Opinion

Accountability for atrocities is a must for any Syria solution

Any realistic solutions to long years of war and terrible suffering are lacking – but they all need to start with the removal of al-Assad

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Alia Mansour
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Accountability for atrocities is a must for any Syria solution

Alia Mansour
last update on

Almost all statements made about Syria put emphasis on the territorial integrity and independence of the country.

And yet, Syria is already more than divided. It is fragmented into tiny areas of influence. The absence of the state is wider than it may appear. It is missing not just from the areas outside the al-Assad regime’s control, but also from where the regime is nominally in charge and where it is still fighting militias.

All the solutions proposed since the Russian military intervention of September 2015 have been only partial remedies. Even when based on Resolution 2254 of the United Nations Security Council – which calls for a ceasefire and political settlement in Syria – they have underestimated the importance of what is really needed as a first step to lasting peace: proper political transition.

Foreign boots on Syrian ground

Al Majalla recently reported that the number of foreign military bases or sites in Syria had reached 830 halfway through 2022.

Read more: Syria has 830 foreign military sites. 70% belong to Iran

This shows the difficulty Syria faces.

How can a sense of national unity be forged in a country with so many places where there are foreign fighting forces? The US-led coalition has 30. Turkey has 125. There are 105 from Russia and 570 from Iran. Parts of Syrian territory are occupied by Israel.

 The absence of the state is wider than it may appear. It is missing not just from the areas outside the al-Assad regime's control, but also from where the regime is nominally in charge and where it is still fighting militias.

The disappeared

Furthermore, Syria is a country where many people have gone missing – 155,243 to be exact, between March 2011 and June 2023 – according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.  

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an independent institution to be set up specifically for "clarifying the fate" of these people and perhaps even to find them, while also supporting their families.

It is worth remembering how many people are affected by this, as the world recently marked the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Over 87% of Syria's missing were thought to have been disappeared by the Syrian regime.

They are not the only victims.

Overwhelming numbers of people, including the young, died under torture in al-Assad's prisons. Attention was drawn to these human rights violations by the so-called Caesar photographs, which exposed the crimes.

It does not end there.

Thousands more were killed by the regime's barrel bombs. Others died from Sarin gas attacks. More were killed in the massacres of Baniyas, Al-Houle, and Deir Baabdeh, where entire families were slaughtered with knives.

Field executions in the Al-Tadamon massacre also came to light. Civilians were shot and pushed into a large ditch. How many other such ditches are there in Syria? There are already hundreds of thousands of victims, numbering more than half a million people.

Over 87% of Syria's missing were thought to have been disappeared by the Syrian regime. Overwhelming numbers of people, including the young, died under torture in al-Assad's prisons.

Widespread destruction

Syria has, in effect,  been destroyed, except for some neighbourhoods in some of its cities. More than half of the Syrian population have become refugees abroad or are displaced internally. How can they ever return? And if they do, will they come back as if these atrocities have never happened?

No truly realistic solutions to the Syrian crisis have been offered so far. Anyone who talks about preserving the "unity of the Syrian territories", is far from realistic. And the proposals that have been made do not look capable of the reunification of a country so deeply divided.

The crimes committed in Syria are so grave that accountability for them needs to be part of any realistic solution for the country. Reconciliation needs full honesty. It cannot occur if such terrible and recent history is merely erased.

For Syria to regain its cohesion, its people must be reunited.  Syrians cannot come together if they do not recognise the sacrifices made and the blood shed by their children.

Without justice, there will be no unity. People who have suffered so much for 12 long years cannot be expected to forget so easily, just for the sake of some international assistance.

The people of 2023 have changed. They are different from the people of 1967. Now, they are more aware of their rights. They are also more aware of who was responsible for the plight of their nation, inflicted under the guise of various causes.

And there is a clear, practical and enduring first step toward a Syrian solution, even if some disregard it: Removal of the regime's leader, who bears the primary responsibility for the entire trauma his people and his country have been through and the afflictions and suffering it faces to this day.

Without that, any meaningful and lasting resolution will remain elusive.

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