Ruth Sherlock
Appearances
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Well, you know, you might be able to hear the high caliber rounds being fired behind me. It's the rebels testing weaponry they've acquired. But apart from these explosions, they seem to be trying to keep a pretty light touch here, Michelle.
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Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
You know, they swept down from this rural province of Idlib and they seem to be trying to show Damascenes, people from here, that they can go about their business. And there's not even a lot of checkpoints, for example. And what is quite extraordinary is is they seem to now be handling a relatively managed handover of power. They've formed this new transitional government.
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Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
And this even includes some politicians from the old regime. They're pardoning soldiers who were conscripted into the military service, but they are dismantling the feared security apparatus, the intelligence bases of the regime, and saying that they will bring war criminals to justice.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
A lot of the new faces in this new government are similar to those in the Islamist-led government in the rebel-held province of Idlib that they controlled for years. They are projecting moderate stances for now, saying women can dress as they please, for example. But, you know, many Syrians say it's still really too early to know how this will go.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Well, look, a big priority here is the missing. You know, this regime ruled with fear and rights groups estimate tens of thousands of people disappeared into prisons and detention centres of the regime's main intelligence agencies. And under Assad, their families weren't even told where they were being held, why they were being held, or even if they were alive. So we went to Sednaya prison.
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Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
That's one of the most feared complexes known for torture, mass executions. And now it's just open. You can walk right in. And the prisoners were released by rebels in the first hours after the regime fell. But so many more are still missing and now the prison is full of relatives.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
They're searching for clues about their loved ones that were taken in jail and mainly, you know, maybe trying to find some kind of closure. One elderly man, Ratib Zamalkani, he was walking away from the prisoners we walked up and he had this rope tied like a noose in his hand and he said he believed this was used to hang prisoners. He's saying, why did they have to put my son in cells underground?
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Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Where is he? Where is he? He asks. And he tells us he took the noose from the prison to show the world the cruelty of the Assad regime.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Well, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Damascus and around to stop what it calls strategic weapons from falling into the wrong hands. The Russians still have their air base here and a naval port in Syria's Tartus. And the Americans are still here with a mission to help Kurdish allies fight the extremist group ISIS that is still operating in the central Syrian desert.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
So there are a lot of foreign countries involved here still. That is NPR's Ruth Sherlock and Damascus.