A decade has passed since the Arab Spring uprising spread through the Middle East and hit Syria. Demonstrations plagued southern Syria and eventually penetrated the capital, Damascus, home of Bashar al-Assad’s leader.
The protests called for Assad to resign, but unlike what happened in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, where rulers were forced out of power, Assad and his regime did not back down. Syria’s army quickly trained its deadly force on the peaceful protesters and drew condemnation by international leaders and human rights groups.
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Today, ten years into a civil war, the country is in ruins. According to the United Nations, more than 400,000 people have died. It is estimated that more than 1 million people were injured. Half of the country’s pre – war population has been evicted from their homes, and the UN estimates that more than 5 million refugees have become outside the country’s borders and another 6 million have been internally displaced.
“We are obviously seeing one of the biggest humanitarian disasters,” London human rights lawyer Toby Cadman told Fox News.
The tragedy has’ changed ‘, said Cadman, co-founder of the human rights law firm Guernica 37,’ from a pro-democracy uprising against the authoritarian Assad regime ‘to’ massive armed warfare, with Syrian artillery firing the city of the rebel stronghold exploded. of Him and elsewhere. ‘
Simply put, the international legal specialist said, the world is “looking at a country at war with itself.”
In 2012, reports appeared about Assad using chemical weapons on his own people. The reports have been verified by the UN and other organizations. “Although he did not admit it, he claimed he would get rid of his illegal arsenal,” Cadman said, “he did not.”
Later, “along the border between Turkey and Syria,” Cadman said, the situation worsened “when the radical Islamic group ISIS got into the conflict … and took over towns like Kobani and many others.”
According to the human rights lawyer, “what started as a peaceful protest has descended into this conflict of which there is no accountability.”
The clash within Syria’s borders has become a proxy war with Iran and Russia supporting the Assad regime. Regionally, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar supported the rebels.
The US plunged into and out of the conflict. The Obama administration supported the rebels by attacking the Islamic State. The Trump administration launched a rocket attack in 2017 in retaliation for another chemical attack by the regime. Just a month into office, the Biden government also launched a rocket attack on facilities in eastern Syria used by the Iranian-backed militia, according to the Pentagon.
Now Assad is still in charge, having regained control of much of his country. But Syria is in battle; the healthcare system is on the verge of collapse, and the economy is struggling with the currency losing much of its value. About 80% of Syrians now live in poverty, while 60% are at risk of starvation.
Ironically, Bashar al-Assad is expected to be re-elected soon in a forthcoming so-called democratic election. The Al-Assad family has ruled Syria since 1971 when Hafez al-Assad and his Ba’ath party took over the country. After his death in June 2000, his son Bashar succeeded him.
Despite the country’s decline, al-Assad has shown no sign of willingness to compromise or participate with the UN or other international bodies to rehabilitate its shattered country.
“There is no future for any peace and prosperity in Syria as long as the Assad regime remains in power,” Cadman said.
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To that end, Cadman and his human rights law firm have demanded that the British woman Asma of Assad be charged by the British authorities with inciting and encouraging the commission of war crimes, through speeches sympathetic to her husband’s policies.
Cadman doubts whether the Syrian government will cooperate. It will probably only be served once more by an international community that has so far failed to bring the once beautiful country back into civilization, while the world community – and mostly Syrians – are paying the price.