Nicolas Tenzer: The war of extermination in Syria and the end of common sense

An almost three year old article but still worth a (re-) read. French scholar Nicolas Tenzer enumerates the failures of western countries in putting a stop to the mass killing in Syria he considers a war of extermination by now:

"Les opérations militaires d’Assad et de Poutine en Syrie ont un nom : c’est une guerre d’extermination. Celle-ci atteint désormais une échelle sans précédent : le bombardement délibéré des civils, notamment femmes, enfants et secouristes des Casques Blancs, ainsi que des hôpitaux n’est pas nouveau. Mais elle a désormais un caractère systématique avec un objectif clair : tuer, encore tuer, tout ce qui peut l’être. C’est une guerre totale dans laquelle la Russie de Poutine expérimente de nouvelles armes, comme ces bombes qui peuvent pénétrer les abris et les pulvérisent ensuite.
Beaucoup, y compris dans un propos sensible et poignant, l’ambassadeur de France auprès des Nations unies, ont fait à juste titre l’analogie avec Guernica : l’aviation de l’Allemagne nazie et de l’Italie fasciste avaient anéanti la ville tandis que les troupes franquistes agissaient au sol. En Syrie aussi, les avions russes dominent les airs tandis que les troupes de l’armée du régime et du Hezbollah soutenu et armé par l’Iran agissent à terre.
Cette guerre d’extermination est promise à s’intensifier dans les jours et les semaines qui viennent. Des crimes de guerre de plus en plus évidents et que la Russie ne cherche même plus à dissimuler s’ajoutent aux crimes contre l’humanité commis par le pouvoir d’Assad, notamment dans les prisons du régime où les tortures les plus sadiques sont une pratique courante."

You can read the piece via the below link:

http://theconversation.com/la-guerre-dextermination-en-syrie-et-la-fin-du-sens-commun-66342 

The fate of many forcibly disappeared is still unsolved

An interesting insight provided by PRI (Public Radio International) about the relatives of disappeared in Syria on their efforts to obtain information on the whereabouts of their loved ones.

It isn't clear how many Syrians have been detained and are missing. The Syrian government doesn’t release figures and it doesn't allow human rights groups to visit detention centers.

Last week, Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs at the United Nations, briefed the Security Council on the issue of detainees, abductees and missing persons in Syria.

She said more than 100,000 people have so far been detained, abducted or gone missing — largely, but not only, at the hands of the Syrian government.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-08-16/we-have-suffered-enough-say-families-missing-and-detained-syria 

Case 21: "empty warehouse"

Very gruesome video where a ragtag bunch of militia men partially wearing fatigues and hoodies as well as tracksuits stab an agonising bound man, then mutilate and finally shoot him.
One of the perpetrators wears a noticeable black hoodie with green inscriptions on the back (the logo on the back mentions "but", which can also designate a (football-) goal in french).

Case 20: "Bathroom"

Two men in military fatigues beat a bound young man with a wooden club and with hands and fists.
One of the men wears a red ribbon attached to the epaulet of his uniform.

CIJA tracks regime war criminals and ISIS terrorists in Syria

A very interesting article about CIJA (Commission for International Justice and Accountability) and its founder William Wiley:

"Anwar Raslan likely thought he was safe living as a refugee in Germany – his past forgotten – until the day in February when police arrested him over the alleged role he played years earlier in the torture of prisoners by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Should Mr. Raslan eventually be convicted, it will be due in large part to the work of a veteran Canadian war-crimes investigator and his team, who over the past seven years have smuggled hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence out of Syria and Iraq – documents that are now being used to build war-crimes cases against Mr. al-Assad and his henchmen, as well as senior figures in the Islamic State (IS).

If you haven’t heard of William Wiley or the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, the non-profit organization that he established in 2012, that’s because he likes it that way. CIJA has no website, and there’s no sign on the door of the office that Mr. Wiley and his team work out of. The Globe and Mail agreed not to name the European country that CIJA’s head office staff are located in, out of concern that the group’s work could make it a target."

In this article the full identity of one of the three intelligence officials that have been arrested in Germany this February is disclosed, it is 56 year old Anwar Raslan.

You can read the piece via the below link:


https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-al-assads-nuremberg-moment-page-by-page-an-ngo-and-its-canadian/