Syria’s new leaders have taken steps to steer the country away from dictatorship, with plans to overhaul the prison and security systems that were central to the rule by fear under the old Assad regime.
But their handling of waves of sectarian violence, their lack of inclusivity and the concentration of power in the hands of a few have raised concerns that their evolving style of governance remains rooted in authoritarianism.
For more than five decades under the Assad family, Syria was a security state ruled by terror, where the prison system stood as a grim instrument and symbol of intimidation. Torture and executions were rife in prisons that were used to detain and disappear tens of thousands of people, and keep the population under oppressive control.
In May, the Interior Ministry announced that it would overhaul the security and prison systems, with the goal of upholding human rights and preserving the dignity of inmates. This could entail building entirely new prisons or renovating existing ones to meet humane standards, the ministry said.
The “tyranny of security forces” is over, Nour al-Din al-Baba, an Interior Ministry spokesman, told The New York Times.
Still, there are a number of signs that those who ousted President Bashar al-Assad last December have not completely abandoned the old ways.
The new president, Ahmed al-Shara, an Islamist former rebel leader, has governed by keeping power concentrated in his hands and those of a small group of loyalists, including his brothers.
“Structurally it’s still very much a strong presidential system similar to Assad,” said Mona Yacoubian, the director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There is resistance to decentralizing power” and allowing various communities to have a say in governance, she added, even though that is essential for Syria given the country’s diverse array of religious and ethnic minorities.
Lara Nelson, the policy director at ETANA Syria, a research organization, said there are “worrying signs of continuity.”
That said, the differences between the past and current governments are substantial, experts said. Human rights groups have welcomed efforts to overhaul Syria’s police state style of governance, though they say it is too early to fully assess the success.
When the Interior Ministry announced changes to the security branches in May, it said it would create government offices to receive complaints and maintain accountability. That idea is a far cry from the Assad days, when Syrians feared even going near security buildings.
“These are important moves,” Ms. Yacoubian which suggest Syria’s leaders are determined not to go back down the same path as the previous government. “And that is encouraging.”
The choosing of a new parliament, planned for later this month, was initially welcomed as a step toward a more democratic system. It has instead become a point of contention.
Of the 210 seats, a third will be directly appointed by the president. The remaining parliamentarians will be selected through local electoral bodies formed by the government, with a fifth of all seats are reserved for women.
And last week, the elections commission indefinitely postponed voting in three provinces where the government does not have control, instead appointing candidates to represent the areas, according to state media. It was a stark reminder of the challenges that Mr. al-Shara faces in uniting a country fractured by nearly 14 years of civil war.
A Kurdish-led autonomous government that still controls much of northeast Syria had been in negotiations with the central government in Damascus to unify and integrate into the national political and military structures. Those negotiations have now stalled.
The Kurdish leadership criticized the elections as “an attempt to reproduce the exclusionary policies that have governed Syria for decades,” and said they do not reflect the will of the people.
The lack of inclusivity in decision-making has led to a distrust of the government among minority communities such as Christians, Alawites, Druse and Kurds, posing what is perhaps the biggest challenge to unifying the country. Members of minority groups appointed to government positions have been dismissed by some experts as tokens.
“The most concerning for me is not being inclusive or open to those with different political affiliations,” said Dima Moussa, a lawyer and opposition activist during the Assad regime.
The chasm has been underscored by three waves of bloody sectarian violence in the past six months involving government forces or their supporters. In the latest outburst, hundreds of people were killed in July in the southern province of Sweida after clashes erupted between armed Bedouin tribes and the Druse religious minority.
Human rights groups said that in all three outbreaks, forces affiliated with the government were implicated in extrajudicial killings and other violence, motivated by revenge or sectarianism.
The government condemned the killings by its forces, which it said were acting outside the law, and launched investigations.
“The country remains deeply fragile and the transition remains on a knife-edge,” the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told the U.N. Security Council recently.
“Syrians need to feel that this transition is not a series of ad hoc arrangements and isolated institutions, but a clear and comprehensive path, based on inclusion and transparency,” he said. Without credible reforms and stronger government institutions, Syria risked squandering critical international support, he added.
Revenge-fueled and sectarian violence has undermined what government officials have said are their priorities: establishing security and stability, promoting domestic peace and uniting a the country.
The true test will be in the implementation of the planned overhauls and discipline of security forces, Ms. Yaboubian said.
“There is still a lot of room for improvement,” said Ms. Moussa, now a women’s rights activist. “And we think at this point, it should be further along than where it is in terms of achievements, particularly on issues like the economy and security, as well as restructuring of the armed forces.”
Mr. al-Shara’s government does include some ministers with professional experience from the Syrian diaspora, as well as members of minority groups and one woman. That went some way toward his stated commitment to an inclusive administration.
But he appointed close allies to the most powerful ministries such as defense, foreign affairs and interior, relying on a small circle of loyalists who were with him during the years when he led the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
The interior minister, Anas Khattab, oversaw internal security for the rebel group, which was once affiliated with Al Qaeda. He now oversees the rebuilding and organization of security and police forces.
After the rebels swept into power, they dismissed all police and security officers, who were seen as tools of Mr. al-Assad’s oppressive regime. Some of the police have since been allowed to return to their jobs, while thousands of new officers have been recruited over the past nine months, going through a fast-track training regimen with the aim of getting them on the streets quickly.
The foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, has also been with Mr. al-Shara for years and previously handled external relations for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or H.T.S. His role now extends far beyond Syria’s foreign relations and is akin to that of prime minister, with many other ministers reporting to him, according to foreign officials who interact with the government
“What we have seen is only the symbolic inclusion of some token ministers and they haven’t been given any power,” said Ms. Nelson, the ETANA policy director. “H.T.S. still holds the main levers of power across government.”
Ben Hubbard and Reham Mourshed contributed reporting.
Raja Abdulrahim reports on the Middle East and is based in Jerusalem.
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