BEIRUT: Christian politicians and religious figures renewed their calls Sunday to free two Greek Orthodox bishops who were kidnapped in Syria almost a month ago.Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim were kidnapped April 22 by armed men while en route to Aleppo from the Turkish border.
Masses and sit-ins were held across Lebanon Sunday to pray for them and call for their release.
Head of the Syriac League Habib Afram said in an interview with a local radio station that “there is no information about the situation of the two kidnapped bishops in Syria,” and called for “exerting pressures to secure their release.”
He stressed: “The kidnapping is not related to internal sectarian strife in Syria ... What is extremely dangerous [about the kidnapping] is that no party has claimed responsibility for it.”
“The suspicious silence regarding the kidnappings makes us think that we need a lot of praying, solidarity, action and pressure to know the real reasons behind the incident.”
In a telephone conversation with Kataeb leader Amin Gemayel on the subject, acting President of the Syrian National Council George Sabra said the two bishops were both in good health and still in the custody of a small group of rebels in the Syrian town of Bshaqtin, 20 kilometers northwest of Aleppo.
Syriac Catholic Church Patriarch Ignatius III Younan also urged regional and international powers to intervene and cease their support to the rebel kidnappers of the two bishops.
Younan’s comments came during a mass to mark the 23rd anniversary of the establishment of Tele Lumiere, a Lebanese Christian television station, and the 10th anniversary of Noorsat, a satellite-based service provider.
“The regional and international powers that support the kidnappers should not only express sorrow and anguish but also take some serious steps to free the two kidnapped bishops who committed no crime and are not politically aligned with any party in [the] ongoing strife in bleeding Syria,” he said.
In Koura, a mass was held in the village of Bishmezeen at the Greek Orthodox church of St. George to pray for the safe release of the two bishops.

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20/05/2013
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