Abducted Syrian bishops in good health, held by rebels

Former President Amin Gemayel, center, meets Bishop George Saliba with a Delegation in Beirut, Wednesday, May 8, 2013

9/5/13

BEIRUT: Acting President of the Syrian National Council George Sabra  said Wednesday that  the two Greek Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria  are being held in a small village north  west of Aleppo  by a rebel group.

In a telephone conversation with Kataeb Party  leader Amin Gemayel, Sabra said that  Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Archbishop Boulos Yazigi  and Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim  were both in good health and  still in the custody of a small group of rebels in the Syrian town of  Bshaqtin.

“The bishops are in good health and are being held by a small group in a town  called Bshaqtin, 20 kilometers north west of Aleppo,” Sabra told Gemayel who was  in a meeting with Syriac Orthodox bishops at the Kataeb Party’s headquarters in  Saifi, according to Gemayel’s office.

Yazigi and Ibrahim were kidnapped last month by armed men while they were on  their way to Aleppo from the Turkish border.

The meeting in Saifi  was attended by Mount Lebanon’s Syriac  Orthodox Bishop George Saliba, Beirut Bishop Daniel Koriyeh, Syriac League  President Habib Efram and the Deputy Bishop of Aleppo Joseph Shabo.

Bishop Saliba  also spoke to the Syrian opposition leader  over the phone and urged him to secure the release of the kidnapped bishops.

When contacted by The Daily Star contacted, Sabra declined to comment on the  matter.

Speaking during the meeting in Saifi, Gemayel said that the abduction of the  two bishops constitutes a bad message to the Christian communities in Syria and  the region.

For his part, Saliba said that fear might overwhelm Christians in the region  if the bishops are not released. “I don’t know whether the Christians would  leave the region because of this or stay and react to this kidnapping in a way  that we do not want,” Saliba added.

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