A Syrian Committee for Civil Peace Angers Those Demanding Justice

It was established by the emerging government of Syria to restore calm in a country fractured by about 14 years of civil war. Instead, the civil peace committee has become a source of national conflicts.

Discontent simmer among some Syrians who supported the uprising against the country’s ousted dictator, Bashar al-Assad. They now accuse the rebel leaders who overthrew him from the empowerment of a committee set up to facilitate internal divisions at the expense of holding the remains of the Old Regime.

The public’s indignation exploded during the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha in early June when the committee released dozens of former regime soldiers, saying that they were not involved in any crime. Now criticism is calling for demonstrations.

“What everyone has been waiting for since the fall of Assad is to see the punishment of those who have committed war crimes, to see transitional justice unfold,” said Rami Abdelhaq, an activist who supported the anti-assuring revolt. “Instead, we are shocked to discover that there is a liberation from many people.”

The peace committee was formed following the large -scale killings of minority alawites, The sect to which Mr. al-Assad belongs. In power, the president had made Alawites the backbone of his military forces, who fought to crush the rebellion supported by the Sunni Muslim majority.

After a counter-line in March by former regime soldiers in a region along the Mediterranean coast, supporters of the armed government killed hundreds of civilians Allawites, according to human rights groups.

The Committee says it is working to defuse tensions with Syrian minorities. But the debates on its objective cut at the heart of a central question in Post-Assad Syria: how to achieve justice and reconciliation in a population that has endured decades of violent repression.

Over 600,000 People from all sides were killed in the war, according to rights defense groups, while tens of thousands have been tortured and imprisoned. Thousands of people who have disappeared in Mr. Al-Assad’s detention centers have been missing to date.

The victims of the Assad regime claim a process of transitional justice to hold people behind the crimes to account.

For some who lived under the reign of Mr. Al-Assad, in particular the Alawites, the Mars murders on the coast cemented fears of a bloody vigilant justice.

The Peace Committee says it aims to promote the necessary social cohesion for transitory justice to work – and it has shown the desire to work with former diet figures to encourage local membership. .

For months, there have been increasing criticisms concerning the cooperation of the committee with Fadi Saqr, a Allawite who formerly managed the national defense forces, a pro-Assad paramilitary force, in Damascus, the capital.

On Tuesday, the committee held a press conference to explain its work and try to calm tensions. Instead, the group sparked a maelstrom.

Supporters of the anti-Assad revolt accused the committee of authorizing war criminals to flee justice and demanded that Mr. SAQR helps locate the tombs of missing persons.

Critics are particularly exasperated by the involvement of Mr. Saqr because they say that he is responsible for the national defense force massacre Civilians from the Tadamon district of Damascus in 2013, and the brutal seat of the suburbs held by the city’s rebels during the war.

Mr. Saqr is responsible for the responsibility, saying that he was appointed to lead the militia after the Tadamon massacre, and told the New York Times in a statement that he had received no amnesty by the government.

“The state was clear with me from the start: if the Ministry of the Interior had evidence against me, I would not work with them today,” he said. “I will submit to everything that the judiciary decides,” he added, under “appropriate legal procedures”.

Hassan Soufan, former rebellious leader and member of the peace committee, recognized the “pain of the public and justified anger” in the face of the former role of Mr. Saqr’s militia, but praised his work with the committee.

“In the context of national reconciliation, we are sometimes forced to make decisions that prevent climbing and violence, and help ensure relative stability in the next phase,” he said.

The government faces an explosive national dynamic on all sides.

The revenge killings in Syria are now commonSay that human rights activists say, while local residents will stick to “sought” lists of former members of the regime accused of crimes on the walls of the alley, and mysterious vigilant groups Let’s track the suspects day.

In the Allawites communities, always frightening and angry after mass massacres on the coast, there are constant rumors that armed insurrections are plotted against the new government. It is a disorder of local leaders who try to maintain peace.

Nour al-Din al-Baba, the spokesperson for the Syrian Interior Ministry, said that the size of the Old Regime and the paramilitary forces-up to 800,000 people-has made everyone responsible.

Mr. Saqr said that his history, not only as Allawite, but as a commander of the regime’s militia, gave him the credibility of persuading former supporters of the regime not to turn away from the new Syrian government.

But will the central question remain: “Will the public of the Revolution accept them as partners in the homeland?” He said. “The name FADI SAQR is a test of the possibility of knowing whether coexistence is possible between the two sides of the conflict.”

Muhammad Haj Kadour And Hwaida Saad Contributed reports.