Refugees Trickle Back to Their Home Province of Deir ez-Zor as Dust Settles in Syria
More than 1,500 refugees returned to their homes in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor in the last two days alone. This is the result of the joint work of the Russian Reconciliation Center and the local authorities. All those who came back were given food, water, and medical help.
Alexander Sladkov will tell us more about the Russian military's diplomatic mission.
The terrorists are defeated. There aren't any territories under ISIS here. But what remains is the armed opposition, which will have to be negotiated with. In this, the Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides is playing a significant role.
Conducting a thorough negotiation process is something Russia knows how to do well in Syria. Dozens of officers from the Reconciliation Center are negotiating with militants all around the country. With an unusual intensity, with different armed groups but not with all of them.
Sergey Zhmurin, Reconciliation Center Head: "Of course, no one is talking to the Al-Nusra Front. They're irreconcilable and have to either leave Syria or cease hostility".
Curiously enough, the militants want to discuss domestic problems before political ones— the restoration of water and energy supplies, road repair, and admission of transport through checkpoints.
There are different topics of negotiation, but there's only one goal. The disarmament of the opposition and the signing of agreements about joining the reconciliation process.
Sergey Zhmurin: "Of course, we'd like to see immediate results. To talk today and to disarm the militants tomorrow. It doesn't happen this way. However, among our achievements is the fact that in Homs, in the last three months, around 500 people laid down their arms, went through rehabilitation and returned to civilian life".
Here, Reconciliation Center officer, Sergey Volodin, is talking to the heads of the Qalamoun region's cities' administration, occupied by the armed opposition.
Negotiation come together with phone conversations with field commanders from different areas who want to sign peace agreements with the Syrian government.
Sergey Zhmurin: "Their first task is to withdraw heavy weapons from the city. The second task is to lay down arms. Those who want to do it will do it, those who don't will have to go somewhere else for a while, Mount Petra, perhaps. The state will settle the status of those who lay down their arms. And they'll go back to civilian life."
It's essential that the Russian military be the guarantor.
Alexander Sladkov, Pavel Vydrin, Igor Uklein, Vesti, Syria.