Between 2015 and 2017, the companies of Tarif Al-Akhras, a relative of Bashar Al-Assad’s wife, benefited from United Nations contracts worth 275,000 dollars (240,000 euros) while since 2011, the businessman is under European Union sanctions for “logistical support to the regime” Syrian. Between 2015 and 2020, private security companies with dubious connections, including Al-Shorouk, which is believed to be affiliated with Maher Al-Assad, brother of the president and commander of an elite unit, were among the service providers of the teams. United Nations in Syria. This is affirmed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the NGO Syrian Legal Development Program (SLDP), which point to other suspicious contracts.
In a report published at the end of January, the two organizations call on the UN to adopt stronger safeguards in the process of awarding its contracts in Syria. “The principles of human rights are not sufficiently integrated by the United Nations in the choice of their partners for the implementation of humanitarian aid”, denounces Sara Kayyali, researcher on Syria for HRW. With the risk that “abusive entities” find themselves funded by the United Nations.
Syria has entered a “grey” phase, characterized by the cessation of most of the fighting, without any of the triggering factors of the war having been dealt with, a post-conflict period without the beginning of a settlement of the conflict. The ongoing economic slump – a product of the war, which Western sanctions and government corruption and mismanagement have aggravated – renders the population dependent on international aid. This windfall whets appetites, starting with that of power, whose coffers are empty.
A new class of profiteers
Admittedly, the watchword imposed by the major Western capitals – no reconstruction without political transition – remains in force. But the humanitarian budgets allocated to Syria remain significant. And Russia has managed to include the term “early recovery” in a UN resolution in 2021: its goal is that humanitarian aid goes to recovery projects, closer to the reconstruction as an emergency.
At the same time, alongside entrepreneurs with long-standing ties to power, the war has given rise to a new class of profiteers, made up in particular of former pro-Assad militia leaders, who use false noses to get into business.
All these elements push the two NGOs to demand more vigilance. “It’s obvious: aid will increase in Syria. We’re not saying it should be deleted. But it must not benefit people who have committed horrific human rights violations.”, pleads Sara Kayyali. According to her, one of the main pitfalls of the United Nations, a humanitarian heavyweight in Syria, is not to make these violations a crippling criterion in the awarding of contracts. “It works on a case-by-case basis, depending on the requirements of the funders. However, we risk finding ourselves with more and more donor countries that are indifferent to this issue. » A reference to Russia, but also to European countries favorable to a rapprochement with Damascus. Although the process of normalization is slow, the regime has already seen its doors reopened by some of its Arab peers.
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