The Syrian Future Movement is following with great astonishment and anger the serious information and questions raised regarding the political background of Dr. Fatat Muhammad Saqr, a member of the National Commission for Transitional Justice and the official responsible for managing the preservation of national memory, and the allegations circulating about her past affiliation with the Ba’ath Party during the era of the former regime.
While we recognize the seriousness of accusations made without evidence, we believe that the mere raising of this information on this scale obligates the Commission and the Presidency of the Republic to immediately disclose the truth of the matter and publish the criteria and background upon which her selection for this highly sensitive position was based.
The Syrian Future Movement warns that transitional justice is not an administrative function, and that national memory is not a neutral archive to be entrusted to just anyone! It is the memory of the blood of Syrians, the detainees, the disappeared, the martyrs, the displaced, and the victims of torture, chemical attacks, massacres, barrel bombs, shelling, and forced displacement.
Therefore, the Syrian Future Movement believes that any proven political affiliation or influential activity within the institutions of the Ba’ath Party or the former regime, in a manner that contradicts the independence and mission of the Commission, renders its continued presence in a position responsible for preserving the national memory of the victims morally, politically, and institutionally unacceptable.
Accordingly, we demand the following:
- An immediate and transparent review of Dr. Fatat Saqr’s appointment, and an official verification of all information circulating about her political and institutional activities during the era of the former regime.
- The suspension of her responsibility for the national memory preservation file until the review is completed, in order to protect the credibility and sensitivity of this file.
- If the circulating information is proven to constitute a fundamental conflict with the requirements of independence and integrity necessary for this position, we demand her immediate dismissal from the National Commission for Transitional Justice.
- We demand the disclosure of the entity or committee that nominated her, the criteria adopted in the nomination and vetting process, and the accountability of those responsible for the nomination and vetting if it is proven that there was concealment of information or gross negligence in examining backgrounds.
- We demand that the body that issued the formation decision conduct an institutional review of the entire selection mechanism and determine administrative and political responsibility for any proven flaws. High-level decrees and decisions must not become a shield against accountability.
- We call for subjecting all members of the commission, particularly those responsible for the files of truth, memory, victims, and accountability, to publicly declared standards of vetting, integrity, and conflict of interest, and for making sufficient information about their professional and public backgrounds available to the Syrian public.
We in the Syrian Future Movement categorically reject the notion that transitional justice should become a gateway to recycling the past, or that victims should be asked to hand over their memories to those whose competence to preserve them is questionable, without the state providing clear answers.
The Syrian people have paid an indescribable price to reach a day when they can write the truth about what happened to them without fear and without falsification. Therefore, those who write the victims’ memories, preserve their documents, and participate in building their national narrative must be beyond reproach in their independence, integrity, and stance against the system of tyranny.
Accordingly, the Syrian Future Movement is waiting for an official and explicit clarification regarding this issue, and believes that ignoring the questions raised will harm the confidence of Syrians in an institution that is supposed to be one of the most impartial, independent and sensitive institutions of the transitional phase towards the rights of victims.
