My Sister, Nicole Vienneau, Has Gone Missing in Syria

Hello, you can reach out to the Syrian population through Syrian television stations. It's an effective tool to reach out to people who don't read English and or have no access to internet or satellite television. I recommend preparing an interview (a story) to be aired ASAP both on the satellite and the local channel, in case there is more than one. I believe that the Canadian embassy can contact the Syrian television with this regards. Otherwise here is a list of contacts : http://www.rtv.gov.sy/index.php?m=7

My heart goes out to you Matt. I was worried when I didn't see an update for 2 days, now I understand. One thing you may want to do when drafting an update is to email it to yourself as you are working on it, as a back up. Mostly I was touched by how that one thing upset you so much, as it really is a sign of how much stress you are under.

I agree with you being able to do your best work at home with a reliable internet connection. Though I am glad you went for all the reasons you stated.

I don't have new suggestions, just want you to know how many people are following your blog and story and are hoping beyond hope for good news on Nicole. Peace and travel safe.

Roberta

Matt,

I am a little concerned that the tone of you blog this last couple days seems to be that when you go back to Canada, you guys will just kind of give up or something. The Syrians are very helpful but I think once you leave, it will be put on the back burner. It kind of seems odd that you would be there for only a week when she is missing you know? It will seem odd to the Syrians too. I think now might be the time to start loudly pronouncing a reward. Syria runs on baksheesh(tips..er..bribes). This could bring in a whole host of other issues of course, but I think there is not much choice left. It might help.

hi , i'm from syria - hims city to be accurate , i just red about your sister's missing and i'm real sorry for that , i thought it would be helpful to tell you that it could be more effective regarding the search if you try to manage a tv interview at 1'st syrian local channel about your case cause most people here watch tv ...

Hi , i'm from Syria - Hims city to be accurate , i just red about your sister's missing and i'm real sorry for that , i thought it would be helpful to tell you that it could be more effective regarding the search if you try to manage a tv interview at 1'st syrian local channel about your case cause most people here watch it ...

Dear Matt, I think you did your best at this time. The offered reward is the best option at this time. Lets think about it; the possibilities is one of three: The best possibility is that she decided to hide, by herself or with someone else, just to find her self in life away from everybody and in this case if someone saw her and knew about the reward he will inform the authorities. The second option, which is less likely, is that she was kidnapped, but in such cases the kidnappers should have asked for something by now…!!! The third possibility, which we don’t like, is that she was murdered for whatever reason and in this case whoever did it , will hide the body very well since he know that it is very serious to attack any tourists in Syria . unfortunately, even with the award, that person who knows something, he might be hesitant to talk, since he know that he might ended up with serious investigations from the authorities….!!!! Any Matt, I hope for the first possibility. Last thing, did the authorities verify the identity of that body that was found near Homs….!!

Hello Vienneau

I have living this story with you since the few first posts. I wish I was in Syria to help more. Regarding Police dogs, though, I want to tell you that there seems to be a professional guy who handles such rare thing like this in Syria.
I found his site after long search; actually www.Syria-news.com ran an article about Private security firms and they mentioned his name:
This is his site; I'm sure he can give good advice on this or maybe provide you with a dog.
http://www.dogtraining-sy.com/
Name of the trainer is Samer Hamzawi
His mobile number
00(963)94282879
His landline
00(963)(11) 6801780
The e-mails are here at the end of this link
http://www.dogtraining-sy.com/lmah/atsl.htm
Actually, I have been wondering why no one has mentioned search dogs; I was going to write you myself this idea since I was reading a bit about it on:
http://www.sarbc.org/waverly.html
Here is an association for search dogs in Canada:
http://www.canadiansearchdogs.com/index.htm
Maybe they can give advice on this as well

I really hope this was helpful and I encourage you to try this idea.
Praying for her safe return.
God bless Nicole!

Mazen

With reference to Mazen's post, the mobile number of the dog trainer should be 00(963)94 4 282879

The article in Syria News is great. It really personalized your story. The comments are very supportive and most people were asking for the media to do more to spread the story.
Someone commented that offering a prize would encourage tourist abductions in Syria...he might be right.
Good luck and best wishes..

http://translate.google.com/translate_t
You should be able to get the gist of anything you need to read by copy and pasting any text into the BETA translator.
This is assuming you have time to spare. I wish your family all the best, I am thinking of you all.

Hi Matt...I agree with you about the problem of handeling the calls for the reward. I'm syrian and I'm just thinking if I have an information and need to call,what would be more confortable for me. I think your Embassy needs to be involve, and acually I think the add should be under the embassy name; like the canadian embaasy is offering an award....ect. then the embassy needs to find a local personal to receive the calls and they need to help him with the recording...I don't know who will finance all that...but I think that is the more logical way...The Embassy name is the only reliable name that anyone will trust to call in any valiable info. good luck. Firas.

Matt,

What do you hope to gain from your CBC interview and air time? The Canadian media is reporting it as a story about you and not your sister. More women go missing in Canada than in Syria and they never get all that air time. I can understand spreading the news in Syria (in case someone saw her) but I doubt that CBC viewers can help this way.
Anyway good luck. Your sister is in my prayer and I hope they will find her safe soon.

EVERY bit helps. You never know where a lead will come from.

And if the next step is to pull together a reward, the additional exposure may help there.

But most importantly, Canadians are caring people, and we care about a story like this. I'd be more upset if the CBC didn't do a piece.

Interesting comment took from Syria-news I have just read it …he was asking :if u can ask all the pharmacies in Hama if they sell a huge amount of “eye lance cleaning ” to somebody ..

all the best from my part to your family

Another interesting comment from Syria News:
Everyone in Hama with criminal record should be interviewed by police.