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From Lebanon And Syria, Looking For Hope IFOR International Coordinator, Francesco Candelari, recently returned from his partial participation in a peace delegation led by 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate and IFOR member Mairead Corrigan Maguire. The intent of the delegation was to meet with key players in Lebanon and Syria in order to explore and support possibilities for reconciliation throughout the Syrian conflict. The following is the firsthand account of IFOR’s International Coordinator. -- Three weeks. This is the average amount of time that media normally dedicate to a single war. This is the average amount of time allotted for a conflict to make the headlines. Journalism schools study why the interest of the readers then normally tends to go down while events continue to go on.
Syria had its three weeks in March 2011, after which it was allotted only a few spare days over the last two years. Today it is almost off of the radar. News appears from time to time when a major massacre or bombing happens. And then silence again. However, the war continues. People die every day. Families leave their homes to seek refuge within and outside the country. There is no silence between the combatants. The Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria, able to provide reliable data due to its network inside the country, accounts for 62,000 deaths since the beginning of the conflict, naming them one by one. The United Nations’ estimate increases that number to 80,000. The Syrian government tends to give much lower figures, but still in the thousands. The number of refugees also provides a sense of the tragedy. By mid-May of 2013, UNHCR reported that 1.5 million Syrian refugees had escaped into neighbouring countries. I have an unfortunate and personal relationship with these numbers. Two friends, a Belgian professor and an Italian journalist, disappeared in the beginning of April 2013 while reporting from the frontline. I met with Domenico Quirico the day before he left for Lebanon and had heard from Pierre Piccinin a few days earlier. Since then, nobody knows where they are. Over two years ago, when I started to follow the youth who were claiming their dignity all across North Africa and the Middle East, I decided to leave my job at the United Nations to witness the events of the Arab Spring in order to tell the stories of the people who were asking for change and risking their lives for it. I saw a window of opportunity not only for the Arab world, but for the whole Mediterranean, on both sides of the sea. Today, in my role as coordinator of a movement that endeavours to support nonviolent changes and reconciliation processes all over the world, I ask myself: where is the genuine request for change that invigorated Syria in March of 2011? Is there still a window of opportunity for this country, after many thousands deaths, to demand change through nonviolent methods? A “peace delegation” With the aforementioned question in mind, I welcomed the opportunity to participate in a peace delegation to Lebanon and Syria, led by 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate and IFOR member Mairead Corrigan Maguire, in early May of this year. While leaving for Lebanon, the voices echoed in my mind of the many Syrians I had met in the last two years, mostly refugees or asylum seekers, many of whom decided to flee the country when the violence became unbearable. I was also overtaken by the doubts that accompany such a mission: What can we really do? If we reach Damascus, how will we avoid falling prey to manipulation? Finally, how do we avoid the Manichean approach, which sometimes brings peace activists to oversimplify black and white, right and wrong, good and bad? The vision of Mother Agnes On the ground, the delegation was led by Mother Agnes-Mariam of the Cross, superior of the Melkite Greek Catholic monastery of St. James the Mutilated in Qara, near Homs. Since the early stages of the Syrian uprising, Mother Agnes denounced what she saw as dangerous sectarianism and what she described as violent demonstrations. In response to what she believes to be a misrepresentation of the Syrian conflict presented by most media outlets, she began a tour of the Western countries, including France, Italy, and even to Australia, meeting institutional authorities as well as civil society activists in order to present what she perceives to be the real situation of Syria. Although not openly in support of the regime in Syria, Mother Agnes-Mariam gives an account of the facts which is quite different from the account that is given by most of the Syrian activists involved on the ground. She presents the reaction of the regime in the early stages of the revolution as very tolerant, and she points at the terrorist presence and the foreign interference as the real turning points which made the country to fall into a civil war. Mother Agnes-Mariam of the Cross decided to go one step further and assemble a movement called Mussalaha, meaning “reconciliation” in Arabic. Since late October 2012, she has presented her solution to the conflict and tried to gather support within and outside the country. During a visit to Northern Ireland, Mother Agnes met with Mairead Corrigan Maguire and the idea of a delegation to Lebanon and Syria took shape. The delegation, originally planned for early February 2013, was postponed for security reasons. In early May the dates were finally confirmed, but once the “delegates” arrived in Beirut, the departure for Damascus was postponed again for a few days. The delegation begins its work in Lebanon, but with Syria in mind. In Lebanon, between sides Lebanon has an intimate relationship with war. It lived under fire from 1975 to 1990 and then again in 2006. Its relations with Syria are extremely delicate and controversial since the bigger neighbour occupied the country for almost 30 years. And today the Syrian war occurring on Lebanon’s doorstep and the massive amount of refugees, who account for approximately 15% of the current population living on Lebanese soil, play a very important role in Lebanese politics. Rather openly, the two movements which comprise today’s most relevant Lebanese political forces support either the Free Syrian Army or Assad. The March 8 Alliance, a political coalition which includes Hezbollah, Amal and a few Druze parties, sides with the Syrian government. The March 14 Alliance, a conglomeration of sunni parties, supports the opposition. Christians are divided: the Free Patriotic Movement is part of March 8 Alliance, whereas Lebanese Forces and Lebanese Phalanges are part of March 14 Alliance. In this context, the delegation led by Mairead Corrigan Maguire was welcomed into the center of the Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Beirut. All of the delegation meetings in Lebanon were organized by a small support team to Mother Agnes. Furthermore, the support team was presided over by Hassan Yacoub, a former member of the Lebanese parliament who is close with the Free Patriotic Movement, the movement that all of the other members of the team were from. The meetings organized by the support team included the Syrian and the Iranian ambassadors in Lebanon, representatives of the Druze, the Shia and the Christian communities, the Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and two families of Christian refugees from Qosayr, a small Syrian town at the border with Lebanon. The meetings often reflected the open stance of the Free Patriotic Movement within the two sides that oppose each other in Lebanon. Although strong appeals for reconciliation were pronounced by almost everyone the delegation was able to meet, the way to reconciliation was mainly conceived through support for the current regime and its way of eventually leading reforms and interpreting their meaning. Christians of both sides are certainly worried. The wounds of war are still open in Lebanon; the very interesting interfaith political exercise ensuring peace in the country is young and fragile. A non-secular Syria is perceived as a big threat to Christians and Druzes. At the institutional level, a few people honestly believe in the hope given to many by the Arab spring. They would rather look at the outcomes of it in terms of realpolitik. And the way things are evolving in the other country which experienced heavy blood after the “spring”, Libya, does not give too much hope, in their opinion. Looking for stories While trying to have a broader picture of the situation in the country, I used the free time offered by the delegation to meet some of the many other people touched by the conflict. Mohamed, 20 years old, arrived in Lebanon only four weeks before my visit from Darayya, located in the suburbs of Damascus. His family is divided in two: those who left the country in immediate response to the violence and those who continue to travel back and forth to Syria. Mohamed belongs to the second group. Some of his friends are still hiding in his village “fighting for freedom”, he says. He describes the early stages of the revolution and the snipers on the roofs targeting the protesters. Today, though, it is only war, he says. And what is the way out? “Assad out is the only way out”. Beirut is currently the headquarters of the local coordination committees, a Syrian group that gathers information and supports the opposition, mainly through nonviolent means. They describe the way they are organized and they show the places where, albeit at high risk, is still possible to go in and out of the main cities in Syria. They also show how they gather information and how their contacts must move from place to place almost every week in order to escape the government forces. They use nonviolent means, but they have no doubts about the side they want to stand for. “The Free Syrian Army is advancing little by little. There is no doubt that we will win. It is just a matter of time.” Damascus Now or Later While I walk the streets of Beirut and looking at the signs of war that are still visible in this country, I think about how long it will take to reconstruct confidence after a war for which there is still no endpoint on the horizon. The positions are extremely rigid and the propaganda is everywhere. After the initial delay, the delegation is finally ready to leave for Damascus, but I see that my time is almost over and the conditions to continue the trip are not there. It would take more time, more engagement, a better understanding of what reconciliation in Syria really means and for what and a deeper involvement to continue a similar mission. So, when facing the question whether to visit Damascus now or later, I have to answer later. Mairead Corrigan Maguire continues until the end, bringing back her statement. Other members of the delegation also publish their accounts in one way or another. Syria and IFOR I was looking for hope in Syria—hope of reconciliation and also that the legitimate and nonviolent request for change coming from the Syrian youth, at least at the beginning, will not die with the war. Today, the window of opportunity that opened in 2011 is small. Most likely, it is extremely small, but it is not closed yet. FOR USA member Mohja Kahf is a strong supporter of the nonviolent movement in Syria and she continues to ask for the liberation of its members still detained in the Syrian prisons. Following lobbying by IFOR representatives in Brussels, Sam Biesemans, and in Geneva, Derek Brett, the European Parliament two weeks ago passed a resolution (23 May) which not only upheld the advice of the UNHCR that there should be a complete moratorium on all Syrians currently seeking asylum after having deserted from the armed forces, but recognised specifically that "all deserters from Syria are entitled to further protection, being at risk on other grounds (...), namely ‘excessive or disproportionately severe’ punishment, possibly amounting to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or even arbitrary execution". A concrete success for IFOR and a small drop in an ocean of conflict lead initiatives. Together with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, UNESCO and with the support of the former President of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio, IFOR is working toward building a strong initiative for the support of reconciliation among Syrian youth. Gandhi, the father of nonviolent resistance, was also fighting a regime. He never gave up towards the regime and he never gave up at trying teaching people that the greatest strength is being able to fight nonviolently. Unfortunately, in Syria war continues. However, it is worth remembering the early days of March 2011. Where the request for dignity and freedom was coming from. And where it can still go. Nonviolently.
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