France unveils plan to prevent radicalization
Syrian government BEIRUT — warplanes supported by Russia continued their relentless bombardment of the rebel-controlled eastern suburbs of Damascus for a sixth day Friday, killing 32 people, opposition activists and a war monitor reported. The death toll from the past week climbed to more than 400.
The new wave of bombings came a day after the Syrian army dropped leaflets over rebel-held eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, calling on residents to leave for their own safety and urging opposition fighters to hand themselves over. The leaflets were dropped by helicopters over the area known as eastern Ghouta, telling residents that they are surrounded on all sides by the Syrian army.
The number of casualties has overwhelmed rescuers and doctors at hospitals, many of which have also been bombed. World leaders a day earlier called for an urgent cease-fire in Syria to allow relief agen- cies to deliver aid and evac- uate the critically sick and wounded from besieged areas to receive medical care.
The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote Friday on a resolution demandinga 30-day cease-fire across Syria to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.
The resolution would allow attacks directed at extremists from the Islamic State group and all al-Qaida affiliates, including the Levant Liberation Committee, to continue. The Syrian govern- ment and its Russian allies say they are pursuing Islamic extremists and terrorists.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassa- dor Vassily Nebenzia called a 30-day cease-fire unreal- istic and said it couldn’t be enforced.
But Sweden and Kuwait, which sponsored the resolution, have been pressing for immediate action as deaths mount in a Syrian bombing campaign in the rebel-held suburbs of eastern Ghouta near Damas- cus. They rejected a key Russian-proposed amendment that would have ruled out an immediate cease-fire.
Whether Russia will veto or abstain in the vote remains to be seen.
The final text the sponsors circulated Friday demands that a 30-day cease-fire take effect 72 hours after the resolution is adopted.
“It is about saving lives,” Sweden’s U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog said, “U.N. convoys and evacuation teams are ready to go. It’s time for the council to come together and shoulder its responsibility to urgently avert a situ- ation that is beyond words in its desperation.”
The final draft does include several other Russian proposals.
It stresses the need for “guarantees” from countries with influence on govern- ment and opposition forces to support and create conditions for a lasting cease-fire. The sponsors also added text to the draft — upon Russia’s request — expressing “outrage” at the shelling of Damascus, including on dip- lomatic premises.
U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura called again in a statement for an urgent ceasefire to relieve the “appalling suffering” of civilians in eastern Ghouta by stopping the bombing there and the “indiscrimi- nate” mortar shelling of Syria’s capital Damascus.
U.N. spokesperson Alessandra Vellucci said in a state- ment read at a news briefing in Geneva Friday that “the ceasefire needs to be followed by immediate, unhin- dered humanitarian access to eastern Ghouta and evac- uation of sick and injured.”
A main Syrian opposition group called on the interna- tional community to prevent Russia from voting on a new U.N. Security Coun- cil resolution saying Moscow is part of the conflict in the Arab country.
Russia has been a main backer for Syrian President Bashar Assad and has joined the battle on his side since 2015, tipping the balance of power in his favor. Oppo- sition activists say Russian warplanes are taking part in bombarding eastern Ghouta.
Salwa Aksoy, vice president of the Syrian National Coalition, told reporters in Turkey that according to the United Nations charter countries that are part of a conflict have no right to vote on draft resolutions.
Aksoy said in Turkey on Friday that “what is happening in Ghouta is a war of annihilation and crimes against humanity.” She blamed Assad’s government as well as his backers Russia and Iran for the violence.
France unveiled a PARIS — wide-ranging new program on Friday to counter radicalization, as French jihadis return from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq and the watch list grows of people showing risk signs.
The plan, announced by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, is made up of 60 measures and puts the accent on prevention, notably aimed at trying to catch danger sig- nals within society.
It is France’s third effort in less than four years to try to prevent and control a phenomenon that numerous nations are grappling with. France got a late start on the issue even though home- grown Islamic extremists set off deadly bombs in France in the 1990s and more French jihadis went to Syria and Iraq to support the Islamic State group or al-Qaida than other Europeans.
The new plan targets pris- ons, schools and even sports clubs, and involves special- ists and ordinary people on both local and national levels.
“This is a plan of mobiliza- tion. It’s a battle that the state alone can’t fight,” Philippe said in Lille, north of Paris, where a prison that holds the most dangerous radicalized prisoners is located.
The plan to counter radicalization includes measures announced by the justice minister to end an unprece- dented strike last month by French prison guards, which was triggered by a radicalized prisoner’s attack on a guard.
The measures include doubling the number of prisoners evaluated for radicalization to 250 per year and increas- ing to 1,500 the number of cells devoted to radicalized inmates, held in closed-off areas. By the end of this year, 450 such places will be created. All will have trained staff and high security.
There are currently more than 500 inmates convicted of or awaiting trial for terrorism, and some 1,150 under watch for radicalization, according to the Prison Administration.
While prisons are now known as potential breeding grounds for radicalization, the French government also plans to better regulate and standardize private schools, most of which are run by religious organizations. Many private schools are run by Muslim organizations and “the state cannot lead the fight without the Muslims of France,” Philippe said.
“Radicalization is a durable threat to our society,” the plan’s authors say.
Radicalization has been spotted in the sports world and within the police, the military and civil servants, and mobilizing those sectors to detect the phenomenon is part of the plan, Philippe said.
French cities are to have prevention plans against radicalization by June, he said.
Two decrees will make it possible to remove radicalized soldiers and police from their jobs and a study is examining how to remove radicalized civil servants.