Views on Transitional Justice in Rural Homs
Translation and commentary of Yasmine Merei's post on Wadi Nasara
Vigilante violence in Syria is on the rise, a direct result of the continued failure by the new government to establish a robust transitional justice process. Cathrin Schaer’s recent piece on the topic for DW cites the role the government’s opaque amnesty policy has played in fueling some Syrians’ turn towards violent justice. Damascus’ oft-stated approach of targeting “only those with blood on their hands” has left hundreds of thousands of regime soldiers, militiamen, and collaborators free, their individual crimes across 14 years of war unaccounted for.
The most difficult aspect of a balanced transitional justice approach is how to address the hyper-local, community-driven crimes with underlying sectarian motivations. These were particularly prominent in Homs city and its countryside where Sunni opposition towns were isolated among Christian, Shia and Alawi towns. The regime leveraged some from these minority populations to besiege, starve, indiscriminately kill, and ultimately ethnically cleanse Sunni communities. Now those displaced survivors have returned and found that the same towns from which the regime militias operated out of remain untouched and their men free.
The recent killing of two Christian men in the western Homs region of Wadi Nasara sparked new public debate on the issue of accountability in this region. While Syria’s Christians largely stayed out of the war, one prominent Christian militia had been formed in Wadi Nasara which participated in the attacks against, and expulsion of, the Sunni residents from nearby Qalaat Hosn in 2014. The two killed men, it turned out, had been members of this militia.
In response to the violence, the first of its kind in this area, a prominent activist from Qalaat Hosn has attempted to chart a path towards local reconciliation. In an October 13 post on her Facebook page, Yasmine Merei bluntly explains what she sees as the main factors impeding reconciliation and the first basic steps needed to begin this process. The post in full is translated below, but a few key points are worth highlighting.
Mrs. Merei explains that the lack of awareness of crimes and acceptance of victims’ innocence has continued to stall any form of genuine dialogue between Hosn and Wadi Nasara. (This problem is extremely pervasive among the Alawi community as well, and has been a core complaint of every Sunni I have met in coast since my first visit in December). A key part of Mrs. Merei’s advocacy in this post is to find ways to educate non-Sunni communities about the reality of the suffering they faced - combating ignorance with education in order to spur new dialogue - and having communities from which regime militias emerged publicly mourn the victims and condemn the perpetrators.
Mrs. Merei’s post was shared by the Facebook page for the Qalaat Hosn Local Council, which added the following important commentary:
“An initiative by activist Yasmine Merei, which we hope will find a receptive audience among the wise people of al-Wadi [Wadi Nasara]. Any reciprocal visits that focus on pleasantries and fail to call things by their names will not heal deep wounds. The people of Qalaat al-Hosn were displaced, killed, and arrested by the thousands. Their homes were destroyed, and they lost 14 years of stability, construction, and development.
The people of al-Hosn have the right to hold the valley responsible for a large part of their wounds and pain, as it was from al-Wadi that al-Hosn was shelled, and dozens, even hundreds, of innocent people from al-Hosn were killed and arrested at checkpoints guarded by al-Wadi’s own people.
Transparency, accountability, and justice are what build a promising future.
The first step is a serious investigation and confessions to uncover the fate of the detainees from the monastery and the St. George Hotel, and to reveal their mass graves, which remain unknown.”
As for Mrs. Merei’s post:
“Since last February, I have been in daily and intensive contact with the issue of missing civilians from Qalaat al-Hosn between 2012 and 2014, focusing specifically on the women and children who disappeared in March 2014.
Despite the bitterness of this work, and despite my connection to Qalaat al-Hosn with all its calamities and enormous civilian losses, under circumstances that were, to say the least, extremely difficult, I proposed an initiative in August and sent it to a group of official and influential figures in Homs and the Wadi. I will not name any of them in this post so as not to cause any embarrassment, but everyone knows who they are.
During these months, what struck me most during the interviews, meetings, and discussions was the lack of awareness among the majority of the Wadi residents regarding the nature and extent of the civilian casualties in Qalaat al-Hosn. The prevailing sentiment among many was that the residents of Qalaat al-Hosn posed a genuine threat to their existence and religious identity—a sentiment I regret, but this is not the place for regret or expressing personal feelings.
In good faith, I have included in this post a portion of lists compiled by media activist Khaled al-Hosni. These lists include the names of his mother and five sisters who were martyred. I have excluded from these lists the martyrs of Qalaat al-Hosn who were arrested by the Assad regime and died in detention, as well as the “martyrs of the Free Syrian Army.” I have included only civilians who died from sniper fire by the National Defense Forces, shelling, the siege and its resulting shortages of medicine, food poisoning from contaminated bread that entered Qalaat al-Hosn after months of shortages, or who disappeared at various times while attempting to leave the besieged Qalaat al-Hosn and regularize their status.
I am publishing these lists because I do not subscribe to the “Go, you are free” mentality, but rather to the principle of justice for every Syrian civilian. Furthermore, I have decided to believe that many in the valley are unaware of this, so I said to myself: Perhaps those who don’t know will learn! The lists include the names of:
92 civilians were killed by shelling (artillery fire by the National Defense Forces).
7 died during the siege from poisoning or lack of medicine.
65 were killed by snipers while trying to gather food (wild herbs, or what we call “saliq” in the local dialect) or to cross checkpoints to surrender.
174 people are missing at the checkpoints surrounding Al-Mushtaya, Ammar, and Anaz. The youngest was four months old; I will not name her in this post out of respect for her father’s feelings.
To my family in Qalaat al-Hosn: I do not claim that these lists are final or that they include the names of all the victims, so please excuse any shortcomings.
I am placing here the text of the initiative, noting that when I wrote it, I focused solely on the missing persons from Qalaat al-Hosn who crossed the al-Mushtaya checkpoint and disappeared after being detained at the St. George Hotel. Today, I am also considering the civilian victims from the valley during that period, and I demand justice for them with the same fervor I demand for justice for the people of Qalaat al-Hosn. Certainly, this initiative is not the ideal solution, but it can serve as a foundation, or one from which we can build, to reach a point of reconciliation.
An initiative proposed by journalist Yasmine Merei for reconciliation and civil peace in Wadi al-Nasara:
Since the end of last year, Syria has been moving towards a new phase in which Syrians, both leaders and citizens, aspire to a free, safe, and dignified future for all its people, a future in which they overcome their wounds and contribute to building the country and the state.
Between 2012 and 2014, the Wadi al-Nasara region in the western Homs countryside witnessed a harsh period, during which the city of Qalaat al-Hosn was subjected to violations and a siege by an armed group from some neighboring villages in al-Wadi. The Assad regime used this group to pressure the city’s residents who had rebelled against it. Certainly, this group does not represent all the people of the valley, many of whom are known for their patriotism, nobility, and rejection of injustice in all its forms. They and the region are also known for a high level of coexistence and respect. However, the incident of the detention and subsequent disappearance of dozens of Qalaat al-Hosn residents at the St. George Hotel in March 2014 by the “Lions of the Valley” group remains an open wound for the people of Qalaat al-Hosn.
Therefore, based on what we know of the nobility of the people of the region, given their commitment to coexistence with dignity and respect, and based on the desire of the residents of Qalaat al-Hosn to stand firmly behind the state with unwavering support, we propose the following actions as a genuine and lasting initiative for the region, and as a model for how residents of sectarian areas in Syria should respond when one group commits violations against another. All of this is within the context of protecting Syrian diversity and building genuine spaces for civil peace:
A statement issued by the elders of the valley expressing their appreciation for the feelings and losses of the residents of Qalaat al-Hosn, unequivocally condemning those responsible, demanding accountability for their leaders, and expressing the residents’ mutual support.
A group visit to the families of the missing in Qalaat al-Hosn, including prominent figures from the valley and official representatives.
A vigil held by the valley’s residents, displaying banners bearing the names of those missing from the St. George Hotel.
A candlelight vigil in the courtyard of St. George’s Monastery in memory of the victims.
Erecting a monument bearing the names of the missing at the hotel site.
Any proposal for financial compensation must be channeled through a donation fund for reparations, managed by an elected body.
No donations should be considered “blood money” or compensation for bloodshed.
This initiative can achieve reconciliation and serve as a model for other areas in Syria that have experienced similar circumstances. — Very important note: The last clause of the initiative was written to contain cheap offers from some former National Defense leaders who tried to reach financial settlements with some of the victims’ families.
By the way, there was a time when not a single person from the original inhabitants remained in the Qalaat al-Hosn. The houses were looted and burned, and even today, the majority of the houses are uninhabitable, and less than a third of the original inhabitants have returned.”
Mrs. Merei provides screenshots of the database she and Khaled al-Hosni have built containing the names of the aforementioned 338 murdered civilians from Hosn, as well as a second database they are building containing the dates of detention or death and additional details.