UN in Syria: Too close to the dictator?

Millions of Syrians depend on UN humanitarian aid. But accusations are becoming more and more frequent that the United Nations is not only helping the people, but also the Syrian President Assad.

For many observers, it felt like an eternity before the first trucks with UN relief supplies rolled across the border to Idlib after the severe earthquake in early February. While international aid in Turkey started after just a few hours, people in north-west Syria had to wait around 80 hours for six trucks to arrive at the Turkish-Syrian border crossing at Bab al-Hawa.

They had loaded a few tents, blankets and detergent. Specific disaster relief was not included. The disappointment was great: “What prevented the UN from sending aid earlier? They don’t mean it when it comes to saving the lives of Syrians,” says Ramy Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the weeks that followed, UN aid deliveries only trickled into the north-west of the country. Two other border crossings were not opened for UN aid until more than a week after the quake – tough negotiations in the Security Council had preceded this.

What does international law require?

Syrians, but also many experts, then raised serious allegations: the UN oriented itself far too much to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his ally Russia.

Syria expert Carsten Wieland is convinced that international law is much more advanced: “International law recognizes that a humanitarian catastrophe carries far more weight than the absolute sovereignty of a state. In other words: Today a dictator, a suspected war criminal like Assad , no longer do what he wants with his population.”

The UN did not have to wait for either Assad’s approval or Russia’s approval in the Security Council to deliver humanitarian aid to areas not controlled by Assad. This was already demonstrated in 2014 and 2023 by a commission of experts made up of prominent international law lawyers and judges.

Money and assignments to Assad supporters

But it is not only in insurgent-controlled north-western Syria that the UN has made itself Assad’s vassal, critics say. Reports of UN problems in Syria have been piling up for years.

Experts from the organizations Observatory of Political and Economic Networks from Canada and Syrian Legal Development Program from Great Britain examined the hundred largest partners of the UN in Syria. In a study published in autumn 2022, they proved that in recent years a large part of UN aid money has flowed into the pockets of people who are close to the Assad regime or who have benefited directly from the civil war.

UN organizations such as the World Food Program award procurement contracts to Syrian companies whose owners are on the EU and US sanctions lists for war crimes. Around $140 million from the UN procurement program is said to have gone to suppliers and service providers classified as loyal to the regime in 2019 and 2020 alone.

violations of sanctions

The director of the World Food Program in Syria, Kenn Crossley, rejects the accusations: “Of course we are aware of the allegations. But when we award contracts, we adhere to the UN sanctions list.” Orders are placed independently and “to the best of our knowledge and belief”.

However, the study published last autumn raises legitimate doubts as to whether the UN organizations really adhere to Crossley’s list. For example, the UN sanctions list includes people like militia chief Fadis Sakr. His militia was responsible for the notorious Tadamon massacre, in which around 280 people were brutally killed. Nevertheless, as a businessman, he was able to deliver shoes and clothing worth millions to UN aid organizations in Syria.

“UN gambles away independence”

The allegations continue. According to research by the AP news agency, the head of the World Health Organization in Syria is said to have repeatedly given gifts to those loyal to Assad. Accordingly, among other things, expensive computers, gold coins and valuable cars went to several of Assad’s confidants. In addition, numerous family members of regime representatives are said to have received employment contracts with UN aid agencies.

Crossley is evasive in the interview. You don’t look at applicants in this specific point, but you do background research on the information provided by the applicants: “We look at the skills that you expect in an application process, only then do we issue an employment contract.”

But because UN organizations like the World Food Program don’t look at which of their employees are linked to the regime, the UN is gambling away its independence, Wieland believes:

If statements are then sometimes too critical, they can quickly be passed on to the secret service, according to Wieland.

Assad reinforces his legitimacy

Other research shows that the Syrian ruler has managed to use the cooperation with the UN financially for himself. For example, the regime set an exchange rate at which aid organizations must transfer funds into the country. This exchange rate is so bad that sometimes 51 cents of every euro transferred ended up in the Syrian government’s pockets.

Experts like Wieland are convinced that the suspected war criminal is also using the cooperation with aid organizations to underpin his legitimacy and his claim to power on the international stage. Assad is moving further and further away from the Geneva process, says Syria expert Wieland.

“The process was actually created to initiate reforms in Syria, to improve the human rights situation and, ideally, even to ensure free elections in the end,” Wieland said. “But we’re a long way from all that at the moment.”

A difficult balancing act

Twelve years of war, terror and crises have made UN organizations a vital support for millions of Syrians. Every day, under the most difficult circumstances, United Nations staff ensure that people in Syria receive food, medicine and shelter.

In order to provide this assistance, many officials are reportedly forced to cooperate with the corrupt authorities – whether they want to or not. It’s a situation that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has apparently learned to take advantage of.