500,000 killed. 1.6 million internally displaced. Millions starving, cold, poverty- and war-stricken. The Syrian-American Council and Americans for a Free Syria are pushing for the end to the war. I don’t know how the US can provide stability to the region, or if US intervention will lead to another Iraqi situation, where there is barely a government to speak of, and people are just as badly off before Hussein’s toppling. Maybe a Syria free of Assad would be best, maybe it wouldn’t.
But, the organizations above are calling for a “remembrance to the ten years of hope, loss, and bravery that have characterized the Syrian Revolution.”
They also are reiterating guiding principles to a free and safe and stable Syria:
- Political independence
- Constitutional declaration
- Fully-fledged transitional governing body based on the Geneva Communique 1 (2013) and on UN Security Council Resolution 2254
- Foundational conference
- Constitution
- Elections
- Achieving Transitional Justice
- Security Independence,
- Removing all foreign powers and militias
- Rebuilding the foundations of military and security institutions
- Peacekeeping forces that respect human rights
- A military under civilian authority
- Economic Independence,
- Linking economic recovery measures to a real political transition
- Lifting international economic sanctions on Syria as soon as the transitional governing body is established.
- Releasing the frozen assets of the Syrian state around the world and assistance in returning looted Syrian assets deposited abroad and placing these assets under the management of a transitional national government.
- Tying reconstruction to the creation of the first national transitional government.
- Linking economic recovery measures to a real political transition
- and the voluntary, safe, and dignified return of refugees.
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