A decade after Assad’s biggest chemical massacre in Syria, justice delayed is justice denied
August 21, 2023
If Syrians were to mark anniversaries of atrocities committed by the Assad regime and its allies over the past 12 years, we'd have a full calendar and an array of mass murder methods - good old artillery shelling, barrel bombs, airstrikes, basic slaughter with knives, starvation, torture, and of course the chemical weapons that President Obama had told us all would be a red line, but that ended up being a green card for Assad to carry on as long as he focused mainly on traditional mass killings of Syrians who objected to his violent and greedy rule.
This crime against humanity, committed ten years ago, continues to generate copious amounts of disinformation and laughable propaganda by the usual selective "anti-imperialist" groupies of the so-called resistance front, who dismiss not only solid evidence but also survivor testimonies.
Despite the obligatory commemorative statements made by those who at least condemned the regime for this atrocity in Douma, some actually wish we'd all forget about that chemical massacre (and other non-chemical ones) and just get on with it, in the name of stability for the Syrian people, with the refrain that Syria is now safe, the war is over, refugees can come back, and a number of absurdities of the sort.
We already know all the main elements of the chemical massacre of August 2013, whose perpetrator is now again welcomed on some red carpets and addressed as Mr. President.
With a mountain of investigative writing on the subject, and many Syrian perspectives on the need for justice, and on why they can't and won’t give up, there can be no turning the page when hundreds of children died gasping for air, foaming at the mouth as Assad’s Sarin filled their little lungs. For Syrians, justice is still delayed, and still denied.
