عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Perthes: Sudan Needs Credible, Civilian-Led Government

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Sudan Volker Perthes (AFP)
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Sudan Volker Perthes (AFP)
TT
TT

Perthes: Sudan Needs Credible, Civilian-Led Government

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Sudan Volker Perthes (AFP)
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Sudan Volker Perthes (AFP)

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Sudan, Volker Perthes affirmed on Friday that the overall situation in the country will continue to worsen unless a political solution is found to restore a credible, fully functioning civilian-led government.

In a statement, the UN envoy saw many “signs of hope in reaching a solution in Sudan.”

“The multiplicity of national initiatives - with many points of convergence between them - evidence this,” he said.

Perthes then considered that Sudan should address major issues that go beyond the current debate about transitional constitutional arrangements.

He said some of these issues have been present since the independence of the country in 1956 and have been root causes of instability in Sudan.

“Much of this is about resource and wealth sharing, including land. But much of this is about inclusion and exclusion of regions, people, and communities, not least in Darfur, the East, the Kordofans and the Blue Nile,” he stressed.

Also, the UN envoy said that other short-term questions relate to the structure and the nature of the state the Sudanese want, and the needed transitional path to reach it.

According to Perthes, the transitional path in Sudan requires clear agreement on the tasks of the transition and a clear distribution of roles and responsibilities between the different actors.

Also, he said, it requires a clear plan for healing the wounds of the past.

“Accountability and transitional justice are key for the future of stability in Sudan. The need for equality in its broader sense, the rejection of any sort of discrimination between the Sudanese, is crucial,” the envoy affirmed.

Perthes then welcomed the repeated commitments of Lt. General Abdulfattah Al Burhan’s and Lt. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s about the withdrawal of the military from politics. He said that Sudan needs a strong, united and professional army.

He assured that the UN will continue to work with its partners and the rest of the international community in the Trilateral Mechanism to reach a political agreement that is acceptable to most.

He also stressed that the Trilateral Mechanism does not need to mediate between civilians, but is fully prepared to play the role that so many civilian and military leaders are expecting.

Perthes then said, “We look forward to seeing Sudan reach a political solution that will allow us to bring back economic assistance and aid to Sudan and mobilize more resources for this objective.”

The UN envoy stressed that any unilateral action by any actor will be seen as working against the aspirations of all the Sudanese to see a return to the transitional path towards democracy.

Perthes then called on all Sudanese people to take advantage of the great historical opportunity offered by the December 2018 revolution, which was able to bring the weight of broad grassroot groups to bear on the political elite.

“We in the UN can bring technical expertise and other support to proposals on how to address these questions,” he affirmed.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Syrian Family Recounts the Horrors of 2013 Chemical Attack Near Damascus

Hussein Arbeeni, 41, shows how he blocked a room door by tapes where 23 people locked themselves inside it to prevent leakage of the sarin struck during a 2013 chemical weapons attack that was blamed on then President Bashar al-Assad's forces, in Zamalka neighborhood, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP)
Hussein Arbeeni, 41, shows how he blocked a room door by tapes where 23 people locked themselves inside it to prevent leakage of the sarin struck during a 2013 chemical weapons attack that was blamed on then President Bashar al-Assad's forces, in Zamalka neighborhood, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP)
TT
TT

Syrian Family Recounts the Horrors of 2013 Chemical Attack Near Damascus

Hussein Arbeeni, 41, shows how he blocked a room door by tapes where 23 people locked themselves inside it to prevent leakage of the sarin struck during a 2013 chemical weapons attack that was blamed on then President Bashar al-Assad's forces, in Zamalka neighborhood, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP)
Hussein Arbeeni, 41, shows how he blocked a room door by tapes where 23 people locked themselves inside it to prevent leakage of the sarin struck during a 2013 chemical weapons attack that was blamed on then President Bashar al-Assad's forces, in Zamalka neighborhood, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP)

A Syrian family that survived a 2013 chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people near the country’s capital, Damascus, says the ordeal they experienced haunts them to this day.

The Aug. 21, 2013 attack targeted several Damascus suburbs, including Zamalka, where the Arbeeni family lives. Government forces of then-President Bashar Assad were blamed for the attack.

The Arbeenis remember how they locked themselves inside a windowless room in their home for hours, escaping the fate of dozens of their neighbors who perished in what was one of the deadliest moments of Syria’s civil war.

The gas that was used — sarin, an extremely toxic nerve agent — can kill in minutes.

The Syrian government denied it was behind the attack and blamed opposition fighters, an accusation the opposition rejected as Assad's forces were the only side in the brutal civil war to possess sarin. The United States subsequently threatened military retaliation, with then-President Barack Obama saying Assad’s use of chemical weapons would be Washington’s “red line.”

“It was a horrifying night,” Hussein Arbeeni, 41, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The surface-to-surface missiles fell close to his family’s home without exploding, instead leaking the poisonous gas. Shortly after that, he says the family members had difficulties breathing, their eyes started to ache and their hearts beat faster and faster.

Hassan Arbeeni, 42, shows a crater where a surface-to-surface missile loaded with sarin struck, during a 2013 chemical weapons attack that was blamed on then President Bashar al-Assad's forces, in Zamalka neighborhood, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP)

Arbeeni, his parents, his siblings and their families, as well as a neighbor — 23 people in all — rushed into the only room in their home without windows and closed the door.

He says he taped all around the door, soaked some clothes in water and rolled them up under the door to prevent the gas from coming in. “I even taped the keyhole,” he said.

A few months earlier, Arbeeni said, the local first responders of the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, had instructed residents in the opposition-held suburbs of Damascus what to do in case of a chemical attack.

He remembers them saying they should cover their nose and mouth with a cloth soaked in water with white vinegar, and breathe through that.

They huddled for three hours inside the room — time that seemed endless that night. Outside, many people were dying.

“It is all because of God and this locked room,” Arbeeni says of their survival.

Around daybreak, the White Helmets members rushed into their house, found the family inside the room on the ground floor and told them to leave the area immediately.

They ran into the street and saw dead bodies lying all around. A passing truck took the family on and gave them a ride. Their neighbor, who had fainted from the shock of the horrific scene, was taken away by paramedics.

“I was scared to look,” said Arbeeni’s mother, Khadija Dabbas, 66.

The family stayed for a few weeks some miles away from Zamalka but then came back.

Despite Obama's threat, in the end, Washington settled for a deal with Moscow for Russia-backed Assad to give up his chemical weapons’ stockpile.

But Assad's government was widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of using them again — including a 2018 chlorine gas attack over Douma, another Damascus suburb, that killed 43 people.

Today, Arbeeni — remembering all the neighbors, friends and townspeople who perished — says he wants the “harshest punishment” for those behind the attack in Zamalka.

“All those children and innocent people who were killed should get justice,” he said, looking at his 12-year-old son, Laith, a baby at the time of the attack.

An aerial view shows a mass grave where are buried those who were killed by the sarin struck during a 2013 chemical weapons attack that was blamed on then President Bashar al-Assad's forces, in Zamalka neighborhood, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP)

The new authorities in Syria are led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, which late last month launched a stunning offensive from its northwestern stronghold that blitzed across large swaths of Syria and toppled Assad. They have vowed to bring to justice former Syrian government officials blamed for atrocities.

But times are still unsettled — a few short weeks after Assad's ouster, no one knows what Syria's future will look like.

“The overthrow of the Assad government creates the possibility of justice for thousands of victims of atrocities, including those killed by chemical and other banned weapons,” says Adam Coogle, deputy director with the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.

“But justice will only happen if the new authorities prioritize it and urgently act to preserve evidence,” Coogle added. He urged for immediate access for UN agencies and international experts who would create a comprehensive plan to ensure that Syrians can seek justice and accountability.

On Wednesday, about a dozen people visited the Martyrs Cemetery in Zamalka and the graves of people from the area killed during Syria's nearly 14-year war.

Arbeeni's brother, Hassan, pointed to part of the cemetery that holds a mass grave. There are no names of the dead there, only a sign in Arabic that reads: “August 2013.”

“The martyrs of the chemical attack are here,” Hassan said, and recited a Muslim prayer for the dead.