The Vatican is urging the international community to help find peaceful ways for those in Syria to live together.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, said the UN needs to look at what might happen in the near future in a country that’s made up of Suni and Shia Muslim, Alawite, Christian, and Kurds, and to find a way for these groups “to live together without violence.”
Tomasi was commenting on Friday’s resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council condemning Syria for “gross and systematic” violations by security forces.
According to the UN’s top human rights forum, Syrian violations included executions and the imprisonment of some 14,000 people, and on Saturday at least 15 people died in fierce fighting between security forces and army rebels in northern Syria as violence intensified in the eighth month of unrest against President Bashar al-Assad.
“The delegation of the Holy See follows with great concern the dramatic and growing episodes of violence in Syria which have caused many victims and grave suffering,” said Tomasi.
“On this occasion I wish to reiterate the repeated appeals of the Holy Father to the faithful to pray that the effort for reconciliation may prevail over division and resentment, and to the authorities and all the citizens to spare no effort in the search for the common good and in the acceptance of legitimate aspirations for a future of peace and stability.”
Violence rather than dialogue is the way the Middle East resolves tension and conflict, the prelate said.
Saying that peace is not only the preoccupation of the Holy See, Tomasi urged the entire international community to find practical solutions which help and encourage peace and reconciliation in Syria.
“Finding a path to reconciliation and a way of living together in mutual respect of the fundamental rights of everyone,” Tomasi told the assembly.
Sources
- Vatican News
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