Top Assad regime loyalists use words like “insects” and “germs” to describe men women and children forced to flee their reign of terror
The Nazis called the Jews rats during the Holocaust. The Hutus called the Tutsis cockroaches as it carried out the Rwandan genocide. The Assad regime also adopts the language of genocide and offers a chilling reminder Syria unsafe and not only for returning refugees on the eve of yet another discussion in the UN Security Council about the need for action to stop the most heinous atrocities of the 21st Century.
After spending three years making the film documentary Bringing Assad To Justice it is with a real sense of horror that I watch efforts to normalise Assad by countries in the region when nothing has been done to seek justice and accountability for some of worst crimes in Syria since the Holocaust. All the more shocking as these crimes continue and there is no hope for the millions of Syrians forced out of their own country that they will be able to voluntarily return any time soon with top regime loyalists increasingly resorting to the language of genocide calling those they forced to flee “insects” and “germs”.
Refugees are a compelling symbol of Assad’s reign of terror with almost six million now driven out since the peaceful uprising in 2011. If there is no political settlement and Assad remains in power it will only ensure the Palestinianisation of the Syrian people with a large section of the population separated from their homeland for the foreseeable future.
This is no surprise as ethnic cleansing on a massive scale was pursued by Assad after he started brutally crushing the peaceful uprising in 2011 with military force and extreme repression. Over half the population was forced to flee their homes following the uprising and opposition areas were targeted with starve or surrender sieges which became a driver in forcing people to flee. The merciless bombing of civilians with the systematic targeting of hospitals, schools, bakeries and even bread queues illustrates the regime’s determination to ensure that opposition areas became literally uninhabitable.
We also know from reports that as the refugees fled from Sunni opposition areas Assad’s key ally Iran has sought to repopulate some of these areas with Shia muslims to help strengthen regime control and advance its ambition to create an arc of control from its own borders to the Lebanon. The latter is but one example of how the regime has sought to slam the door behind refugees and their families in letting them know they are not welcome back using an avowedly sectarian strategy with Iran as part of that effort — though perhaps also underlining how weak and dependent Assad has become on the Iranians. Other examples include blowing up the homes of refugees and seizing their property in opposition areas taken over by the regime. Another much publicised example was the stealing of refugee homes through Decree №10 which gave it the right to seize their homes unless they returned within a month to register their property after the location was designated for development. Some chance anyone who fled a genocidal style regime is going to risk her or his life to secure their home? These are not the actions of a regime interested in persuading refugees to return? Indeed, Iran’s influence in this context is important making up to 80% of Assad’s forces on the ground including Shia militias it has imported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq as well as Iran itself.
Syria is unsafe for returning refugee according to two recent reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch showing that returnees have been tortured, disappeared, sexually abused and murdered by the regime. More importantly there is insufficient attention paid to the fact that the regime by its actions very clearly does not want refugees to return. Two statements recently by top regime loyalists, one a member of Assad’s extended family, leaves no room for doubt when they use words like “insects” and “germs” to describe those forced to flee.
The Nazis in the build up to the Holocaust described the Jews as rats, and the Hutus called the Tutsis cockroaches prior to the Rwandan genocide. The dehumanisation of the people who are targeted for annihilation is a constant theme throughout recent history. The mass killing of civilians in opposition areas by the regime in Syria since 2011, as well as in its torture prisons, has many of the characteristics of genocide with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights using the word “annihilation” to describe the way the regime slaughtered civilians.
One of the clearest indications of the strategy of the Assad regime towards refugees of whom almost six million have fled since 2011 was offered by Jamal al-Hassan the then head of the notorious Airforce Intelligence on July 27, 2018. Speaking at a meeting of 33 senior officers about military and intelligence plans Hassan said that a Syria with “10 million trustworthy people was better than 30 million vandals”. He also said three million would be pursued for punishment and in Syria that usually means torture, forcible disappearance, sexual abuse and even death.
However, this has not stopped the regime claiming Syria is safe for refugees to return even making the bizarre claim that European countries are stopping them from returning when Denmark for example has been condemned for trying to compel Syrians to return. This claim was made by the Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad ahead of a conference allegedly to encourage refugees to return held in Damsacus last year on the 11–12 of November at the behest of Assad second key ally Russia. However, the United Nations and the European Union declined to attend claiming the event was “premature.” This is not surprising when Syria has not met the UN mandated conditions for the return of refugees.
Meanwhile the evidence suggests Assad regime policies on the ground rather than words clearly have more impact on Syrian refugees abroad. For example, a recent report from Saudi Arabia confirmed that Syrians when their residency permits run out and they cannot work prefer to be detained in prison rather than allowing themselves be deported back to Syria.
The unselfconscious use of the language of hate that drives genocide by leading Assad regime loyalists is really chilling given the recent history of Syria. And all the more so when the prospect of countries in the region normalising Assad putting refugees at even more risk if these countries seek to force refugees to return.
However, these countries maybe in a for a surprise if they think Assad will easily accept these refugees home. The recent livestream on his Facebook account by Rifat Ali al-Assad when he said “we came with the barrel bombs. What’s a barrel bomb? It’s good. Useful for cleansing the earth of these insects.” That comment explicitly implies genocidal intent and helps not only to explain the regime’s commitment to annihilation of civilians in opposition areas but also why it pursued ethnic cleansing on such a large-scale in the first instance. The primary aim seems to be to either liquidate or remove anyone deemed in opposition to the regime. This deliberate policy can be seen in the execution of several starve or surrender sieges since 2011. The forced of the populations of these areas to Idlib at the end of these sieges also accelerated migration from Syria itself and contributed enormously to creation of the refugee crisis.
It is also important to remember that while people also feared being subjected to aerial bombardment and chemical attacks an equally important consideration at the end of these sieges was the regime’s repressive machinery and the risk of being sent to one of its notorious torture prisons or conscripted into its armed forces. Torture prisons and massacres as Prof Salwa Ismail showed in her classic study The Rule of Violence are the primary instruments of regime governance. Syrian refugees are well aware of how brutal the regime can be and that fear led many to flee in the first instance and not only to escape the merciless targeted aerial bombing by Assad and Russia.
Another example of genocidal intent was provided in a public statement by the Syrian Health Minister when he told the state-run Ikhbariya TV that there were no cases of Covid-19 in Syria as “the Syrian Arab Army purified Syria of many germs.” So if you are a refugee considering returning to Syria and you are described as a “germ” by a top regime minister at a time when Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have confirmed that returnees have been tortured, disappeared, sexually abused and killed you are unlikely to be persuaded it is safe to return to Syria?
