Syrian refugees at a camp on on the Syrian-Turkish border. Photo: Photo: FreedomHouse / flickr CC.
Syria and peace
In the first of two articles, Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire offers a personal account of a recent visit to Syria. She urges the international community to support a process of dialogue and reconciliation.
After a ten-day visit to Lebanon and Syria, leading a sixteen-person delegation from eight countries, invited by the Mussalaha Reconciliation Movement, I have returned hopeful that peace is possible in Syria if all outside interference is stopped and the Syrians are allowed to solve their own problems, upholding their right to self-determination. An appeal to end all violence, and for Syrians to be left alone from outside interference, was made by all those we met during our visit to Syria. During our visit we went to refugee camps, saw affected communities and met religious leaders, combatants, government representatives, opposition delegations and many others – perpetrators and victims – in Lebanon and Syria.
