(Spectator-UK) Jonathan Spyer - The liberation of Syria's notorious Sednaya jail close to Damascus a week ago has resulted in a wave of belated outrage toward Assad and his methods. Yet the fact that this regime was engaged in the mass slaughter of Syrian civilians was known to both policymakers and publics in the West. What should be concluded from this? That the notion proclaimed by Western governments that the world is ruled by something called "international law" is a myth, usually a self-serving one when evoked. That the idea of an "international community" is also a fiction, as seen by how badly that "community" let down the people killed in Sednaya. The Assad regime's practices were not particularly aberrant, in the context of the recent history of Syria (and Iraq...and Lebanon). Bashar's father and his father's predecessors used similar methods. His fellow Ba'athist Saddam Hussein (and his successors) used and use them in Iraq. In April 2022, in cooperation with Syrian colleagues, I wrote an article called "Erdogan's Secret Prisons in Syria," based on a 140-page report produced by Syrian activists and based on eyewitness testimony. The report details the random detention and widespread torture (including sexual abuse) of civilians in northern Syria by Turkey-supported militias, the same militias now allied with the new ruling authorities in Damascus. The writer is director of research at the Middle East Forum.
2024-12-24 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive