L’Œuvre d’Orient is deeply concerned about the conflict currently affecting southern Syria, which has claimed at least 940 lives—including 262 civilians—and displaced 80,000 people. Homes in several villages with mixed Christian and Druze populations have been looted and then burned.
The Melkite church in the village of Sara was set on fire, and several hundred people have now taken refuge in the Melkite parish of Shorba, the Capuchin church, and the Greek Orthodox archbishopric in Sweida—without water, food, or electricity.
L’Œuvre d’Orient calls for:
– all parties to respect the ceasefire.
– an independent investigation be conducted into the executions of civilians
—and that those responsible for the murder of Pastor Khaled Mazar, leader of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Sweida, who was executed along with all the members of his family, be brought to justice and punished.
It urges the authorities in Damascus to allow the evacuation of civilians, establish a humanitarian corridor, and protect the population.
It calls for the international community to be able to provide emergency aid to the residents of the Sweida region and for support for the new authorities in Damascus to be conditional on respect for human rights and the protection of Syria’s civilian populations, particularly members of the Druze, Alawite, and Christian minorities.
