It was founded by the young government of Syria to restore calmness in a country broken by about 14 years of civil war. Instead, the Commission for Civil Peace has become a source of national struggle.
Dissatisfaction with some Syrians who supported the rebellion against the deposited dictator of the country, Bashar al-Assad. They now accuse the rebel leaders who have overflowed him from strengthening a committee set up to relieve internal departments at the expense of holding the remaining remains of the old regime.
Public indignation exploded during the Muslim party of Eid al-Adha at the beginning of June when the committee released dozens of former regime soldiers and said they were not involved in crimes. Now critics are calling for protests.
“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 law,” said Rami Abdelhaq, an activist who supported the anti-assad revolt. “Instead, we are shocked to discover that there is a release of many people.”
The peace committee was formed after the Large -scale murders on AlaWites of minorities, The cult to which Mr Al-Assad belongs. While he was in power, the President AlaWites had made the backbone of his forces, which fought to crush the uprising supported by the majority of Sunni Muslim.
After a fiddled countercorn in March by former regime -soldiers in a region along the Mediterranean coast, armed government subdivispers killed hundreds of Alawite citizens, according to human rights groups.
The committee says it works the tensions of de-escalate with the minorities of Syria. But debates about the goal have been cut to the heart of a central question in the post-assad Syria: how justice and reconciliation to achieve in a population that has endured for decades of violent repression.
More than 600,000 People on all sides were killed in the war, according to law groups, while tens of thousands were tortured and imprisoned. Thousands that disappeared in Mr.’s detention centers. Al-Assad are still missing to this day.
The victims of the Assad regime scream for a transition process to keep people behind the crimes.
For some who lived under the rule of Mr. Al-Assad, in particular the AlaWites, the murders on the coast on the coast confirmed the fear of bloody bourgevig.
The Peace Committee says that it aims to promote social cohesion needed for transitional law to function and it has shown the willingness to work with former regime figures to encourage local buy-in. .
For months there has been a growing criticism of the committee’s cooperation with Fadi Saqr, an alawiet who once led the National Defense Forces, a Pro-Assad paramilitarian power, in Damascus, the capital.
On Tuesday, the committee held a press conference to explain its work and try to calm the tensions. Instead, the group unleashed a maelstrom.
Supporters of the Anti-Assad Revolt accused the committee of allowing war criminals to flee justice and demanded that Mr. Saqr helps to find graves of those who are missing.
Critics are particularly furious with Mr. Saqr’s involvement because they say that he is responsible for the National Defense Force massacre van Burgers in the Tadamon district of Damascus in 2013, and the brutal siege of rebels of the city of the city during the war.
Mr. Saqr denies responsibility and says that he was appointed to lead the militia after the Tadamon massacre and told the New York Times in a statement that he had not received an amnesty by the government.
“The state was clear from the start with me: if the Ministry of the Interior had any evidence against me, I would not work with them today,” he said. “I will subject myself to what the judiciary decides,” he added, under “legal proceedings.”
Hassan Soufan, a former rebel leader and member of the Peace Committee, acknowledged the “pain of the public and the righteous anger” about the former militia rol of Mr Saqr, but praised his work with the committee.
“In the context of national reconciliation, we are sometimes forced to make decisions that prevent escalation and violence, and help to guarantee relative stability in the next phase,” he said.
The government is confronted on all sides with an explosive national dynamic.
Revenge killings in Syria are now commonsay human rights activists, while the locals “wanted” lists of former regime members accused of crimes on alley walls, and mysterious Vigilante groups Promise to detect suspects.
In Alawite communities, still anxious and angry after the massive murders on the coast, there are constant rumors that armed insurance policies are being released against the new government. That is nerve -racking local leaders trying to keep peace.
Nour al-Din al-Baba, the spokesperson for the Syrian Ministry of the Interior, said that the enormous size of the former regime and paramilitary troops to 800,000 people made it impossible to keep everyone responsible.
Mr. Saqr said that his background, not only as an alawite, but as a regime -militia commander, gave him the credibility to convince former regime supporters not to turn away from the new government of Syria.
But the central question remains: “Will the public of the revolution accept them as partners in the home country?” he said. “The name Fadi Saqr is a test of whether coexistence is possible between the two sides of the conflict.”
Muhammad Haj Kadour And Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.
- Advertisement -
