Updated: 11:45am (AEDT)
Damascus, Syria
Reuters
The main commander of the fighters who toppled Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that he would dissolve the security forces of the former regime, close its prisons and hunt down anyone involved in the torture or killing of detainees.
Syrian rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa – better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani – said in a statement to Reuters he will “dissolve the security forces of the previous regime and close the notorious prisons.”
People walk past a rebel fighter standing guard at Abbasiyyin Square, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on 11th December, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh.
Syria ran one of the most oppressive police states in the Middle East during five decades of Assad family rule. Sharaa, whose former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is now the country’s most powerful force, must balance demands for justice from victims with the need to prevent violent reprisals and secure international aid.
Syrians have flocked to the infamous prisons where the Assad regime is estimated to have held tens of thousands of detainees, desperately looking for their loved ones. Some have been released alive, others were identified among the dead and thousands more have not yet been found.
Sharaa said in a separate statement on the Syrian state TV’s Telegram channel that people who took part in the torture or killing of detainees would be hunted down, and pardons were out of the question.
“We will pursue them in Syria, and we ask countries to hand over those who fled so we can achieve justice,” said Sharaa.
The world is carefully watching to see if Syria’s new rulers can stabilise the country and avoid unleashing violent revenge, after a 13-year civil war fought along sectarian and ethnic lines.
POPE FRANCIS CALLS ON SYRIAN REBELS TO STABILISE COUNTRY
Pope Francis on Wednesday called on the Syrian rebels who toppled the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to stabilise the country, and govern in a way that promotes national unity.
“I hope they find political solutions that, without other conflicts or divisions, responsibly promote the stability and unity of the country,” the pontiff said during his weekly audience at the Vatican.
The Pope, in his first public remarks about Syria since the ending of al-Assad’s rule, also called on the country’s diverse religious groups to “walk together in friendship and mutual respect for the good of the nation”.
Francis, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, often addresses global conflicts, and usually stresses the importance of de-escalation.
He has decried the casualties in the Syrian conflict at various points over the years. In 2016 he took the unusual step of making the Vatican’s ambassador to the country a cardinal, the second-highest rank in the church.
Muslims make up about 90 per cent of Syria’s population. Christians have an historic presence in the country, but are a small minority. The Vatican estimates there are around 300,000 Catholics among a population of some 25 million.
– JOSHUA MCELWEE, Vatican/Reuters
Since Assad’s fall, 27-year-old Hayat al-Turki has been searching the abandoned cells of Syria’s most notorious prison, the vast Sednaya complex, for any sign of her missing relatives, including her brother who vanished 14 years ago.
“I was hopeful and optimistic to find someone from my missing prisoners – a brother, an uncle or a cousin – but I did not…I searched the whole prison,” she said.
Mohammad al-Bashir, the man installed by Sharaa’s fighters to lead an interim administration until March, said he aimed to bring back millions of refugees, create unity and provide basic services.
But the new administration has scant resources, he told Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.
“We have no foreign currency and as for loans and bonds we are still collecting data. So yes, financially we are very bad,” said Bashir, who previously ran a small rebel-led administration in a pocket of northwestern Syria.
Rebuilding Syria is a colossal task following the civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, reduced cities to ruins and left the economy gutted by international sanctions. Millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the biggest displacements of modern times.
A drone view shows Yusuf al-Azma Square in Damascus, after Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad, Syria on 11th December, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Mahmoud Hassano.
Engaging warily
Foreign officials are warily engaging with the former rebels, although HTS remains designated a terrorist organisation by Washington, the United Nations, EU and others.
The new government must “uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all in need, prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer told Reuters Washington remains cautious.
“We have seen over the years any number of militant groups who have … promised that they would govern in an inclusive way, and then see them fail to meet those promises,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
In addition to terrorism bans in place against the former rebels, Syria also remains under US, European and other financial sanctions imposed against Damascus under Assad.
Two senior US congressmen, a Republican and a Democrat, wrote a letter calling for Washington to suspend some sanctions. The most punishing war-time US sanctions are up for renewal this month, and the former rebels have told Reuters they are in touch with Washington about potentially easing them.
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Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Luis Albares on Wednesday said at the Reuters NEXT conference that he expected the UN and European Union to discuss easing sanctions and removing HTS from lists of terrorist organisations.
The international community must quickly demand that the rebel forces transform into a political movement and respect human rights, he added.
“We must move very fast because in a month, probably, decisions will have already been taken in Damascus and we will not be able to have the impact that we can have today,” Albares said.
Hafez Assad mausoleum torched
A resident of Assad’s family hometown of Qardaha said Sunni Islamist fighters had torched the mausoleum of Assad’s father Hafez over the past two days, instilling fear among villagers from Assad’s Alawite sect who had pledged cooperation with the new rulers.
For refugees, the prospect of returning home has brought a mixture of joy and grief over hardship in exile. Syrians lined up at the Turkish border on Wednesday to head home, speaking of their expectations for a better life following what was for many a decade of hardship in Turkey.
“We have no one here. We are going back to Latakia, where we have family,” said Mustafa as he prepared to enter Syria with his wife and three sons at the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Turkey. Dozens more Syrians were waiting to cross.
– With reporting by SULEIMAN AL-KHALIDI and FIRAS MAKDESI in Amman, Jordan; CRISTINA CARLEVARO in Rome, Italy; ECE TOKSABAY and MERT OZKAN in Yayladagi, Turkey; DAVID BRUNNSTROM, ERIN BANCO and SIMON LEWIS in Washington DC, US: and DMITRY ANTONOV in Moscow, Russia.
One Response
The hope of a new future is equaled by the grief and despair at what is now unhidden. I hope that Syrians understand that justice is not revenge. If they focus on the hunt, on brutal revenge as their top priority, they will simply rinse and repeat. I hope they learn the ultimate lesson; peace is the only path to peace. Banish violence and retribution. Peace is not for the weak; it is for the strongest of us. I will hold this vision for them, my brothers and sisters in humanity.