
“On the contrary, it is crucial to end these attacks on Syria. Because the question is whether the international community wants peace for Syria, or does it want to fuel escalation and war, complicating the lives of Syrians.
“From this perspective, a destroyed and divided Syria seems useful, but if we ask the people, they all say they want a single and united nation, which can live in peace.”
Finally, the prelate emphasises one last key critical factor: Western sanctions that weigh like a boulder on the Syrian economy.
“Today it is essential to remove international sanctions, because this would really help revive life, the economy, and give some relief and freedom to the government to act, and verify if they really follow the rules of international law".
“Otherwise, the international community must assume its responsibilities and intervene, mediate, because the Syrian people are not the only cause or reason for what happened, and they certainly cannot start again on its own.”
Deploying “UN peacekeepers in sensitive areas is also part of this equation, but with a very specific premise: the Turkish army must not participate because the Syrians do not want another (League of Nations-style) mandate.”
GATEWAY TO THE EAST IS THE ASIANEWS NEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO THE MIDDLE EAST. WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE IT EVERY TUESDAY? TO SUBSCRIBE, CLICK HERE.
.png)
09/08/2021 14:38
