Syria Watch
International Justice Tribune: Planning for accountability in Syria – with Syrians or not
BY Karina Hof
The International Justice Tribune
A justice mechanism to deal with the Syrian conflict has seemed low on the world’s agenda. This week brought news of US government funding cuts for a widely commended NGO gathering Syrian war crimes evidence. The Russian and Chinese vetoes of a Syria referral by the UN Security Council to the International Criminal Court keep a trial in The Hague unlikely. And it is hard to focus on accountability when the YouTubed horror films of ISIS have all but upstaged Assad regime atrocities and the Syrian opposition seems locked in an endless cycle of reincarnation.
But accountability is not off the table. As put by Michael Scharf, managing director of the Public International Law & Policy Group, a pro bono global law firm: “While events related to ISIS have temporarily eclipsed the issue, there has been a lot of action behind the scenes in the past year related to establishing accountability for Syrian atrocities.”
In fact, the groundwork for possible indictments and prosecutions has already been laid out. Meanwhile, the barbarities continue to be documented almost in real time. “A determined push for accountability” is how Balkees Jarrah, a counsel who focuses on the Middle East for Human Rights Watch, summed up the situation.
Justice via New Jersey?
Former prosecutor-turned-academic David Crane, for one, is ready to take Syrian accountability to what he calls “its next logical step”. Best-known for indicting Charles Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Crane has since become a vocal lobbyist for Syria. He leads the Syrian Accountability Project, which aims to document war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all sides in the conflict.
Last year, Crane, Scharf and 11 other heavy-hitting legal practitioners drafted a ‘Statute for a Syrian Extraordinary Tribunal to Prosecute Atrocity Crimes’, outlining possible mechanisms for trying war crimes in Syria. The Chautauqua Blueprint – as it came to be called, for the lake town in New York where it debuted – was signed on 27 August 2013, six days after the chemical attack in Ghouta that killed hundreds of Syrians and awoke the world’s conscience.
Crane expects to see progress at a meeting being chaired by Christian Wenaweser, Liechtenstein’s representative to the UN and the former president of the ICC’s ruling body, on 17 November in Princeton, New Jersey. “I believe it’ll probably result in an agreement to how we’re actually going to create these courts,” said Crane.
For his part, Wenaweser anticipates more modest outcomes, calling it a preliminary “mapping exercise” carried out by “people who are likeminded only in the sense that we all think accountability in Syria is crucial”.
“We want to discuss with each other informally what we think a good way forward is,” Wenaweser told IJT. “We will simply go through the different accountability options as they exist and discuss their implications, the pros or cons, what it required to get there and so on.”
Filing, piling
Besides Crane’s Syrian Accountability Project, a menagerie of other private groups, operating in and out of Syria, have made accountability their business. Two NGOs, both internationally funded and respected, working on documentation-driven accountability are the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC) and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA). SJAC, directed by exiled Syrian activist Mohammad Al Abdallah, has spearheaded digitally sophisticated methods to collect and catalogue videos, photos and witness testimonies from the conflict.
CIJA is run by William Wiley, a lawyer with plenty of war crimes investigation under his belt. Known for its professional stealth, CIJA works in, literally, hands-on cooperation with the Syrian opposition to document regime atrocities. “With prosecution-ready case files and up to one million pages of documentary evidence analysed by military and command structure specialists – we are the guys to turn to,” said Nerma Jelacic, head of CIJA’s external relations and former spokesperson of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
However, the US State Department recently suggested it finds otherwise. It is pulling their $500,000 in yearly support for CIJA, with officials now citing plans to fund documentation of crimes by ISIS. Jelacic said her organization was informed of the decision last month. The cuts mean that for as long as CIJA cannot find a new donor to bridge the gap, they “will not be able to continue the planned document acquisition and operations planed for next year’s case files,” she explained.
The threat of fragmentation thus looms large over Syria war crimes investigations. No single overseeing authority exists. Concerns arise of spending overlap and duplicated work. “Frankly, when it comes to accountability a little bit of redundancy is actually OK,” said Beth van Schaack, former deputy US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues.
Still, all groups seem to be waiting in the wings, seeking leadership towards a feasible mechanism. “Momentum hasn’t yet been able to build around accountability in part because there’s been so many crisis points,” Van Schaack said. When IJT spoke with her, she was unaware of this month’s gathering in Princeton, but added: “It’s certainly worth exploring, right? And especially if there’s … a moving vehicle here we can get behind.”
Timing
Despite having organized several meetings that fed into the Chautauqua Blueprint, SJAC decided not to sign off on the statute, said Abdallah, its executive director. Even though Syrian lawyers, jurists and civil society were part of the document’s preparatory talks, he ultimately felt underrepresented. “It’s not about bringing 10 or 15 or even 100 Syrians to your workshop. We’re talking about wide public consultation, and it’s public, it’s not a closed group,” Abdallah said. “You need representation – and ethnic and religious and political representation – of everybody in that tribunal.”
The theme returns when asked about a closed-door event at the Netherlands mission to the UN last month. “I’m hopeful something concrete might come out of it,” he said with uncharacteristic softness, yet quickly acknowledged that, as with many of the “coordination meetings around Syria” he is invited to, “the donors need to coordinate more than the NGOs” and he was the only Syrian present.
Anyway, as Abdallah asks, is the timing right? “Even if you have basically the best model for the best tribunal for Syria, it’s not feasible to start now,” he maintained. “Before you stop the daily killing and have the people calm a little bit, it’s impossible to create a reasonable and sustainable justice mechanism.”
ISIS Tortures Child Hostages
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
DAMASCUS, Syria – Kurdish children from the besieged town of Kobani were tortured and abused while detained by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) Human Rights Watch Reported on Tuesday. Four children gave detailed accounts of the suffering they endured while they were held hostage by ISIS for four months with about 100 other children. , the four boys described how they were repeatedly being beaten with a hose and electric cable, as well as being forced to watch videos of ISIS beheadings and attacks.
The four abducted children were between the ages of 14 and 16. They were among 153 Kurdish boys whom ISIS abducted on May 29, 2014, as they traveled home from Aleppo to the town of Kobani after finishing their middle school exams. According to Syrian Kurdish officials and media reports, ISIS released the last 25 of the children on October 29. “Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, children have suffered the horrors of detention and torture, first by the Assad government and now by ISIS,” said Fred Abrahams, special advisor for children’s rights at Human Rights Watch. “This evidence of torture and abuse of children by ISIS underlines why no one should support their criminal enterprise.”
ISIS reportedly allowed approximately 100 girls go home within hours of the May 29 abduction but the boys were kept as hostages. According to the four boys who shared their stories with Human Rights Watch the boys were kept at a school in Manbij, some 50 kilometers southwest of Kobani.
The boys said their living conditions were sparse: sleeping with blankets on the floor, bathing once every two weeks, eating twice a day. The boys said they were allowed occasional calls and visits from their parents. The boys talked about being forced to watch propaganda videos of ISIS beheadings and attacks, pray five times daily and memorize parts of the Quran.
If their captives decided they were not doing well enough with their religious lessons, if they tried to escape captivity or if they did anything that was construed as misbehaving they were beaten with hoses and even electric cables. According to a 15-year-old boy children who had relatives serving in the Kurdish militia known the People’s Protection Units (YPG) were treated the worst. According to the Human Rights Watch report the boys were often beaten for no reason at all. “They sometimes beat us for no reason,” a 16-year-old boy said.
According to one of the boys, ISIS threaten to kill the families of boys. “They told them to give them the addresses of their families, cousins, uncles, saying, ‘When we go to Kobani, we will get them and cut them up,'” the boy said.
The May 29th abduction was not an isolated incident. According to the Human Rights Watch Report, ISIS has abducted children in other villages as it has captured ground in Syria and Iraq. In Minas village, also near Kobani, ISIS seized seven civilian men when it captured the village in the beginning of October. According to the Report, A 40-year-old farmer from Ghassaniya village said ISIS had abducted four of his nephews, ages 16, 17, 18, and 27 or 28, in late February as they were driving through ISIS-controlled territory en route to Iraqi Kurdistan. The abductions have targeted children in Kurdish regions which have been under siege from the Islamic State militants.
For more information please see:
Al Arabiya – HRW: ISIS Abused Captive Kurdish Children – 4 November 2014
CNN International – Report: Children Say ISIS Captured, Beat Them On Way Home From Exams – 4 November 2014
Human Rights Watch – Syria: ISIS Tortured Kobani Child Hostages – 4 November 2014
International Business Times – ISIS Tortured, Abused Captive Kurdish Children: Human Rights Watch – 4 November 2014
One Week After Bombing PKK targets, Turkey Allows Peshmerga Fighters to Cross into Syria
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
ANKARA, Turkey – The Turkish government will allow Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq to cross its territory to defend Kurds in the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani which has been under heavy attack from fighters loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). The Peshmerga forces have been heavily invoked in the ground fighting against ISIS in Iraq.
The announcement marked an abrupt shift in the Turkish government’s official position of refusing to grant any aid to help the Kurds of Kobani and came just hours after the United States military dropped 24 tons of weapons and medicines to the besieged town. The Turkish government has been slow to respond to calls from the United States and other members of the International community to aid in the fight against ISIS. Turkey has cited its belief that Kurdish militants in the region, many of whom would like to see the establishment of a Kurdish State, are terrorists.
Last week Turkish F-16 and F-4 warplanes have bombed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebel targets near the Iraqi border, as the ceasefire reached between turkey and the PKK in March of last year comes under increasing strain. The Anatolia news agency reported that two PKK commanders wounded in fighting were arrested by Turkish authorities when they arrived for treatment at a hospital in south-eastern Turkey.
The Turkish armed forces say the airstrikes were carried out in response to a PKK shelling of a military outpost. Kurds are furious at Turkey’s inaction as Islamic State (IS) militants attack the Syrian border town of Kobani.
PKK Militants have been aiding the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in Kobani. The Turkish government considers the YPG, like the PKK to be a terrorist organization and has refused to help aid the militia group in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
Despite their status as one of the largest ethnic groups in the Middle East, with control of a semi-autonomous region in Iraq, the Kurdish people face discrimination in their homeland which spans across large regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Kurdish people have become targets of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) as the militant group continues to gain ground in largely Kurdish regions of Syria and Iraq.
The war with ISIS has reignited tensions between the Kurdish people and the Turkish government. Tensions have risen in Turkey over the past several weeks. Demonstrations have been held in nearly 30 cities and curfews have been enforced for the first time in 22 years and state buildings have been attacked. Some of the fighting has been between the Turkey’s Kurdish populations. Turkey’s Islamist Hezbollah group supports ISIS while the banned PKK group is strongly opposed to ISIS,
The Turkish government’s decision to allow Peshmerga fighters to cross Turkish territory, just a week after targeting a Kurdish militants in its own country, may have been an attempt to both appease international calls for Turkish action against ISIS and to appease Kurdish populations in Turkey in order to prevent tensions in the country from continuing to rise.
For more information please see:
Bloomberg – Syria Kurds Say Peshmerga Must Work With Them in Kobani – 21 October 2014
The Guardian – Turkey to Allow Kurdish Peshmerga across Its Territory to Fight In Kobani – 20 October 2014
Reuters – Turkey to Help Kurdish ‘Peshmerga’ Fighters Reach Besieged Syrian Town – 20 October 2014
BBC News – Turkish Jets Bomb Kurdish PKK Rebels Near Iraq – 14 October 2014
BBC News – Turkey’s Fear of A Reignited Kurdish Flame – 8 October 2014
Syrian Lawmaker Reportedly assassinated as more Barrel Bombs dropped over Hama
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Managing Editor, Impunity Watch
Damascus, Syria – Syrian State-run media outlet, the Syrian Arab News Agency, (SANA) reported that gunmen allegedly opened fire on a Syrian Member of Parlmement while he was in his car outside of the city of Hama in the west of the country on Wednesday. SANA reported that the attack killed the lawmaker and another civilian. The Lawmaker was named as Waris al-Younes was a Member of the People’s Assembly representing the central province of Hama. According to SANA a sources within the Hama Police Command told the agency that that terrorists opened fire on al-Younes’ car near Um al-Twaikiye crossroads on Tuesday midnight while he was heading from Hama city to al-Salamiya city.
There have been several attacks targeting Syrian lawmakers and other government officials since the start of the Syrian Civil war in 2011. In 2012, a suicide bomber killed three of top military officials in Damascus and last April the prime minister survived an attack on his convoy in Damascus, which killed six. An estimated 200,000 people of a population of nearly 25 million have been killed over the course of the ongoing civil war in Syria.
The People’s Assembly condemned the attack, SANA said. Following the attack the Assembly put out a statement saying calling for those who carried out the attack to be punished. The statement said, “We tell those who were behind this crime that your terrorism will not intimidate us, but it will increase our commitment to confront takfiri mentality along with the Syrian Arab Army,” the Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The Assad Regime has been accused of carrying out collective punishment of civilian populations living in areas seen as loyal to anti-regime forces. One method of collective punishment used by the Assad Regime has been the use of Barrel Bombs, which are highly indiscriminate weapons made of explosives and shrapnel packed into large barrels, and heavy bombardments of civilian neighborhoods in many of Syria’s major cities including the city of Hama, the regime allegedly ramped up barrel bomb attacks in Hama over the past several weeks.
On Wednesday Syrian warplanes carried out raids on the countryside in area east of Hama province. Destructive and indiscriminate barrel bombs were dropped in the north, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which tracks the conflict. On the ground, pro-regime forces fought with Nusra Front and Islamist battalions in the north, the Observatory reported.
For more information please see:
Detroit Free Press – Syrian Lawmaker Killed As Kurds Fight Islamic State – 15 October 2014
Reuters – Gunmen Kill Syrian MP in Western Province: Agency– 15 October 2014
Syrian Arab News Agency (State-Run Media) – MP Waris Al-Younes and another Civilian Killed In Terrorist Attack in Hama… People’s Assembly Condemns Crime – 15 October 2014
Reuters – Assad Steps Up Bombing As West Strikes Militants in Syria – 26 September 2014