Syria « World Without Genocide - Making It Our Legacy

Syria

Syria The World Factbook 2021. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2021. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/

The Syrian conflict started in 2011, after the Arab Spring across the Middle East and North Africa led to peaceful pro-democracy protests. The government responded to the peaceful protests with violence, killing, and the arbitrary imprisonment of civilians. Thousands of ordinary Syrians took to the streets to protest the regime and the violence continued, leading to all-out civil war that continues with no end in sight.

Syria, a country in the Middle East, is roughly the size of Oklahoma with more than four times the population. Its capital is Damascus. The country is bordered by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon.

Drought

In 2006, Syria experienced its worst drought on record. Herders in the northeast of the country lost 85% of their livestock and 75% of farmers experienced total crop loss. One expert called it “the worst long-term drought and most severe set of crop failures since agricultural civilizations began in the Fertile Crescent many millennia ago.”[1] Food prices skyrocketed and people were starving. Nearly 2 million Syrians who relied on agriculture for food or income lost their livelihoods. Over 1.5 million people were forced to leave their homes for cities in search of work. Syria’s major cities were already experiencing overcrowding from a previous influx of 1.5 million Iraqi refugees and a population that grew by nearly 40% from 2000 to 2015.

Arab Spring

In 2011, the Arab Spring erupted throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. The “Arab Spring” refers to pro-democracy uprisings that started in Tunisia and quickly spread to Morocco, Syria, Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain.

In March of 2011 the Arab Spring reached Syria. Fifteen schoolchildren who had written anti-government graffiti were arrested and tortured. Locals took to the streets to protest, asking for the release of the children and for democracy and greater freedom for the people. The government opened fire on the protesters, killing four people.[2] The next day, government troops shot at mourners at the youths’ funerals, killing one more. Citizens continued to protest Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Security forces cracked down on demonstrations and killed at least 100 people. By the end of March, protests spread to other cities, and Syrian security forces conducted raids in Homs, Damascus, Daraa, and other cities to extinguish protests.[21] People wanted democracy, and they wanted food. Food prices were still rising, and the people were still hungry. The government continued to respond with violence. They shot unarmed civilians, carried out door-to-door arrest campaigns, and targeted medical personnel aiding the wounded.

Wounded civilians at Aleppo

Civil War

Citizens began arming themselves, and rebel brigades soon formed to fight the government for control of cities. Fighting reached Damascus and Aleppo by 2012. In December 2012 the Assad regime carried out the first of many chemical weapons attacks, killing women and children and sparking international condemnation. In August the following year, a Syrian chemical weapons attack took the lives of 1,700 civilians. [3] The act crossed what President Obama declared to be a “red line.” In September 2013, in response to the chemical attack, President Obama entered a three-party deal with Russia under which Syria committed to removing or destroying its chemical stockpile by the following year.[3]
By June of 2013, 90,000 Syrians had been killed in the conflict.

The government has used barrel bombs on cities, targeted hospitals, arrested and tortured civilians, and used rape and starvation as weapons of war. Food, water, medicine, and electricity are blocked, leaving citizens starving and dying. Nearly 3 million Syrians are currently in hard-to-reach and besieged areas.

Syria during the Civil War

Hospitals have been targeted from the beginning of the war. Since 2011, over 450 attacks have been made on Syrian hospitals and over 800 medical professionals have been killed.[4] So many doctors have been killed or have fled that veterinarians and dentists are often forced to perform surgeries. Organizations like the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) have built underground hospitals to provide services despite the bombings. SAMS has spent more than $3.5 million on underground cave hospitals. Over six years of war the organization’s staff has delivered 100,000 babies and has supported nearly 400,000 surgeries.[5]

Displacement Crisis

An estimated half a million people have been killed since the war began; roughly 6.7 million refugees have fled their homes for other countries; and 6.2 million people are internally displaced within Syria.[6][20] Half of those affected are children. Nearly one out of four displaced persons on the planet is a Syrian. This is the greatest refugee crisis the world has seen since World War II. Syrians continue to be the largest displaced population in the world, with 13 million people having been forced to leave their homes at the end of 2018, which is more than half of the Syrian population.[22]

Syrians have fled mainly to five countries: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. The influx of refugees has placed immense stress on governments without the infrastructure or wealth to support such large refugee populations. Neighboring countries, including Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, are now preventing Syrians from seeking asylum at their borders. More than a million Syrian refugees are registered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).[23] Seventy-four percent of Syrians in Lebanon lack legal residency and risk detention for being in the country unlawfully, and in 2017, Lebanese authorities called for refugees to return to Syria. Some refugees are returning because of harsh policies and deteriorating conditions in Lebanon, and cities have forcibly evicted thousands of refugees in mass expulsions without a legal basis while tens of thousands remain at risk of eviction.[23] As of May 2018, Turkey had registered approximately 3.6 million refugees, about the population of Los Angeles. Turkey has stated that it will not open its border to asylum seekers fleeing hostilities in Syria’s northeast region and instead, Turkish authorities have opened several displacement camps in areas under their control in Syria. [23]

Syrian refugees arrive at Skala Sykamias Lesvos, Greece (Ggia, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

Desperate families have also tried to flee to Europe, risking their lives as they cross the Mediterranean Sea in small, overcrowded boats. In 2016, over 360,000 refugees crossed the Mediterranean into Europe. Nearly 4,000 people died on the way.[7]

Syrian refugees have also traveled across the Atlantic to the United States and Canada. The Trump administration has restricted the number of refugees the US accepts each year. The US only took in half as many in 2017 compared to 2016, a decline from 12,587 to 6,557. Syrian refugees took a hard hit from continuing restrictions as the US took in only 62 Syrian refugees in 2018. [28]

Life as a refugee is extremely difficult. Most Syrian refugees in neighboring countries live in urban areas. Just 8% live in refugee camps.[8] Refugees face overwhelming challenges. They left everything, and many arrived with only the clothes on their backs. Most Syrian refugees are living well below the poverty line. Language barriers and the need to earn money often prevent refugee children from getting an education. Child marriage has also increased in refugee communities and poverty-stricken parents marry off daughters to afford to feed the rest of their families.[9] Parents also often believe their daughters will be safer with a husband to protect them.

The country’s worst drought, soaring food prices, a growing population, and the desire for democracy led to the Arab Spring, but peaceful protesters were met with violence. Protests continued, and the government responded with murder, arbitrary arrests, and torture. Rebel groups formed, and the government used barrel bombs, chemical attacks, and hospital bombings to target its own citizens and regain control over the civilian uprising.

Other Players

The extremist group Islamic State in Iraq in Syria (ISIS) took advantage of Syria’s instability and emerged in Syria in 2013 with the goal of establishing a caliphate, or a Muslim state governed under Islamic law. ISIS quickly took control of eastern territories not under government control and established its own capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa.[10] ISIS became internationally recognized through their violent propaganda videos of public beheadings, crucifixions, and mass executions. They are an ultra-radical Sunni Muslim group that has targeted Shia Muslims, moderate Sunnis, and religious minorities like Yazidi Christians. Although many westerners think the Syrian conflict revolves around ISIS, the Syrian government and its allies are responsible for nearly all the Syrian casualties.[11]

The Kurds are an ethnic minority that has lived in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq since ancient Mesopotamia. They have been fighting for an independent state since the region broke apart in the 1900s. They want their own state, or at least control over their region. The US has supported Kurdish forces with weapons and training, and the Kurds have been successful in fighting ISIS and Assad in the north.

The two maps below show how control has shifted in Syria. The map on the left is from July 2015 and the map on the right is from April 2020. These maps show how ISIS control (in black) is predominant in 2015, compared to April 2020 where ISIS has almost disappeared. Rebel forces (in green) occupied various locations in Syria in 2015 and lost ground in 2019 (in purple on the right image). Kurdish forces (in yellow) remain strong, taking parts of ISIS control, while the Syrian government forces (in red) expand their majority control.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syrian_civil_war_07_10_2015.png

Military situation in Syria (Tiny5Time, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

Proxy War

Despite the Syrian civilian uprising, President Assad has stayed in power and is now devastating the civilian rebel forces. This would not have been possible without the Syrian government’s greatest ally, Russia. Syria and Russia have been allies since the Cold War. Russia has military bases in Syria and sells $1.5 billion worth of weapons to Syria each year, about 10% of Russian global weapons sales.[12] Russian President Vladimir Putin would not let his ally fall, especially to an opposition with American interests.

The Syrian war turned into a proxy war, or a war instigated by major powers that are not directly involved in the combat. The US supports rebel groups fighting Assad and ISIS, and Russia supports Assad against ISIS, the rebels, and in turn, civilians. Russia has come under fire for its role in civilian attacks and for aiding a regime that uses chemical and other internationally-banned weapons against its own citizens. International criticism was handed down after a chemical attack in April 2018 that killed 48 people. But Russia and the Syrian government denied involvement, accusing rebels of fabricating an attack despite video evidence.[13]

Russia has also prevented UN action to address the conflict. Russia has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which means it has veto power. Russia has vetoed every resolution aimed at resolving the conflict, including resolutions calling for sanctions, ceasefires, investigations into chemical weapons use, and a proposal to refer Syrian war crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC).[14]

The Trump administration has taken a more hardline approach to the Syrian government’s chemical attacks than the previous administration. After a chemical attack in April 2017, the US fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base, but the base was back in operation the next day. The April 2018 chemical attack that killed 48 people was met with a coordinated military effort from the US, France, and Britain on three chemical weapons facilities.[15]

According to the UN, half a million people have been killed in Syria since the start of the war. As of January 2019, more than 5.6 million have fled the country while over 6 million people are internally displaced. External military intervention, including the provisions of arms and military equipment, air strikes and troops in support of proxies in Syria, threaten to prolong the conflict. Ongoing violence and proxy conflicts could also ignite the resurgence of terrorist groups. Outside players such as Iran, Israel, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and U.S.-led coalitions are increasingly operating in proximity to one another, which complicates the civil war and likely unintended escalation.[24]

Justice

Efforts to bring justice to victims and to hold perpetrators accountable have already begun. Many European authorities have opened investigations into the war crimes committed in Syria, and Sweden and Germany are the first two countries to convict perpetrators. However, justice is difficult to obtain. Without access to crime scenes for evidence, authorities must rely on NGOs, UN entities, and refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom fear retribution against loved ones in Syria and distrust government officials because of their experiences in Syria.[17]

A case against the Assad regime has been building based on tens of thousands of photos documenting the government’s torture that were smuggled out of Syria by a military defector. The photos have aided court cases in Spain, Germany, and France. The evidence against the Assad regime, according to former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Stephen Rapp, “is massive and overwhelming, far better than they had at Nuremberg or in The Hague at the Yugoslavia tribunal or that we had in Sierra Leone or the genocide trials against the Rwandan leaders.”[18]

There are also efforts to prosecute violence committed by ISIS. Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has taken legal action against ISIS for their efforts to commit genocide against the Yazidi people. Her client, Nadia Murad, was captured by ISIS in 2014 and escaped three months later after facing repeated rapes. Her mother and six brothers were all killed.[19] Clooney hopes to get the case referred to the International Criminal Court.

Nadia Murad in Washington

The government of Qatar approached leading human rights investigators in 2014 to authenticate photos taken by a defector from Syria and to determine whether the evidence indicated commission of international crimes. The defector was given the name Caesar to protect his identity. His journey had started in 2011 as a forensic photographer in the Syrian army. His job was to photograph deceased individuals at a military hospital near Damascus. He became concerned with the deaths as the number steadily increased and the condition of the dead bodies became more visibly suggestive of torture. He smuggled copies of the photographs onto a memory stick, and over the next two years he smuggled out 54,000 photos of 11,000 bodies. [25]

In 2013, Caesar fled. His mission now is to seek support to save the Syrian people. Various versions of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act have passed in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2016 with bipartisan support. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 passed the Senate included a section titled “Caesar,” based almost entirely on Caesar’s 2014 testimony to Congress, finally placed sanctions on Syria. [26]

On March 11, 2020, Caesar testified at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about on the war in Syria. Indiana Senator Toddy Young urged the Administration to fully implement the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act and for the Government of Turkey to step in and provide life-saving aid and humanitarian assistance. The United States committed an additional $108 million to humanitarian assistance. [27]

Updated: World Without Genocide, January 2021

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References

[1] https://www.thenation.com/article/syria-may-be-the-first-climate-change-conflict-but-it-wont-be-the-last/

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868

[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/arab-spring-chemical-attacks-timeline-syrian-conflict-n865961

[4] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/when-hospitals-become-targets/

[5] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/when-hospitals-become-targets/

[6] https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/syria

[7] https://data2.unhcr.org/ar/documents/download/53447

[8] http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/syria-emergency.html

[9] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/the-desperate-struggle-for-home-at-the-uns-largest-syrian-refugee-camp