Rt. hon. Andrew Mitchell is a former Shadow Foreign Secretary & former Deputy Foreign Secretary. He has been the MP for Sutton Coldfield since 2001. 

Assad has fallen. A new Syria is in the making.

While pundits pore over the permutations of the unfolding revolution, the future remains too uncertain to call. For now, we rejoice cautiously at the demise of a monstrous tyranny whose reign of terror bled the Syrian people dry. Comeuppance has been dished out coldly, if belatedly.

But when will justice be served?

I was International Development Secretary when the flames of dissent first ignited the regime’s brutal clampdowns in 2011. Any hopes we had of an Arab Spring-style peaceful transition were swiftly dashed as Syrian forces unleashed hell on earth over the next decade, displacing civilians in their millions and butchering over 600,000 men, women and children – some with chemical weapons.

I visited Zaatari Camp in August 2012. It was clear that a significant humanitarian disaster was in the making. Syrian families were streaming across the Jordanian border, often under fire from Assad’s soldiers using them as target practice. Britain doubled its support for Zaatari which remains one of the largest refugee camps in the world. In a country – then – of 22 million people , half were displaced: 5 million internally and 6 million principally in the three surrounding countries.

Europe became another frontier for the influx.

We all remember the agonising scenes of people crowded into makeshift camps – mainly in Greece and Italy – as thousands of refugees poured onto the continent. And who can forget the harrowing image of 2-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying lifeless on a beach, after drowning while trying to reach Europe. It symbolised in the starkest terms the desperate plight of ordinary Syrians who risked life and limb to find safer shores.

The decision of the House of Commons not to support military action (the first time since the 18^th century) – a decision infiltrated by what happened in Iraq – underlines that while you clearly take a risk with military intervention, you also take a risk by not intervening.

When President Obama made clear the use of chemical weapons would cross a red line and then did nothing – to the dismay of our friends and allies – he massively emboldened not only Assad but also Putin and Iran, who concluded we were all bluster and no bottle.

I was determined early on to disrupt the culture of impunity. Technology, and in particular mobile phone photography meant that we could hold to account human rights abusers for their actions.  Whether electronic intercepts of instructions to bomb, or pictures of soldiers brutalising civilians – evidence had to be kept and compiled to ensure the perpetrators had their day in court. The Foreign office were instructed to collect and keep evidence of human rights abuses in Syria

I had faith in the international system. Just as Bosnian war criminals had eventually been brought to justice in the Hague, so too would Assad and his henchmen. After I left office, I teamed up with the late Jo Cox MP, to create the Friends of Syria group in the House of Commons from where we continued to speak out.

Jo was a wonderful and passionate champion for international justice. She would have been relieved to know that Syria, finally, was free from Assad’s tyranny.  I wish she were alive to see it. But she would have been aghast to discover that after all these years, those responsible for so much suffering have so far got off scot-free.

Bizarrely, there has never been an ICC arrest warrant on Bashar Al-Assad.

We have not seen countries clamouring to prosecute Syria in the International Court of Justice. Never mind the countless documented atrocities, red lines crossed, or the gruesome torture meted out in Sednaya prison. Never mind the catalogue of starvation and displacement. Syria’s victims were left in the cold, all but abandoned by the international community.

Contrast the indifference displayed on Syria with the zealous investigations against Israel.

Whether or not Israel has breached international humanitarian law – and I believe that all such charges must be investigated – the speed with which the international system hastened to criminalise a western ally facing down existential threats struck me as astonishing.

I am an internationalist by instinct, but when the institutions charged with upholding international rule of law are driven more by political agendas than the genuine pursuit of justice, it is no wonder that the public are losing faith and turning instead to populist alternatives.

The ICC and ICJ would do well to heed such warnings.

In the meantime, national prosecutors in countries which have universal jurisdiction could initiate investigations into specific war crimes. A German court convicted a Syrian military intelligence officer for his role in facilitating torture and sentenced him to life in prison. The UK’s War Crimes Act explicitly enables us to prosecute suspected war criminals regardless of where or when the alleged crimes took place. As a co-founder of much of the post-war order, the UK could lead by example.

As the horrors of Assad’s sadistic rule continue to emerge, the UK’s decision not to go to the military aid of the Syrian people is something history will regret. While we can’t change the past, we can put things right in the future. We must restore credibility to our international institutions, ensuring the system is fit for purpose, lest the edifice crumbles leaving the world much less safe. We can start with a determination to deliver justice for the Syrian people, so very long denied to them.

It is the least they deserve

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