Civil Matanzas freeze Syria’s approach to the West

The episode, dramatic colophon of revenge and prey at the end of more than 13 years of civil war, moves away the possibilities that the new Al Sharaa regime wins respectability in the world, despite the efforts of the new leader to present himself as a moderate Islamist and even advocate for a democratic system “here to four years.”

The protests over the massacre have been clamorous by the US, and warm in the European continent, which wants to believe in the possibility of re -establishing ties with Syria (and returning refugees).

While testimonies of the Matanzas of Civilians perpetrated in western Syria continue last weekend, the new regime established in Damascus makes a first “damage assessment.” On the internal front, the slaughter of around a thousand Shiite civilians – in some cases whole families – is one more step towards the sectarian division of the country, and its reality of Failed state. In the diplomatic front, the massacre throws the attempts of these months by the interim president, Ahmed al Sharaa, of presenting the world for ‘the new Syria’ to the world.

From the unexpected flight to Moscow of the family of the Assad and the triumphal entry in the Damascus of the Sunni Islamist rebels of Al Sharaa, the danger of a revenge against the Chií minority – to which the previous family of dictators belonged – was an open secret. Chiíes (Alauíes) constitute 10% of the Syrian population. There is also an important Christian minority, a Drusa minority and a Kurdish minority, which although it professes Islam belongs to an ethnic group that above all seeks autonomy.

The cruelty of political repression against dissent In the Al Assad era, the civil war broke out, in 2011. All international institutions have reports that relate tens of thousands of cases of arbitrary detention, disappearances, torture and murders in the prisons of Bashar al Assad. In the imaginary of the Sunni majority, the torture is linked to the Shiite authorities of the time.

No police control

The Matanzas de Civililes held last Friday and Saturday in at least thirty localities of the West Syria used as a pretext the armed clashes of the security forces of Al Sharaa against Alauí rebels linked to the previous regime. According to the testimonies of survivors, much of the militiamen who carried them out were foreigners. In addition to revenge against the Chií minority they were looking for loot.

One of the first measures adopted by Al Sharaa by taking power in Damascus was to expel all the police, to create their own security forces both police and military. The result is that, today, Street control is at the arbitration of armed bands that in his day joined Al Sharaa.

Last week’s killings are linked to that lack of lack of control – in fact, La Paz returned to many places with the arrival of regular soldiers from Al Sharaa – and with the problem posed by the thousands of foreign jihadists, many of them mercenaries united to war in Syria after having fought in other countries of the region. They are Uzbekos, Chechens, Turks, Jordanos, Chinese Uygures. Al Sharaa wants to integrate them into the new Syrian army – he appointed six foreigners among the 50 maximum positions of the new security forces – but the task of controlling them will not be easy. Many are imbued with Yijad’s eagerness (Santa Guerra) and care about the ‘democratic’ promises of his boss in his statements to the international press.