The governor of the Damascus countryside, Alaa Munir Ibrahim has announced work is underway on strengthening the role of the reconciliations and reconfiguring the committees, after the head of the reconciliation committee in parliament announced Monday an agreement to raise a proposal to the government including the reconfiguration of the reconciliation committees in the provinces.
Ibrahim held a meeting on Monday with representatives of the people of Douma and Harasta, the first meeting of its type, with the attendance of two MPs, Mohamed Khair Sariel and Alaa al-Sheikh, during which a number of issues were put forward, including the suffering faced by the people in the area.
In comments to Al-Watan, Ibrahim said: Representatives of the residents asked for a number of services, including food and the expansion and rehabilitation of schools, in addition to some construction materials. He added that the government will work, in communication with the concerned bodies, to meet the residents’ demands.
He added: Based on the demand of the people, who asked for the regularization of status of some arrested people, there will be coordination with the concerned bodies around this issue, especially with regards to some of the armed men who want to turn themselves in in accordance with the recent decree and the ruling for amnesty for every armed man who turns himself in to the state. Ibrahim said that work was underway to achieve reconciliation in the Douma and Harasta area to achieve peace in the whole Ghouta (suburban area), especially Harasta, in order to return security to the Autostrad.
Ibrahim said that work was currently underway to strengthen the role of the reconciliation committee and reform it. He noted that the name was not important, but rather the work on how to benefit from Bashar al-Assad’s recent decree and return citizens to the state’s embrace.
Meanwhile, the head of the reconciliation committee in parliament, Khair Al-Deen al-Sayyid, and the Reconciliation Minister, Ali Haydar, promised coordination with the parliament committee and reformation of the committees in the provinces, in order to eliminate brokers and swindlers who are exploiting reconciliation work for personal ends.
In comments exclusively to Al-Watan, Sayyid revealed that he had met with Haydar and that during the meeting they agreed to raise a proposal to the government to cancel all the reconciliation committees in the provinces, reform them again, considering this step will contribute greatly to the success of reconciliation work.
Sayyid pointed to the role of the reconciliation committees in the current stage, saying that reforming them had become necessary, and therefore there had been an agreement about placing a united and joint mechanism so there would not be ambiguity in the work and the requests be directed at every agency directly.
The reconciliation committee in parliament had called for the restructuring of the reconciliation committee in the provinces and for the appointment of a liaison officer to be a connection between them and the concerned agencies, in addition to strengthening cooperation with the Reconciliation Ministry.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
