KARUNA SHINSHO, ASIA TONIGHT: Mixing a personal pilgrimage with politics, Pope John Paul II made a plea for peace in the Middle East at a town in the Golan Heights. The Pope is on day three of a four-day visit to Syria. Brent Sadler has more on the visit to a town devastated by war that the Pope hopes will become a symbol of peace.</s>BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flanked by police out-riders, Pope John Paul II's motorcade whisks him to within eyesight of Israeli occupation forces on the Golan Heights. He arrives in the ruined city of Quneitra, in a demilitarized zone administered by Syria. On this day, thousands of people, including former inhabitants, have been assembled for the occasion. On regular days, the city is uninhabited and silent. Children bearing gifts are at hand. Quneitra's rubble bears witness, claims Syria, of Israeli aggression past and present. The Greek Orthodox Church, which the Pope enters, is little more than the shell of a building. Stripped bare and vandalized, claim church authorities here, by Israeli troops when they withdrew 27 years ago. Quneitra's strong images of devastation are deliberately left untouched, so that Syrian-escorted visitors like the Pope can absorb what happened. But the head of the Roman Catholic Church didn't come here to take sides, rather to fervently pray for peace in an area which lies at the very heart of the territorial dispute between Syria and Israel. As a symbol of the peace he so much desires in the Holy Land, the Pope watered and blessed a young olive tree. Representatives of the United Nations disengagement observer force on the Golan also sought a blessing from the Pope, soldiers who monitor neither peace nor war on this part of the divided Golan. (on camera): The Syrian stage of the Pope's journey is drawing to a close, a journey in which he is clearly using his spiritual role to try and help ease growing tensions and stop spiraling bloodshed in the Middle East. Brent Sadler, CNN, Damascus.
Pope Visits Ruined City Of Quneitra In Syria