DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Over 10,000 Syrian people have given up their weapons over a two-year period as part of the government’s armistice program, the Syrian minister of reconciliation told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
"In total, including Homs and its western suburb, we are talking about 10,000 people who have laid down arms over the past two years," Ali Haidar said.
Up to 6,000 former fighters have returned to civilian life in the Damascus suburb in the past six months, according to Haidar.
He named Homs, the third-largest city in Syria, as the most striking example of a successful local ceasefire, where 1,500 former militants gave up their weapons in 2013. Two weeks ago, 700 militants were said to have laid down their arms in the village of Daraa in southwest Syria.
The government offers Syrian citizens to lay down arms and go through a rehabilitation process to return to normal life as part of the national reconciliation program.
