New Syrian national coalition wants weapons, "not only bread"
November 14, 2012: The Arab League has recognised the new National Coalition for
Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
It will be the only group to represent the Syrian people.
The new group agreed
to in Doha (Qatar) on Sunday after long discussions will be led by Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib,
a Sunni and a former imam of the Great Mosque in Damascus, together with George Sabra,
a Christian, who was recently chosen as the president of the Syrian National Council,
the main opposition group in Syria.
Moaz will lead a coalition that brings
together various groups that emerged following the start of the anti-Assad revolt
in March 2011. Western nations are expected to recognise the group shortly. However,
despite efforts to bring together opposition groups, no shared political agenda has
been agreed to stop the violence and impose a ceasefire.
The dreaded "descent
into the underworld" that Mgr Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio to Damascus had predicted
in an interview with AsiaNews, has occurred, made worse by the collapse of diplomatic
efforts in favour of war. In fact, the two new leaders of the Syrian opposition have
said that armed struggle is the only way to defeat Assad and help the Syrian people.
According
to Moaz, the international community must act the way it did in Libya against Gaddafi
and Iraq against Saddam Hussein. For Sabra, Syrian rebels need weapons "not just bread
and water," because "The regime continues to stock up arms" from its historical ally,
Russia. So far, the West has been stalling over possible NATO action or giving weapons
directly to the rebels. Instead, they have been doing it through Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
With
international recognition, the new coalition will now be able to receive money and
weapons from foreign countries, albeit not the United States or the European Union.
For Qatar Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiya, with international legitimacy, the coalition
can secure weapons without external approval. Sources told AsiaNews that the flow
of weapons is making the situation worse and more chaotic. People are getting tenser
by the day. The war has reached Damascus, where fighting has broken out in the central
neighbourhoods, and after many months, it has devastated Aleppo, the country's trading
hub.
No one knows how many people have died so far. At the low end, some 30,000
people are thought to have died; at the high end, the death toll might be 50,000.
And it is non-stop. Today, for example, fighting and air strikes were reported in
the provinces of Idlib, Homs, Deir Izzour, al-Raqqah, Deraa and Reef Dimashq. "In
Syria, everyone is armed. There is no security and the presence of foreign fighters
has been confirmed," the sources explained.
Non-Syrians have attacked and desecrated
Christian sites in Aleppo, Homs, and Deir Izzour. "Syrians have always respected
Christians and would never have done such things." Air strikes and the humanitarian
crisis are compounded by abductions and crime. Thugs can act in a situation of impunity
and lawlessness. "Some believe that such acts are connected to sectarianism, to the
conflict between Alawis and Sunnis," the sources said. However, the thugs themselves
acknowledge that they "kidnap for money, not for political reasons."
Meanwhile
people continue to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring countries, like
Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. According to UN sources, some 400,000 Syrians have
fled abroad. Through Caritas, the Church is one of the few organisations to provide
actual help to those displaced, forced into in makeshift camps unrecognised by the
authorities, without water and power.
Card Robert Sarah, head of the Pontifical
Council Cor Unum and special papal envoy to Lebanon in lieu of a delegation of the
Synod of Bishops in Syria, said he saw "unprecedented suffering" among refugees fleeing
the civil war. At "the border with Syria," he saw "A mother [who] wanted to entrust
to me her four-month-old son, because she had left her husband behind in Syria and
didn't know when she would see him again." Christian and Muslim refugees asked him
to call on the pope to pray for them.