Michel Kilo is the most prominent Syrian Christian
writer and pro-democracy campaigner.
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| Kilo and Lavrov & Syrian women committing to oust Assad |
He was released from prison in May 2009 after serving a three-year sentence and now lives in
exile in Paris.
He
was among seven opposition figures jailed in 2006 for signing the Damascus
Spring Declaration.
The
declaration, signed by 500 Lebanese and Syrians, called for normalizing
Lebanese-Syrian relations, demarcating the Syrian-Lebanese border and an end to
political killings in Lebanon blamed on Damascus.
Kilo,
one of the key Syrian opposition figures invited to Moscow earlier this month
for inconclusive talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, is renowned for
expressing his opinions without verbal zigzagging.
That’s
what he does in his think
piece for today's edition of the Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat on what the Syrian
opposition “should do now” as it strives to take control of Aleppo and Damascus.
Kilo writes in part:
I
have a three-pronged answer to what the opposition should do forthwith.
(1)
Set us a transitional government of across-the-board national unity after
consulting the Local
Coordination Committees of Syria (LCCS), the Free Syrian Army (FSA)
and the opposition at home and abroad.
Most
members of such a government should be drawn from the LCCS and FSA. Government
seats should also be left open for regime members whose hands have not been
stained with blood.
The
task is very pressing.
Once
formed, the government must issue a ministerial policy statement, the drafting
of which should start at once. The statement would determine measures and
policies liable to maintain the integrity of the Syrian state and society. It
would ascribe confidence-building roles to what the West calls “minorities.” It
would involve them in ceasefire, pacification and national reconciliation
arrangements and in overseeing particular areas disjointed by the regime’s
sectarian policies and the retaliatory policies of some opposition groups.
Under
no circumstances should this be a proportional government. Futile disagreements
over the alleged size of this or that group are anathema because the government
would be in charge of the currently liberated areas, and of the whole country
after the regime’s fall.
It
would safeguard the border with Israel and prevent any regional player from
taking advantage of the Syria crisis to sow dissent or abort an all-Syrian solution
or obstruct Assad’s exit.
It
would solicit Arab aid, with possible international input, so as to control the
situation during the transition phase.
The
government should include representatives from all components of Syrian society
and adhere to a consensual national program embraced by all Syrian. The program
essentially endorses the Syrian state and society’s integrity, citizenship,
human and minority rights and the posited fundamentals of the transition phase.
(2)
Put out a national manifesto, to be drafted and signed by all hues of the
Syrian opposition, including the LCCS, the FSA, the Syrian National Council (SNC)
and political parties, irrespective of their current nomenclatures. The
manifesto would characterize the new-Syria that the signatories undertake to
create. It would specify the procedural ways and phases to do so as well as the
steps to be made in each phase. It would forswear recrimination, discrimination
and exclusion and uphold tolerance in a free and cohesive Syrian state and
society.
(3)
It is imperative that Syrian army and security personnel take an unambiguous
stand decoupling them from the regime and binding them with their people. The
move would return them to their natural fold to share in procreating the Syrian
state and society as a free and plural democracy respectful of human and civil
rights and averse to religious, ethnic and social class discrimination. The
Syrian people want the army and security forces to be on their side. They look
forward to cooperating with nationalist and honest regime people whose hands
are not stained with their blood… Reciprocity is hence required. A move from within
the opposition should be matched by one from within the regime so the two sides
can link up to end the country’s predicament.
The
three steps should be worked on concomitantly straight away.
