The former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will today attend a controversial 'secret' conference joining two members of Syria's Assad regime addressing the future of Syria. The Cambridge conference comes a day after the Bashar al-Assad's government was accused of a chemical gas attack on its own people.
A demonstration against the two-day meeting will take place in Cambridge, with more than 30 people voicing their upset, according to Cambridge News.
Lord Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge will be a keynote speaker at the 'conflict resolution' conference, titled Syria – Six Years On: From Destruction to Reconstruction, hosted by the European Centre for the Study of Extremism (EuroCSE). He will speak alongisde Ali Haidar and Bishr Riyad Yaziji, both ministers in the controversial Assad government.
The former Archbishop previously said that attending the conference would cause him 'discomfort', but he said he would be 'robust' with his criticism about human rights abuses in Syria. He is still attending, and has offered no comment on the matter apart from telling Guido Fawkes: 'I'd hope others will wait to see if this conference actually delivers a independent perspective.'
He is reported to be giving this standard reply to those concerned: 'I have made it clear that I have no intention of defending the Government of Syria against well-founded charges of human rights abuses, and I have as yet seen no clear evidence that the event is designed simply as a propagandist exercise. You may be sure that I should strongly resist any attempt to make it such. My concern is simply to ask what can be done to move the discussion furthertowards a just and sustainable peace, guaranteeing the democratic rights of all.'
A statement on the EuroCSE's website, from director Dr Khoury-Machool says: 'There is a need to reconstruct Syria as a nation (physically and psychologically) and work towards dialogue, fostering tolerance and reconciliation, and resolve the trauma across the country and within the region, which is necessary for working towards peace.'
Addressing opposition and tension around the conference, it adds: 'Raising grievance is part of a healing process. This conference, however, is about resolving extremism, avoiding reactionary politics and propaganda, and therefore it is about establishing mature responsible dialogue, understanding, fostering tolerance and paving a way for reconciliation and peace.
'Everybody involved in this discourse cares about and is emotionally invested in Syria and its fate. Our conference provides an important platform for responsible diplomacy with the goal of resolution of war and healing distress.
'Syria needs reconstruction, reconciliation and peace; we believe that our first Patron and Keynote speaker at the conference The Rt. Rev. and Rt. Honorable, Baron of Oystermouth, Lord Dr Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College is best placed to advocate for peace in Syria and to facilitate this evolving dialogue for peace.'
Dozens were killed and wounded in the rebel-held town in Idlib, Syria yesterday in a fatal gas attack that many suspect to be the work of the Assad regime against the Syrian people. A bomb attack on a hospital treating the wounded killed many more. British foreign secretary Boris Johnson said that if the government was responsible, it was a 'war crime'.
He said: 'If this is shown to be the work of the regime, it is further evidence of the atrocities perpetrated against the Syrian people over six years of appalling conflict.'
