The Japan Times - G7 to meet on Syria, government pledges 'rule of law'

Assad fled Syria after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies, which brought a sudden end to five decades of repressive rule by his clan.

The collapse of Assad's administration closes an era in which suspected dissidents were jailed or killed, and caps nearly 14 years of war that killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.

It has allowed Syrians to flood to prisons, hospitals and morgues in search of long-disappeared loved ones, hoping for a miracle, or at least closure.

"I turned the world upside down looking," Abu Mohammed told AFP as he searched for news of three missing relatives at the Mezzeh Air Base in Damascus.

"But I didn't find anything at all. We just want a hint of where they were, one percent."

Sunni Muslim HTS is rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda and designated a terrorist organisation by many Western governments, who now face the challenge of how to approach the country's new transitional leadership.

The group has sought to moderate its rhetoric, and the interim government insists the rights of all Syrians will be protected.

"We respect religious and cultural diversity in Syria," government spokesman Obaida Arnaout told AFP on Thursday.

He said the country's constitution and parliament would be suspended during a three-month transition.

"A judicial and human rights committee will be established to examine the constitution and then introduce amendments," he said, pledging that "rule of law" would be instituted.

"All those who committed crimes against the Syrian people will be judged in accordance with the law," he added.

- Desperate searches -

Leaders of the Group of Seven democratic powers, who will meet virtually at 1430 GMT Friday, said they were ready to support the transition to an "inclusive and non-sectarian" government in Syria.

They called for the protection of human rights, including those of women and minorities, while emphasising "the importance of holding the Assad regime accountable for its crimes".

And they said they would "work with and fully support" a Syrian government that respected those principles.

In similar messaging, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to Turkey, urged Syrian actors to take "all feasible steps to protect civilians, including members of minority groups", State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Inside much of Syria, the focus for now is on unravelling the secrets of Assad's rule, and particularly the network of detention centres and suspected torture sites scattered across areas previously under government control.

UN investigators said they have compiled secret lists of 4,000 perpetrators of serious crimes in Syria since the early days of the country's civil war.

And the US Justice Department on Thursday charged the former head of Damascus Central Prison, Samir Ousman Alsheikh, with torturing opponents of Assad.

Syria's leadership said it is willing to cooperate with Washington in the search for US citizens disappeared under Assad, including US journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in 2012.

Another American, Travis Timmerman, has already been located alive and Blinken said Washington was working to bring him home.

The search for other missing detainees has ended more painfully, with hundreds of Syrians gathering Thursday to bury outspoken activist Mazen al-Hamada.

In exile in the Netherlands, he publicly testified on the torture he was subjected to in Syrian prison.

He later returned to Syria and was detained. His body was among more than 30 found in a Damascus hospital morgue this week.

- Kurdish fears -

Assad was propped up by Russia -- where a senior Russian official told US media he has fled -- as well as Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.

The rebels launched their offensive on November 27, the same day a ceasefire took effect in the Israel-Hezbollah war, which saw Israel inflict staggering losses on Assad's Lebanese ally.

Both Israel and Turkey, which backs some of the rebels who ousted Assad, have since carried out strikes inside Syria.

Speaking on Thursday in Jordan, Blinken stressed the importance of "not sparking any additional conflicts" after mentioning both Israeli and Turkish military activity in Syria.

Washington hopes to ensure that Syria is not "used as a base for terrorism" and does not pose "a threat to its neighbours", added Blinken, whose country has hundreds of troops in Syria as part of a coalition against Islamic State group jihadists.

Israel on Sunday said it had ordered troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone that separates Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, in a move the UN said violated a 1974 armistice.

And it has since carried out heavy strikes particularly targeting military facilities, including on Thursday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

Assad's ouster has also given Turkey a golden opportunity to move against US-allied Kurdish forces that it sees as a major security threat, analysts say.

As the Islamist-led rebels marched on Damascus, Turkish-backed fighters began pushing into Kurdish-held areas. The fighting left at least 218 dead before a US-brokered ceasefire started Wednesday.

The semi-autonomous Kurdish administration that controls much of northeast Syria has adopted the opposition's independence flag, but some Kurdish civilians acknowledged fears for the future of the country.

"We, the Kurds, as the second-largest ethnic group in this country, want it to be a federal state, not a dictatorship," said Khorshed Abo Rasho in Qamishli.

"I still have bullets in my body from the war in this country, and I will not accept that it fails to become a democracy."

Their country ravaged by war, sanctions and runaway inflation, Syrians also face a struggle for basic necessities.

More than a million people have been displaced since the rebel offensive began last month, and the UN's World Food Programme is seeking $250 million for food assistance.

Jordan will host a Syria crisis summit on Saturday with foreign ministers from numerous Western and Arab nations as well as Turkey.

H.Takahashi--JT