Brussels, 02/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 1 June, Patrice Bergamini, head of division for regional partnerships and horizontal issues at the European External Action Service (EEAS), said that the international community was not doing enough to resolve the Syrian conflict. “Shame on us and on the international community”, he said at the end of the Queens of Syria film on the Syrian culture and conflict. Bergamini wondered if something equivalent to the Srebrenica massacre in the former Yugoslavia was needed for the international community, civil society and media to say “that's enough”.
According to Bergamini, there is a lack of “unity across the international actors”. “There are divisions, differences of opinion between the East and West, the countries of the EU, between Washington and Moscow. But this is nothing compared with the divisions between the Arab countries themselves”, he added. He said, for example, that while on 24 May Jordan had said that it was time for discussions between the opposition and the regime to avoid dismantling the state institutions, the Gulf Cooperation Council had been unable to say the same thing at the same time in order to agree on what the next step should be. “This is the key problem”, Bergamini stated.
Nevertheless, after a peace agreement, the Arab countries will have to take their responsibility. After such an agreement, “something on the ground [will be needed] to monitor” implementation of the agreement. “And those who are there are the Arabs themselves”, Bergamini stated, saying that for the moment the Arabs were not capable of doing this. He added that the EU supported the Arab League in developing its management crisis capacities.
Bergamini also said that he believed the consequences of the conflict will be felt long after the conflict itself, and that reconciliation between the Syrians will be long. He again gave the example of the former Yugoslavia. “In 20 years' time, and even longer, we will have to address the consequences of the conflict. In the best case scenario, this will take two or three generations”, he said, before adding that there was “no magic formula with regard to reconciliation”.
Speaking about culture and conflicts, Bergamini recognised that it was difficult to set up projects with cultural dimensions as the projects do not necessarily receive the political support needed. The producer of the Queens of Syria film, Georgina Paget, said that although public institutions often supported these projects, the donors themselves were private.
Elsewhere, the European Parliament is hosting an exhibition on 5 June. This will show 30 works by 78 Syrian artists who have been displaced by the conflict. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)