I agree with a report from the October 2016 Damascus University Workshop that
the way to end the conflict in Syria will also require an appreciation of the reasons and origins of the crisis and include correctly recognizing the factors that will prompt the non-Syrians combatants and foreign political interests to end the conflict. Once that has been realized, the Syrian people will have the opportunity--and, I trust, the ability--to implement a political process and pursue reconciliation efforts on a larger scale.
Looking forward into the future, the political process and reconciliation efforts will have to incorporate plans for greater regime openness and more balanced non-sectarian broader development. Moreover, the general atmosphere of secrecy and lack of information that prevailed before the conflict will also have to be substantially dismantled. Many of these popular and legitimate concerns were in the process of being met by the Bashar Assad government when they were interrupted by the March 2011 hostilities, which to the dismay of most of us have continued until today. Government efforts to address them must be revived.
To its credit, the Syrian government continues to seek the implementation of President Al-Assad's 2013 set of good governance initiatives. It envisages a broader and more representative national unity government that will supplement members of the current government with opposition figures, independents and broad based citizen involvement particularly on the local levels of the 14 governorates. The new government would then oversee constitutional reform followed by a referendum and then elections. As the excellent 2016 Workshop heard from attendees, Syria is not obliged to adopt a Western-style democracy but rather one based on its own culture and history.
What I have been told many times by Syrians themselves--students, officials, lawyers, academics and many members of the general public--is that perceived and real injustices must be addressed to assure that the Syrian population supports the settlement. As those of us who have spent a fair bit of time in Syria know well, the Syrian people, including those who had to flee Syria as refugees, are numbed, exhausted, disdainful of politics and want to return to Syria and to their homes and begin rebuilding their shattered lives.
Just last week a student at Damascus University advised me, with respect to the immediate future of the Syrian people: " Our main focus should be to keep encouraging the unique spirit of the Syrian people: to be there for each other; to stick together -- to get us, the Syrian people, on the long road to healing."
It may well be the case that a stable political settlement will have to include some type of amnesty and an accountability process, possibly drawing from precedents such as South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) or the gacaca (people's courts) of Rwanda, that allow the Syrian people some restorative justice. In other settings, civilians who were victims of gross human rights violations have given local public statements, including before the growing number of local Syrian "Reconciliation Committees" about their experiences and some have addressed national hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and perhaps obtain amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution. Although a painful process for many people to contemplate, such measures can sometimes go far in healing even the deepest grievances if they draw on local cultural ideas about justice and fairness.
I would add that it is essential that the government of Syria to take full control of its own affairs. That means complete Syrian control of all post war construction, from restoring our shared global cultural heritage that has suffered much damage to fixing the damage to public infrastructure. Billions are expected to be contributed from abroad, but it is vital that Syria not cede any sovereignty to foreign powers. Syria's national territory is the birthright of the Syrian people and this fact must not be negotiable.
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