Syria forms transitional justice, missing persons commissions
Syria's grinding 13-year civil war has left hundreds of thousands of people, most of them civilians, dead and more than 100,000 people missing, according to United Nations estimates and human rights groups.
Former leader Bashar al-Assad was ousted by Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham last year in a stunning 11-day offensive, a shift met with jubilation by many Syrians who nonetheless want to see accountability for abuses suffered under the former government, including in a notorious dungeon-like prison system.
The National Transitional Justice Commission's remit is "exposing the truth about the grave violations committed by the former regime and holding those responsible accountable, in coordination with relevant authorities," said a statement from the presidency seen by Reuters on Sunday.
It did not say whether the commission would be responsible for investigating and addressing violations by other parties involved in the Syrian war, such as Islamic State.
Hassan al-Dughaim, a close adviser to the new Syrian leadership, told Reuters the transitional justice commission would focus on physical and moral reparations and national reconciliation.
There will also be trials for those legally proven to have committed crimes, but the process of gathering legal evidence that can be used in court against some individuals associated with the Assad government is difficult and complex, he said.
Former Syrian Major General Ibrahim Huwaija, accused of being implicated in the 1977 assassination of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Joumblatt, will be among those to stand trial, al-Dughaim said.
Syrian security forces arrested Huwaija in March.
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa also announced the formation of a National Commission for Missing Persons, which will be tasked with investigating and uncovering the fate of missing and forcibly disappeared persons, documenting cases, creating a national database, and providing humanitarian and legal support to their families, a presidency statement said.
The UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP) welcomed the formation of the commission in a post on social media.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Israeli soldiers 'psychologically broken' after 'confronting the reality' in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left "psychologically broken" after "confront[ing] the reality among the rubble" when serving in Gaza. Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza. She told The World with Yalda Hakim that "many" of the young people fighting in Gaza are "haunted by what they have seen, what they have done". "It doesn't make sense," Ms Albanese said. "This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them. "As that soldier's testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas. "But the thing is that they've come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza." Being in Gaza is "probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this," she added. "And they don't make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong. "This is why they are psychologically broken." Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider "reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is". "I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield," he said. 10:42 'An economy of genocide' Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified "an economy of genocide" in Israel. The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies "that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs." Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023. 2:36 The companies named in Ms Albanese's report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry. "These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts," she said. "We're not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes." "Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not," Ms Albanese said. The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News. It said it is "not true" that Palantir "is the (or a) developer of the 'Gospel' - the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the 'Lavender' database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing". "Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir's announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry," the statement added.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Binyamin Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel peace prize
President Trump has said it is 'very meaningful' to be considered for the Nobel peace prize after Binyamin Netanyahu presented him with a nomination letter on a visit to the White House. The Israeli prime minister said the accolade was 'well deserved' because Trump was 'forging peace' in 'one region after the another'. 'I want to express the appreciation and admiration not only of all Israelis but of the Jewish people and many, many admirers around the world for your leadership,' Netanyahu said during his visit to Washington on Monday. The two leaders discussed a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza. Under the proposed deal, Hamas would release ten living and 18 dead Israeli hostages in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli troops to a buffer zone on the Gaza Strip's border. • Can Israel and Hamas co-exist? Trump's ceasefire depends on it Israel would allow international charities and the United Nations to resume aid deliveries to Gaza rather than entrusting the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American organisation mired in controversy, with alleviating Palestinian hunger. More than 700 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since the foundation started distributing aid, according to the territory's Hamas-run health authorities. Trump and Netanyahu had dinner together in the White House on Monday night, which marked the third visit by the Israeli prime minister to Washington since the start of Trump's second term. In a deft act of diplomacy — one that recalled Sir Keir Starmer's presentation of a letter from King Charles to Trump inviting the US president on a state visit — Netanyahu began the dinner by lauding Trump's achievements, describing his 'many admirers around the world'. The Israeli prime minister then produced a letter and reminded the gathered press of Trump's role negotiating the Abraham Accords during his first term. Under the accords, a handful of Arab countries recognised Israel for the first time. Efforts to incorporate Saudi Arabia into the agreement have stalled during Trump's second term amid widespread anger in the Middle East over the ongoing war in Gaza. Netanyahu said: 'He's forging peace as we speak in one country, one region after another. I want to present to you the letter I sent to the Nobel prize. It's nominating you for the peace prize, which is well deserved and you should get it.' Reaching over the dinner table for the letter, Trump said: 'Wow. Thank you very much. This I didn't know. Wow. Thank you very much. Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful, Bibi.' Trump has repeatedly criticised the decision to give the Nobel peace prize to Barack Obama in 2009 and has often appeared to covet the award himself. During a meeting with Netanyahu this year, he fumed: 'They will never give me a Nobel peace prize. It's too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.' Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy, will head to Qatar this week to continue mediated negotiations with Hamas over the ceasefire. 'We have an opportunity to finally get a peace deal, Mr Prime Minister,' Witkoff told Netanyahu at the dinner. An initial ceasefire deal collapsed this year amid anger in Israel over Hamas staging public handover ceremonies for the hostage releases and Netanyahu's refusal to completely withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza. Trump also said he had agreed to an Iranian request for talks after the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites last month. Witkoff said the meeting would be soon, perhaps in a week. 'We have scheduled Iran talks, and they want to … They want to talk,' Trump said. On Ukraine, Trump appeared to suggest he would allow weapons deliveries to resume. Asked if the US would keep arming Ukraine after the suspension of a crucial delivery of air defence missiles and other munitions, Trump said: 'We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They're getting hit very hard now.' He added: 'I'm not happy with President Putin at all.' It came after Trump told President Zelensky of Ukraine he was not responsible for the weapons freeze in a call last week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel peace prize at White House meeting expected to focus on Gaza
Benjamin Netanyahu told Donald Trump that he would nominate him for the Nobel peace prize on Monday, as the two leaders met for the first time since the US launched strikes on Iran's nuclear program as part of a short-lived war between Israel and Iran. Trump was expected to press Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Israel's 21-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza amid an outcry over the humanitarian cost of an offensive that has led to nearly 60,000 deaths, most of them Palestinian. Israeli and Hamas negotiators met for indirect talks for the first time in six weeks in Qatar on Monday. While both sides have spoken positively about the prospects for a ceasefire, a number of crucial negotiating points remain including guarantees from the Israeli side that the war would not continue and Netanyahu's insistence that Hamas be banished from Gaza for good. Before a dinner in the Blue Room at the White House, Trump was asked whether he believed that Palestinians should be forcibly removed from Gaza, amid reports that Israel has laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah – a plan that has been criticised as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing. Trump directed Netanyahu to answer the question. 'It's called free choice,' said Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war. 'You know, if people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.' At the beginning of the meeting, Netanyahu presented Trump with a letter that he said he had sent to a committee for the Nobel peace prize commending Trump's efforts to end conflicts in the Middle East. 'I want to express the appreciation and admiration not only of all Israelis, but of the Jewish people,' Netanyahu said before presenting the letter. 'You deserve it,' Netanyahu added. 'Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful,' Trump said. It was the second high-profile nomination for the president: last month Pakistan said it would recommend Trump for the prize. Asked about Russia's war in Ukraine, Trump suggested that he would resume weapons shipments to the Ukrainian army, although the White House had recently confirmed it had halted some weapons deliveries due to a Pentagon review of dwindling US munitions stocks. 'We're going to send some more weapons,' he said. 'We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They're getting hit very hard now. They're getting hit very hard. We're going to have to send more weapons.' Trump claimed during the meeting that Hamas 'want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire.' But he did not share any additional details on preparations for a ceasefire, and when asked about a two-state solution with the Palestinians, directed the question to Netanyahu, who repeated Israeli insistences that they would maintain a 'security guarantee' over territories like the Gaza Strip. 'I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us,' Netanyahu said. 'And that means that certain powers like overall security will always remain in our hands.' Before departing for Washington on Sunday, Netanyahu said he was confident a deal could be achieved and that Israeli negotiators had been given clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire – but only with conditions that Israel has already agreed. Sources in the prime minister's entourage described the talks in Qatar as positive, according to Israel's military radio station and an Israeli official quoted by Reuters. Palestinian officials were more downbeat and said initial meetings on Sunday had ended inconclusively. Netanyahu had met with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and secretary of state Marco Rubio earlier on Monday. He is expected to remain in Washington to meet with vice-president JD Vance and senior officials, including house speaker Mike Johnson.
