Syria between joy and uncertainty

Civil war in Syria

Assad overthrown: Syria between jubilation and uncertainty

After their victory in Syria, the rebels are already talking about a new government. But the path there is long and full of obstacles. The situation in Damascus remains confusing.

After the overthrow of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, which ended his family’s decades-long reign of terror, a new and uncertain chapter begins in the country torn by civil war. The jubilant mood of most Syrians, who celebrate Assad’s flight to Moscow as liberation, is mixed with concern about the chaos and new violence that could now threaten. After their successful lightning offensive, the alliance of rebels led by Islamists is faced with the difficult question of how they want to govern the divided country.

Residents of the capital Damascus reported turbulent conditions the day after the coup. “There is chaos everywhere,” says a woman named Saina, who lives near the former Assad residence. Groups that “look like gangs” were moving on the street. Many people stayed at home because of the confusing situation, and there was also a nighttime curfew in the afternoon.

According to eyewitnesses, many shops remained closed. “I haven’t been able to open the doors since Saturday,” says a man named Mustafa, who has now had the courage to open his supermarket again. “Today I felt safer,” he says. “There was a lot of looting on the main streets,” he reports – but his shop was small and rather hidden.

There were reports of long queues at border crossings on Monday from neighboring Turkey and Lebanon, where there are large numbers of Syrian refugees. Many Syrian families now want to return to their homeland after the end of Assad’s rule – despite a catastrophic humanitarian situation in which more than 16 million people are dependent on help.

For more than 50 years, the Assad family had brutally oppressed the population. Bashar al-Assad, to whom Russia granted asylum along with his family on humanitarian grounds, leaves behind a catalog of horrific crimes against the people, including the use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs, as well as murder and state-ordered torture.

There are therefore new calls for Assad to be tried in an EU country or before the International Criminal Court. UN High Commissioner Volker Türk called for justice for all victims of human rights violations during the civil war. Assad must be held accountable, said the head of the UN Office for Human Rights in Geneva.

There was a tense calm in the second largest city of Aleppo the day after the country’s historic upheaval. People were milling about in the streets and markets were open, according to eyewitnesses. Apart from the Islamist group Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which took over the government areas in less than two weeks, there were no other armed groups in Aleppo.

The insurgents are apparently trying to gradually establish a new order in Damascus and also to form a new government. “Our forces are almost finished taking control of the capital and protecting public property,” HTS said. “The new government will begin work immediately after its establishment.” It remained unclear how exactly this would be created and who would be involved. HTS also published photos of leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani, who had spoken at the central Umayad Mosque the previous evening.

With the fall of Assad, the search for political prisoners who have not yet been freed from state prisons begins. Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, used dogs and sound sensors to search for secret cells in the basement of the notorious Saidnaya military prison near Damascus, as the head writes on Platform X. The human rights organization Amnesty International reported in 2017 that thousands of people had been killed in mass executions in Saidnaya since the start of the civil war.

According to activists, 910 people have died since the rebels began their major offensive almost two weeks ago. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that there were 138 civilians among them, including several children.

Syria is fragmented after years of civil war. In addition to the HTS and allied rebel groups, Kurdish and Turkish-affiliated militias are active in the country. Kurds, Alawites, Druze and Christians, among others, live in the ethnically and religiously divided country. The Alevi minority was the main supporter of the now overthrown Assad government.