How Syrians can pursue justice, fast-track peace in post-conflict era

Over the course of Syria's 13-year civil war, countless people were killed, displaced, or disappeared by the Assad regime and its militia allies, fueling impatient calls for justice. (AFP photos)
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Updated 16 February 2025
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How Syrians can pursue justice, fast-track peace in post-conflict era

  • Violence in rural Homs, Hama and coastal provinces flares as new authorities target “Assad regime remnants” in security sweeps
  • Experts urge a transitional justice process, modeled on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, going forward

LONDON: While thousands across the Syrian Arab Republic celebrated the fall of Bashar Assad on Dec. 8, others were fearful of the retribution they would likely face for their ties to the ousted regime. For many, those fears are quickly realized.

The Syrian people endured immense suffering over the course of the nation’s 13-year civil war, with countless killed, displaced, or disappeared by the regime and its militia allies, fueling impatient calls for justice.

As a result, areas of rural Homs and the Mediterranean coast with high densities of Alawites — the ethno-religious group from which the Assad family traced its roots and drew much of its support — have seen mounting instability.

Reports of sectarian killings began to emerge as the interim government carried out security sweeps, while armed men, reportedly seeking revenge against those they deemed responsible for the years of bloodshed, have taken the law into their own hands.

Karam Shaar, a senior fellow at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, believes the interim government in Damascus faces a significant challenge of balancing accountability with social cohesion and stability.




 Surge in revenge attacks and criminality since Assad’s overthrow prompts call for transitional justice effort. (AFP)

The new leaders “fully understand that pursuing accountability head-on at this point, given the fragile security situation, could lead to a resurgence of extremist groups, paramilitary militias, and territorial factions,” Shaar told Arab News.

In early December, as rebel forces led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham advanced into Homs before going on to topple the Assad regime, tens of thousands of Alawites fled the central province to the Syrian coast, fearing reprisals.

Camille Otrakji, a Syrian-Canadian analyst, says the exodus of Alawites to their heartland on the Mediterranean coast “has led many to question whether this phase constitutes a low-intensity ethnic cleansing project aimed at relocating Alawites exclusively to the coastal region.”

“While Christians in Aleppo and Alawites in the coastal region of Syria are less frequently subjected to human rights abuses, those in central Syria (Homs and Hama governorates) are the ones who bear the brunt of the punishment,” Otrakji told Arab News.




Syrian Christians attend mass at the Saint Mary Church of the Holy Belt in Homs on December 20, 2024. (AFP)

As fear of retribution and sectarian violence spread through the Alawite community and other ethnoreligious groups, Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa pledged in late December that his administration would protect the country’s diverse sects and minority groups.

However, as of Feb. 7, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, has documented 128 retaliatory killings across 11 provinces since the start of 2025 alone — with Homs leading the toll, followed by Hama.

Alawites, a Muslim sect who constitute around 10 percent of Syria’s population, are at particular risk of collective punishment — including for those who opposed Assad.

During the 50-year rule of Bashar and his father Hafez, Alawites formed the backbone of the regime, with around 80 percent of them working for the state — many in intelligence, security, or the military, according to the Washington Institute.

After Assad’s ouster and the rebel coalition’s capture of Damascus in December, interim authorities moved to curb the spread of arms, urging former conscripts and soldiers to surrender their weapons.




Soldiers and police officers of the fallen Assad regime line up on December 17, 2024, to register at a center in Daraa created by victorious opposition forces to settle their status and surrender their weapons. (AFP)

However, many have chosen to hold on to these weapons — in many cases for self defense. In response, security forces launched an operation in Homs in January to capture “remnants of Assad’s militias.”

The operation followed clashes in Alawite neighborhoods, sparked by an old video that resurfaced in December, showing rebels burning the shrine of the Alawite sect’s founder.

Quoting a security official, state news agency SANA said on Jan. 2 that the security campaign targeted “war criminals and those involved in crimes who refused to hand over their weapons.”




Fighters affiliated with Syria's new administration check people's identification at a makeshift checkpoint after closing a road leading to the Alawite-majority Mazzeh 86 neighbourhood in western Damascus on December 26, 2024. (AFP)

While security forces were conducting raids in rural Homs, members of the Alawite community shared videos on social media showing militants, reportedly linked to HTS, beating and abusing Alawites in Homs and in coastal areas while hurling sectarian insults.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that within a month of Assad’s ouster, at least 160 Alawites were killed in raids and sectarian attacks.

In a recent incident documented by the war monitor, “unidentified gunmen” opened fire on civilians at the Baniyas-Jabaleh junction in the coastal region, killing a former officer and a worker.




A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration bayonets a portrait of toppled president Bashar al-Assad at the defunct Mezzeh military prison in Damascus on January 2, 2025. (AFP)

Similarly, in rural Homs, factions linked to the new administration reportedly raided the village of Al-Dabin, attacked a civilian home and killed a young man.

Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said that as social media and word of mouth spread reports of killings, robberies, and kidnappings, “lawlessness, particularly in the Alawite villages around Homs and Hama, is causing near hysteria within the community.”

“Many Alawites are demanding justice,” he told Arab News. “They understand that the Assad regime committed terrible atrocities, particularly in the prisons, but they fear that the wrong people are being killed in random attacks and revenge killings.”




An Alawite Syrian, who had fled to Lebanon, sits with a neighbor and family members in front of his severely damaged home, after returning to the Baba Amr neighbourhood in Homs, on Jan. 8, 2025. (AFP)

He added: “One of the primary reasons for animosity toward the new government of President Al-Sharaa within the Alawite community is the lawlessness now overtaking the coastal region.”

Shaar of the New Lines Institute says the perceived delay in tackling this lawlessness might be due to the need to first establish the state’s monopoly on the use of force during this transitional period.

“I think the caretaker government is prioritizing stabilizing security, consolidating power, and establishing a monopoly on force, as any state should, before addressing these violations,” he said.

Referring to the new authorities, he added: “I still don’t see their vision, and maybe we shouldn’t expect one this early. Perhaps it does take time.

“In that sense, it’s understandable for them to wait before developing a vision for accountability, given the magnitude and sheer scale of the violations that occurred during the conflict.”

However, the situation is likely to escalate as Alawites are pushed out of key state roles and public sector jobs under the new government’s plan to cut a third of its workforce. With lost livelihoods, hunger is already widespread in Alawite areas.

“Many Alawites have lost their jobs or fear being pushed out of their jobs as purges are being carried out in government ministries,” said Landis. “Of course, the military, police force, and intelligence services were packed with Alawites.”

Fighters affiliated with the interim government have allegedly carried out summary executions in Homs. In late January, Syrian authorities accused members of a “criminal group” of “posing as members of the security services” and abusing residents, according to SANA.




Fighters affiliated with Syria's new administration take part in an operation to track down members of ousted president Bashar Assad's paramilitary forces in the central city of Homs on January 2, 2025. (Photo by SANA / AFP) 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the new authorities have arrested “dozens of members of local armed groups” who participated in the security operations in Homs.

Their arrest came after 35 people, mostly Assad-era officers, were summarily executed within 72 hours, according to the war monitor.

These groups “carried out reprisals and settled old scores with members of the Alawite minority … taking advantage of the state of chaos, the proliferation of arms and their ties to the new authorities,” it said.

In addition, the war monitor listed “mass arbitrary arrests, atrocious abuse, attacks against religious symbols, mutilations of corpses, summary and brutal executions targeting civilians” among the “unprecedented level of cruelty and violence.”




A local guides journalists visiting the ruins of the "French" Tadmor Prison, formerly used by the Assad government and destroyed by Daesh group militants in 2015, in Syria's central city of Palmyra on February 7, 2025. After the fall of the regime, members of Assad's Alawite sect are bearing the brunt of reprisals. (AFP)

These crimes demand an urgent transitional justice process to help prevent further bloodshed and division. However, unless the various armed groups are integrated into the Syrian Ministry of Defense, the security situation will likely continue to escalate.

“The new government must get control of the many militias that are not directly under government control,” said Landis. “They must also build their police forces so that they can bring some accountability to the countryside and stop crime.”

He added: “Even more important than a proper police force is a justice system that can provide the equality and accountability that President Al-Sharaa has been so eloquent in proclaiming will define the new Syria.”




Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa visits locals at a camp sheltering people displaced by the country's civil war in the northwestern city of Idlib on February 15, 2025. (Photo by Syrian Presidency Telegram Page / AFP)

On Jan. 30, in his first state address as president, Al-Sharaa vowed to “pursue the criminals who shed Syrian blood and committed massacres and crimes,” in addition to working to form an inclusive transitional government.

As Syria’s new leader “seeks historical recognition as the architect of a transformed and improved Syria,” he “must demonstrate his ability to curtail the influence of his armed militias,” said analyst Otrakji.

Al-Sharaa “recognizes that establishing and maintaining favorable relations with influential global powers and moderate Arab nations is crucial for achieving success,” he said.




Syrian Arab Republic's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (center R) speaking with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, before their meeting in Damascus on January 24, 20. (SANA photo via REUTERS)

“These nations have expressed their hope that Syria under his leadership will provide a secure environment for its minorities and uphold their rights as equal citizens.”

Al-Sharaa’s main challenge, however, “is that tens of thousands of armed men wielding significant power in the new Syria are not necessarily motivated by the same goals as their leader,” said Otrakji.

“Their objectives vary widely. Some are driven by a desire to purge Syria of ‘heretic’ sects. Others aim to impose strict moral codes, including regulating women’s attire. Some seek to seize the property — whether homes or mobile phones — of Alawite villagers, while others revel in the daily opportunity to humiliate them.”

The international community warns that peace and lasting security in post-Assad Syria requires the adoption of transitional justice, strengthening the rule of law, and holding free, fair elections to form a legitimate government.

“It’s not easy to have a genuine accountability process that is fair and inclusive, but that also ignores their own violations,” said Syrian analyst Shaar, referring to the new authorities.

“Someone might say: ‘It’s good we’re talking about this, but tell me about the disappeared in HTS areas, or about extrajudicial killings.’ If you open that door, where do you stop?”

Although transitional justice would be a very complex process, it is likely the only path to stabilizing Syria.

“Transitional justice seeks to help societies recover from widespread abuse and systematic repression, prioritizing victims and their interests while ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable through a fair and transparent process — without it becoming a tool for revenge or perpetuating new injustices,” Harout Ekmanian, a public international lawyer at Foley Hoag LLP in New York, told Arab News. 

“Post-conflict Syria has a range of transitional justice mechanisms it can implement,” Ekmanian added, citing criminal trials, truth commissions, security sector reforms, reparations, and memorial initiatives for victims.

Implementing these mechanisms successfully “requires the active leadership of the state, working in close collaboration with the legal community, human rights organizations, and victims or their representatives,” he said.




Representatives of Syrian civil society brainstorm in the courtyard of a traditional house in Old Damascus on January 6, 2025, on strategies to ensure their country does not return to authoritarianism. (AFP)

Ekmanian, who is originally from Aleppo, added: “Community awareness campaigns should accompany these efforts to educate the public on the concept of transitional justice and its role in fostering reconciliation and building a stable future.

“This would help manage public expectations. These campaigns should promote a discourse that encourages cooperation among all parties rather than fostering division or demonizing any group.”

The international community has called for the creation of a national transitional justice committee to document violations, offer psychological and social support to victims, and promote social reconciliation.

This committee could model the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a proven conflict resolution model that followed the end of apartheid, to help Syria confront its past and build a future of justice and accountability.

Ekmanian said such commissions investigate past human rights violations and recommend pathways to justice.




Pictures of 23 local Syrians who died in Saydnaya and other Assad-regime prisons are displayed during a memorial service for them in Jaramana in the Damascus countryside on the city's outskirts on December 21, 2024. (AFP)

“However, they go a step further by actively fostering reconciliation between victims and perpetrators,” he said. “They often incorporate restorative justice elements, such as public apologies, amnesty provisions, and dialogue processes, to help heal societal divisions.”

Truth and reconciliation commissions “could play a crucial role in gathering the narratives of victims and society, helping to establish the truth about a range of mass abuses,” including “the atrocities committed in Assad’s prisons, the torture, the sieges and indiscriminate bombings of civilian areas, chemical massacres, corruption, and last but not least, the fate of thousands of forcibly disappeared individuals.

“However, as with any transitional justice mechanism, the work of truth and reconciliation committees must be balanced with the need to maintain communal peace and stability,” he added. 

The new government’s appointment of leaders from a single political, religious, and sectarian group has raised skepticism among Syrians about its ability to pursue an inclusive transition.

Moreover, a history of deep sectarian divides and vengeance across the region presents a significant challenge to a truth and reconciliation process.

Otrakji said: “Regrettably, the pervasive sentiment of revenge deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of the Middle East and the Mediterranean poses a significant challenge to the possibility of a South African-inspired truth and reconciliation process in healing the deep-seated wounds of Syria’s protracted history of conflict.”
 

 


Legal cannabis blooms in Morocco but black market still beckons

Updated 20 sec ago
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Legal cannabis blooms in Morocco but black market still beckons

Regulating cannabis farming brought with it hopes for fresh revenue and economic revitalization in the impoverished Rif region
The step made Morocco a forerunner among major producing countries and the first in the MENA to join a global trend

BAB BERRED, Morocco: Beneath the blazing summer sun, Abderrahman Talbi surveyed the neat rows of flourishing cannabis blooms in compact fields, reflecting on how his life has changed since he joined Morocco’s burgeoning legal cannabis industry two years ago.

Like many farmers in the northern Rif mountains who have long grown the crop illegally, Talbi is relieved that raids and seizures by the authorities are no longer a worry.

“I can now say I am a cannabis farmer without fear,” Talbi told Reuters. “Peace of mind has no price.”

Talbi’s pivot to legal farming is an example of what Morocco, one of the world’s biggest cannabis producers, hoped to achieve when it legalized cultivation for medical and industrial use, but not for recreational purposes, in 2022.

Regulating cannabis farming brought with it hopes for fresh revenue and economic revitalization in the impoverished Rif region.

The step made Morocco a forerunner among major producing countries and the first in the Middle East and North Africa to join a global trend that has seen countries like Canada, Germany and Uruguay legalize production and use.

It also hoped to lure farmers away from the illegal economy in the restive Rif mountains, where cannabis production has long been tolerated to facilitate social peace.

Al Hoceima, a major city in Rif, saw the largest protests in Morocco in 2016-17 over economic and social conditions.

BLACK MARKET’S LURE PERSISTS

Legalization efforts have gained traction, with about 5,000 farmers joining the industry this year, from just 430 in 2023, says Morocco’s cannabis regulator, or ANRAC.

And legal production surged to nearly 4,200 tons last year, a 14-fold increase over the first harvest in 2023.

Still, the black market remains dominant and lucrative due to demand for recreational use from Europe and regionally in Africa, potentially undermining efforts to fully regulate the sector.

Morocco has 5,800 hectares (14,300 acres) of legally planted land, according to ANRAC. That’s dwarfed by illegal cultivation spanning over 27,100 hectares, Interior Ministry data shows.

While many farmers still choose illicit cultivation, they face the risk of increased crackdowns by authorities, which led to the seizure of 249 tons of cannabis resin by September last year, up 48 percent from all of 2023, according to the Interior Ministry.

Mohammed Azzouzi, 52, spent three years in hiding for cannabis-related charges before receiving a royal pardon along with over 4,800 others last year.

Now, he is preparing for his first legal harvest and hopes to earn more than the 10,000 dirhams ($1,100) he used to make in the illegal economy each year.

RED TAPE
The country’s prohibition on growing cannabis for leisure use, along with bureaucratic red tape, limit legal farming, with every stage of the supply chain requiring a specific license from ANRAC, discouraging many a farmer from making the switch.

A grower who wants to cultivate legally needs to join a licensed cooperative, which buys the farmer’s product and processes it into derivatives or sells the resin to other licensed manufacturers.

Talbi’s cooperative, Biocannat, near the town of Bab Berred, 300 km (186 miles) north of Rabat, bought about 200 tons of cannabis last year from some 200 farmers, processing it into resin, supplements, capsules, oils and powders for medical and cosmetic purposes.

About 60 km east of Biocannat, in the main producing area of Issaguen, farmer Mohamed El Mourabit was initially hopeful about the legalization plan in 2021, but is less so now.

“The process is too complicated,” he said.

And money talks, as well, for many farmers, who are lured by the higher rewards of the black market, despite its risks.

While cooperatives take months to pay farmers about 50 dirhams per kilogram for the raw plant, on the illicit market, processed cannabis resin can fetch up to 2,500 dirhams per kilogram, farmers and activists say.

To close that gap, legalization advocates say growing for recreational use should be allowed, too.

But it’s not clear whether that will happen soon.

Mohamed Guerrouj, head of ANRAC, said legalizing recreational use would only be considered within a medical framework.

“The goal is to develop Morocco’s pharmaceutical industry ... not coffee shops,” he said.

Hamas says delegation leaving Doha after Gaza ceasefire talks breakdown

Updated 39 min 50 sec ago
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Hamas says delegation leaving Doha after Gaza ceasefire talks breakdown

  • A high-level leadership delegation from Hamas is departing Doha heading to Istanbul
  • Israel has resisted international calls to agree a ceasefire in Gaza

GAZA CITY: Hamas’s negotiating team left the Qatari capital Doha for Turkiye on Tuesday to discuss the “latest developments” in the stalled Gaza ceasefire talks, a Hamas official told AFP.

“A high-level leadership delegation from Hamas, headed by Mohammed Darwish, president of the movement’s leadership council, and including the negotiation team and its head, Khalil Al-Hayya, is departing Doha heading to Istanbul,” the source told AFP.

“The delegation will hold several meetings with Turkish officials regarding the latest developments in the ceasefire negotiations, which stalled last week,” the source added.

For over two weeks, mediators in Qatar had been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas delegations in a bid to secure a breakthrough in indirect talks for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza, nearly two years into the war.

The United States joined Israel last week in pulling its negotiators from the negotiations, with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff blaming the Palestinian militant group for the failure to reach a deal and saying Washington would “consider alternative options.”

Hamas politburo member Bassem Naim told AFP on Friday that the latest discussions focused on details of an Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has resisted international calls to agree a ceasefire in Gaza, with UN-backed experts warning on Tuesday that the Palestinian territory was slipping into famine.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar called the ceasefire demands “a distorted campaign of international pressure against Israel” that would leave Hamas in power in Gaza.

“It ain’t gonna happen, no matter how much pressure is put on Israel,” he said at a press conference Tuesday.


Germany’s Merz says Gaza aid airdrops could start as soon as Wednesday

Updated 29 July 2025
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Germany’s Merz says Gaza aid airdrops could start as soon as Wednesday

  • “This work may only make a small contribution to humanitarian aid,” said Merz
  • Two A400M aircraft were on their way to Jordan at the moment

BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that two of the country’s aircraft could fly aid airdrop missions from Jordan to Gaza as soon as Wednesday, calling the help a small but important signal.

“This work may only make a small contribution to humanitarian aid, but it sends an important signal: We are here, we are in the region,” said Merz at a press conference alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah in Berlin.

Two A400M aircraft were on their way to Jordan at the moment, where they would refuel and then fly their aid mission at the weekend at the latest, in coordination with France and Germany, said Merz.

Merz also welcomed initial steps taken by Israel to allow in aid but said more must follow.


Displaced Sudanese stream home from Egypt after army retakes Khartoum

Updated 29 July 2025
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Displaced Sudanese stream home from Egypt after army retakes Khartoum

  • “I miss every corner of Sudan, really. I’m very happy that I’m going back,” a returnee said
  • Over 4 million Sudanese fled to neighboring countries — including more than 1.5 million to Egypt

CAIRO: Toting large suitcases and bags of belongings, the Sudanese families crowding into Cairo’s main railway station hoped to be returning to relative stability after fleeing Sudan’s civil war.

They are among thousands of displaced Sudanese streaming back home from Egypt into territory retaken by the Sudanese armed forces from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary in Khartoum and its environs since the start of this year.

“I miss every corner of Sudan, really. I’m very happy that I’m going back,” one of the returnees, Malaz Atef, told Reuters.

The families were waiting to board a free train to the southern Egyptian city of Aswan, from where they would take buses to the Sudanese capital Khartoum. A couple of young girls wore hats reading, “Thank you, Egypt” in Arabic.

Over 4 million Sudanese fled to neighboring countries — including more than 1.5 million to Egypt — after war broke out between the army and the RSF in April 2023, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration, or IOM.

Since the start of this year, over 190,000 people have crossed the border from Egypt into Sudan, more than five times the number who returned in all of 2024, an IOM report said earlier this month.

Sudan’s ambassador to Egypt, Emad el-Din Adawy, who visited the station on Monday, said the returns marked “an important stage for reconstruction and bringing back stability.”

Despite the relative calm in the capital, fighting between the RSF and the army is still raging in the central Kordofan region and Al-Fashir in Darfur in the west.

The war, triggered by a dispute over a transition to civilian rule between the army and the RSF, has displaced over 12 million people and pushed half the population into acute hunger, according to the United Nations.

Some Sudanese in Egypt have complained of difficulty finding jobs and discrimination, and Egypt has deported thousands of refugees it says entered illegally. Thousands of others have fled onwards to Libya.

The weekly trains from Cairo to help Sudanese to return home voluntarily have been financed by Sudanese businessmen, according to Adawy.

The Sudanese who have gone back so far have mostly headed to Khartoum, as well as to Sennar and El Gezira states to the capital’s south, according to the IOM.


France to air-drop aid into Gaza: diplomatic source

Updated 29 July 2025
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France to air-drop aid into Gaza: diplomatic source

  • “France will carry out air drops in the coming days,” a diplomatic source said

PARIS: France will air-drop aid into Gaza “in coming days,” a diplomatic source said on Tuesday, as UN-backed experts warned the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory was slipping into famine.
“France will carry out air drops in the coming days to meet the most essential and urgent needs of the civilian population in Gaza,” the source said, also urging “an immediate opening by Israel of the land crossing points.”