Sir, – I applaud the sentiment expressed in the headline "The Irish Times view on the war in Syria: the world must not forget" (Editorial, March 18th).
In Idlib, one million civilians – 60 per cent of whom are children – were forced to flee in a matter of weeks in the face of a brutal assault by President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime and Russian forces with Iranians militias. While a tentative ceasefire exists for now, many of these civilians have already fled multiple times before as the strategy pursued by Assad and his allies has been literally to clear opposition areas in a manner consistent with the battle cry of his militias in response to the peaceful uprising against his brutal dictatorship in 2011 – “Assad or we burn the country”.
Therefore calling what is happening in Syria a “war” is problematic when civilians are primary targets, as documented in numerous human rights reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Syria Network for Human Rights and the UN, to mention only four sources. This is a critically important point because the millions who repeatedly put their lives on the line in 2011 to go onto the streets peacefully to protest when the “Arab Spring” dawned in Syria were called terrorists by Assad. Therefore when the Syrian dictator says he is fighting a “war on terrorism”, he means he is bombing civilians who dared to oppose his dictatorship, and the people understand that, and that is why they flee because they know unless they submit totally to the regime, they risk torture and probable death in his notorious prisons.
Yes, jihadists of varying hues have tried to steal Syria’s revolution but they have not succeeded as they are opposed by the people as much as they oppose Assad. What was heart-rending in that regard in Idlib was to see towns being reduced to rubble by the Syrian regime and Russia, as in the case of Maarat al-Numan, where people repeatedly protested against the jihadis, and to see these brave citizens being called “terrorists” by Assad and Vladimir Putin was a crime against humanity in itself!
The Syrian people show again and again that they did not put their lives on the line for freedom and democracy to replace one form of fascism with another.
Unless we face the fact that Assad does not want the refugees to return and press vigorously a political settlement based on accountability for crimes against humanity and respect for human rights, freedom and democracy, there will be no peace, no hope and everyone of us will bear the consequences of what is turning into a never-ending human catastrophe unparalleled since the second World War.– Yours, etc,
RONAN L TYNAN,
Director of “Syria –
The Impossible Revolution”,
Esperanza Productions,
Dublin 3.