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James Longman Profile picture
@JamesAALongman
Dec 14 • 12 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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A thread on the most extraordinary week in Syria. 🧵

An enormous privilege to be here and see all this. A lot of sadness. But a lot of hope too

1/ Meeting Youssef on the border. He’d fled at 17. Now 29, he was going back for the first time. Couldn’t stop smiling
2/ At the morgue, surrounded by the dead, where we met a father identifying his 20 year old son. He’d been taken just 2 months ago
3/ At Saydnaya prison, where Syrians held up the bloodied ropes that had hanged their loved ones Image
4/ In the offices of the secret police, finding the files the regime kept on its own officers. Assad’s spy network was notorious. ‘Should continue monitoring, because he is acting suspiciously.’
5/ In the jail cells of Syrian intelligence, with Mohammad, who was held here 12 years ago and returned with us to explore. “I can breathe now.”
6/ At a warehouse with a multi million dollar haul of Captagon. The drug that kept Assad in power, and funded the corruption to secure his alliances with Hezbollah and Iran

Image
Image
7/ In the Assad family home. Kids drawings. Glimpses of family life
8/ At Assad’s palace, huge marbled halls and endless rooms of chandeliers and expensive furniture
8/ In the huge basement complex underneath his home, discovering memories of the Assad family’s long ties to Russia
9/ Confronting a rebel fighter when we notice an ISIS badge on his arm
10/ Above all, with the Syrians who are at last shaking with happiness at the prospect of a life without Assad.
11/ At the ancient Saydnaya monastery for Sunday mass, where Christians are wondering what the future will mean for them… And real anger about Israeli air strikes in this area

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More from @JamesAALongman

James Longman Profile picture
Apr 25, 2022
Leaving Ukraine after a long stretch, thinking about all the people we met.

THREAD
Mykola in Bucha. Three of his neighbours were murdered in front of him. One of them blown up with a grenade. He had to pick up the body parts, put them in a bag, and bury them. He showed us the three graves outside his building. He shook with the trauma of it
He is the kindest, most gentle man. He and his wife sheltered in the basement of their building for more than a month, while Russian soldiers lived in their home. He kept apologising for not digging the graves deeper. ‘They only gave me 20 minutes,’ he kept saying.
Read 13 tweets
James Longman Profile picture
Apr 24, 2022
Just spoke with Ukraine’s deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk who says the US visit today from Blinken and Lloyd will discuss the logistics of getting more military assistance in. “When you talk on the phone the emotional part of the conversation cannot be conveyed,”
She’s in charge of prisoner exchanges and says about 200 Russian soldiers have been exchanged for Ukrainian soldiers so far. Highest rank captured: lieutenant colonel. But won’t exchange those responsible for war crimes. Exchanges part of conversation in Mariupol.
She says Russia hasn’t once allowed humanitarian corridors from Mariupol, and that Moscow demands Ukrainian military surrender daily in return for allowing civilians out. She says using civilians in this is way is not how this should work.
Read 6 tweets
James Longman Profile picture
Apr 5, 2022
THREAD from Bucha.

We met Mykola. He and his wife spent a month living in the cellar of his apartment building. When the Russians arrived, they killed all the men below 50. He’s 53. He told us this shaking with the trauma of it. They gave him 20 minutes to bury his friends. Image
Three graves sit just opposite his apartment block. Each marked with a wooden plank and a religious icon attached. He wanted to give them whatever dignity he could. ‘But it’s too shallow,’ he says, almost apologetically. ‘I just wanted to protect them from the dogs.’ Image
Two of them were shot in front of him. Another had a grenade thrown at him. His body parts sat on the ground for days, until at last he was allowed to gather them, put them in a bag, and bury them. One of these graves is smaller than the others. Image
Read 9 tweets
James Longman Profile picture
Mar 23, 2022
I just spoke with Ekaterina, who escaped Mariupol with her husband, daughter and mother.

As they went to get her father who’d been in the hospital, Russian troops shot at their car. He’s still there. This is them moments after getting clear of the city, crying with relief
“I would never wish anybody feel this. You are leaving, and your family is staying and you dont know if they’re alive for that moment even… but you know you have to save the life of the youngest…”
“The moment we drove out - I cried for two hours in relief.. We are in a safe place. But when i saw that outside Mariupol that life exists? That people are going outside, shops are open…i feel guilty, because im here and all the citizens are there. It’s a very bad feeling”
Read 11 tweets
James Longman Profile picture
Mar 10, 2022
Seems to me fundamental question of this crisis: is Ukraine enough of a prize for Russia to pivot away from the west, and completely into China’s orbit? Is now the time Putin has chosen to say: ‘that’s it. We’re done. We are fully into a new world order with Beijing.’ 🧵
China can fill the gap western companies leave behind. No more Mercedes? That’s ok we’ll have the Chinese equivalent. And we’ll set up businesses that buy the parts we need for stuff we can’t get. No more Apple Pay? Fine, China has Union Pay. We’ll use that. The list goes on.
But this doesn’t affect many. More serious issue: energy. Will China be enough of a market for Russian oil to make up the losses? Is it even the right kind of oil? Gas infrastructure is pointed towards Europe. Will take time to reorientate and will be huge costs incurred.
Read 7 tweets
James Longman Profile picture
Jul 18, 2021
A thread on all the stuff that’s not going very well so far at the Olympics:

1/ Positive cases and contact tracing are taking down athletes. Coco Gauff out of the tennis, two South African footballers also positive as well as the SA sevens rugby coach
2/ Russian men’s quadruple sculls have pulled out because they don’t have good enough reserves. A group of British gymnasts are isolating after a case on their flight
3/ USA Basketball has been hit by covid measures - Bradley Beal is out of the games and other players have also been affected.
Read 7 tweets

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