In Syria, massacres of Alawites plunge the country into uncertainty – Liberation
Fouad (1) has not left his home for four days. In the Tartous region where he lives, there is almost no network, electricity is cut, like the main roads of the region. « If I go out, I'm afraid of being killed, » says the young man by phone. Near my house, there is an entire family that has been executed on the doorstep. I no longer contact the rest of my loved ones because they are no longer able to recharge the battery on their mobile phone. Corpses are still in the streets. ” Since Thursday, March 6Syria is experiencing a wave of violence, the bloodiest Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
It all started with attacks by former dictator supporters. Armed men, reliquates of the old regime gathered under the banner of the group « shield of the coast », organize ambushes against members of the new Syrian authorities. « They killed several civilians, Tells, from Banias hospital in the west of the country, Dr. Al Mahamid. I had to conduct several operations on injured who accused members of the fourth brigade (Former armed faction of the regime known for its abuses, editor's note). « Pushed back by the security forces of the new regime and their allies, they take refuge in the mountains of the coastal region and promise to reoffend. A few hours later, the first videos of massacres in the areas included begin to circulate. « For several hours, armed men wandered around the Alawite districts, explains, by phone, Hasan (1), a resident of the Banias region. They executed civilians and burned their stores. No one prevented them. «
In chaos, the balance sheet is still uncertain. Some NGOs advance the figure of 200 civilian people, Others estimate it more than 900including former loyalists executed summarily and without trial. The videos broadcast on Syrian social networks are also confused; Some have been exhumed from the Iraq war or the previous years of conflict that ravaged Syria. Also difficult to know with certainty whether the massacres of alawites have been perpetrated by international jihadists or by members of the new security forces rejecting the orders of their hierarchy and The legitimacy of the new power.
The city of Banias, shared between Sunnis and Alaouites, still bears the wounds of past war crimes. In May 2013, 280 civilians had been massacred by regime militiamen to watch the popular protest who agitated the locality. Joints by Release, Two Sunni inhabitants of the city refuse to believe in the responsibility of Islamist radicals. « Neighbors told us that the members of the regime had put hoods and clothes of the new authorities to sow chaos under false flag », swears one of them. However, the participation of jihadists in these massacres is no doubt. It is also to shed light on their identity that The acting Syrian president, Ahmed al-Charaaannounced the creation of an independent investigation committee. « We will judge those who have attacked civilians without overtaking the prerogatives of the State or by abusing their power », He said on Sunday, March 9 in the evening. The committee, made up of seven personalities, including five judges, will have to report in a month. A very short delay, like the urgency that awaits the country. Because the consequences of the massacres could overflow far beyond the Syrian northeast coast.
The years of sectarianism instituted by the Old Regime have nourished a community hatred now in resurgence. If several rallies across the country have called upon the return of civil peace, others also supported the new authorities have been dotted with community slogans. In Homs, several processions of men paraded by insulting namely the Alawite community from which came The former dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
In the Deraa campaign, entire neighborhoods are still destroyed, the dwellings nibbled by the impacts of bullets and the bombing of the regime. It was here, in this cradle of the Syrian Revolution, that the Assad clan began to dive the country into the abyss of bloody repression. Ihab lives in a small house with an apparent concrete block. In the past six years, he has spent them in prison, and probably in One of the most terrible: Sednaya. Nicknamed « The human slaughterhouse by Bashar al-Assad », It was forbidden to speak, to only raise your head. To the daily tortures were added cold, hunger, tuberculosis.
From Their release in Decemberprisoners like him escaped from Assad concentrationary hell are not all crossed by the same emotions. Irreversible trauma, need of memory, to forgive sometimes, to always rebuild … Ihab, he says it without detour: it is anger that leaves him anymore. « We know that Western countries do not like that we are talking about violence, Advances the thirties, the features of his face still slightly dug under his carved beard. But you don't know what we have gone through. You don't feel what Bashar al-Assad made us feel. This community (Alaouite) wanted to exterminate us. Maybe there are intellectuals among them who have nothing to do with that. But they knew! They knew about it and they were silent. If I go to the Sahel coast (Alaouite region, editor's note)I don't know what I could commit. That's why I refuse to go. What I am sure is that I will not be pity. ”
We must not underestimate, in Syria, the hatred anchored by decades of tyranny, massacre and unhappiness. The whole nation is still fragmented between different armed groups. Some other minorities (Kurds, Druzes, etc.), however in negotiations to build a unitary statemay today have much more reluctance after the massacres of Alaouites. Since December 8, many feared, if not expected, episodes of chaos like this in Syria still so fragile. There is no doubt that the former loyalist forces will repeat, that radical Islamists will refuse the power of the acting president and his promise of democratic transition. But beyond bringing civil peace and guaranteeing the stability of the state, the mission of the new authorities has an even more titanic dimension. Transitional justice as well as the construction of a democratic state can only be done with all Syrian citizens and without sectarian venom revived by the most radical. Chaos and community hatred will feed on silent consents.
(1) The first name has been changed.
