Canfield native gives talk about refugees

May 3, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

CANFIELD

Many of the estimated 1.2 million Syrian refugees who fled to neighboring Lebanon to escape a bloody civil war may not find life in abandoned buildings, crowded shelters and tents to their liking, but it’s far better than what they left, a United Nations humanitarian worker contends.

“Lebanon has seen decades of instability and has its problems,” but also has many teachers who are helping to educate the refugees, Karen Koning AbuZayd told nearly 200 people who attended her lecture Saturday on the topic at The Ursuline Center, 4280 Shields Road.

Sponsoring her presentation, “From Sarajevo to Syria: The Horror & Hope for Refugees,” was the Ursuline Center’s Sisters of Youngstown.

Koning AbuZayd, a Canfield High School graduate who lives in Chicago, is a member of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria. The impartial body investigates alleged human-rights violations and prepares reports based on its findings for the United Nations Human Rights Council.

From June 2005 to early 2010, she served as under secretary general and commissioner-general with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Her efforts included overseeing health, social services, financial and education programs for the roughly 4.7 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

In addition, she taught political science at Juba and Makerere universities in Sudan and Uganda, respectively.

Since March 2011, about 200,000 Syrians have been killed in the fighting and, more recently, from the spread of the Islamic State. More than 4 million have fled to neighboring countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Iraq while nearly half of Syria’s population of 24 million has been displaced or needs assistance, Koning AbuZayd noted.

Also, countless others are being subjected to human-rights violations that include torture, sexual- and gender-based violence, kidnappings, arbitrary and forced displacement, sieges and denial of access for humanitarian workers, she said.

“We hope one day to hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes before a tribunal,” Koning AbuZayd said, noting that an additional 1.2 million to 1.8 million refugees live in 22 camps in Turkey along the border with Syria.

Koning AbuZayd, who called them “five-star” camps, explained that efforts have been undertaken to ensure the refugees have basic security, a good education, access to grocery stores and credit cards. In addition, many have low-wage jobs, though that has created competition among some of the natives, she said.

Despite UN and other efforts, Koning AbuZayd said she doesn’t see the civil war in Syria ending soon, especially with the Islamic State trying to gain a greater stranglehold and the influx of foreign fighters.

“This is a struggle that is unlikely to be resolved soon,” she predicted, adding that for several years the Commission of Inquiry has called for political negotiations. “It’s a conflict that is becoming uglier by the day.”

Nevertheless, Koning AbuZayd said, she greatly admires the refugees’ resilience and steadfastness, and praised local organizations for trying to help.

Also during her lecture, Koning AbyZayd talked about her work in the early 1990s with the U.N., which included helping about 100,000 Liberian refugees resettle in Sierra Leone, as well as providing food to those who arrived in Kenya from Somalia and the estimated 4.3 million refugees affected by the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Like Koning AbuZayd, the Ursuline Center tries to extend itself beyond the local community, said Sister Nancy Dawson, executive director.

“We want to reach out beyond the Mahoning Valley and develop a global view regarding the suffering of refugees,” she said. “We’d like to make a difference.”