Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Bashar al-Assad and his father dominated the politics of Syria for 54 years. They ruled like a mafia, associated with the most ruthless leaders of religious sects and countries in the Middle East. They trafficked drugs, arms, and people during their 5 decades in power. They created a fierce political police that spied on their opponents, imprisoned and tortured them mercilessly, and, most importantly, without any legal procedure.
Today, an interview with a political prisoner released last night by insurgent forces who seized the hated and feared Saydnaya prison, located on the outskirts of Damascus, was published in the media. He stated that had they not been liberated today, tomorrow, he and 54 other comrades were going to be executed by firing squad. He confirmed that the executions were a routine phenomenon in the prison, not something sporadic.
Something similar was happening in the other prison, equally fearsome for its violent and sadistic jailers, who lived by drugging themselves to commit their misdeeds against the prisoners, both women and men. That prison is called Tadmor. The scientist specializing in Immunology at Harvard University, Bara Sarraj, is about to publish his book “From Tadmor to Harvard,” which recounts the nine years he spent living in that hell.
An Amnesty International report published in 2001 reported that “Tens of thousands of people have been subjected to successive operations of mass arrests of suspected members of leftist, Islamic fundamentalist or Arab nationalist organizations; members of Kurdish political groups or individuals involved in activities contrary to the government and its policies. Hundreds of them were prisoners of conscience. Detainees have often been tortured while held in absolute isolation from the outside world for months or years and without charge or trial.”
Some 20,000 political prisoners are thought to have been held in Tadmor prison, of whom some 11,000 died between 1980 and 1990.
Russia had been committed to supporting the Assad regime since 2015 and was present until his flight from Syria yesterday, December 8, 2024. Both Russia and Iran were the staunchest international allies of the dictatorial Assad regime in Syria. Their primary support consisted of military assistance, both in arms and fighters. In return, Russia obtained permission to build a naval base in the Mediterranean near Tartous, representing a strategic advance against the West in that crucial area.
It was the support represented by the bombing of urban areas with chemical weapons that triggered a wave of international anger because the Russian air force, in support of Syrian ground troops, was bombing entire populations with chemical substances, causing thousands of civilian deaths. Russia announced that it carried out more than 39 thousand raids and killed more than 86 thousand people (defined as terrorists, according to Russian authorities, during its 9 years of intervention in support of the Assad regime.
Today, Moscow announced that it gave political asylum to Assad and his family. Among authoritarian leaders, there can be no surprises. Interestingly, Assad preferred to seek asylum in Moscow rather than Tehran. This says a lot about where Assad thinks the world is going in the near future. He wants to live with some personal security.
Now come transformations in the Middle East. Regime change in Syria represents a political earthquake for the entire area. First, it means a defeat for the anti-Isreal axis Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah-Hezbollah-Hamas-Houthis in Yemen. Secondly, it opens the space for the Lebanese State to regain its hegemony over the national territory and move towards reconstructing its beautiful country. Thirdly, Hamas will need to reach a cease-fire agreement with Israel and rethink the way of coexistence between the two States. The payoff for all the suffering will have to be a coexistence agreement. Fourthly, it is the opportunity for Syria to be that Nation-State that can accommodate its extraordinary religious and cultural diversity at home, among Arabs of various inclinations, Christians, Kurds, and the desert peoples. Syria could regain its former splendor and importance if moderation and tolerance prevail.
@rpascoep
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