Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM if; Syrian Democratic ©raea is.. — ' “-IS. £ * ' Syrian Democratic Times The Voice of Democratic Syria News, analysis, and opinion on democratic Syria, from Washington DC. SDC cannot release ISIS militants without trial “Simply freeing the militants ...leaving the long-sufferingpeople of Syria to continue to face the threat of these organizations is inhumane, and legally and morally irresponsible.99 By Dr. Hawzhin Azeez The following article reflects the opinions of the author alone, not necessarily those of the Syrian Democratic Times. Following the official end of ISIS, the north Syria region of Rojava faced a new, unprecedented problem in the form of thousands of captured ISIS militants and their families — including children. In the wake of the death of ISIS, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) made repeated international calls for the repatriation of international ISIS members. Repeated calls for the international community to provide funding, legal aid, and expertise and support for addressing the post-ISIS stage have remained unanswered. The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet recently stated that the Islamic State captives “must be tried or Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM The trouble is that the captured ISIS militants number over 50,000. The solution is only easy in rhetoric. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >> US Defense Spending Bill Could Authorize Funds for ISIS Detainees By Lacy MacAuley An important bill that was passed last week in the US Senate will impact North and East Syria. The bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), contains several provisions that involve Syria, including an impactful section that authorizes funding for facilities and repatriation efforts for ISIS detainees currently being held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF is the military whose soldiers defeated the ISIS “caliphate” earlier this year, in partnership with the US military and the US- led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. This funding and other international support is critical to enabling the SDF to process detainees in a timely, humane manner, and provide access to restorative programs so that former ISIS fighters and their families can re­ integrate into their home communities, rather than falling back into ISIS ranks. The ISIS detainee funding authority is not included in the US House version of the bill, however, leaving onlookers to wonder how the two versions will be reconciled. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >> Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM Economic Terror Against the Syrian People By Bassam Saker The intended message of economic terrorism may be ideological in nature, targeting the leadership and cause, but the victims are everyday people. The loss of land, home, property, and environment raises the costs of security and prosperity, stifling the ability of our society to recover and thrive. Recent fires in Syria — especially in northeast Syria where vast amounts of agricultural land have been destroyed — are just one example of the economic terrorism in the country. Syrians have also seen destroyed railroads, factories, roads, and more. Businesses and health clinics have been targeted. Shops and markets have been targeted. The economic lives of Syrians will take years to recover. In the meantime, the suffering continues. READ THE FULL ARTICLE > > Displacement in Turkish-occupied areas higher than S r SDF-held areas By Tom Freebairn £ lortheast Syria has Sseen a lot of displacement. But new data shows that migrants in areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is part of the Autonomous Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM nuimiiiou aiiun wi ix oi lii anu ijaoi ujna vvv^iv/ oaiv^i anu icoo nivv^ij to leave home. They were more likely to leave home for economic reasons than reasons of security or personal safety — and that there were far fewer people displaced from AANES-held territory than other areas. Massive numbers of people fled, however, from areas of Syria occupied by the Turkish military or the Turkish-aligned armed political opposition, have led to much larger numbers of displaced persons than control by the SDF. The Turkish-occupied regions had the highest rate of displacement. In some Turkish-occupied areas, 75% to 100% of the population fled. While Turkish- controlled regions saw the highest amount of displaced persons, the opposition-controlled regions similarly had entire communities dispersed. The AANES-administered territory demonstrated a significantly lower rate of displacement than either the Turkish- or opposition-controlled regions. READ THE FULL ARTICLE > > Policy Snapshot Latest US-Syria policy impacting northeast Syria The Syria Study Group (SSG) met with the Jordanian Foreign Minister in Washington DC. Co-chairs of the SSG Dana Stroul and Michael Singh were present for the meeting, at which they discussed the status of Syrian refugees and other matters. The Congressionally-mandated SSG continues to garner input for its report to US Congress, which will be due later this year. The report will make recommendations to Congress on US policy toward Syria and will likely be converted into proposed legislation in the US Senate. Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was debated and passed last week in the Senate. The NDAA, which determines US policy and budget in relation to the US Department of Defense (DOD), contains several provisions that are important to Syria, such as the inclusion of an authority that would allow DOD funding of ISIS detainment facilities and repatriation efforts. This funding would be a huge relief to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), which is not currently receiving international support to process tens of thousands of former ISIS fighters and families. The Senate bill also includes several new DOD reporting requirements to provide reports on Syria to Congress. The House must now pass its own version of the NDAA, and then the two versions much be reconciled. For a deeper dive into the NDAA, please see our article, “US Defense Spending Bill Could Authorize Funds for ISIS Detainees.” Ambassador James Jeffrey, Special Representative for Syria Engagement and Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, went off on a trip to Europe and the Middle East. According to a US State Dept press release, he attended meetings in Paris, Germany, Brussels, Israel, and Amman. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leader General Mazloum Abdi signed an action plan with the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, to cease any use of child soldiers or recruitment of child soldiers in any of their units, meaning no persons under the age of 18. Previously, some units had been listed as having allowed teenage soldiers under the age of 18 to join their ranks. The signing of this action plan represents a significant step by the SDF to demonstrate that it intends to act in compliance with the international laws and norms of war and conflict. The signing of the plan with the UN office for Children and Armed Conflict comes at a time when the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) is still excluded from the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 negotiations — talks which will determine the future of Syria. The US Mission of the SDC was represented at events at the Wilson Center, the Foundation of Defense of Democracies, the Middle East Institute, and the Hudson Institute. They also met with offices of several Congress Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 07/10/2019 10:59:36 AM UltlllUGlO. Senam Mohamad, co-chief of the SDC, joined other women at the US State Department Office for Global Women’s Issues to talk about Syrian women. Mohamad also spoke on a panel organized by the Washington Kurdish Institute, at which time she made the following remarks: “The northeast of Syria, like the rest of Syria, is diverse. All over Syria, you can find ethnic diversity and religious diversity, such as Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmen, and so on. In regards to religious diversity, there are Muslims, Alawis, Druze, even Yazidis. So, there’s all this diversity in Syria, which makes us in northeast Syria think: how we can bring all of these groups together instead of fighting each other? So, it happened that we contacted all of the different people there, and we agreed on a social contact, let’s call it, in the area. They agreed to administrate the area together, they agreed to have a system based on gender equality. The women participate in all the institutions in the area, on the committees, about 50 percent. We even have freedom of religion, which is not found in other places in Syria. We worked based on these principles, democracy and decentralization, because we suffered a lot under the central government.” Update on Turkish Occupation of Afrin, Syria The Syrian city of Afrin, a historically Kurdish city in Northwest Syria, has been occupied by the Turkish armed forces since early 2018. The Documentation Committee of AANES keeps a detailed ongoing record of verifiable abuses. In the past month, Turkish armed forces or Turkish- backed militias have committed the following human rights abuses in the Afrin region: • The Turkish-backed forces called the “Alhamzat” mercenaries tortured and attacked with knives two civilians, Nuzad Tubal and Omid Tubal, and forced their family members to pay ransom.