For the first time, Congress has passed sanctions not only on Syrian security officials but on companies doing business w/the government, until there is accountability for industrial-scale state torture and other war crimes. Some background in this thread:
Our investigation into the vast system of torture prisons that Bashar al-Assad used to suppress the uprising in Syria, especially civilian dissent: nytimes.com/2019/05/11/wor…
Violations against children in Syria's detention centers:
ldhrights.org/en/?p=6421
ldhrights.org/en/?p=6421
.@deborahamos of @NPR on survivor @omarAlshogre, who like the defector using the name Caesar who smuggled out thousands of photos of tortured corpses, has been pushing for accountability. npr.org/2019/09/24/763…
All this work built on the efforts of Diab Sirriyeh, Mazen Darwish, Anwar al-Bunni and other survivors of the detention system who documented their experiences and those of others.
admsp.org/sednaya-prison…
admsp.org/sednaya-prison…
Whether sanctions is the right approach will always be up for debate. Other efforts ongoing by @ECCHRBerlin's team of Syrian & international lawyers seeking to bring war criminals to trial in many European countries; UN's IIIM, CIJA, @SJAC_info & many Syrian & int'l org's.
@ECCHRBerlin @SJAC_info .@nytimes story on the passage of the Caesar bill:
nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/…
nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/…
.@theintercept on the Caesar bill: theintercept.com/2019/01/25/syr…
@theintercept Key debates re:harm/benefit of Caesar sanctions: Sanctions=blunt instruments. Accountability advocates have few choices. Economy captured by rent-seeking officials/warlords & much reconstruction would be too + fuel punitive displacement/ property seizure.
@theintercept Caesar act passed as part of #NDAA, broad military spending authorization that includes much for advocates of civilians to condemn, like continued support for Saudi war in Yemen. But, it also includes this:
@theintercept Meanwhile back in Syria:
@theintercept Here's Sen. French Hill reading our @nytimes piece on Assad's sprawling network of torture prisons into the Congressional record, and citing Caesar's defection from Syria with photo evidence of the atrocities, as he pushed for the bill that just passed.
@theintercept @nytimes Great analysis/questions on Caesar bill sanctioning Syria's government over war crimes in this thread from @deborahamos, with her @npr story.
@theintercept @nytimes @deborahamos @NPR The other side of the argument re: Caesar sanctions made by @ryanmofarrell earlier in this thread:
