Syria and peace
Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire, in the second of two articles on her recent visit to Syria, writes of her experience
Our delegation met and spoke, at the Syrian parliament, with the governor, prime minister and seven other ministries. We were given details of the new constitution and political reforms being put in place and plans for elections in 2014. Government ministers admitted that they had made mistakes in being slow to respond to legitimate demands for change from the civil community, but these were now being implemented. They told us that at the start protests were peaceful, however, they quickly turned into bloodshed when armed men killed many soldiers. In the first days soldiers were unarmed but, when people started asking for protection, the government and military responded, they said, to defend the people and in self defence.
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