Speaker promotes peace in Syria

On Monday, May 20 at 7 p.m. Shadi Alkattan will give a presentation on the prospect for peace in war-torn Syria sponsored by the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition.

“My dad specifically chose to leave Syria because he was being forced to join the Army, so he fled before he had to do his time,” Alkattan said about his family’s experience living in Syria.

This eyewitness account will be delivered at the Monroe County Public Library in room B1.

The Syrian civil war is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Syrian Ba’ath Party government and those seeking to oust it. Starting in March 2011, popular demonstrations became nationwide in less than a month.

These demonstrations were part of the wider Middle Eastern protest movement known as the Arab Spring.

Protesters demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has held the presidency in Syria since 1971. They also demanded the end to over four decades of Ba’ath Party rule.

The Syrian Army was deployed to crush the uprising in April 2011. Controversy began when soldiers were ordered to fire on demonstrators across the country. After months of this type of conflict, protests evolved into an armed rebellion.

Defected soldiers and volunteer civilians became increasingly armed and organized as they unified.

However, the rebels remained disorganized in their leadership.

The conflict has no clear fronts. This causes conflict to take place all across the country, in many small towns and cities.

“We wanted Shadi to speak because the situation in Syria is urgent,” said Linda Greene, coordinator of the event.

Alkattan’s presentation will take place following his recent trip to Syria.

“Syria is a beautiful country with very amazing, pure-hearted people,” Alkattan said. “I am from Damascus. It is the oldest inhabited capital in the world. There is so much history there and now it is getting destroyed.”

Alkattan said the situation there is horrific. There is no available food, electricity, running water or medical supplies.

“The entire time I was there, a plane flew by and bombed random locations, he said. “There were also a lot of orphans running in the streets.”

He explained that his parents and his family came to the United States because there was more opportunity here. His parents chose to settle in South Bend because it seemed like a small quiet town and a good place to raise a
family.

“I believe it is my mission to tell the stories of the people there,” he said. “Because a lot of people here have no idea what is happening in Syria.”
 
He said it is a shame because a lot of people won’t get to experience Syria. yet he remains hopeful.

“But maybe one day after the revolution the country can be rebuilt and be better than what it used to be,” he said.