amna: Today marks twelve years
since the beginning of the civil
war in Syria.
What began as civilian protests
amid the Arab spring uprisings
of 2011, now by some estimates
has killed at least half a
million people, displaced
millions more, and destabilized
the region.
Adding calamity on top of
disaster, last month's
earthquakes laid waste to land
already pummeled by the regime
of bashar al-assad and his
Russian patron, Vladimir Putin.
In a moment I'll speak with a
longtime Syria analyst, but
first a look at what twelve
years of war has wrought.
In northwest Syria, generation
born into conflict.
Children who've only known life
at these refugee camps.
In a war that began before they
were born, 12 years ago.
For families like um Mohammed's,
those years have meant loss
after loss.
>> Since 2011 we have suffered,
at all levels.
My house was destroyed, my son
was killed, and my second son
was arrested, 11 years ago.
He is in the prisons of the
Assad regime, and I do not have
any information about him.
Amna: Her family is from ghouta,
near Damascus, under a severe
siege, and where Assad's regime
used chemical weapons in 2013,
killing more than a thousand
people.
>> In eastern ghouta, we were
subjected to a lot of
bombardment, hunger and
shortages of bread.
We were living in famine because
of the siege imposed by the
forces of the Assad regime.
Amna: She lives at this camp
with her daughter-in-law who has
, also lost most of her family
to Assad's air strikes.
>> 12 years ago we were at home
a missile from a warplane fell
on our house and was destroyed
my father, my brother and my
cousin were killed.
We are on another journey of
displacement.
Look at the mud and dirt in this
camp.
My children don't have enough
winter clothes and there is no
source of income to buy for
them.
Amna: Mona zahrawi is raising
five children at this camp.
>> Life here is hard, we are
here two families living in one
tent.
Children have no clothes or
shoes.
I have children of my own and I
am taking care of my deceased
sister's orphans.
Amna: Aya was born in saraqeb
city in the northwest as it was
bombed by Assad.
Her parents were killed.
She is now as old as the war
itself.
>> When the earthquake happened,
I thought we were being bombed
by airplanes.
I know all about bombings and I
am afraid of its sound.
Amna: But the man behind that
bombing is still in charge.
Today, Syrian president bashar
Al Assad met with his strongest
ally, Russian president Vladimir
Putin in Moscow, offering
support for his war in Ukraine.
In rebel-held north west Syria,
thousands of Syrians also marked
this day.
Chanting slogans against the
regime and waving the
revolutionary flags.
It all began in 2011when pro-
democracy protests swept Syria
in the wake of the Arab spring.
But bashar Al Assad's brutal
crackdown triggered a civil war
that has left a trail of
destruction, a country in ruins
and forced millions of Syrians
to flee their homes, many on
boats to Europe and further
afield.
Tens of thousands of people
disappeared, many of them
presumed tortured and killed in
government prisons.
The tragic twin earthquakes that
struck northern Syria on
February 6
further tormented a people
already ravaged by war
and have also opened diplomatic
doors for bashar Al Assad, after
years of international
isolation.
Arab countries are slowly
restoring ties with Damascus.
But Syrians continue to
struggle.
Over 12 million people, more
than half the population, are
food insecure.
>> People there are really tired
of the war, and now the
earthquake, of having to live on
a razors edge.
Amna: Jonathan Dumont visited
and found people in dire need.
>> The situation is pretty
drastic.
And as you can imagine, with
schools and playgrounds being
used to shelter people, there's
not, you know, not many
prospects for for the next
generation to develop as as they
should.
Syria needs the continued
support of the international
community.
It needs resources.
It needs infrastructure.
It needs a lot of help.
Amna: There are some signs that
help on the way, but nowhere
near enough.
In the meantime bashar Al Assad
and his regime continue to hold
power, continue the killing, and
all these years later there's
still no end in sight.
Murhaf jouejati is a
distinguished visiting professor
at the United States naval
academy.
A native of Syria, he's written
widely on Assad and this
decade-plus of war.
Thank you for joining us.
Those earthquakes last month as
we just saw were absolutely
devastating, on top of 12 years
of war.
Help us understand the extent of
the devastation, the extent of
the crisis that Syrians face
today.
>> This is earthquake upon
earthquake.
The latest earthquake was it
natural catastrophe.
This follows 12 years of war in
which half of the Syrian
population has been made either
refugee or internally displaced.
Over a million Syrian civilians
killed, roughly 90% of the
infrastructure has been
destroyed.
So it has been truly a calamity
after another for the past 12
years.
Amna: Do we know today that if
the disaster aid, the emergency
aid that has made its way in, is
he going to the people who
needed the most?
>> It is really too little and
too late.
Whatever has gone in was for the
most part taken by pro-iranian
militias in aleppo and either
used by them, and/or sold on the
market.
So those who are most deserving
of this international assistance
have not gotten much.
They are relying on their own
very thin resources.
Amna: What does this moment mean
for bashar al-assad?
He has been largely isolated
over the last several years
because of his brutal response
to the opposition.
Is he now using this moment to
reemerge onto the world stage?
>> He has moved from a distance
of having Syria suspended from
the Arab league for his
brutality, of being a pariah
state and shined the
international community --
shunned by the international
community, to take advantage of
this earthquake.
There have been Arab delegations
that have visited Damascus after
the earthquake, trying to get
Syria back into the Arab fold.
He is a brutal dictator and
fully taken advantage of the
earthquake in order to
rehabilitate himself before the
international community.
Amna: It's difficult to see a
brutal dictator like Assad use
this natural disaster to, as you
said, rehabilitate himself on
the world stage.
I'm curious what you think the
United States and the
international community, what
more they could say or do at
this moment and how they should
be responding.
>> I think the U.S. Has taken a
wise policy, using sanctions as
an instrument, a diplomatic
instrument in order to punish
the Assad regime.
The United States and the E.U.
Have taken wise positions.
Some of the Arab states are
trying to escape back into the
fold, under the illusion that he
will diminish Iranian influence
in Syria.
I don't think that it's going to
happen.
Iran is a conspirator in the
mass murder in Syria.
I think the continuation of
isolation of the Assad regime
has to be done.
It is truly a rotten apple
that's about to fall from the
tree.
There is no sense in propping it
up.
Amna: What about the people of
Syria?
We begin our report that these
children who have only ever
known a life at war from before
they were born.
What does their future look
like?
>> Very bleak.
For the past 10 years, they have
not gone to school.
Imagine what generation is going
to follow this one.
They have known nothing but
brutality and more.
When Assad says he will leave
the moment he feels is people
don't want him anymore, you have
half the population that have
been made refugee, I don't know
what kind of legitimacy he
thinks he has.
I think he has zero legitimacy.
In that sense, I think the
international community should
continue isolating him until his
regime goes away, because his
regime we have to say has been a
major source of instability, not
only in Syria, but in the middle
East.
Amna: Thank you for joining us.