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December 20, 2024 | 08:05 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The United Nations or UN spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told a press briefing on Friday that the UN human rights office will send a small team of human rights officers to Syria next week for the first time in years following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024.
As part of the takeover, rebels have flung open prisons and government offices and raised fresh hopes for accountability for crimes committed during Syria's more than 13-year civil war.
Under Assad, the U.N. human rights team has not been allowed in Syria for years, Al-Kheetan said, and has been monitoring abuses remotely.
He said that the team would support human rights issues and help ensure that any power transition is "inclusive and within the framework of international law". "It is important for us to start establishing a presence," he said.
A U.N. investigative body also hopes to travel to Syria to secure evidence that could implicate top officials of the former government.
President Bashar al-Assad was reportedly in Moscow to attend a ceremony marking his son Hafez’s receipt of a PhD in mathematics when opposition forces launched their surprise offensive on November 27. On Friday, November 29, the day opposition forces captured Aleppo, al-Assad was on a flight back to Damascus from Moscow.
The arrangements for Assad’s escape were not finalized until the night of December 7-8. According to Al Majalla, as reported by Al-Arabiya, the former president fled Damascus to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in western Syria before heading to Moscow.
Assad’s brother, Maher, and closest aides were reportedly kept in the dark about his departure. The report cited sources from the Syrian opposition, al-Assad’s former regime, and Arab and Western officials.
By the morning of December 8, Assad had fled, taking only two individuals with him: minister of presidential affairs Mansour Azzam and Brig. Gen. Mohsen Mohammed, head of his protection unit. They escaped to Russia’s Hmeimim base in western Syria and then flew to Moscow. Assad’s wife and children were already abroad.
REUTERS
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