clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

HRW: West should be in the ‘driver’s seat’ during reconstruction of Syria

June 28, 2019 at 2:39 pm

Damaged buildings are seen after the Assad Regime carried out an air strike in Syria on 7 April 2018 [Mouneb Taim / Anadolu Agency]

Western countries and donors must ensure that any money, humanitarian aid, or assistance sent to Syria in order to help reconstruct the war-torn country is not used by President Bashar Al-Assad to maintain his regime’s repression and corruption, Human Rights Watch said today.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of HRW, told Reuters: “This is an important moment…because it is a moment when the Syria government is also begging the West for billions [of dollars] of new funds for reconstruction aid.”

Roth asserted that the Syrian government has proven to be “a master of manipulation when it comes to aid,” and urged that “anybody proposing to provide humanitarian or reconstruction assistance in Syria has the responsibility to do basic due diligence to ensure that their funds are going to those in greatest need, that they are not underwriting ongoing repression, that they are not padding the bank accounts of government officials and cronies.”

He pinpointed Western donors and countries in particular, stating that as Syria’s main allies Russia and Iran are economically limited in their capabilities, he does not “see other big sources of funds. They are going to be Western funds which gives the Western donors some leverage which we hope that they will exercise.”

READ: EU ‘deeply concerned’ on Syrian regime attacks in Idlib

Throughout the eight-year conflict in Syria, the Syrian regime has maintained a tight hold of what and who comes in and out of its territories, and has consistently restricted foreign aid and diverted it away from civilians in opposition-held areas and towards loyalists and government-held areas instead. This siege-like tactic of encircle, starve, surrender and evacuate has led to the starvation of countless civilians in previous opposition-held strongholds.

After Al-Assad recaptured most of Syrian territory over the past two years and the opposition groups have been cornered into border provinces such as Idlib, the reconstruction of Syria has been a topic that has been discussed among regional states as well as Western countries. In August last year, the United Nations (UN) estimated the total cost of reconstruction to be $388 billion, and in March this year it raised $7 billion to contribute towards the effort.

READ: Syria and Russia air strike kills 10 civilians in northwest Syria