Assad’s security forces lay down their weapons in search of forgiveness

The advent of the new Syria has not ended the queues at bakeries or bus stops. But other lines have appeared in an unprecedented place: at police stations and other security forces buildings, once feared as centers of brutal torture. Now, these buildings are occupied by fighters from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the militia that led the lightning offensive that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad a couple of weeks ago, and milling around their doors are policemen, soldiers, and army officers who served under the old regime and are now seeking some kind of amnesty.

Just days after their triumphant entry into Damascus, officials of the new interim government appointed by HTS issued a call on social media and television to all former members of the armed forces, including medical workers, to hand over their IDs, weapons, and vehicles. Registration centers are spread across the country and in former regime strongholds such as the city of Latakia hundreds of people have been seen in recent days trying to regularize their status.

In the busiest centers, soldiers have to wait for hours to get a number. Once inside the premises, the process is always the same. First, a police officer from the new government registers each person’s name and, after having taken a photo of them in front of a white wall, creates a new identification card for them. Then, they go to another room where they must hand over their weapon. In some photographs from these centers, published by the national press and news agencies, dozens of pistols and Kalashnikovs can be seen piled up. To top it off, and to symbolize their renunciation of their past in the service of Assad, the candidates must step on a portrait of the dictator.

This is one of the first measures aimed at stockpiling the tens of thousands of small arms circulating after nearly 14 years of civil war, in order to pacify the country. For now, the first to get rid of them are members of the army, which has been formally dissolved. Then it will be the turn of the constellation of opposition militias that fought Assad. On Tuesday, at a meeting sponsored by HTS, more than a dozen opposition militias agreed to disband and join the new army.

“We will not allow weapons to remain in the country outside the control of the state, whether by revolutionary factions or by those present in the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] area,” said Ahmed al-Shara, the leader of HTS — known until recently by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammad al-Julani — last Sunday at a press conference following the visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. This trip, the first by a foreign minister since the fall of Assad on December 8, has highlighted Ankara’s influence in the new Syria thanks to its years of support for opposition militias based in the north of the country.

Handing over weapons to the new authorities does not guarantee amnesty as this can only be granted after an investigation to verify that the former agent or soldier did not commit war crimes. If this is the case, in principle, he could even be reinstated in his former position.

For the time being, all those registered are urged to return to the same premises after two or three months to learn their future. “If we want to achieve social peace, there must be justice, and there will not be any without responsibilities being established. Those who have blood on their hands will not be granted amnesty,” said Obeida Arnaut, a spokesman for the new government.

While most of those who have signed up for the reconciliation process are low-ranking soldiers, there are also some members of the former military leadership, such as Talal Makhlouf, a general in the Republican Guard who is accused of having cracked down extremely harshly on numerous peaceful protests in 2011. For this reason, Makhlouf, a member of the family of Bashar al-Assad’s mother, is on the list of regime officials sanctioned by the European Union, among other countries.

The fact that Makhlouf was able to register his request for amnesty without being arrested has sparked a huge controversy among activists and relatives of the victims of a conflict that claimed the lives of more than half a million people. In addition, there are still more than 100,000 people missing who are feared to have died in the atrocious prisons of the former regime, so the number could rise considerably.

“What happened with Makhlouf is worrying for all those who want a transitional justice process. Makhlouf is a person known to all Syrians, who know that he participated in torture and the bombing of cities,” Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, warned on Al Arabiya television.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition