Syria’s new government is trying - but it needs help

After more than a decade of vicious conflict, Syria stands on the precipice of a new chapter – one that holds both risk and promise. This month’s horrific killing of predominantly Alawites along the coastal areas – the UN reported that entire families were slaughtered – is a heartbreaking reminder of how fragile their peace is.

But it also shows us how much work needs to be done for real transformation, and how much support Syria needs.

First, the historical context of this shattered country must be understood. As a nation and as a people, Syria has experienced a collective trauma over four decades. From the very beginning, the Assad dynasty, with its Alawite roots, relied on sectarian divisions to consolidate power.

The regime was one of the world’s most savage. It exploited religious and ethnic tension to its own advantage, but also to keep a terrifying grip on the nation. Daily life for those who were not part of the privileged Assad world were punished. Crimes were carried out with impunity: enforced disappearance, torture and rape.

Syria's civil war, which began in 2011 as a hopeful demand for reform, spiralled into a cataclysmic, multi-faceted conflict with deep regional and international entanglements. Half a million people were killed, 14 million displaced. Countries do not recover from those kinds of losses easily.

Returning from my first trip to Syria since 2015 this month, I found a country crippled by economic sanctions, soaring prices and a vast collective memory of pain.

Survivors of the Assad government’s chemical attacks gave me testimonies of losing everything – entire families, but also having to lie and spin a narrative fed by the government that the rebels, not the government’s bombs, had killed their loved ones. Men emerging from prison described to me years of torture, isolation and fear. Most I spoke to were sent to hell for decades of their lives simply for belonging to the wrong prayer group at a mosque.

The Assad government’s attempts to stamp out opponents in the 1980s and 1990s ended up in the mass slaughter of civilians in Hama. The number of dead are still not known. Hotels were built over mass graves to cover up the crimes. That kind of legacy of a regime is not easily erased.

Every post-conflict story is different. Countries emerge from the shrouds of war in unique ways. But there are parallels between what is happening in Syria and the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003. In the aftermath of Saddam’s fall, there was an uprising that unfortunately led to kidnappings, car bombs and sectarian violence. Syria must avoid this kind of deadly spiral at all costs. It must do this now.

With the formation of a new government in Damascus, the country now faces an unprecedented opportunity for real change. But the government is shaky and needs help. It needs unwavering support from the international community, the same kind of support that the world offers to Ukraine. One hopes that during Monday’s Syria donor conference in Brussels there was also a discussion on how to protect all civilians, including refugees and internally displaced people seeking to return home.

Returning is difficult as cities and towns were brutalised. In parts of Homs, I saw entire streets wiped out – the buildings hit by bombs and tanks. In 2019, a study by the UN showed that more than 13,000 buildings in Homs had been destroyed.

In suburbs such as Daraya, Douma and Tadamon, government forces punished the people for rising up against them by flattening their buildings. Throughout many parts of the country, the infrastructure is shattered. Most places have no electricity or clean water; many can’t afford solar panels or generators. The price of food is insanely expensive. Traders buy petrol from Lebanon, then sell it by the side of the road in plastic bottles at jacked-up prices.

There is the important question of finding the dead. There are 150,000 people still missing. Most likely, they are in the many mass graves around Syria where bodies were casually dumped. People disappeared and were either lost in the former government’s cruel prison system or executed and buried.

Touring the suburbs of Damascus, such as Daraya, where uprisings were put down with extreme force, people are still hunting for their loved ones’ remains. Organisations such as the White Helmets – who worked throughout the war digging people out of the rubble after bombings – and the International Committee for Missing Persons – who originated in Sarajevo after the Srebrenica genocide – are already in Damascus, attempting to locate the missing.

But how to prevent sectarianism? The recent surge in Alawite killings is a heartbreaking reflection of this ongoing violence. These murders are not only an indictment of the extremism that has infected both the opposition and certain factions within the former regime, but they are also emblematic of the terrible human cost of sectarianism.

As the Alawite community struggles with its ongoing victimisation, one cannot ignore the fact that its suffering is a direct consequence of the very dynamics that the international community allowed to fester.

When then US president Barack Obama turned away from Syria in 2013 with his false “red line”, the war spiralled with new actors: ISIS and other radical groups such as Jabhat Al Nusra. We cannot make the same mistake now.

In light of these realities, it is crucial to recognise the significance of the new government. They are trying. International advisers are being brought in – many from the wide Syrian diaspora. The national dialogue, which took place in Damascus last month, was a start to draft a new constitution. Hundreds of delegates arrived in Damascus to discuss inclusion, rule of law, economic policy and human rights. But given the mixed response to the new constitution that was unveiled last week, it is still a work in progress.

Syrian civil society can play a huge role in the transformation: throughout the war, they worked tirelessly to document not just the Assad government’s crimes but also to bolster the population. These actors should be used.

For the first time in over a decade, Syria has an opportunity to emerge from the shadow of authoritarian rule, to rebuild itself from the ruins of war, and to chart a path towards stability and peace. The new government was born out of the wreckage of the civil war. But they are not just a continuation of the old regime – they are an attempt to forge a more inclusive future.

The challenges Syria faces are monumental. It is a wounded place. But this is its moment. And the international community – particularly Europe – must step in to fill the void that the US has left. They need to show a firm commitment to peace, justice and reconciliation.

What can the rest of the world do to help Syria’s transformation? Justice is imperative. We must look to the past to try to help Syria heal by ensuring that there is accountability for the vast number of the previous government’s crimes. Domestic courts can be bolstered but international justice mechanisms and tribunals can also be used.

Sanctions must be lifted, as well as diplomatic isolation. The international community can also offer economic aid, political support and assistance in security reform.

If the international community remains hesitant or – worse, punitive – it risks condemning Syria to a prolonged cycle of instability. It cannot allow the fractured political landscape to widen. It cannot risk the possibility that the people of Syria – Alawites and others – will endure the cost of international inaction.

Janine di Giovanni is also the author of two books about Syria - The Morning They Came for Us and The Vanishing