NEW YORK: “My name is Wafa Ali Mustafa and I have not heard from my father, Ali Mustafa, for 2,801 days — almost eight years ago, when he was forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime.”
The atmosphere in the UN General Assembly Hall changed as Mustafa spoke. She was one of three representatives of civil society who briefed members during a high-level panel discussion of the human rights situation in Syria, in particular the torture and disappearance of detainees. It came as the 10th anniversary of the start of conflict, on March 15, 2011, approaches.
“My mom, two sisters and me have never been told why he has been taken away from us or where he is being held. We just don’t know,” Mustafa said in a quavering voice. Her father is a human rights activist who took part in protests against oppression by the regime.
A journalist and activist, Mustafa told how she was herself detained in 2011 at the age of 21 “for daring to dream of a free and just Syria.” She has spent the 10 years since her release “demanding justice against the Assad regime and other groups who continue to use detention as a weapon of war.”
Mustafa graduated from university in Berlin last year. Her education meant everything to her father and yet she admitted she often finds herself wondering, like many other Syrians, whether everything she does is pointless.
“I wondered this morning, is there a point in addressing all of you today? All Syrians wonder the same,” she told the General Assembly.
However, she said that on the day she sees her father again he will ask her what she had been doing during all these years. “He will ask what we all have been doing,” she added.
Mustafa’s testimony follows the publication of a report by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, which concluded that thousands of detainees have been subjected to “unimaginable suffering” during the war, including torture, death and sexual violence against women, girls and boys.
The Security Council tasked the commission with investigating and recording all violations of international law since the start of the conflict. It began when the regime launched a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters during the “Damascus Spring.” Since then, 400,000 people have died and millions have been forced from their homes.
“At least 20 different, horrific methods of torture used by the government of Syria have been extensively documented,” the investigators wrote in their report.
“These include administering electric shocks, the burning of body parts, pulling off nails and teeth, mock executions, folding detainees into a car tire, and crucifying or suspending individuals from one or two limbs for prolonged periods, often in combination with severe beating.”
The three-person panel investigated more than 100 detention facilities in Syria. Their findings are based on more than 2,500 interviews over the past 10 years. They concluded that none of the warring parties in Syria have respected the rights of detainees. Tens of thousands of people remain unaccounted for, missing without a trace.
“One decade in, it is abundantly clear that it is the children, women and men of Syria who have paid the price when the Syrian government unleashed overwhelming violence to quell dissent,” commission chairman Paulo Pinheiro told the General Assembly.
“Opportunistic foreign funding, arms and other support to the warring parties poured fuel on this fire that the world has been content to watch burn. Terrorist groups proliferated and inflicted their ideology on the people, particularly on women, girls and boys, as well as ethnic and religious minorities and dissenting civilians.”
He added: “Pro-government forces have deliberately and repeatedly targeted hospitals and medical facilities, decimating a medical sector prior to the arrival of the most catastrophic global pandemic in a century.
“The use of chemical weapons has been tolerated, the free flow of humanitarian aid instrumentalized, diverted and hampered — even with Security Council authorization.”
Representatives of more than 30 UN member states addressed the General Assembly. Most were united in calling for justice for the victims of the conflict and for the perpetrators to be held accountable. Without this, they agreed, a national reconciliation will be impossible.
The sentencing by a German court last week of former Syrian secret agent Eyad Al-Gharib to four-and-a-half years in prison, on charges of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity, was hailed as historic.
He had been accused of rounding up peaceful anti-government protesters and delivering them to a detention center where they were tortured. The verdict marked the first time a court outside Syria has ruled on state-sponsored torture by members of the Assad regime.
Christoph Heusgen, Germany’s permanent representative to the UN, said the verdict of the Koblenz state court sends a clear message to Assad that “whoever commits such crimes cannot be safe anywhere.” He added that “Assad’s state has turned the cradle of civilization into a torture chamber.”
The German envoy added that he deplores the “inhumane” decision by China and Russia in July 2020 to veto a UN resolution calling for two border crossings between Turkey and Syria to remain open so that humanitarian aid could be delivered to millions of civilians in the northwest of Syria.
Barbara Woodward, the UK’s permanent representative to the UN, said that each of the 32 instances of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against civilians constitutes a war crime. She vowed that Britain “will respond more robustly to any further use of chemical weapons” by the regime.
Only Russia defended the Assad regime. Stepan Kuzmenkov, senior counsellor at the Russian mission to the UN, dismissed Tuesday’s meeting, saying it was based on “accusations, lies and conjecture.”
He said the Syrian regime is being attacked because its “independence cause does not suit a number of Western countries who continue to promote practices of using force, or the threat of force, in international relations.”
Kuzmenkov criticized his UN colleagues for “not talking about the real problem: terrorism” and for “using human rights discourse to resolve short-term political goals.” He reiterated Moscow’s stance that unilateral sanctions are to blame for the suffering in Syria.
At no point in his remarks did he mention the subject at hand: torture in Syrian prisons.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on March 11.
Despite all the misery, pain and loss during the prolonged conflict, Syrians still cling to hope for a better future.
“Assad’s Syria is a torture state enabled by some members of this assembly — but it will become my home again,” Mustafa told the General Assembly.
“Who am I to say there is no hope? Who are you to say that?”
Emotional scenes as UN General Assembly hears of human rights abuses in Syria
https://arab.news/mf7uc
Emotional scenes as UN General Assembly hears of human rights abuses in Syria
- Daughter tells how her father disappeared nearly eight years ago after he was arrested; calls for justice for all victims of Syrian regime
- Verdict of German court that jailed a regime agent sends message to Assad that those who commit such crimes cannot hide, envoy says
US resumes sending weapons to Ukraine after Pentagon pause
- Weapons now moving into Ukraine include 155 mm munitions and precision-guided rockets known as GMLRS
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the pause last week to allow the Pentagon to assess its weapons stockpiles
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, a week after the Pentagon had directed that some deliveries be paused.
The weapons now moving into Ukraine include 155 mm munitions and precision-guided rockets known as GMLRS, two US officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. It’s unclear exactly when the weapons started moving.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the pause last week to allow the Pentagon to assess its weapons stockpiles, in a move that caught the White House by surprise. The Pentagon has denied that Hegseth acted without consulting President Donald Trump.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that had not been announced publicly.
Nobel: The prize for peace that leaders go to war for
- Israeli PM’s nomination of Trump has reopened debate over the Nobel Peace Prize’s meaning and credibility
- As Gaza burns and indictments loom, a wartime leader endorsing a recipient raises questions, says analyst
LONDON: In what supporters have called a symbol of solidarity and detractors a humiliating act of fealty, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week revealed he had nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — an award long sought by the US president.
The decision by Netanyahu appears designed to help bolster ties between the two long-term allies and ease reported tensions over Israel’s 21-month-long war in Gaza and its bruising 12-day conflict with Iran last month.
Netanyahu presented the nomination letter to Trump at the White House on Monday, and was met with a look of surprise from the US president.
“It’s nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved, and you should get it,” Netanyahu said.
“Wow, coming from you, in particular, this is very meaningful. Thank you very much, Bibi,” Trump responded.
Netanyahu is also seeking US guarantees relating to arms supplies, especially after Iran’s ballistic missile barrages last month placed substantial pressure on Israeli air defense systems, Khatib said.
“He wants to show Trump that he is the best ally he can have; he also knows that Trump is really looking after getting the Nobel Peace Prize,” she added
FASTFACTS:
• The Nobel Peace Prize was founded by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
• Regret over his invention partly drove Nobel to create the prize to promote peace.
• Carl von Ossietzky, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Liu Xiaobo, were imprisoned when awarded.
• The youngest Nobel Peace laureate is Malala Yousafzai, who received it in 2014 at age 17.
For Dania Koleilat Khatib, a specialist in US-Arab relations, Netanyahu’s decision to nominate the president rests on his desire to “do anything to court Trump.”
She told Arab News that Netanyahu arrived in Washington with a set of demands covering almost every regional file of interest to Israel: Syria, Turkiye, Gaza, the West Bank and Iran.
IN NUMBERS:
• 142 Individuals and organizations have received the prize since 1901.
• 19 Women have been awarded.
• 28 Organizations received the award.
• 19 Years the prize was not awarded.
(Source: NobelPrize.org)
Trump has made no secret of his yearning for the prestigious prize, yet the nomination itself is only the first part of an extensive, secret process that winds up in the stately committee room of Oslo’s Nobel Institute.
The distinction and tradition of the Nobel name, however, is arguably a far cry from the reputation of Trump’s nominator.
Netanyahu, alongside former defense minister Yoav Gallant, is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conduct of Israel’s military in Gaza.
That fact would no doubt weigh on the minds of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members who deliberate over the prize.
For Khatib, the ICC arrest warrant alone means that Netanyahu’s gesture is “worthless.”
She told Arab News: “I am not sure whether the nomination will be discarded but it is ironic that someone wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes and potentially genocide nominates someone for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
GUIDELINES ON NOBEL NOMINATIONS
• Only nominees put forward by qualified nominators are considered.
• Self-nominations are not accepted.
• The prize may be awarded to individuals or organizations.
Upholding the reputation of the prize is a tall order, in part due to the strictness of its rules. The committee’s choice for the annual award effectively ties the Nobel name to the future reputation of any recipient. The Nobel Foundation’s Statutes also forbid the revocation of any award.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese icon of democracy, fell from grace over her treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority in the decades since she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Former US President Barack Obama was controversially awarded the prize just nine months into his first term, to the dismay of figures including Trump, who called on the institution to retract the award.
The decision to award Obama for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” soon appeared foolish after it emerged the president had told aides, referring to his use of drone strikes: “Turns out I’m really good at killing people.”
The Nobel Committee’s then secretary, Geir Lundestad, later expressed regret over the decision. “Even many of Obama’s supporters believed that the prize was a mistake,” he said. “In that sense the committee didn’t achieve what it had hoped for.”
Khatib told Arab News that the most basic requirement of the prize is that the recipient contributes to peace.
“I personally don’t know why Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,” she told Arab News. “What was the achievement for which he was awarded the prize?”
The Obama controversy may well have sparked Trump’s desire to win the prize. He has referred to the 2009 award numerous times since, and has regularly expressed frustration over an accomplishment that he feels has eluded him.
Netanyahu’s nomination of Trump, however, is only the most recent that the US leader has received. He was nominated separately by a group of House Republicans in the US and two Norwegian lawmakers for his work to defuse nuclear tensions with North Korea in 2018..
WHO CAN NOMINATE?
• Members of national assemblies and governments.
• Members of international courts.
• University rectors, professors, and directors of peace research or foreign policy institutes.
• Past laureates and board members of laureate organizations.
• Current and former Norwegian Nobel Committee members and former advisers.
In 2021, Trump was also nominated by one of the two Norwegian lawmakers and a Swedish official for his peace efforts in the Middle East, including the Abraham Accords, which established formal relations between Israel and several Arab states.
Shinzo Abe, the late former prime minister of Japan, also nominated Trump in 2019
Earlier this year, Pakistan said that it had nominated Trump for the prize in recognition of his work to end the country’s brief conflict with India. New Delhi later denied that Washington played a role in mediation.
Trump is also working toward a diplomatic solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has so far defied his negotiators.
A day after Monday’s White House meeting, Netanyahu’s office released a copy of the nomination letter — dated July 1 — seen by Trump.
“President Trump has demonstrated steadfast and exceptional dedication to promoting peace, security and stability around the world,” it said.
“In the Middle East, his efforts have brought about dramatic change and created new opportunities to expand the circle of peace and normalization.”
The prime minister’s letter singled out the Abraham Accords as Trump’s “foremost achievement” in the region.
“These breakthroughs reshaped the Middle East and marked a historic advance toward peace, security and regional stability,” it said.
The description of the region as having experienced a historic advance toward peace will raise eyebrows in many parts of the Middle East.
Yet the strange circumstances of an alleged war criminal acting as a peace prize nominator has parallels with the Nobel name’s own peculiar past.
The prizes were established through the will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, inventor and industrialist who amassed a fortune after inventing and patenting dynamite. The explosive was rapidly adopted for industrial use but was also soon prized for its utility as a tool of warfare.
The first awards bearing the Nobel name were handed out just after the turn of the century in 1901, five years after the Swedish visionary had died.
They cover medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. An economics prize was later established by the Swedish Central Bank in 1968, but it is not considered a Nobel prize in the same manner.
Nobel’s wishes were for the peace prize to go to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
The strict codification of Nobel’s will resulted in the Nobel Statutes, a set of rules followed by the Nobel Foundation, which oversees the secretive process behind the five prizes. Judges are forbidden from discussing their deliberations for half a century after they take place.
The peace committee is the sole Nobel prize body in Norway, and its five members are appointed by the country’s parliament.
Nominations for the revered prize can only be submitted by specific people and organizations, including heads of state, national politicians, academic professors and company directors, among others. It is forbidden for people to nominate themselves.
Prominent Arab politicians have been awarded the peace prize.
Yasser Arafat was given the award in 1994 for his efforts toward reaching a peaceful settlement to the Israel-Palestine conflict. In 1978, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat was recognized for signing the Camp David Accords, which were witnessed by Jimmy Carter, the US president at the time, who was later awarded the prize in 2002 for his work to promote human rights after leaving office.
For Trump, however, hopes for his long-desired prize will have to wait until next year; nominations must be submitted before February for the prize to be awarded in the same year.
At the time of publishing, the Nobel Committee had not commented on Netanyahu’s nomination, whether they had any reservations, or whether they would accept it.
Starmer, Macron agree on need for new deterrent against boat crossings, UK says
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed on Wednesday on the need to go further and develop a new deterrent to tackle irregular migration and small boat crossings across the Channel.
“The leaders agreed tackling the threat of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared priority that requires shared solutions,” a British readout of a meeting between the two in London said.
“The two leaders agreed on the need to go further and make progress on new and innovative solutions, including a new deterrent to break the business model of these gangs.”
Dozens of sites vie for UNESCO world heritage list spot
PARIS: The United Nation’s cultural organization announces its choice of sites for inclusion in its world heritage list this week, with pre-historic caves, former centers of repression, forests, marine bio-systems and others vying for the coveted spots.
Making the UNESCO’s heritage list often sparks a lucrative tourism drive, and can unlock funding for the preservation of sites that can face threats including pollution, war and negligence.
Climate change is another growing problem for world heritage sites, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay told Monday’s opening session of the body’s World Heritage Committee.
“Close to three quarters of world heritage sites are already faced with serious water-related risks, lack of water or floods,” she said.
Governments failing to ensure adequate protection of their sites risk them being added to UNESCO’s endangered sites list — which currently contains over 50 names — or dropped from the list altogether.
Armed conflict is the reason for about half of the downgrades to the endangered sites list, Azoulay said. Many of such problem areas are located in the Middle East.
The current world heritage list contains 1,223 cultural, natural or mixed sites. Of the organization’s 196 member states, 27 are absent from the list, including several African nations.
Two of them — Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone — hope this will change this year, as they pitch the Bijagos islands and Gola-Tiwai wildlife reserves, respectively, to UNESCO. UNESCO has been seeking to boost Africa’s presence on the heritage list, officials say.
“Since her arrival in 2018, Audrey Azoulay has made Africa not just her own priority, but one of UNESCO’s overall priorities,” said Lazare Eloundou Assomo, who heads up the organization’s world heritage center.
Syria’s government and Kurds still at odds over merging forces after latest talks, US envoy says
- Tom Barrack met with Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa in the Syrian capital
DAMASCUS: A US envoy said on Wednesday that Syria’s central government and the Kurds remain at odds over plans on merging forces after the latest round of talks.
US Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack, who is also a special envoy to Syria, told The Associated Press after meetings in Damascus that differences between the two sides remain. Barrack spoke after meeting with Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and Syria’s interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa in the Syrian capital.
In early March, the new authorities in Damascus signed a landmark deal with the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Under that deal, the SDF forces would be merged with the new national army. The agreement, which is supposed to be implemented by the end of the year, would also bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, airports, and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control.
Detention centers housing thousands of suspected members of the Daesh group would also come under government control.
However, the agreement left the details vague, and progress on implementation has been slow. A major sticking point has been whether the SDF would remain as a cohesive unit in the new army — which the Kurds have pushed for — or whether it would be dissolved and its members absorbed into the new military as individuals.
Barrack said that question remains “a big issue” between the two sides.
