Al-Assad’s Soldiers Hope for Amnesty. First, They Have to Take a Number. Al-Assad’s Soldiers Hope for Amnesty. First, They Have to Take a Number.
The New York Times
Syria’s new rulers say they will spare conscripts of Bashar al-Assad and pursue those who oversaw his regime’s abuses. Hundreds are lining up to learn which promise applies to them.
Hundreds of soldiers and police officers converged this week on a former security compound in the western Syrian city of Latakia, heeding the call of the country’s new rulers to relinquish their ties to the ousted regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
During its decades-long rule, the Assad government built a brutal security apparatus, detaining, torturing and executing opponents. Last week, the rebel coalition that overthrew him said it would hunt down senior officials implicated in crimes, while rank-and-file conscripted soldiers would receive amnesty.
More than 600 people came when the so-called reconciliation center first opened on Sunday in Latakia, in a province that has been an Assad stronghold. Many more followed on Monday, the line extending the length of the large security compound.
They hoped to clear their names and settle their status, though the centers are just the starting point and the full process to do so remains unclear.
Online and on television, the Syrian transitional government, led by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, called for former soldiers, military officers and even medical workers in the military to hand over their IDs, weapons and vehicles.
