Hammoud Elchoufi

Augusta, GA - Hammoud Elchoufi, beloved husband and father, and a former leader of Syria’s Baath Party and Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, died on Wednesday April 13, 2011 in Augusta, Georgia.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 10:00 AM at Platt’s Funeral Home Belair Rd. Chapel. Burial will follow at Westover Memorial Park.

Mr. Elchoufi was born in Salkhad, a small village in the mountains of southern Syria, on August 10, 1938. He studied literature and law at Damascus University, where he was President of the Student Union in the late 1950s. He was intimately involved in the emergence of the Syrian Baath Party and was imprisoned repeatedly for his political activity. In 1963 he served as the Party’s head and in 1963-1964 as a member of the ruling National Revolutionary Council. He went on to hold several leading posts in the Syrian government. He was Syria’s ambassador to Indonesia from 1965 to 1970, ambassador to India from 1970 to 1972, and the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations from 1977 to 1979. In 1979 he resigned from office to protest the Syrian government’s increasingly repressive tactics, and joined the Syrian Nationalist Opposition movement in Paris.

The two great loves of Mr. Elchoufi’s life were his nation and his family. His nation, as he was fond of saying, was not Syria but the Sha’ab al-Arabi or “Arab people.” The political unification and economic and cultural renaissance of this nation was the guiding goal of his life in politics. When this goal proved elusive and its pursuit threatened the safety of his family, however, he removed himself from the public eye, living first in northern Virginia and later making his home in Augusta, GA. He was well known to the librarians of the Columbia County public library, as some of his great passions were reading and intellectual pursuits. He also enjoyed spending time with his family and friends, who greatly appreciated both his wisdom and his wry humor.

Mr. Elchoufi is survived by his wife, Widad; his son, Alarabi Elchoufi; his two daughters, Leyla Elchoufi, M.D. and Mayssoun Elchoufi, M.D.; two brothers, Hussein Elchoufi and Jadullah Elchoufi; daughter-in-law Ghada Elchoufi; son-in-law Riad Aisami; and four grandchildren, Deema, Lamees, Khaled, and Lena.

The family will receive friends on Friday, April 15, 2011 from 6pm to 8pm at Platt’s Funeral Home Belair Rd.