hadi bazghlan
A reading of the Fact-Finding Committee’s report on the violations that occurred on the coast. (“Because they feared for their country and their families from the return of the Assad regime and the recurrence of the horrific atrocities committed against them, or to rescue their sons who volunteered in the government forces and were besieged by Assad’s remnants!”) With these simple, emotional words from Mr. Yasser Al-Farhan, the official spokesperson for the Fact-Finding Committee on the Violations that Occurred on the Coast justified the crimes and atrocities that occurred on the Syrian coast, resulting in the killing of 1,426 Syrian citizens from the Alawite sect, most of whom were civilians, including 90 women, according to the committee’s final report. The committee’s work lasted four months and was formed by decree from the President. The purpose of its formation was to investigate the violations that occurred on the Syrian coast, document what happened, and identify those who committed these violations so that they can be punished! In fact, the report is saturated in both positive analysis and negative criticism. Therefore, what I will present in this article is nothing more than important points that must be focused on for the future, understood, and combated as part of our efforts to build a state and the rule of law. Analysis of the Report The report relied on two basic languages: the language of exaggeration (regarding what happened on the part of Assad’s remnants) and the language of emotion (regarding the reaction of those who committed the violations!), which I mentioned at the beginning of the article. We did not find a balance within the context of the report between (action and reaction). Is it reasonable that fewer than 300 Assad’s remnants would control the entire coast?! This is what the report stated verbatim: (“The remnants of the regime took full or partial control of cities, towns, villages, and roads, and imposed a siege on other government headquarters with the aim of separating the coast from Syria, with the goal of establishing an Alawite state according to high-level planning and organization!”). Here, we ask the state and security officials: Does fighting 300 Assad remnants require us to summon approximately 200,000 fighters, or at least allow them to be deployed in the battle to retake the coast?! How can we allow this number when we (the state) do not even control them?!!? The report was unsuccessful in clarifying what happened on March 6, 7, and 8. It did not mention the military battles that took place with the remnants of the regime, nor did it mention the results or the prisoners who fell into the hands of the army! Even stranger, the report did not mention the name of a single leader or member of the Assad remnants who controlled the entire coast for an entire day! This is the general overview of the report. Let’s move on to the main points. The first point: the general mobilization! Under the law, not only the perpetrator of the crime is punished, but also those who participated in the crime, incited it, and interfered in it! The report stated that factions and individuals rose up from all Syrian governorates to reclaim the coast from Assad’s gangs and support their brothers there. These people rose up because of the general mobilization launched by sheikhs in mosques and on social media pages. This general mobilization was not prohibited or objected to by the Ministry of Endowments or the Syrian Islamic Council. Rather, they welcomed and supported it!!! Therefore, we say to Mr. Farhan that these people are involved in the shedding of Syrian blood because they helped the masses flock (with sectarian fervor) to the coast. They are undisciplined, untrained groups, and do not operate under the umbrella of the army! Here we say… When will we understand what the word “state” means?! And when will we ever stop with the words “jihad” and “general mobilization”? There is a state, a Ministry of Defense headed by a minister, and a Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who is the president. They are the ones who decide on the order and management of battles. There is a global term for when the state is forced to adopt military options called “calling up the reserves”… not “general mobilization” and “jihad”!!! If we agree with the committee that these unruly factions and individuals are outside the purview of the army and public security forces, why didn’t the army and security forces work to repel them and return them to where they came from? The most obvious question is: How does the state allow tens of thousands of people to carry weapons and move them between governorates? The second point: revenge, not ideology! I don’t know why the report focuses on clarifying the idea that those who committed the violations and massacres did so out of a “revenge” background, seeking revenge against Assad’s gangs, not an “ideological” background, by which we mean a religious background! Here we ask an obvious question… If the killing was merely revenge against Assad’s gangs, why was the killing of 90 women and children documented?! Were these from Assad’s gangs?!… Certainly, the violations that occurred were due to sectarian tendencies that were present in the circulating videos and slogans we all heard… But it seems the fact-finding committee didn’t hear them! We must be brave and admit that our primary enemy is sectarianism, and that we must all unite to defeat this ferocious enemy. That would be hundreds of times better than hiding behind other terms and pretending that things are fine and under control! The third point… How did the coast fall and how were the massacres committed?According to the report, groups of Assad remnants seized control of cities, villages, and towns on the Syrian coast on March 6 and declared the establishment of an Alawite state there! But in reality, the report, which spoke of hundreds of these remnants, never addressed the number of security and army forces on the coast. Is it conceivable that security planning was so poor that the entire Syrian coast fell to hundreds of remnants? Shouldn’t we pause here and question and hold accountable those who failed to protect the coast, causing the martyrdom of approximately 250 army and public security personnel… and later the martyrdom of approximately 1,500 Syrian citizens!!? On the other hand, why didn’t the report transparently address what happened on March 6? Nor did it mention how the massacres occurred and how they were documented. Most of the report’s content dealt only with general affairs, without any discernible specificity! All Syrians have the right to know in detail what happened on the coast, including names and dates. International organizations even rushed to request this from President Ahmad al-Sharaa. Amnesty International called on Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Wednesday to commit to publishing the full findings of the fact-finding committee’s investigation into the massacres that claimed the lives of dozens of civilians on the country’s northwestern coast, particularly members of the Alawite sect. “President Ahmed al-Sharaa must commit to publishing the full findings of the fact-finding committee’s investigation into the mass killings targeting Alawite civilians in coastal areas and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice,” said Kristine Beckerle, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Office. “The victims and the public have a right to be informed of the committee’s methodology.” Point Four: Who carried out the massacres? From beginning to end, the report did not mention a single name or refer to a single faction whose hands are stained with Syrian blood! While the Reuters report on violations in the coast, published about a month ago, detailed the involvement of 10 Salafist-jihadist factions in the liquidations and violations that took place in the coast in 40 different locations, the Syrian committee’s report was poor and vague, containing only a list of about 300 individuals implicated in the crimes. None of their names were revealed, and we do not know if there was any involvement from armed jihadist factions. Everything is being carried out in incomprehensible and unjustified secrecy! Don’t the Syrian people have the right to… To know who killed and violated his children!? And I conclude… There are other points in the report, but they were discussed extensively and there’s no point in repeating them. I’ll suffice with the points I mentioned above… And an important final word… I don’t care about the faith of the one who committed the killing or the faith of the one who killed. What happened was a crime against Syrian citizens, whether they were Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Christians, or even atheists. These people carry the Syrian identity of the homeland and may not be harmed except under the umbrella of the law, which is what did not happen. It’s clear that the report tried hard to exonerate the authorities and the government from what happened on the coast, but without realizing it, it implicated them in something even more dangerous… the government’s complete inability to carry out its duties and demonstrate its sovereignty! We must understand that if we want to survive, rise, and progress, we must follow the path of the state and the law. Unfortunately, in the report of the fact-finding committee on violations on the coast, we mourned the law to its final resting place… and brought down the state! The night the state fell! Written by me Lawyer Hadi Bazghlan reads and analyzes the report of the fact-finding committee on violations in the Sahel. Many thanks to those who supported and published the article, and for your valuable time that you spent reading it, which is priceless to me. ======= Lawyer_Hadi_Bazghlan
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