There have been, over nearly eight years of war in Syria, certain images that stand out from a sea of snapshots capturing the devastating toll of the conflict. The Syrian war is one of the most well-documented conflicts of recent times and it would be too easy to become inured to the scale of suffering and loss, lost in the tide of pictures. But every now and again, a moment caught on camera reminds us of the individual heartbreak triggered by a war that has claimed half a million lives.
There was, in 2014, the Caesar cache, a stash of tens of thousands of photos smuggled out of the country by a military policeman tasked with photographing the bodies of numerous victims killed in Bashar Al Assad’s dungeons. The pictures of the wounded, the tortured and the murdered were identified by family members and drove home the true tyranny of Syria’s police state.
Then there was Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who tried to escape by sea; the haunting image of his body washed ashore three years ago encapsulated the cruelty of a world turning its back on refugees and initially sparked a huge surge in donations and promises of action. And there were the white shrouds of the children of Eastern Ghouta, hundreds of whom were suffocated to death by sarin gas in one of many chemical attacks on civilians.
The atrocities have been so numerous, the civilian casualties so widespread, that it is hard not to stumble on photographs of heartrending suffering, capturing the moment when lives and dreams are shattered and destroyed.
But there is one other factor that unites the three examples above: nothing happened as a result. Despite the cache of 55,000 photos demonstrating the brutality shown to regime prisoners, Mr Al Assad has yet to be charged with war crimes. Three years on from Aylan Kurdi’s drowning, Syrian children are still making potentially lethal crossings by sea, only now they are also from Lebanon; their future looks bleaker than ever. And despite talk from the international community of red lines being crossed, little action was taken after the chemical attacks, save for tokenistic airstrikes.
To those images we can now add one more: the picture, widely circulated on social media, of the body of Raed Fares, the Syrian activist and journalist known for his work running a radio station in the town of Kafranbel and crafting humorous posters in English condemning the failure of the world to stop the bloodbath in Syria, which went viral. There he was, having survived so many close calls, finally at rest. There were more hearts broken as the flame of the Syrian revolution flickered, battered by the storm winds from a dictator on one side and a cohort of militants on the other.
Fares once said of the Syrians killed in the conflict: “We are humans, not insects.” But the most heartbreaking thing to me, as I gazed upon that last image of him, was the knowledge that, while we might have an inkling who did it, the killers, like so many in Syria, will not face justice. Whoever gave the order or fired the missiles that killed Ghouta’s children, whoever starved the residents of Madaya and Aleppo, or bombed hospitals in Idlib, or beheaded civilians in Raqqa, or shot Fares, will probably never stand in a court of law.
As the regime of Mr Al Assad reclaimed vast swathes of Syria this year, land once filled with rebels in the early years of the conflict was back within his grasp. After surrendering, those rebels faced two choices – live in exile in Idlib, which will eventually suffer the same fate as other provinces, or stay and be “reconciled” with the government.
Tens of thousands chose not to abandon their homes and stayed in Ghouta and Daraa. Little is known of how they fare – how many have been detained and disappeared, or drafted into Mr Al Assad’s military, or simply left to live their lives.
Those areas have become black holes of information and networks of activists who once fed evidence of atrocities to UN investigators have steadily vanished with the advancing troops.
Rather than be held accountable for the violence, or face demands for scrutiny by the international community, Mr Al Assad will flex his ability to force a military solution on his foes. Nobody will therefore be answerable for the inhumane sieges in which children were starved to death or families were forced to live on cooked leaves and spiced water.
It is this profound impunity of the Assad regime and its backers that allowed it earlier this year to begin disclosing the deaths of thousands of arbitrarily detained individuals, who were arrested by the government’s security services between 2011 and 2014. The government began updating the civil registry entries of civilians whose cause of death was noted as “heart attack” or “heatstroke” while in detention. The UN’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria estimates that tens of thousands of people above the age of 15 have been randomly detained and disappeared by the regime in a systematic campaign to terrorise its own people.
Last week, the commission called on the Syrian regime to disclose the fates of detainees nationwide, saying there would be no peace in Syria without justice for the victims and their families. This is unlikely to give Mr Al Assad sleepless nights. The regime had so few qualms about its summary killing of detainees that it barely disguised their deaths with mass-produced medical certificates, caring little that by doing so it was tacitly acknowledging what really happened to those prisoners.
Fares once said: “Revolution is an idea and weapons cannot kill an idea.” Perhaps. But if you kill all hope of justice, all hope that the sacrifices made were worth it and the debts will be repaid – what then is left?
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Red Joan
Director: Trevor Nunn
Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova
Rating: 3/5 stars
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Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
Disturbing%20facts%20and%20figures
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Inside%20Out%202
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The%20National%20selections
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Company%20Profile
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
What's%20in%20my%20pazhamkootan%3F
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UAE squad to face Ireland
Ahmed Raza (captain), Chirag Suri (vice-captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmad, Zawar Farid, CP Rizwaan, Aryan Lakra, Karthik Meiyappan, Alishan Sharafu, Basil Hameed, Kashif Daud, Adithya Shetty, Vriitya Aravind
Company%20profile
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ZAYED SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Company%20Profile
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Results:
6.30pm: Handicap (Turf) | US$175,000 2,410m | Winner: Bin Battuta, Christophe Soumillon (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer)
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (Dirt) | $100,000 | 1,400m | Winner: Al Hayette, Fabrice Veron, Ismail Mohammed
7.40pm: Handicap (T) | $145,000 | 1,000m | Winner: Faatinah, Jim Crowley, David Hayes
8.15pm: Dubawi Stakes Group 3 (D) | $200,000 | 1,200m | Winner: Raven’s Corner, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
8.50pm: Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (T) | $200,000 | 1,800m | Winner: Dream Castle, Christophe Soumillon, Saeed bin Suroor
9.25pm: Handicap (T) | $175,000 | 1,400m | Winner: Another Batt, Connor Beasley, George Scott
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
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The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Uefa Nations League
League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands
League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
League C:
Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania
League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar