Social activists, human rights activists, volunteers from Syria, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ukraine met with the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, Filaret, and discussed ways to unify the efforts by followers of various religions in order to get across the truth to the world community about the crimes against humanity being committed now in Syria and at the East of Ukraine.
The representatives of Convoy of Conscience attended the event, namely, coordinator for International Fund-Faising for the IHH Foundation for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, Nalan Dal (Turkey), President of the Association of Mothers of Srebrenica, Munira Subasic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), human rights activist, member of the Syrian alternative government outside the country, Dima Moussa (Turkey), the journalist of the Anadolu Agency, Meriem Goktesh (Turkey), the public figure and journalist Olha Fryndak (Ukraine), the Ukrainian MP, Olha Bohomolets (Ukraine).
During the meeting with the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, the discussion was around human rights violations; in particular, they spoke about the thousands of Syrian women, being kept now in the prisons of the Assad regime and being subjected to bullying, physical violence and rape. They also noted that currently in the occupied territories of the East of Ukraine and the Crimea, women were also in danger because of their civic position; they lost loved ones and relatives.
President of the Association of Mothers of Srebrenica, Munira Subasic recalled the terrible scenes when, after the capture of Srebrenica, the Chief of Staff of the Republika Serbska Army, General Ratko Mladic, personally promised rescue to the Bosnian Muslims, and instead of that he ordered only women and children to be evacuated, assuring that the men would be evacuated later. But in reality they were shot and buried in mass graves. The total number of those killed was about 8,000 men aged 12 to 77 years.
The activists told the Patriarch about the Convoy of Conscience that is an international action, which more than 10 thousand women from 55 countries of the world took part in, tried to inform the world community about the horrors that the women, imprisoned by the regime of Bashar Assad, had to pass through, and calling for protecting their rights.
Participants of the meeting, including Muslim as well as Christian women, urged the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate to inform his flock the truth about what was happening in the world nowadays and proposed to unite the efforts of followers of different religions for the sake of human rights, peace and life.
Patriarch Filaret expressed words of respect and gratitude to the activists’ deeds, noting that their efforts in the struggle for truth deserve the highest praise:
"We must unite on the basis of truth and conscience in order to root out the ill and sow the good seed in this place - said, in particular, Patriarch Filaret. - "We must tell the truth and not let the powerful persons of this world call blatant lie as the truth."
