By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – Despite a recent diplomatic trip to Syria taken by four members of the French Parlmement, which included a meeting with Syrian Presidents Bashar Al-Assad, a trip that was not authorized by the Office of the French President, both France and the United Kingdom have definitively stated that renewed diplomatic ties with the Assad regime are not wise or likely, both Paris and London see the recent visit to Syria by French Parliamentarian as country to the official polices of each respective country. With the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in both Syria and Iraq some European Union Leaders have stated that it may be time to re-establish lines of communication with Damascus because so far the four year civil war has failed to lead to the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad’s brutal regime in Syria.

In a column published in Arabic daily Al-Hayat as well as in France’s Le Monde, the French and British foreign criticized leaders who have sought a rapprochement with Assad by saying the regime leaders is using western fears about the advancement of ISIS, which has seized areas of northern and eastern Syria, to win back international support and some degree of legitimacy for his deadly regime. “Some seem sensitive to this argument,” Laurent Fabius and Philip Hammond wrote. “In reality, Bashar represents injustice, chaos and terror. We, France and Britain, say no to all three.” “For our own security, we must defeat Islamic State in Syria. We need a partner that can act against extremists. We need a negotiated political settlement,” Hammond and Fabius said.

“After 220,000 deaths and millions displaced, it is illusory to imagine that a majority of Syrians would accept to be ruled by the one who torments them,” Fabius and Hammond wrote. “To end their hopes of a better future in a Syria without Assad would be to radicalize even more Syrians, push moderates toward extremism and consolidate a jihadi bastion in Syria.”

In a rare show of political unity both current French president Francois Hollande and former President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the trip, Sarkozy going as far as to refer to the MPs who made the trip as “clowns.” On Thursday President Francois Hollande condemned the French lawmakers for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he calls a “dictator.” “I condemn this initiative. I condemn it because French lawmakers have taken it upon themselves to meet with a dictator who is the cause of one of the worst civil wars of recent years,” Hollande said while in the Philippines. Hollande argued that France cannot have a dialogue with a “dictator who has bombed his own people and who has used chemical weapons to destroy human lives, Syrian lives — the lives of children, women”.

Earlier French Prime Minister Manuel Valls also “condemned with the greatest strength” the decision by the French lawmakers to meet with Assad, whom he referred to as “a butcher”. “I want to condemn this initiative with the greatest strength,” Valls told French channel BFMTV. “For parliamentarians to go without warning to meet a butcher…. I think it was a moral failing.”

Like many western countries France cut ties with Syria after the regime began its brutal assault on members of the opposition which led to the country’s now four year old conflict. France cut diplomatic ties with Syria in 2012 and supports the moderate Syrian opposition, seeking the removal of Bashar Assad from power.

For more information please see:

The Daily Star: Lebanon – France, U.K. Dismiss Calls to Renew Relations with Assad – 28 February 2015

Reuters – France, Britain Dismiss Calls to Renew Relations with Syria’s Assad – 27 February 2015

The Independent: United Kingdom – Hollande and Sarkozy Round on ‘Clown’ MPs for Visiting Assad – 26 February 2015

The Local: France – Hollande Slams MPs over Talks with Syria’s Assad – 26 February 2015

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

BAGHDAD, Iraq – New video released Thursday appears to show militants loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) destroying Assyrian and Akkadian artifacts, smashing and scraping though artifacts dating back to at least the 7^th century B.C.E. The ISIS supporters who took sledgehammers to ancient artifacts, from some of humanities earliest civilization, claimed they were ordered by the Profit to destroy all symbols of Idolatry. Instead these men are committing unjustifiable mass atrocities taking lives and attempting to destroy the histories of all people in the region who do not share their radical views. I’m totally shocked,” a professor at the University of Mosul’s college of archaeology said of the video, “It’s a catastrophe. With the destruction of these artifacts, we can no longer be proud of Mosul’s civilization.”

The video shows only the latest episode of cultural destruction in a spree of iconoclasm, the destruction of religious artifacts, and outright ethnocide committed by ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq. In May 2014, there were several reports of separate Assyrian artifacts, which have stood for a millennia or more, being excavated and destroyed by ISIS supporters. In July 2014, ISIS supporters destroyed the Tomb of the Prophet Jonah in Nineveh. Earlier this week, reports claimed ISIS burned 100,000 books and manuscripts from the Mosul library. This week ISIS militants in Syria overran Assyrian Christian villages, taking more than 250 Christians hostage and destroying homes and churches in their wake.

Lamia al-Gailani, an Iraqi archaeologist and associate fellow at the London-based Institute of Archaeology, said the militants had wreaked untold damage. “It’s not only Iraq’s heritage: it’s the whole world’s,” she said. “They are priceless, unique. It’s unbelievable. I don’t want to be Iraqi anymore,” she said, comparing the atrocity to the dynamiting of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Afghan Taliban in 2001.

In the video published by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Thursday which showed men destroying artifacts with sledgehammers and drills, saying they were symbols of idolatry. The men claimed they were ordered by the Profit to commit these acts of Iconoclasm saying, “the Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him.” While the militants claim their actions were motivated by a desire to destroy idolatry it seems the real motive for releasing this video was mere propaganda. ISIS itself does not destroy all artifacts its encounters, instead the illegal looting and selling of antiquities is a primary source of ISIS funding.

Acts of iconoclasm are not uncommon throughout history.  According to legend Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, destroyed idols and there was a long history of icon-destruction in early Christianity. However, iconoclasm is now considered a crime against humanity in modern civilization, an act that destroys not only the culture and history of a single people but the collective history of humanity itself.

For more information please see:

The Atlantic – Erased: ISIS and the Destruction of Ancient Artifacts – 26 February 2015

The Guardian – Isis Destroys Thousands of Books and Manuscripts in Mosul Libraries – 26 February 2015

International Business Times UK – Iraq: Isis Take Sledgehammers to Priceless Assyrian Artefacts at Mosul Museum [VIDEO] – 26 February 2015

Reuters – With Sledgehammer, Islamic State Smashes Iraqi History – 26 February 2015

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – Militants fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have reportedly abducted as many as 250 people from Syria’s Assyrian Christian communities including women and children. The victims were seized from nearly a dozen villages in northeastern Syria as the area was raided by ISIS fighters, Christian Syrian activists reported. On Tuesday, a Syrian Christian group representing several NGO both inside and outside of Syria claims it had verified at least 150 people were missing, including women and elderly, who had been kidnapped by the militants. “We have verified at least 150 people who have been abducted from sources on the ground,” Bassam Ishak, President of the Syriac National Council of Syria, whose family is from Hasaka.

Earlier the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 90 members of the Assyrian Christian population were abducted when the militants carried out early morning raids on rural villages of the Assyrian Christians who have ancient roots in the community, dating back thousands of years. The villages were located west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds.

Wednesday, the United States condemned the recent attacks by ISIS on the Assyrian Christian community, which it said included not only the abduction of hundreds of civilians but the burning of homes and Christian churches in the community. “This is but the latest round of atrocities perpetrated by ISIL [ISIS] against the innocent people of the region,” the White House said of the reported atrocities in a statement.

ISIS has not confirmed the abductions. However, ISIS has posted photos of its militants in camouflage, carrying weapons, on its website. The website said the photos were taken in Tel Tamr, a nearby town where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the abductions occurred. National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said, “The international community stands united and undeterred in its resolve to bring an end to ISIL’s depravity. The United States will continue to lead the fight to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL.”

Many Assyrian Christians have fled Syria since the Syrian Civil War has threatened the stability of their homeland. The Syrian Civil War has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people over the past four years. Last year, ISIS fighters abducted several Assyrians Christians in retaliation for some members of the Assyrian community taking up arms and fighting alongside the Kurdish fighting forces known as the YPG. Most of the abducted were released after long negotiations.

Before the arrival of Kurds and Arab nomadic tribes at the end of the 19th Century, Assyrian Christians were the majority in Syria’s Jazeera area, which includes the city of Hasaka. However, the now minority Christians have faced historic marginalization and now horrific attacks from extremist groups like ISIS. In recent weeks, ISIS has carried out horrific attacks on Christians, including the brutal murder of Coptic Christians in Libya, as well as other religious minorities and fellow Muslims who do not share their distorted and medieval interpretation of Islam.

For more information, please see:

Haaretz – Middle East Updates / Lebanese Army Captures 2 Border Outposts from Islamists – 26 February 2015

Al Arabiya – U.S. Condemns Abduction of Christians in Syria – 25 February 2015

Al Jazeera America – ISIL Kidnapping Underlines ‘Grave Peril’ Of Assyrian Christians – 25 February

Reuters – Islamic State in Syria Abducts At Least 150 Christians – 24 February 2015