A few days after my first letter to the Assad regime Ambassador in Washington DC, Imad Mustapha, on May 6, 2011 regarding the Syrian Revolution, I received a phone call from him. He claimed that there was NO Revolution in Syria, but rather a world conspiracy to destroy his regime, and that the demonstrators were motivated by foreign agendas and that most of what the media was saying was a bunch of lies. He also said that his government was ready to respond positively to some of the demands of the angry protesters, but only after they go back home. He asked me to write another letter showing my vision how to stop the violence and to bring the crises to a peaceful end, promising that he would forward it to the decision makers in Damascus. After I wrote the letter and before mailing it to him, gruesome news came out; a 13 years old child, Hamza Al-Khateeb, was tortured to death at the hands of the Assad security forces. That horrifying incidence convinced me that we were facing a ‘Ghoulish’ regime that had no interest in solving the crises by peaceful means. Even thought I published the letter publically, I never contacted the Ambassador after that.
My Second Letter to the Syrian Ambassador
In Washington DC
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Mr. Imad Mustapha, PhD. Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Syria in Washington DC, Salam
Allow me first to thank you in regard to your phone call to me, Thursday May 26, 2011, which came as a response to my letter to you on the Syrian Memorial Day three weeks ago. I will respond to your call in this public letter as I believe in the valuable Arabic poetry verse which says
“The spoken words are impossible to last,
Only the ones in writing do”
Mr. Ambassador
Unfortunately, nothing has happened in Syria during the last few weeks except increasing the number of those who were killed and shedding more of the Syrian blood by Syrian hands. That was exactly the contrary of what I wished in my mentioned letter, and also of what I wished you to accomplish by intervening in person. As I told you two days ago, I wished we could have been introduced to each other under different circumstances, but I’m still hopeful that our contact now may help, somehow, in putting ideas forward to heel the wounds and find solutions to the crises which are storming the Homeland.
As you told me you found a lot of passion for our country in the words of my poems that you read, I say here that I also found the same in the words I heard from you during our phone call. But, unfortunately, neither my poems nor your words alone can stop the blood bath we see there in daily episodes. You asked me, as an expatriate independent writer and poet, about my vision how to lead our country to exit from its current suffering. I can tell you, with full confidence which is supported by the lessons of history, that any civilized end to a crises of this kind and weight in any country can only start from one concept ‘The benefit of the country and the people should be above all other benefits’. It means that the political leadership should look for the best tools and be ready to make sacrifices in order to accomplish that benefit. Tools and sacrifices away from the blood of the people who, in my opinion, gave enough sacrifices so far, and it is now the leaderships’ turn to make brave and responsible decisions. Decisions, even thought painful and difficult, but history will document them in letters of light. We shouldn’t forget here that using force against the party we don’t agree with doesn’t solve the crises, neither does denying the existence of that party. All that will further complicate the problem and delay its explosion to a later time. We can’t move to the future without admitting the mistakes, heeling the wounds of the past, and punishing those who were responsible; this is the core of any national reconciliation. But just shaking hands, hugging and kissing each other will not do the job; they are protocols that can come after the mentioned core steps.
Since you asked me about my vision to guide the Homeland from the current crises to safety, I see that the following steps are qualified, as a brave start, to accomplish that.
First: Repairing the past by ‘the immediate release’ of all the protesting detainees who were arrested during the latest events or before. Then apologies to them and to their families (as apologizing is a virtuous act) and pay them moral and material compensations as a liability for the damages they suffered from detention. Also pay the same to the families of those who died during their detention and restore respect to them all.
As people, in their nature, like happy endings, a step like this from the leadership side will be the best proof of its goodwill. It will, no doubt, capture both the hearts and minds, and encourage sincere citizens from all the rainbow colors to stop asking for downing of the regime, and they will also be ready to sit and talk. And in case there is a conspiracy against the Homeland, as the regime claim, then a step like this will leave those who are behind that conspiracy helpless. Such a step will be even more effective if it is accompanied by issuing real permits for peaceful demonstrations, and authorize unarmed police to walk beside them for protection and even to supply them with drinking water.
Second: This step will be more difficult than the first one, but accomplishing it will be crucial to prove that the people and the leadership are on the same page. Before I explain this step I would like to go through a quick introduction. In countries which have been under a state of emergency for a long time, it is unavoidable for what is called ‘power centers’ to appear. That term, to those who don’t know it, means smaller military and/or security entities, who work under the flag of the state, such as the Republican Guards and the different intelligence braches, who become slowly and gradually more powerful to become mini independent states inside the mother state. They gain enough power to make decisions and execute them on the ground, without making sure that these decisions are lawful and validated by the constitution. The political leadership will then, one day, finds itself incapable of accomplishing reforms or fulfilling promises it made to the people, because the interest of those who running the ‘power centers’ will then be challenged.
Considering all that, the second step should start with bringing these entities back to their normal size and to full loyalty to the state and its central government. Even if that means removing some of the officers in charge and have close ties with the leadership, but committed atrocities against the people. I don’t advise to kill them in order to achieve this task, as the country has already witnessed a lot of blood-bathes. This step can be achieved through taking the accused to the court and charge them publicly according to the law, or by sending them abroad if the court scenario is too difficult at the current time. The history documented several incidents when some rulers, for different reasons, had to seize the power of their sons or brothers, and the outcome ended to the benefit of the country. This step will, for sure, help make those who are behind the claimed conspiracy, in case they exist, even more helpless.
Third: Assemble a temporary National-Unity government in cooperating with the opposition. This government should be formed from independent ministers who are known by their fairness and loyalty to the Homeland, and not being involved in crimes or corruption. The job of this government should be to prepare for clean legislative and then presidential elections monitored by legal organizations which are known as fair and neutral. All that should be done away from the interference of the army which should return to its stations and resume its training to accomplish the mission it deserted for four decades; liberating the Golan Heights and the rest of the occupied territories.
Do you agree with me?
Salam
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Tarif Youssef-Agha
Saturday May 28, 2011
Houston, Texas