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My new article, in today’s print edition of The Observer (@guardian). I try to add a local perspective to the great work already done on the camp hosting ISIS families in eastern Syria, and the almost assured future disaster emanating from it. https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/14/my-young-cousin-fled-the-bombs--only-to-be-held-in-al-hawl-camp-alongside-isis-supporters …
Long before Raqqa & Deir Ezzor was retaken, the Kurdish YPG didn’t hide its view of those populations as “dawaesh” (pej. ISIS). That flawed attitude continues to shape their governance there, and the U.S. & officials there defer to them on this aspect. Absolute idiocy.pic.twitter.com/RbmxiyfGOl
Civilians left their home after bombs started falling on them. They were the. taken to a camp. But that camp never had a system to process & vet who is who. So they’re all lumped together, and the excuse has been the lack of resources. Most are innocent civilians, not ISIS.
Most are civilians, and the vast majority of those are children & women. Then, there is threshold for what makes one an ISIS sympathizers.
Sometimes when a woman (who has been living in horrid conditions, humiliated & accused of being ISIS for months or years without a possible way out) shouts in the face of someone snapping pictures of her, those shouts aren't always "aha, she's diehard ISIS." That's idiocy too.
An honest conversation about this situation, again a guaranteed disaster for the future, is to say it as it is: the Kurds don't know the area, and have a generalized view of everyone living there. They hold families there because they don't think they have to do anything about it
Speak to locals and the brewing rage will be immediately clear. This is a shame, because some of the same people were cheering for the SDF, against ISIS and Assad. US officials are also useless, they talk and nod but they never act. One reason why failures persist.
Never believe that this is because of the lack of resources. These families, the local families, are held despite repeated delegations from villages & towns specifying the names of innocent civilians versus the ISIS members. The data exist, but they prefer to not deal with it.
The Assad regime never held civilians fleeing ISIS from the other side of the river in such camps. The regime let them live in its areas & went after those who joined ISIS, using its own data. Assad is incomparable to SDF in terms of brutality but on this it's doing it better.
Put all that aside, the Kurds themselves acknowledged the problem last Ramadan & announced a process to get civilians out of the camp. They then admitted most are civilians, but they needed a system to get them out. That plan was then tabled, but somehow determined all are ISIS.
Also, the Kurds actually released 100s of *proven* ISIS fighters, claiming "had no blood on their hand". Those actually joined ISIS. They released them knowing that. Yet they left children & women. Those local children & women, with no family lins to ISIS, are the issue here.
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