Latest news with #sectarianViolence
Arab News
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
UN commission says Syria must end violence against Alawites and protect places of worship
BEIRUT: The head of a UN investigative commission on Friday called commitments made by the new authorities in Syria to protect the rights of minorities 'encouraging' but said attacks have continued on members of the Alawite sect in the months since a major outbreak of sectarian violence on Syria's coast. Paulo Pinheiro, the head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that the current Syrian government — led by Islamist former insurgents who ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad — had given his team 'unfettered access' to the coast and to witnesses of the violence and victims' families. 'Disturbingly, reports continue to circulate of ongoing killings and arbitrary arrests of members of the Alawite community, as well as the confiscation of the property of those who fled the March violence,' he said. Pinheiro's commission also 'documented abductions by unknown individuals of at least six Alawite women this spring in several Syrian governorates,' two of whom remain missing, and has received 'credible reports of more abductions,' he said. Pinheiro also called on authorities to put in place more protections for places of worship after Sunday's suicide bombing attack on a church outside of Damascus. The attack, which killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more, was the first of its kind to take place in the Syrian capital in years. The Syrian government has said that the perpetrators belonged to a cell of the Daesh group and that they thwarted a subsequent attempt to target a Shiite shrine in the Sayyida Zeinab suburb in Damascus. 'Attacks on places of worship are outrageous and unacceptable,' Pinheiro said. 'The authorities must ensure the protection of places of worship and threatened communities and ensure that perpetrators and enablers are held accountable.' Assad was deposed in a lightning rebel offensive in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. In March, hundreds of civilians, most of them from the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs, were killed in revenge attacks after clashes broke out between pro-Assad armed groups and the new government security forces on the Syrian coast. Pinheiro said his commission had documented scattered 'revenge attacks' that happened before that, including killings in several villages in Hama and Homs provinces in late January in which men who had handed over their weapons under a 'settlement' process set up for former soldiers and members of security forces under Assad, believing that they would be granted an amnesty in exchange for disarmament, were then 'ill-treated and executed.' He praised the interim government's formation of a body tasked with investigating the attacks on the coast and said government officials had told his team that 'dozens of alleged perpetrators' were arrested. Pinheiro said the government needs to carry out a 'reform and vetting program' as it integrates a patchwork of former rebel factions into a new army and security services and enact 'concrete policies to put an end to Syria's entrenched cycles of violence and revenge, in a context where heightened tensions and sectarian divisions have been reignited.'
Arab News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Syria welcomes EU sanctions against former Assad security officials
LONDON: The Syrian Arab Republic has welcomed an EU decision to impose sanctions on former security figures in former dictator Bashar Assad's regime, which collapsed in December 2024. Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the decision reflected a growing acknowledgment of the extent of the violations committed by former figures in the Assad regime against Syrians and their role in fueling violent sectarian events. The EU has imposed sanctions on Suhail al-Hassan, Ghiyath Dallah, Miqdad Fathiyeh, Mudallal Khoury and Imad Khoury. The ministry said the five were involved in committing serious crimes against Syrians and, in March, played a direct role in fueling sectarian strife in the coastal towns of Banias, Latika and Jableh. It added they had repeatedly assaulted Syrian security personnel and civilians and attempted to destabilize the coastal areas. The ministry said a report investigating the coastal events would be submitted to the presidency and those responsible would be held accountable. 'The Syrian government reiterates its commitment to prosecute all those involved in these crimes, wherever they may be, inside or outside the country, to ensure that they are brought to justice and that the victims receive justice,' it said in a statement.
Reuters
5 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
EU imposes asset freeze, travel ban on five people tied to Syria's Assad
BRUSSELS, June 23 (Reuters) - The European Union imposed on Monday an asset freeze and a ban on travel to the EU on five people linked with toppled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for supporting crimes against humanity, including backing the use of chemical weapons against civilians and fuelling sectarian violence. The Council of the EU said the measures targeted three former members of the Syrian Republican Guard and Armed Forces responsible for human rights violations during Assad's rule, including torture and extrajudicial killings, and who were involved in a wave of violence that took place in March. Those affected also included two prominent businessmen who represented the Assad government's business and financial interests in Russia, which the EU says helped finance crimes against humanity.
BBC News
06-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
The Documentary Podcast The future of the Alawites
In the wake of the Assad regime's fall in Syria, thousands of Alawites, a minority Shia sect historically linked to the former regime, have fled to Lebanon. They are seeking refuge from discrimination and sectarian violence that has left over 1,000 civilians dead, including women and children. The late Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, became the most powerful Alawite when he seized control of Syria in a coup in 1970. Under the rule of Hafez al-Assad and then his son Bashar - the ruling Assad's recruited heavily from the Alawite community placing them in top posts in state, security and intelligence branches. Syria's new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, promised to protect Syria's minorities, but has struggled to contain a wave of violence directed towards the Alawite community. Emily Wither travels to the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli to meet with Syrian Alawite refugees and a new youth movement. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.
Arab News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
In north Lebanon, Syrian Alawites shelter among graves
HISSA, Lebanon: Behind a ramshackle mosque in Hissa, north Lebanon, the living are making a home for themselves among the dead. Beside mounds of garbage in the shade of towering trees, men, women and children from Syria's minority Alawite community seek shelter among the graves surrounding the half-built mosque — grateful to have escaped the sectarian violence at home but fearing for their future. 'We each have our own horror story that drove us to this place,' said a man with sunken eyes. One such story was of a mother who had been killed in front of her children by unknown militants as they crossed the border, said others staying at the mosque. All of the refugees that spoke to Reuters requested anonymity for fear of retribution. Around 600 people have sought shelter at the Hissa mosque. Hundreds sleep in the main hall, including a day-old baby. On the building's unfinished second story, plastic sheets stretched over wooden beams divide traumatized families. Others sleep on the roof. One family has set up camp under the stairwell, another by the tomb of a local saint. Some sleep on the graves in the surrounding cemetery, others under trees with only thin blankets for warmth. They are among the tens of thousands refugees who have fled Syria since March, when the country suffered its worst bloodshed since Bashar Assad was toppled from power by Islamist-led rebels in December. Almost 40,000 people have fled Syria into north Lebanon since then, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement. The outflow comes at a time when humanitarian funding is being squeezed after US President Donald Trump's decision to freeze foreign aid and dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) earlier this year. NEEDS BUT NO RESOURCES The recent violence in Syria, which has pitted the Islamist-led government's security forces against fighters from the Alawite minority, the sect to which Assad's family belongs, has killed more than 1,000 people since March. For more than 50 years, Assad and his father before him crushed any opposition from Syria's Sunni Muslims, who make up more than 70 percent of the population. Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, took many of the top positions in government and the military and ran big businesses. Alawites now accuse the new government of President Ahmed Al-Sharaa of exacting revenge, but Sharaa says he will pursue inclusive policies to unite the country shattered by civil war and attract foreign investment. Trump said last week he would lift sanctions on Syria, triggering hopes of economic renewal. But this has provided little comfort to the refugees in northern Lebanon, who are struggling to meet their basic needs. 'UNHCR, but also other agencies, are not now in a position to say you can count on us,' said Ivo Freijsen, UNHCR representative in Lebanon, in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation in April. 'So, in response to new arrivals, yes, we will try, but it will be less (than before).' More refugees come from Syria every day. Almost 50 people arrived over two days last week, said one camp representative, who asked not to be named for security reasons. UNHCR is equipping new arrivals with essential items like mattresses, blankets and clothes, as well as providing medical help and mental health support, said a spokesperson. 'UNHCR is also conducting rehabilitation works in shelters to make sure families are protected,' the spokesperson added. 'FORGOTTEN' REFUGEES At the mosque, food is scarce and the portable toilets provided by an aid group have flooded. Garbage is piling up and is attracting vermin. Snakes have been killed in the camp, and one refugee spoke of the 'biggest centipedes we have ever seen.' The camp's children have nowhere to go. It can be difficult for refugee children to access Lebanon's school system, Human Rights Watch has said, while the refugees at the mosque say private schools are too expensive and may not accept children enrolling mid-year. 'We are becoming a refugee camp without realizing it,' said another man, also speaking on condition of anonymity. 'We need schools, we need toilets, we need clinics.' He said he fled his home in Damascus after being warned by his neighbor that militants were asking about him. He never expects to go back and is hoping to move abroad. But in the meantime, he said he needs to create a life for his children. 'What's his fault?' he asked, beckoning to his nine-year-old son. 'He was a computer whiz and now he is not even going to school.' The refugees sheltering in the mosque are among the millions of people affected by Trump's decision to freeze US funding to humanitarian programs in February. The UNHCR has been forced to reduce all aspects of its operations in Lebanon, Freijsen said, including support to Syrian refugees. The UNHCR had enough money to cover only 14 percent of its planned operations in Lebanon and 17 percent of its global operations by the end of March, the UN agency said in a report. 'Our assistance is not what it is supposed to be,' Freijsen said. 'In the past, we always had the resources, or we could easily mobilize the resources. These days are over, and that's painful.' The people in the mosque fear that they have been forgotten. 'Human rights are a lie,' a third man said, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. 'It is just something (that the powerful) instrumentalize when they want.'
