Press Release

Head of Syrian Coalition and Syrian Expert House to Present “Syria Transition Roadmap”

Istanbul, Turkey – Leaders of the Syrian Expert House, a group of approximately 300 Syrian human rights activists, academics, judges, lawyers, opposition leaders, members of the Syrian National Council and the National Coalition for Syrian Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, defected government officials, defected military officers, members of local revolutionary councils, and commanders of the armed opposition announced the release of a report presenting comprehensive recommendations on the post-Assad democratic political transition.

The report, entitled “Syria Transition Roadmap,” will be officially unveiled on August 14 at a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey at Holiday Inn Istanbul City. Ahmad Assi al-Jarba, president of the National Coalition for Syrian Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, and leaders of the Syrian Expert House will give an overview of Syria’s imminent transition at the conference.

Syria Transition Roadmap covers the topics of constitutional reform, political reform, electoral reform, security sector reform, economic reform, and transitional justice in post-conflict Syria. The recommendations presented in Syria Transition Roadmap are the result of a year-long consensus-building process. The Syrian Expert House’s final conclusions within the report represent the political common ground of the Syrian opposition on key issues. These recommendations will remain valid, no matter how the Syrian conflict is resolved.

Syria Transition Roadmap specifically recommends the following:

·         The future Syrian government will be a hybrid presidential/parliamentary system to ensure the presence of checks and balances in state institutions.

·         The starting point of the new Syrian constitution will be the Constitution of 1950, which will be amended and modified by a 290-member Constitutional Assembly, elected in a national election. The new Syrian constitution will be approved by a national referendum.

·         The Constitutional Assembly will be elected in an election featuring proportional representation across 20-30 multi-member districts with an average of 12 seats per constituency. Proportional representation will ensure party pluralism, allowing for the first election to lay the foundation for a strong democratic system.

·         The independence of the judiciary will be guaranteed by completely separating it from the executive branch. National reconciliation will be achieved through a long transitional justice process in which justice is assured for all of Syria’s victims.

·         The security services will be restructured and cleansed of corrupt officials. All armed groups will be disarmed, demobilized, and reintegrated into Syrian society.

·         Syria will gradually abandon its state-led economic model in favor of a market-based economy. Public sector employees will continue to be paid while preparing for the overhaul of the state administrative structure.

For further information, please see:

Syrian Expert House

SCPSS

Ensure the safety and security of the minority, it was and still is the most important of the international community’s concerns, it is always mentioned and rarely missed from officials’ statements, the Syrian regime is totally aware of this point and focus on it, so he is attempting with all his potentials to show that minorities face increased risk of human rights abuses by armed opposition forces.

Syrian Regime and his friend (even sometimes international community) are keen to forget the long years of coexistence that prevailed among the various spectrums of Syrian People, in spite of the diversity of nationalities and religions, and show the opposition, who wanted to mop and eliminate them, and the Syrian regime as protector of minorities, and they will live if he falls.  This logic is followed by most of the Syrian regime supporters whether they are Syrian or not.

While we don’t deny the occurrence of some sectarian reaction against civilians in several parts of Syria, it is not the systematic policy followed by armed battalions’ member, but committed by individuals, and most FSA battalions and fighters condemn such acts, and some battalions contain fighters from minority groups, even if they are in the few.

29/5/2013, Fares News Agency and Syria Media reported news about massacres committed by the FSA against residents of Al Dwair Christian village, here is the attachment:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/10fntpvxMAKq-_t3vouIgD9uLw6Ynbr-fH28qKU8pJTyNw6QYJv-bg_NKagyX/edit

http://sana.sy/ara/336/2013/05/30/484691.htm

According to field investigation and accounts of village residents showing the lying and fraud in this report due to:

–          Geographic location of the village contrary to the truth.  It was stated that the village is located on the Syrian-Lebanese border, while separated by 40 km at least The village is located on the banks of the Orontes River to the north-west of the city of Homs lies about 2 km on the road to Hama, and its inhabitants condemn the Christianity of the Greek Orthodox

–          The agency ignores any mentions to Dar Kbira village, which adjacent to Dwair and their agricultural land overlap, and coexistence prevailed for hundreds of years, “Dar Kbira now under the control of armed opposition.”

–          During Government Troops’ random shelling on that region, shells fell on St. Elias church in Dwair village, and later in this false story, they accused Al-Qaeda and Takfireen for destroying the church.  SNHR documented in many reports published on the website that more than 22 churches and 1551 mosques were targeted by the Syrian Regime.

–          Most of the village residents (almost 400 citizens) were displaced because of fighting and shelling from Military Academy

Mr. Georges D, whose cousin is a resident in that village, told us: that nothing different happened there, it is the same as the Syrian villages and cities, like the other Syrian villages and cities.  When he talked with his female cousin, she mentioned that on 27/5/2013, and because of the fierce fighting and shelling in the close fields, it led to the displacement of the rest of the residents, and that a boy and young lady were killed, and she added when Shabiha militia were in Dwari,  a father and his daughter were killed in a very mysterious way that only the Shabiha know how to commit.  Their bodies were found burned.

When revisiting the Dwair service office in Homs, we figured out that the numbers of dead in that period is 4, and they are all children: Wael Nael Hazim – 10 years old- , and the beautiful young woman Jamila Mikhael Aldaif – 22 years old – , while the burned bodies belong to Mr. Nafeaa Toaamah -63 years old – and his daughter Abeer.

In May 2013, Government’s Troops targeted the village, and killed 4 civilians.

The residents of the village know each other very well because the village is small, and know that the story of the Syrian Regime is a total lie and is deceitful.

Clashes between Free Syrian Army and government forces in the fields near the village led to the deaths of two persons.

Residents told us that they saw bodies in the near fields that did not belong to them, and couldn’t recognize whether they were FSA or regime forces, but they were sure that they were not residents since they know each other very well, we didn’t get any photos or names.  Note that the Syrian and Iranian media stated that the government army took over the village and killed a number of terrorists.

In addition to all of the regime’s media or the Iranian media, they didn’t reveal any video or photo of a victim or even their names.  Just one website published photos of the damaged church which as we said previously was destroyed by the Government forces’ shelling on the village.

Simple Note: church of Saint Peter and Paul in Al-War neighborhood is a shelter and hospital for all Syrian citizens, both Christians and Muslims.

Finally, we see that the reason of access for terrorists and extremists to Syria is due to the West headed by USA, and that’s because:

Conclusions:

According to this accident and the speech of Syrian Regime Representative in Security Council, in addition to send Christian clerics bought by money and positions to a specific European countries, and another actions all aims to link Regime destiny with minority in the area, so he looks like the real sponsored, and any other alternative will eliminate minorities from the map, displace and kill them, all of that based on false news and illusion the reality and the truth is a contrast from decades ago.

The main goal is to intimidate the western society from supporting the liberation movement of Syrian People in order to build a pluralistic and democratic state, and delude them what will happen with regards to Al-Qaeda, darkness, and terrorism.

SNHR noticed that western society directly accepted such news without verification of their origin, truthfulness, and accuracy.

Syrian Society is mild and have instinctive medial religion, who fight extremist and terrorism and categorically reject and condemn all these forms, and the biggest beneficiary of terrorists’ entry to the Syrian conflict are the Syrian and Iranian regimes to prove to the world his theory that he was fighting terrorism and doesn’t kill the Syrian People.

News agencies must investigate the truthfulness, objectivity, and to verify the source of the news, because by publishing false news they also damage the reputation of the ancient Syrian people and give cover to the regime in shed more blood

Finally we would like to notify that in that area and in the nearby village a real massacre happened committed by the government Militia in Alhasoia village (next to Dwair) in mid January of 2013, which led to the deaths of more than 106 victims are 14 families, one consists of 32 individuals of women, children, and unarmed civilians, most of them are family members of human right activist in AFAZ colleague Mohamad Diab, and they burned dozens bodies as you can see in the following video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937pb0vj1zo

This massacre, as is the case with the rest of the real massacres did not refer to any member of the government or Iranian media loyal to the Syrian regime.

[scribd id=157264830 key=key-291cel3inqltmk0y8xo1 mode=scroll]

Syrian Network for Human Rights documented 185 victims, Sunday 21/7/2013 all across Syria.  Among the victims:  11 children, 9 women, 6 tortured to death one of them is child, and 31 FSA.

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Another massacre in the Al-Bayda village of Baniyas where 13 victims from the same family (Fatouh family) were burned to death in their home while they were fasting.  Among the victims: 6 children and 4 women.

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Massacre in the Areha of Idlib countryside, where 14 victims were killed by shelling on the main market by mortar and artillery, including 2 children and 2 women.   

http://youtu.be/UWJXOItgSDQ

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Damascus and countryside: 96 victims

Idlib: 27 victims

Hama: 8 victims

Aleppo: 20 victims

Tartous: 14 victims

Homs: 1 victim

Daraa: 9 victims

Dier Alzoor: 1 victim

Raqqa: 5 victims

Qunaitra: 2 victims

Not Syrian: 2 victims