Mother Agnes Mariam

The photograph to the left is of a young Syrian boy at his father's funeral. He saluted those present and gave a defiant and hope-filled speech in memory of his father, a soldier in the Syrian Arab Army. This article is composed of reports from two members of an international peace delegation led by Mairead McGuire, and hosted by Mother Agnes Mariam. This article is written by Shrikant Ramdas, one of the members of the delegation.

Andrew Ashdown, an Anglican priest who was also on the delegation to Syria, wrote about a soldier's funeral he attended in Tartous.

It is hard to describe the emotion of what happened in Tartous. We had planned to visit a hospital. We learned that 22 bodies of soldiers were being returned home. The corpses were those of [Syrian Arab Army] soldiers that died in the siege of the Kuwairis Airport, Eastern Aleppo, and were buried there because of the siege. Some volunteers were able to finally bring the bodies back to their families, which coincided with the time of our visit. Hundreds had gathered. There was intense emotion as the coffins were loaded off a lorry, to the piercing cries of grieving relatives. We joined the crowds giving condolences to families who seemed to genuinely appreciate our presence.

Suddenly a young boy of about 10, whose father's body was being returned, and was standing next to his crying mother and a Sheikh, stood to attention in front of us, saluted and with tears flowing, gave a deeply moving speech.

One of the monks with me told us that in what he said there was not one word of anger, hatred or violence. His words :

"My father is a blessing to this country. He has given his life so that we may live in peace. But he is not dead. He is a martyr. And I honour him. Mabrouk! Mabrouk! ! [1] He will live, and because of him Syria will have peace."

I stood to attention looking straight at him with the crowds around looking on and letting him finish. I then saluted him before giving him a short blessing, and a few moments later, a hug. The Sheikh next to him hugged me also. None of us could hold back our tears. It was an experience we shall never forget. The sheer courage, determination, hope and cry for peace in the midst of grief puts all those who bang the drums of war to shame…

Shrikant Ramdas's report of his visit to Syria last month (November 2015)

It was by chance that I joined the international peace delegation led by Mairead McGuire, and hosted by Mother Agnes, to go to Syria in November 2015 during a most testing period for its people. As someone who is neither a journalist nor an activist, but rather an 'observer' with a deep desire for peace, it was saddening to see another country plunged into war by outside forces. We have seen this pattern repeatedly: Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Yemen even now, and countless other places, and I often felt helpless as a concerned and proud citizen of another country as to why this happens and what anyone can do. One option, a difficult one for most, is to see for oneself, and what I observed during my visit was too many emotions to adequately and justly describe what the people of Syria have been and are going through.

The people we met were across different faiths and walks of life. Few were under the illusion that their popularly elected and, indeed, generally popular leader, was perfect, yet most admired him. But even a smaller section of society who at one time may have opposed with genuine concerns had understood - this was a time to unite and defend their land and for this, they did come together to defend their little towns and cities, guarding their churches, their mosques, their schools, their children, their heritage. I developed a deep respect for them very quickly; I was sure if there was a Hindu or Buddhist or Jain temple or a Sikh Gurudwara, they would guard that too with their lives, such is their respect for humanity, such is their character.

During our visit, one of the many striking things even in their hardship and grief was how appreciative the average Syrian man, woman and child were for our presence. As a Hindu from India, I was touched by the sheer hospitality and the kind words they had for my land, even in these most trying of times. I too conveyed my deep appreciation and told them the world was awakening slowly, and hopefully more will, to their plight, their bravery, and this injustice. It is hard to pick a story among many worthy stories, but certainly "The Boy who said Mabrouk" [See at the beginning of this article] to his martyred father upon receipt of his remains, a father who may have prepared his child for this sad outcome, will never leave any of us.

I remember meeting young men and women not yet out of their teens, and telling them that I will return soon, just to check if they are ok, and that I expect they will have fulfilling lives and that they must keep the faith. The people of Syria are proud and beautiful representatives of the forces of good, and I will pray that they overcome the dark forces from outside and the few misled within who have turned yet another proud nation and people into a war-ground in the geo-political landscape controlled by the western global elite and their allies in the Middle East. To be overrun and to valiantly fight back, one can only salute not just the bravery but the resilience of the Syrian people. My biggest hope is that this ends soon, that the people of Syria survive and live in a way that many of us take for granted: a life of family, of love, of cooperation, in a society and land that had and hopefully will go back to what it was, a beautiful nation of many cultures living together in happiness and mutual respect. In my language, Syria or Sooriya as it is pronounced in Arabic, sounds similar to Surya, which means the sun, and my hope is this land will shine brightly, soon.

Shrikant Ramdas, Bangalore, India

14 Dec 2015

NOTES

[1] "Mabrouk" is an arab term meaning, "Congratulations" or "Blessed".

People are becoming more aware of the contradictions in the dominant (official) rhetoric about Syria and foreign intervention on behalf of the rebels. People hope to find out the truth from women and ordinary people, because they know they cannot really trust the mainstream media or, unfortunately, various NGOs and political organisations. Inside, find a link to an interview with Agnes Mariam about about how Syrian women feel about Islamic fundamentalism, and about the very doubtful role of the UN, NGOs and Al Jazeera in this expanding conflict.

Mother Agnes Mariam in Oct 2012

I would also like to draw your attention again to the Skype interview recorded with Mother Agnes in early January 2014. http://socratesandsyria.com/mother-agnes-mariam/ The link is to a page which contains other videos on the same subject.

We should aim to be pro-peace, pro- the interests of the people of Syria as a whole, pro- the survival of secular Syria and at the same time scrupulous in our chase for the truth, but not a slanted 'truth' which inevitably would lead to ongoing war and the ultimate destruction of the Syrian army and secular society.

In regards to being pro-regime or pro-Assad, they are accusations used to intimidate and stifle dissenting voices. The current government of Syria and its current president are not Syria and not the people, though they represent them in a political capacity at this time.

If their staying in power for some time aids the general public and the society as a whole, then may they stay in power.

It is the future of the Syrian state and the 23 million Syrians that we must be concerned about, the future of generations.

Unfortunately, with the stigmatising of the Syrian government and president all positive efforts made on their part to support the people and society are ignored outside Syria.

Apparently the government has recently introduced laws which will give more opportunity for people who work on the land to have a fairer stake in that land, so the rich absentee land owners will have to give a significant percentage of their land to poorer, working families. Regrettably, the media in Gulf states or western countries won't bother to report on such laws, both because they represent Bashar al-Assad in a positive light and because the democratic local repartition of land runs counter to their globalism values, which are for power and assets in a few international corporate and dynastic hands.

However, in regards to peace activism, it is still amazing how much good work the 'ordinary person' - people like you and me - is able to achieve. I'm referring to people with no other agenda except a search for the truth and a fervent desire for peace and harmony, so children in Palestine, Syria and the region can be sent off to school with joy and dreams in their hearts, rather than grief and fear.

In May 2013, an international peace delegation visited a camp in Lebanon with refugees from Yarmouk, one lady very discreetly told Marinella and me to work hard to get the truth because it was the truth that could save them.
This is an oft-heard remark but it is a powerful one when the continued prosecution of a war is dependent on dissembling and fabrications.

Women will persistently seek the truth in these times perhaps more often than men, given the chance. Unfortunately women's voices are less sought than men's, so the pro-war message gets magnified. Mother Agnes Mariam is a leader among women and her persistence and her bravery in speaking out against war and terror have given her an audience. May we be open to her message and not discredit it because of ignorance and because of a reliance on less informed, but familiar, faces.

#FBF8EF;line-height:120%;">It is good to hear that Syrian refugees are coming back home to Syria. Before the present conflicts, Syria was host to many refugees from other countries, including Iraq, as a result of foreign interference in the region. Although the government-held regions are safe, new refugees were created in 'rebel' occupied areas of Syria, where atrocities seem to have known absolutely no bounds. But Syrians want to come back to Syria, and most Syrians want to keep the government, as was shown by the massive voting in favour of Bashar Al Assad in the recent elections, by expatriates and Syrians in Syria. Mother Agnes Mariam, who has remained a firm and identifyable force for good in the awful Syrian conflicts, heads the Mussalaha Reconciliation Initiative in Syria (of which there is an Australian branch). One of their main messages is to say that foreign powers need to stop interfering in the Syrian conflicts because they are making it worse - all having their own agendas.

Originally published with the title, "Syrian refugees leave Lebanon's Ersal for Syria," on Thursday, August 7, 2014. Source: Agence France Press.

At least 1,700 Syrian refugees have left the eastern Bekaa town of Ersal, where troops have been battling jihadists for days, to go back to Syria, a nun helping them return said Thursday.

The departure appeared to be the first time a group of refugees has left Lebanon en masse to return to Syria, and comes after days of fighting in the border town that has killed 17 soldiers and dozens of militants.

A Lebanese security services official confirmed that the group had left Ersal and was headed to the Masnaa border crossing to leave the country, putting the number of refugees heading out at 1,500.

The Syrian nun facilitating their return, Sister Agnes, who is close to the Syrian regime, told AFP that "1,700 men, women and children have left the Ersal area for Syria".

"They are mostly from the Qalamun region, particularly from Qara,"

she said, referring to a Syrian area just across the border from Ersal, which was largely recaptured by regime forces earlier this year.

Sister Agnes, who heads a convent in Qara, said some of the 47,000 Syrian refugees in Ersal had contacted her around a month ago requesting her help in returning to Syria.

"The formalities were complicated because of the presence of some men who had not done their military service," she said.

But the Syrian government "has put no obstacles in the way of their return."

The nun, who has mediated between regime and rebel forces on several occasions inside Syria, said Lebanon authorities were also facilitating the departure of the refugees, some of whom had entered the country illegally.

She said another 3,000 refugees in Ersal were still hoping to leave and return to Syria.

In the neighbouring town of Labweh, an AFP correspondent saw the refugees packed into some 20 trucks, carrying their belongings as they headed towards the border.

The presence of the refugees in the area, and claims that some of the jihadists had emerged from Syrian refugee camps in Arsal has raised tensions in the region.

The video and letters here testify to eye-witness documentation of atrocities in Syria which Mussalaha Reconciliation Initiative in Syria spokespersons complain were ignored by the UN because they were committed by so-called ‘moderates’ supported by the US and or Saudi Arabia. The crimes ignored were so bad and so big that this accusation points to corruption in the UN on an alarming scale. Although the article summarises their content, the original letters relating to the complaint to the UN are included here. They are also published on the AMRIS site.

The video is set to begin here at the part where the witnesses tell their stories in arabic, (subtitled in English), not at the beginning of the video, which shows 'rebels' beheading people etc in a film they produced themselves to promote fear. A selection of screenshots can be accessed at http://australiansforreconciliationinsyria.org/letter-to-un-commission-of-inquiry-on-syria-is-politically-compromised/

The complaint about the UN is documented in correspondence from a Catholic nun who lives in Syria, Mother Agnes Mariam (lay name Fadia Al-Lahham),[1] and Dr Nabil Fayad[2] with Ms Navanethem Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. Mother Agnes and Dr Fayad also refer to a letter from Ismail Zien, UN Coordinator of the Independent Commission of Inquiry investigators in the Syrian region. They complain that Mr Zien has requested documentation of mostly individual incidents whilst completely ignoring the videoed documents testifying to atrocities in Adra of a severity and scale surpassing any others mentioned by him. They also describe his reporting as glossing over similar war crimes at Qara, Deir Atieh, Nebek, Sadad, Maalula.

The Adra atrocities: “brutality, violence and sheer insanity”

Adra is an industrial city north of Damascus, the capital of Syria. Work there attracted Syrians of all kinds and religions, from every part of the country. Many displaced citizens sought refuge there from rebel invasions in other parts of Syria. In early December 2013 a cohort of rebels invaded the city. Thousands fled but thousands were also trapped there. The Mussalah Reconciliation spokespeople say that every kind of horror, imaginable and unimaginable, was inflicted on Adra, every act of brutality, violence and sheer insanity. The people were subjected to bloodletting and barbarity. Groups were selected for execution because of their religion and at random. There was mass abduction, torture, gang rape, and the most violent mass murders imaginable, including the roasting alive of workers in the commercial ovens of the government bakery (not by the government, by the rebels).

Although people from the Mussalaha Initiative in Syria informed the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI) and sent them eyewitness statements about the Adra atrocities quickly after they began, they say there was no acknowledgement of this extraordinary information.

On March 12, 2014, with the publication of the 7th report of the UN Independent Commission (CoI) the events in Adra were still unacknowledged. The writers of the letter below say this was ‘the worst distortion of events yet’. They complained and say that they received an explanation that there had been ‘technical problems’ and were told that an appendix would be issued covering the war-crimes in Adra. On 12 May 2014 a letter arrived from Mr Ismail Zain (see below) requesting interviewees about human rights violations from Syria to Lebanon for events of significance which he specified. Even now Adra was not mentioned.

The complainants then ‘perceived that the issue had been closed permanently’.

They then wrote that, in their analysis, it had become widely apparent that anything that the Syrian government does wrong is immediately highlighted, expanded and rehashed as a deed of the whole apparatus of the State, while little is said about the permanent violation of human rights on the part of the rebels. Their violations, when reported, are taken in isolation, in such a manner as to attribute some blame to some of them, but not to the entire corpus of the rebel entity, nor to those who back them.

The only reason they can find for this double standard is that the UN Independent Commission has been compromised. They write that a pattern has emerged where groups of rebels like Jabhat al Nusra, which openly promotes and advertises their terrorist atrocities, and which is called ‘terrorist’ by the United State of America and even by Saudi Arabia (itself considered to be the main funder of Salafist jihadi activity in Syria) will have some of their crimes acknowledged by the UN Independent Commission. However crimes by other groups will be concealed to avoid shining a light on the fact that the people called ‘moderate rebels’ by actors outside Syria, ‘have themselves reached a similar level of unspeakable barbarity and terror’.

They say that the so-called ‘moderates’ are behind the Adra atrocities and that these crimes are going largely unreported and uninvestigated by the UN in order to protect certain international States who are ‘belligerent parties to the conflict in Syria’ and who have been the principle backers and financiers of these ‘moderates’.

Supermarket of horror

They accuse the UN Independent Commission of picking and choosing which atrocities they report, like items on shelves in a supermarket, on the basis of how acceptable the exposure of those crimes is to certain countries outside Syria. [Candobetter.net Ed. That is, they avoid reporting war crimes carried out by groups supported by countries like the United States and other NATO members, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.]

They say that they refuse to participate in this deception by the International Community the Security Council of the UN and many other government and non-government organisations that are guided by the Independent Commission’s reports. They demand that the Commission be independent and neutral.

“We want to encourage the CoI to take a transparent approach to Adra’s crimes as well as other terrifying human rights violations by the armed groups in Syria, and now Iraq, and to those who finance them and work assiduously to keep their protégés from being held accountable. Until we are sure that the CoI has rid itself of the influences that coerce it to act in a duplicitous manner manifest in its deception and bias we will suspend our cooperation in bringing forward the victims of terror for interview in Lebanon as to do so is only to further their suffering adding insult to injury when subsequently the traumatic experiences they have endured are minimised or ignored.”

Below are the actual documents, the contents of which I have summarised and edited to try to get the message across as directly as possible. The originals, whilst comprehensive and comprehensible, are written in English by non-native writers, referring to places and people which will be unfamiliar to most of our readers. So I have tried to make the contents more accessible and hope that people will also read the letters. Much of my summary below is paraphrased from the longer source material, which is included below. I have decided not to try to indicate exact paraphrasings because my objective is to make this report as short and clear as possible, but readers can obviously work out what has been directly cited or paraphrased for themselves by consulting the originals.

Letter from Mother Agnes Mariam (Fadia Al-Lahham ) to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

From: “INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TEAM FOR MUSSALAHA IN SYRIA”

Subject: Fwd: Declaration of the Mussalaha Syria to the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI).

H. E. Ms. Navanethem Pillay
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais Wilson
1201 Geneva
Switzerland

To Her Excellency Ms. Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Their Excellencies the Chairperson and Commissioners of The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI) and Their Excellencies the President, Vice-Presidents and the representatives of the current member states of the Human Rights Council at Geneva.

A declaration to the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI) from the Mussalaha Reconciliation Initiative in Syria suspending cooperation with the Commission of Inquiry.

DECLARATION

A Declaration to the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI).

We will not be a Supermarket of Horror
We are suspending our cooperation while you are politically compromised!
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI) was established on 22 August 2011 by the United Nations Human Rights Council through resolution S-17/1 with a mandate to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic. Between 22/08/2011 and 05/02/2013 the CoI had produced 7 reports. Reading these reports, we as people living within the maelstrom of the Syrian conflict, were shocked at the distorted representation of the conflict which was being presented to the international community.

On March 7th of 2013 the Mussalaha Reconciliation Initiative through the support of The Institute of Democracy and Cooperation – Paris and the Russian Orthodox Church NGO, The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society were facilitated in going to Geneva to challenge the contents of the CoI reports and to make submissions to them with regard to the inaccuracies, manipulations and the alarming omissions which we noted. Central to our mission was the desire to bring forth a more accurate representation of the Syrian reality and in particular to highlight before the Commission the many human rights abuses that were absent from their reporting.

We were thankful for an opportunity to cooperate with the Commission in the trusting belief that account would be taken of our grave concerns and thus we commenced in the work of bringing forward witnesses to recount the many horrors and abuses inflicted upon the person and the community by countless armed factions in Syria, crimes that were heretofore largely ignored by the CoI.

In the short term we have seen some small changes and mild improvements in the CoI reporting and believing that this might be the first tentative steps towards a more honest and truthful representation of events we endured in our work of collecting data and bringing forward, from various parts of Syria eye witnesses who could provide firsthand accounts to the CoI team in Lebanon. We watched and waited on the CoI to improve in its reporting but sadly we have reached our limit of tolerance and the breaking point came for us in regard to the CoI’s wilful failure to report on the unspeakable horror that was Adra!

The Horror of Adra will live in the eternal memory of a nation’s people even if it is not found in the pages of a CoI report!

Adra is a workers city on the outskirts of Damascus whose population were an amalgam of Syrians, workers from every corner and creed of the country all there to work in its many industries and services. During the conflict the population of the town had swollen as many displaced citizens fled their seeking refuge from rebel invasions in other localities. In early December of 2013 terror came to Adra as a cohort of rebels invaded the city, thousands fled but thousands more were trapped. The horror inflicted on Adra encapsulates every act of brutality, violence and sheer insanity that can be imagined and not imagined. The city’s population were subjected to bloodletting and barbarity; groups were selected for execution by religious affiliation while others suffered the same fate regardless of affiliation. War crimes and crimes against humanity were the order of the day, mass abduction, torture, gang rape and the most violent mass murders imaginable including the roasting alive of workers in the commercial ovens of government bakery.

As soon as reports stated to surface about the unfolding massacre in Adra we immediately informed the CoI and started to forward eyewitness testimonies to them and then we waited and waited for the CoI to acknowledge this a case of multiple violations of international human rights law.

On March 12th 2014 under the auspices of the IDC Paris and the IOPS, Dr Mohammad Nabil Faiyad head of the Justice Party and head of KNOW for documenting HR violations in Syria and Mother Agnes Mariam (civil name Fadia Al Lahham) President of the ISTEAMS, returned to Geneva for another session of the CoI in the company of Syrian researcher Aysar Maydani, head of the independent NGO, NOSTIA (The Network of Syrian Scientists, Technologists and Innovators Abroad) to again make submission (here and here) for a session of the CoI dedicated to the discussion of the, by now, 7th report of the commission, a report which in our opinion is the worst distortion of events yet. We jointly discussed the details of this report and expressed our astonishment at the absence of any mention of the Adra massacres even though the invasion and the accompanying atrocities took place within the timeframe addressed by the report. Likewise during the same timeframe as Adra the tragedies at Qara, Deir Atieh, Nebek, Sadad, Maalula and others had occurred and though covered they were glossed over in such a manner as to hardly represent the reality on the ground as we observed it. In respect to Adra those who spoke with us attributed this to technical problems and promised us at the highest level that an appendix would be issued detailing the crime of all crimes that is Adra.

On the 12th of May 2014 we received a letter from Mr. Ismail Zain – coordinator of the team of CoI investigators in the region requesting our assistance as usual to bring the victims of human rights violations from Syria to Lebanon to be interviewed. He mentioned the events of significance in which they took an interest. Based on the letter and the absence of any request to bring forward witnesses from Adra we perceived that the issue had been closed permanently.

From: Ismail Zien

Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 8:13:20 PM

To: MAM ofC

Dear Mother Agnes,

Friday 16 May is fine with us. Hope you can arrange the meeting in your office in Adonis.

We need 15 Witnesses/victims from:
– (Homs): car bombs.
– Karam Louz: car bombs.
– Manar school, Jourah of Bab Touma, 17 April.
– Akrama, car bomb near mosque, 17 April.
– Bader El Din Husaini Institute, al Shaghur, 29 April.
– Homs, 2 car bombs in Al Zahra , al Abassiya circle. 29 April.
– Jibreen and Hemairi villages, Hama, 2 cars bombs. 2 May.

Thank you.

Ismail

The letter is directed to Mother Agnes Mariam (Fadia Al-Lahham ) who was in the U.S.A. at the time. In the letter, Mr. Ismail Zain is requesting 15 witnesses to the following crimes: A car bombs in Homs. A car bomb in Karam Louz. Mortar shelling on the Manar School in Jourah of Bab Touma, Damascus. Mortar shelling on the Bader El Din Husaini Institute at al Shaghur, Damascus. Two car explosions in Alzahra and Al-Abassiya, Homs. Two car explosions in Jibreen and Hemairi, Hama.

Here it is necessary to mention the following:

1: Notwithstanding the video interview testimony we submitted to the CoI there is no mention at all in this letter for the need to meet witnesses who emerged recently from Adra. It is obvious that the investigation not only relies on audio-visual evidence/documentation or on the testimonies of witnesses via telephone, but rather it is preferable to interview the witnesses directly. However we did not receive such request to bring forward witnesses in respect of Adra.

2: As for the Bader El Din Husaini Institute, we were able to connect – via telephone from our office in Damascus- one of the officials in the commission with a student who was a witness to what happened at the aforementioned institute. We believe that the dialogue which took place between the two was sufficient to convey the significance of what happened and accordingly but unlike the Adra case they requested to examine witnesses to this incident.

3: We had also mentioned to the CoI the tragedy of the village of Kharaba in Al-Suwaida province but we did not hear anything in response to that tragedy as with others we had flagged.

4: Moreover even in the instances where the CoI took a selective interest in some instance of terror the timeframe by which we were required to bring forward 15 witnesses including children from Homs and Damascus to Lebanon for interview at the convenience of Mr. Ismail Zien would itself have required a small miracle.

In our analysis It has become widely apparent that any infringement from the Syrian government is immediately highlighted, expanded and rehashed as the deed of the whole apparatus of the State and repeated in numerous ways while little is said about the permanent violation of human rights on the part of the rebels whose violations when reported are taken in isolation one from other and in such a manner as to only attribute some blame to some of them but not to the entire corpus of the rebel entity and to those who back them. We ask ourselves why this double standard prevails and why the apparent selectivity in reporting of violations, sadly we are confirmed in our conclusion that the Commission is compromised in its work. A pattern has emerged where by those groups of rebels like Jabhat al Nusra who already openly promote and advertise their terrorist atrocities and who are designated as terrorist by the United States of America and even Saudi Arabia, which itself is considered the main funder of salafist jihadi activity in Syria, will have some of their crimes acknowledged by the CoI but the crimes of other groups will be concealed because to reference them is to shine a light on the fact that those designated by outside actors as “moderate rebels” have themselves reached a similar level of unspeakable barbarity and terror.

In cases like those of Adra and Kharaba where we hold and have submitted testimonies the evidence points to the fact that those behind the crimes were so called “moderates” and thus it becomes a matter of political necessity and expediency to ignore such atrocities for the convenience of certain regional and international States who are themselves belligerent parties to the conflict in Syria and stained by the crime of being the principle backers and financiers of those very same so called “moderates”.

By ignoring these incidents the CoI has failed in its remit to investigate all human rights violations and we consider this contravention deeply damaging to the credibility of a Commission which is mandated to be independent. When the Commission employs double standards among the warring parties in Syria it becomes biased and when it fails to inform the International Community on the full range of grave violations that has occurred it reduces itself to the level of a perjurer. In our own trusting hope of better we sadly find ourselves treated like a supermarket of horror where the Commission will pick and choose selectively from the atrocities we bring forward and in such a manner as to prepare reports that are acceptable to the palates of certain countries. By this totally unacceptable action we say the CoI is politically compromised.

We refuse to be instrumentalized as a component part in an act of deception that misleads the International Community, the Security Council of the U.N. as well as many other Organizations both governmental and nongovernmental that are guided by the CoI reports. We unequivocally demand the Commission be independent and neutral, and that it ends the policy of selectivity and censorship that we see so manifest in its wilful avoidance of reporting on the matter of Adra, the workers city.

We want to encourage the CoI to take a transparent approach to Adra’s crimes as well as other terrifying human rights violations by the armed groups in Syria, and now Iraq, and to those who finance them and work assiduously to keep their protégés from being held accountable. Until we are sure that the CoI has rid itself of the influences that coerce it to act in a duplicitous manner manifest in its deception and bias we will suspend our cooperation in bringing forward the victims of terror for interview in Lebanon as to do so is only to further their suffering adding insult to injury when subsequently the traumatic experiences they have endured are minimised or ignored.

Mother Fadia Laham
Head of the International Team for Reconciliation in Syria

Doctor M. Nabil Fayad
Head of Know, for documenting HR violations in Syria

NOTES

[1] Mother Agnes has a Palestinian Lebanese background, but she set up a monastery in Syria about 20 years ago. She was forced to leave the monastery after she received death threats and now is based in both Lebanon and Syria.

[2] Dr Nabil Fayad is a Syrian. He is the Head of Know, for documenting HR violations in Syria.

#F5F6CE;line-height:120%;">In Adra, Syria, in parts controlled by the 'rebels', more than 2,500 people have been abducted. No one knows their fate, however, according to reliable reports, scores of women taken hostage are raped and exhibited naked on balconies every day. Children have been thrown from roofs as the army has advanced. Inside we have embedded a video with statements from people who have survived in Adra. The Syrian government may be making some headway, however, against the terror. As reported here in another embedded video, there has been heartening reconciliation and amnesty between 'rebels' and the government in Babbila, Yalda, and Beit Sahem, three country towns in Damascus. Australia should not interfere with Syrian government attempts to restore order. They are Syria's only hope, although you will not hear this in the mainstream news, like the ABC or Murdoch papers.

Shocking crimes of radical groups in Syria

On 22 February 2014, AMRIS members had a SKYPE conversation with Mother Agnes, who was in Damascus at the time. Below is an abridged version of her update on the situation in Syria.[1] This article is a republishing (with thanks) of an AMRIS article by Susan Dirgham, with some additions and changes.

In her update, Mother Agnes refers to the shocking crimes of radical groups in Syria and speaks about their occupation of Adra, a town on the outskirts of Damascus.

The video shows 'rebels' performing public executions at the castle “Krak de Chavalier” in the Wadi al Nasra (Valley of the Christians) region and gives insight into the absence of military rules in the rebels' behaviour. At 5.40 minutes into the video, this horror is replaced by testimonies from people who have escaped Adra, a town besieged by Jabhat al-Nushra. These testimonies support what we have recorded from the skype interview with Mother Agnes Mariam on 22 February 2014.

Syria being ground into dust

In her conversation with AMRIS members via skype on 22 February 2014, Mother Agnes Mariam described how the pace and scale of destruction is accelerating in Syria. She told how Syrian resources were being 'ground into dust'. She said that the people responsible for the destruction appear fearless, making the point that they no longer pretend to justify what they are doing by talking of 'freedom' or 'democracy', because they no longer need to do so. She explained that this is because most of the world's media have normalised the killing and destruction in Syria.

"'Revolution' and fighting against the 'brutal dictator' and the 'Alawite regime' are slogans which have now served their purpose," she said. She added, that "to maintain the status quo of war and terror, however, anything the Syrian government does must be either ignored or completely discredited, and the regime demonized, still."

"Now, even more radical groups are being sent into Syria, and their crimes still shock," Mother Agnes stated.

"I have met survivors from Adra, a large industrial town on the outskirts of Damascus, which used to be an oasis of tranquility and productivity. It’s ‘the working Adra’, a town of workers and government employees. The relative calm of Adra was shattered when it was invaded by armed gangs in December 2013."

This video shows a beheading at the start which was filmed up at the castle “Krak de Chavalier” in the Wadi al Nasra (Valley of the Christians) region. The rest of the video, however, is witness testimony from people who have escaped Adra, a town besieged by Jabhat al-Nushra. These testimonies give credence to the quotes below from Mother Agnes Mariam. If people are troubled by seeing the beheading, start at 5.40 min before viewing.

Middle-aged men who escaped said, “Even in the movies, we had never seen such scary people. It seemed that they were on drugs or under some kind of evil influence,” Mother Agnes reports.

"It is not just one atrocity here and there in Syria which is occurring. The eating of the liver of a soldier last year was not an aberration. In massacres in the villages in Lattakia last year, there was evidence of the roasting and eating of a child. More recently, in Adra, workers in a bakery were thrown into the bakery oven. Those people were not government agents. They were murdered simply because they had chosen to live a normal life and not get involved in politics."

She explains that, "Before the invasion of Adra, many displaced people from besieged areas around Damascus had found sanctuary in this workers’ town. Some of them were activists who spent time making lists of the ‘non-tolerated people’ in Adra: the Alawites, the Christians, the Druze and government employees. They had names and addresses, and so when the militias took over the city they were able to efficiently perpetrate a discriminatory genocide.

Even now, part of Adra remains under the control of the ‘rebels’.

"More than 2,500 people have been abducted. No one knows their fate, however, according to reliable reports, scores of women taken hostage are raped and exhibited naked on balconies every day. Children have been thrown from roofs as the army has advanced."

She said, "I have heard many testimonies of women inside areas held by rebels in different parts of Syria. Many women have been raped and abused. There is nothing normal about war. A mentality can develop which distorts our natural compassion and sense of justice. In these rebel areas, men are encouraged to believe they are ‘lords’ and that whatever they desire can be theirs. When they utter the shaharda – in other words, they say three times “Allah is great” – everything can be theirs: a car, a building, a woman, a child."

Is this to be the future for Syria?

Mother Agnes Mariam said, "Before the siege of Adra, there were many other invasions and sieges, such as that of the old historic city of Homs, where 130,000 Christians used to live. Now almost all the Christians are displaced and their shrines destroyed. This part of Homs was not a military target. It was not taken or invaded after a big battle. There was no oppression in the streets. In February 2012 there was an invasion and today it is a big political story. Fighters say, ‘We are besieged and we are dying’, but in reality, the negotiations of the United Nations have become a safe way for the invading forces to flee."

She described two sources of armed violence:

"In Syria, there are generally two kinds of fighters. Firstly, there are Syrian fighters who took up arms either to protect their families from the perceived or real oppression of some intelligence services; or to simply survive. Those people are willing to enter into negotiations."

The other kind of fighter does not want to negotiate:

"However, the second category of fighter works under the international coalition that is intent on dismantling Syria. As more and more Syrian rebels are noting, these international forces and the fighters sponsored by them show neither care for Syria nor care for the well-being of the majority of Syrian people."

"On the other side, as the violence and strife deepens, corruption deepens. It is the human story of war. There are terrible betrayals for money or out of fear."

There is hope

Mother Agnes Mariam related, however, that,

"Parallel with these atrocities, defilement, betrayal, and corruption, you have the reconciliation process. This process is carried out by good-willed people at grass-roots level.

One result of this process is that many local rebels are now convinced that this ‘revolution’ was a Trojan horse, one used by the international alliance to dismantle Syria. Those rebels brought back into the national fold are also the good fuel, the good incentive of this dynamic for reconciliation and peace.

And despite the warlords on the ground who will do anything to prevent reconciliation and peace, this initiative is succeeding. This reality will be difficult to hide outside Syria. Reconciliation is a breakthrough in this darkness and confusion and it continues to gain momentum despite the efforts to create a de facto partitioning of Syria along the lines of Iraq and Libya."

A nation state formed of tribes which need to reconcile

According to Mother Agnes Mariam, one reason for successful reconciliation is that Arab tribes form more than 65% of the Syrian population. A tribe can be composed of 100,000 or two million people, so it becomes a matter of security for the tribe not to have any internal battles. Therefore, tribal leaders willingly enter the reconciliation process for the sake of both their tribe and for the country, as Syrians are generally very nationalistic.

Perception that the New World Order wants to destroy the Syrian nation-state

Mother Agnes Mariam said, "A perspective from Syria today is that there is a New World Order which wants to destroy the nation state. The destruction of the state may be seen to benefit finance, industry or trade control. But the Syrian people believe in their nation; it is the source of their security, their wealth, and their peace."

She believes that the time is ripe for an inter-Syrian reconciliation.

To preserve Syria, however, she believes it is vital that foreign states stop sponsoring foreign fighters to come and fight in Syria.

International community keeps war alive through misleading information

"The battle is a huge one for the people of Syria. They face the hypocrisy of the international community, including the United Nations, the Human Rights Council and some NGOs. The telling of the story of Syria has most often been far from the reality; virtual reports have been created. And despite some improvements, the reality is often still distorted, particularly the overall reality."

Expatriate information 30 years out of date

Mother Agnes Mariam added, "Much of the discourse about Syria has been shaped by the external opposition, mostly composed of people who have not lived in Syria for 30 years. They are effectively waging a war against their version of Syria based on memories dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. The faded memories of these people and their grudges are exploited by forces that wish to destroy another Middle Eastern country."

Non-violent political parties in Syria

She pointed out that, "In contrast to this external opposition and their skewed picture of 21st century Syria, there exists an internal opposition to the Baath Party. This opposition is made up of formal political parties, some in government, some not; as well as informal groups. Prominent members of the internal opposition have experience of regime prisons, however, they maintain a non-violent path toward political change.

"This opposition is ignored by the west," she said.

"To respect it would require governments to back down from their support for a violent ‘revolution’ and the destruction of Syria. In the western media, in UN reports and among NGOs, the pretense is maintained that, by definition, the opposition in Syria is militarized. This is despite there being hundreds of warlords using terror as a weapon of war making up this western sanctioned Syrian ‘opposition’."

"The pursuit of war demands black and white depictions of complex situations," she explained.

"Today, what is happening in Syria has nothing to do with a fight against an oppressive regime.

"Yesterday, [21 February, 2014] we heard the views of people coming in the south of Syria. They say, ‘we would prefer the jail of the government to the normal way of life imposed on us by the rebels’. Every day you have people who are raped, who are cut into pieces, who are beheaded. And the children, instead of attending school, are recruited to commit terror."

"It is a new form of society: a terrorist society."

She asks, "How can there be peace in Syria if the horrors and those who commit them, whether they are ‘moderate’ fighters or Al-Qaeda terrorists, are not condemned? If those who support them are not condemned? As long as the reality is concealed, the death and destruction will continue."

There is a fear that the ancient citadel in the heart of Aleppo will be destroyed.

"As has happened in Iraq, it seems the green light has been given to destroy the cultural and archeological resources of Syria. The memory of our human history in this ancient country, the relics which have been reminders over millennia of our humanity, may be lost forever."

Jihadists organised from Great Britain and Australia

She sees that, "In the 21st century, people are leaving Great Britain and Australia for Syria because they strive for jihad. But this by itself is not the reason they eventually find themselves in Syria. There is a tight network supporting these fighters. Thus, it could be argued there is hypocrisy in the claim that they will be arrested when they come back. They are not supposed to return. They are in Syria to destroy it and are expected to stay until the destruction is complete.

Yesterday, we were told by local fighters, 'If the president gives us bread and electricity, we will surrender because we can work.' But it was not the president who cut the electricity. It is the militias who cut the electricity to deprive the civilian population from a way of gaining a living for their family. It is one way of dragooning ordinary people into the battle."

War in Syria can only end if foreign interference ends

"This is an international conflict occurring in Syria. It is not a civil war. Saudi Arabia commits millions of dollars to keeping the conflict alive, so terror reigns and the country burns, with the blessing of the United States, Turkey, France and other allies. Israel openly provides medical aid to wounded fighters and sends them back to fight the regular Syrian army. It is a dirty war.

Even though Russia and Iran say they want to help Syria, in the end, each country will work for its own interests.

And their interests will not always suit the interests of Syria. Therefore, there must be an end to any foreign interference inside Syria. Syrian people must be left to deal with their own matters in a non-violent way.

It is the reconciliation movement which can help bring peace to Syria, if the world permits it."

Interview with Sister Agnes Mariam ended here.

Film: The Babbila Reconciliation: a Light at the End of Syria’s Dark Tunnel

Film published on 18 February 2014, with this description: "The Syrian government's efforts in promoting reconciliation and amnesty to Syrian militants who took up arms against it has paid off. Babbila, Yalda, and Beit Sahem are three towns in the Damascus countryside that recently had reconciliation between their militants and the Syrian Army. These deals included agreements on ceasefire, lifting of siege, allowing food and aid to get in, and the giving up of weapons - in most cases - in exchange for the residents raising the Syrian flag.

In Babbila, videos of the armed Islamist militants standing side by side with the Syrian Army might have seemed strange a week ago; however, today, this presents a sliver of hope that there might actually be a way out of this conflict, if all Syrians work together to get their country back." (Sources: NDF Media (Syria), al-Mayadeen TV (Lebanon))

NOTES

Notes were taken by three people and this version is a combination of my notes and Susan Dirgham's notes published on the AMRIS site, with the insertion of headings and some paraphrasing by me.

Update, 17 Dec 2013 : UN's Syria "Aid" Appeal is Bid to Relieve Trapped Terrorists by Tony Cartalucci. Ottawa, (SANA) - Mother Agnes Mariam el-Salib said that the international media is involved in hiding the facts and incidents taking place in Syria such as sending mercenaries and Takfiri gunmen to fight beside the armed terrorist groups. This article originally was published on 8 Dec 2013 by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

During a gathering organized by Solidarity Group with Syria n cooperation with Syrian-Canadian Association in Ottawa, Mother Agnes, mother superior of St. James Monastery in Qara, screened images and footages at St. Paul University clarifying the reality of events in Syria.

She stressed that the Syrian people are always able to reach a solution formula provided that they are let alone without foreign interference, yet the problem lies in those mercenaries who came only to kill and sabotage.

Mother Agnes stressed the importance of dialogue and the need for renouncing violence and concentrating on the role of national reconciliation.

#F5EFFB;line-height:120%;">People all over the world have been shocked to discover that Mother Agnes Mariam, heroine to many women and men all over the world and peace activist on the ground in Syria, withdrew from speaking at a UK peace conference because two British supposedly 'left-wing' male speakers and journalists - Jeremy Scahill and Owen Jones - threatened to withdraw from speaking if she spoke. Neither speaker has given any substantive explanation for their objections to Mother Agnes, but it seems that both have succumbed to propaganda that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad is brutal and that Agnes Mariam supports the government. This treatment of Mother Agnes Mariam is tragically bizarre, when she has eclipsed professional peace negotiators in so many spheres at once: In her physical bravery in rescuing thousands of people in the war-torn region; as a nun-pacifist woman-leader in the male-dominated politics of church and war; and as a local peace-activist in an internationalised field of jihadists. The article below seeks to highlight just some of these injustices. See links at the end of this article, under "Notes," including a filmed interview with Mother Agnes Mariam done by Susan Dirgham of AMRIS in Australia July 2013.

A few weeks ago, following months of siege in a suburb of Damascus, over 5000 civilians were helped to safety during a ceasefire negotiated by Mother Agnes Mariam of the Cross. This suburb of Moadamiya al Sham was one of several around Damascus held by armed rebel groups and foreign jihadists, with the residents trapped there and facing serious food and supply shortages.

Whether these residents were supportive of the 'revolution' - or insurgency - or not, it was in the rebel groups interests to hold them there as 'human shields'; negotiating their release. Movement to the safety of government shelters in Damascus was therefore fraught with difficulties and dangers.

Mother Agnes risked life and got 5,400 people released from rebel capture

A 'negotiating team' was assembled to go into the heart of rebel territory, led by Mother Agnes - not just figuratively. She went ahead with a white flag, risking her life and faith that a sniper would not put an end to this humanitarian mission. Joined by the rest of the team she then came to a reconciliation and agreement with rebel leaders on the release of some 5,400 people, mostly women and children.

While this was a great success, perhaps more significant was the voluntary surrender of over 500 'rebel fighters', who had clearly been impressed by her entreaties to give up the fight and return to 'fight for Syria', accepting the Government's offer of amnesty.

In her report on the 'rescue of Moadamiya' she emphasises that the Government for its part kept to its word, and faith - that those men who genuinely surrender will not be punished or ill-treated.
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Syria inspired

It is as though the spirit of reconciliation and peace embodied in Jesus' preachings and actions 2000 years earlier in this land is being reborn, and it is happening through the agency of people of such genuine good will and faith as Mother Agnes. Such a spirit is infectious, and others are inspired to forgive and to reconcile and to trust; this is the spirit now which can heal Syria's dreadful wounds.

Treacherous foreign powers

The spirit that could heal those wounds .... were it not for the treachery and ill-intent of foreign powers who have already invested so much in destabilising Syrian society and destroying its wealth and infrastructure with their proxy armies of fanatics and mercenaries. The regaining of control by the Syrian government threatens the whole project for regional influence and control that is the driving force behind 'the West's' behaviour over Syria. It is increasingly clear that the West has lost the battle, in the absence of military intervention.

What should the 'Western powers' do?

So what should 'We' do? How can the West stop the truth of the last two and a half years emerging? The truth behind the many 'massacres' confected to excuse Western intervention? The truth of Syrians fleeing from rebel 'liberated' areas? ("Liberated from their inhabitants," as Mother Agnes points out.) The truth of the 'Chemical Weapons attack' on Ghouta that nearly brought about a regional war, despite not a single proven victim? ( The OPCW team did no autopsies.)

Perhaps those responsible for the recent denigration of Mother Agnes Mariam were inspired by biblical history, realising that a 'betrayal' from those who would be her supporters could deliver a mortal blow. And so it came to pass that contributors to the Stop the War Peace Conference in the UK refused to share a platform with this true peacemaker.

Have we learned anything in two thousand years?

NOTES

Related material:

Richard Edmondson, "‘Investigative Journalist’ Scahill Takes Swipe at Mother Agnes" of 17 Nov 2013.

Neil Clark, Mother Agnes and the ‘liberal’ hawks out to silence her of 20 Nov 2013.

Candobetter.net's Mother Agnes Mariam pages.

Mother Agnes Mariam's letter withdrawing from the Stop the War conference (pdf, 66K).

Internet Site of the UK Stop the War Conference.

#EFF8FB;line-height:120%;">550 men decided to leave Moadamiya and surrender to the Syrian Army. All were taken to a rest house and served with dignity. Then 50 at a time were taken to the frightening Air Force Intelligence headquarters for two hours of discussion and registration. They will spend one more night in the rest house and then the majority will be able to go back to normal civilian life. Those who have perpetrated crimes will be kept in this rest house for a rehabilitation period.

It is the FIRST time that we have seen such a thing in Syria.

These matters of facts are UNIQUE in the history of the Syrian conflict. No one entered at the air force security services and went out in two hours unless to the grave! A transformation is ongoing.
Agnes-Mariam of the Cross, Head of the International Support Team for Musalaha (Reconciliation) in Syria.

The real story of Moadamiya

October 31, 2013

And how the ‘release’ of over 5000 women and children was negotiated and secured by a team led by Mother Agnes Mariam.

While Western media have been talking of the siege of Moadamiya – of a siege imposed on suffering civilians by the ruthless Syrian army – and of the urgent need for intervention to prevent starvation, Mother Agnes has been working steadily with ALL parties to the conflict to negotiate a way out of this deadly confrontation for the innocent civilian population trapped in the suburb of Damascus.

On Tuesday, 29th October, the final stage of the plan was achieved, and all those civilians wishing to leave were able to reach the safety of a government ‘guest house’ in Damascus, where they will stay until new plans can be made when the Syrian army ‘liberates’ Moadamiya from the remaining ‘rebel’ fighters.

This photo reportedly depicts Mother Agnes proceeding into rebel territory under the anxious eyes of those she has left. She is carrying a white flag. "Despite the entreaties of her team, Agnès-Mariam is producing a white flag and adventure beyond the entrance arch, in rebel territory, a no man’s land known for hiding 12 snipers among the deadliest. Members of the team are watching anxiously for her. Her team follows her. Joined by Sister Carmel and two members of her team, Mother Agnès-Mariam is welcomed by the men of the revolution that came without their weapons. Out of the factory they find themselves with women from Mouaddamiyya waiting for their evacuation."

You may read Mother Agnes's account of what has been happening for the last couple of weeks, as well as showing how a remarkably committed and brave single person can change the course of an intractable conflict on the "Step Back Site." This site has the mission of appealing to journalists reporting on the war in Syria to question pro-war statements by politicians.

The site is not in perfect English and some photographs are missing. This is why I did not transcribe it here. I did not want to confuse any of the message, which is one of bravery and day by day negotiations with warlords.

Attention Avaaz, Amnesty International, NATO, Hilary...
"Let the Syrian people alone. Let the Syrian people alone! Leave us alone! You are not bringing anything else but death, fear, chaos, instability, with your big declarations and with your big assemblies, and, also, with your big powers."
This is the transcription of the brave protest against foreign intervention in Syria by a Syrian-based Catholic nun, (video included) speaking for a number of Syrian leaders, whom she describes as including Muslims, pacifists, family and tribal leaders. Mother Mariam shows leadership in a new internet tradition where women are beginning to speak out against warmongers where their men cannot or will not. Mother Agnes Mariam and Syrian Girl Partisan are two great ladies speaking up for peace, truth and justice. We would like to encourage other women to magnify these women's voices and help them to forge a local, non-violent movement as well as to defend what is good in Syria.Attention Avaaz, Amnesty International, NATO, Hilary...

"Let the Syrian people alone. Let the Syrian people alone! Leave us alone! You are not bringing anything else but death, fear, chaos, instability, with your big declarations and with your big assemblies, and, also, with your big powers."
This is the transcription of the brave protest against foreign intervention in Syria by a Syrian-based Catholic nun, (video included) speaking for a number of Syrian leaders, whom she describes as including Muslims, pacifists, family and tribal leaders. Mother Mariam shows leadership in a new internet tradition where women are beginning to speak out against warmongers where their men cannot or will not. Mother Agnes Mariam and Syrian Girl Partisan are two great ladies speaking up for peace, truth and justice. We would like to encourage other women to magnify these women's voices and help them to forge a local, non-violent movement as well as to defend what is good in Syria.

The interview took place in Ireland on 12 August 2012 and was filmed and published on the Irish Times by Patsy McGarry.

Mother Agnes Mariam to Outside Powers

It's a life of fear, of insecurity and of lack of future. We are divided like a kind of tumour. In every part we have armed people coming and forcing people - civilians - to live following their orders.

And what they want is to paralyse civilian life so there is no more shops. If you need something ou can't find a worker. And, of course, you don't have nutrition, you don't have alimentation. Lack of food, lack of fuel, lack of electricity.

And this fear, because you don't know when it will be your turn to be considered as a collaborator. And we think that something is going wrong mroe and more in the general way of orienting this strive ... what's so-called for freedom an democracy.

On the totalitarian regime in Syria and its violent replacement

I am not Syrian, but I have been living in Syria for today almost 20 years. Syria was under a kind of totalitarian regime but not in only a way a repressive way but it was that all the decision would be taken by few persons. But there was security, there was food, education and people were living - of course not in ... kind that they would say their thinking in a loud voice.

Now, this totalitarianism is not good, and it's obsolete, but if the armed insurrection is implementing another totalitarianism which is maybe worse because there is blood, they can behead you, they can cut your - in last week in our village they cut the fingers of a so-called 'collaborator', who is not ev[en] from the village. Then they behead him, they cut him in piece and they left him in the street, where even children would see it.

So this kinds of acts of atrocities cannot help people to really believe that what is happening is a strive for freedom.

The majority of the Syrian population, I say, is taken as hostage, and sometimes as a tool, as [?enemy] by these armed, insurrection armed...armed insurrection people. They come and they take place in the civilian areas.

Why isn't the fighting in the desert instead of amongst civilian residences?

Why?

Why you don't make your combat - We have a lot of desert. It is against international laws.

Western world seems to be encouraging sectarian violence to topple Assad

But what really scandalises us and leaves us in distress is that the Western world seemed to be encouraging this rise of sectarian violence just to topple the regime.

We are, we are against violence and we are against justifying violence.

You can't say that this man is killing another man and he is justified to kill him. Moreover when, through his movements, he is putting in real danger and having terrible collateral damage, to a whole civilian population, which was not - That's what is happening in Aleppo.

You know, we are responsible and we are - if we are not responsible today, we are responsible tomorrow, to history.

To not speak out is to allow terrible atrocities to continue

Once all those atrocity will be revealed, when you will see a family whose girl has been abused, or, I have heard about collective abusing - whose son has been beheaded, whose father has been abducted.

You know that there are thousands of people we don't know where they are because they have been abducted.

Sometimes they are bandits. They say, "We are in the revolution," but they are bandits. Mafias who come to ask ransome.

Some others they have like sectarian hatred, so they take this one because he is [?Arab or Alep]; they take this one because he is a moderate Muslim.

So we don't know. It's a confusion, it's a chaos.

"What are they doing in Aleppo? Why are they doing? Why are they funded and helped and fueled with weapons and why are they introducing themselves in between the civilian population?"

International Community hypocritical, untrustworthy, funding violence

And what really grieve us is that the international community holds a paradox.

On one side they want, they say, with hypocrisy, "We want peace, we want to protect the civilian population." They even want to intervene in a military way like in other countries. But on the other hand, they are funding, sending intelligence helps and sending weapons to rebels - really you don't know from where they come.

Syrians are trying to forge non-violence movement

We are working with our religious leaders, with Muslim religious leaders, with pacifist, with also a leader - family leaders, tribal leaders - to say that there is a third way. And the third way is a way of non-violence, but real non-violence. When there is no attacks and aggression, there is not - there is no motivation for any repression.

Syrians asking International Community to respect their Human Rights and Geneva Convention

Second, the civilian society in Syria is upset and we are asking for human rights. Not only human rights for rebels, but human rights for the normal citizens, who are caught in between.

And we are asking also why should the combats be held in civilian areas, for example, in Aleppo, those people they came from outside. I have been talking with prelates, I have been talking with families. They don't know whom they are. They are foreigners. Either they come from Northern villages -from Idlib or from North Aleppo countryside, or they come from foreign countries. What are they doing in Aleppo? Why are they doing? Why are they funded and helped and fueled with weapons and why are they introducing themselves in between the civilian population? And then they say that the army is bombing civilian areas.

Please! Don't enter in civilian population. Don't enter in residence area. Go to the desert if you want to make your war. It is against human rights and it is against the Charter of Geneva.

Ghandi, Mandela - non-violent path the best, and finding common ground

So, I want to say to all who are looking at me, "I am a Christian, and I believe in God. I believe in Jesus Christ. Non-violence is the best way to get what we want. The non-violence. And in all good revolutions - you look at Ghandi, you look at Nelson Mandela - even, you look here, in Ireland, when you can stop violence and you can enter in a real path of dialogue, accepting the other. Sometimes you have to forget your interest. You cannot take everything. You forget it. We can arrive to a common ground. We can make a new social pact. You know.

Asks foreign powers: Please leave the Syrian people alone and don't encourage martyrs

And I want to also to ask: Let the Syrian people alone. Let the Syrian people alone! Leave us alone! You are not bringing anything else but death, fear, chaos, instability, with your big declarations and with your big assemblies, and, also, with your big powers. Leave the Syrian people alone. Enough, it's enough! Leave those people and stop funding weapons for 'rebels' you bring from I don't know what. We are crying also because those people they have a mother, they have a father, they are human beings and, sometimes, they don't know where they are. And they think that fighting in Syria or fighting where they are fighting, will open for them heaven and paradise, and this is alienating.

It is great to see two politically engaged women speak out about Syria. On the one hand we have Syrian Girl Partisan, who has reported in around 20 home-made films. Now a Catholic nun based in Syria has stood up and denounced Western reporting on events there. What she and others seek in Syria is “reform, no violence, no foreign intervention.” She hopes for “a new, third way, a new social pact where the right to autodetermination without outside interference” would be respected.

This article with the video is republished from Global research TV

Click on arrow to watch video interview with Sister Agnes Mariam.

Media Coverage of Syrian Violence Partial and Untrue
by grtv

As posted on theIrish Times by Patsy McGarry:

A NUN who has been superior at a Syrian monastery for the past 18 years has warned that media coverage of ongoing violence in that country has been “partial and untrue”. It is “a fake”, Mother Agnes Mariam said, which “hides atrocities committed in the name of liberty and democracy”.

Superior of the Melkite Greek Catholic monastery of St James the Mutilated in Qara, in Syria’s diocese of Homs, which is in full communion with Rome, she left Ireland yesterday after a three-day visit during which she met representatives of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Maynooth.

She told The Irish Times she was in Ireland “not to advocate for the (Assad) regime but for the facts”. Most news reports from Syria were “forged, with only one side emphasised”, she said. This also applied to the UN, whose reports were “one-sided and not worthy of that organisation”.

UN observers in Syria had been “moderate with the rebels and covered for them in taking back positions after the withdrawal of heavy equipment, as seen so tragically in Homs”, she said.

When it was put to her this suggested the whole world was out of step except for Syria, Russia and China, she protested: “No, no, there are 20 countries, including some in Latin America” of the same view.

The reason the media was being denied easy access to Syria currently was because in the Libyan conflict journalists placed electronic devices for Nato in rooms used at press conferences in that country, she said. “So Syria didn’t want journalists,” she said.

Christians make up about 10 per cent of Syria’s population, dispersed throughout the country, she said. The Assad regime “does not favour Christians”, she said. “It is a secular regime based on equality for all, even though in the constitution it says the Koran is the source of legislation.”

But “Christians are less put aside [in Syria] than in other Islamic countries, for example Saudi Arabia,” she said. “The social fabric of Syria is very diverse, so Christians live in peace.”

The “Arab insurrection” under way in that country included “sectarian factions which promote fundamentalist Islam, which is not genuine Islam”, she said.

The majority of Muslims in Syria are moderate and open to other cultural and interfaith elements, she said. “Wahhabism (a fundamentalist branch of Islam) is not open,” she added.

Christians in Syria were “doubtful about the future if the project to topple the regime succeeded”. The alternative was “a religious sectarian state where all minorities would feel threatened and discriminated against”, she said.

There was “a need to end the violence”, she said. “The West and Gulf states must not give finance to armed insurrectionists who are sectarian terrorists, most of whom are from al-Qaeda, according to a report presented to the German parliament,” she said.

“We don’t want to be invaded, as in Aleppo, by mercenaries, some of whom think they are fighting Israel. They bring terror, destruction, fear and nobody protects the civilians,” she said. There were “very few Syrians among the rebels”, she said. “Mercenaries should go home,” she said.

What she and others sought in Syria was “reform, no violence, no foreign intervention.” She hoped for “a new, third way, a new social pact where the right to autodetermination without outside interference” would be respected. (Source: Irish Times)