By Meryem Goktas
ISTANBUL
The grandson of South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela is continuing his grandfather’s legacy by working to raise awareness of Syrian women and children imprisoned by the Bashar al-Assad regime.
In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela, the head of South Africa’s Mvezo Clan Traditional Council, vowed his support for the women and children who continue to languish in Syrian prisons.
Mandela took part in an Istanbul conference on Wednesday hosted by the Conscience Movement, an alliance of individuals, rights groups, and organizations aiming to secure urgent action for the release of women and children in prisons of Syria’s Assad regime.
Mandela said that the work of the International Conscience Movement was “applaudable” for bringing together participants from around the world to “add their voices against the atrocities committed out on a daily basis against defenseless children and women in Syria.”
The conference -- held in Istanbul, Turkey -- drew participants from 45 countries, including Syria, Britain, South Africa, Ecuador, Qatar, Kenya, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Greece, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Malaysia.
The unlawfully held Syrian women “remind us as South-Africans of our brutal past [fighting] against the Apartheid regime of South Africa,” he said.
Calling on the international community to speak out on behalf of imprisoned Syrian women and children, Mandela said that it was the “voices from the global community that rallied behind the release Mandela campaign” from his 27 years in prison and the anti-Apartheid movement that enabled South Africa to “become free and democratic.”
The Conscience Movement is an international initiative established last year after an all-woman international convoy made headlines worldwide by raising awareness of the abuses suffered by women jailed by the Assad regime.
The movement is supported by more than 2,000 NGOs and thousands of people from 110 countries.
-Grandfather’s legacy
Speaking about his grandfather’s leading role in fighting for peace, Mandela said that it is important to continue this fight where his grandfather, who was also known by his clan name of Madiba, left off.
“Madiba was a champion for peace, justice, and human rights and often used to remind us as a family that as long as there is one human being suffering in the world, our struggle is far from over,” he said.
“I want to say to the International Conscience Movement that we sincerely thank them for affording us the opportunity to be the voice for women and children in Syria,” he said.
“But we’re also here to call for all displaced Syrians to be able to be afforded the dignity of returning to their homeland and living a restored lifestyle,” he added.
- Support for Palestine
“In South Africa we have a very vibrant community that continuously advocates for the voiceless,” he said.
“My grandfather was very passionate about the struggle of the Palestinian people. In 1995 when he went to Gaza, and he said that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians,” he said.
Mandela also enjoyed close relations with Yasser Arafat, the late leader of the Palestinian people.
South Africa established diplomatic relations with the state of Palestine in 1995, a year after the end of white minority rule.
Ever since, the South African government has been critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, including the ongoing settlement and expansion policy in the occupied West Bank (Ramallah) and East Jerusalem.
“Watching the Palestinians being brutalized and experience atrocities at the hands of an Apartheid regime of Israel, we therefore want to take a stand as South Africans and utilize our experience to share with the world to speak for the voiceless,” he added.
- 1956 Women’s March
Mandela told how last March his mother Rayne Rose Mandela-Perry and her daughter in-law Nodiyala Mandela also took part in the all-women Conscience Convoy to protest human rights abuses of imprisoned Syrian women and children.
Recalling the landmark 1956 Women’s March in Pretoria against the unjust Apartheid regime, with the participation of 20,000 women, Mandela highlighted the importance of a women-led struggle for peace.
“They were in the forefront of our struggle for liberation, they continued as heroic women to inspire women throughout the world to never tire and to continue to be the voice for women,” he added.
Mandela called on Syrian women still being held in regime prisons to “remain courageous, continue to inspire women around the world, to fight for their rights and to fight for human rights.”
According to the Conscience Movement, more than 13,500 Syrian women have been jailed since the Syrian civil war began in March 2011, while more than 7,000 women still remain in detention, where they are subjected to torture, rape and sexual violence.
Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.
According to UN figures, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed or displaced in the conflict, mainly by regime airstrikes in opposition-held areas.
