AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to the latest developments in Syria in the wake of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime earlier the month. On Wednesday, the first widespread demonstrations took place in cities across Syria after a widely shared video showed an attack on an Alawite shrine in the north. Syria’s new rulers said the video was old and had been shared to, quote, “stir up strife.” Al-Assad belonged to the Alawite sect.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes as thousands of women rallied Monday in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli demanding Syria’s new leaders respect women’s rights. They also condemned Turkish-backed attacks on Kurdish groups. Many of the protesters waved the green, yellow and red flags of Women’s Protection Units, an affiliate of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units militia that Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

HEMRIN ALI: [translated] Today, all women in the Jazira region, including Kurds, Arabs and Syriacs, are uniting their voices, saying yes to supporting the Women’s Protection Units, YPJ, yes to preserving the rights and gains of the women’s revolution in northern and eastern Syria. Today, we are safeguarding all the achievements of northern and eastern Syria by demanding freedom and rights for all women, without discrimination.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go now to Damascus, where we’re joined by Lina Sinjab, a Syrian journalist and BBC Middle East correspondent. She was the BBC Syria correspondent until 2013, when she was forced to flee Syria after threats from the Assad regime. She’s been reporting from Beirut for over a decade and returned to Syria earlier this month as the Assad regime was collapsing.

Lina, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you start off by just describing the scene in Damascus this week and also talk about what happened around Christmas?

LINA SINJAB: Well, I have to say that it’s been over two weeks since the toppling of Assad regime, and there’s still a sense of freedom and joy among many Syrians, whether here in the capital or elsewhere in the country. It’s a heavy burden that has been, you know, over the shoulders of Syrians for nearly five decades, and the last decade was the worst, as they faced detention, bombing and, you know, torture inside prison, disappearances. So, I think, you know, many Syrians are still in the overwhelmed feeling of freedom, feeling that they belong to the country, that they have a say in the country, and that they are able to contribute to the future of Syria.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Lina, if you could talk about your own experience as a Syrian? You returned after so many years away. And you said, when you crossed over — you were in Lebanon, and you came into Syria — you said upon your return, quote, “This is the first time ever in my life as a journalist that I am fearless.” So, could you elaborate on that?

LINA SINJAB: Well, I’ve been reporting on Syria for a long time. You know, I joined the BBC in the mid-2000s and continued reporting up until the time that I had to flee the country in 2013. And there was always the pressure of what to say, who to talk to, what permission you take, who’s the minder who’s going to accompany you whenever you’re reporting. You know, you always have these two minds: You want to maintain your integrity and impartiality as a journalist, tell the truth, but also try to find a way so that you’re not falling into the hands of the regime’s repression. And I’ve had many cases where I’ve been called in, I’ve been summoned, I’ve been grounded because of reports that I’ve done.

But when the uprising began, I just, like, felt there is no way of hiding the truth. I had to report on the peaceful protesters, on their peaceful demands. I had to report on the opening fire on protesters, on the detention, on the killing. And, you know, I was stopped several times by regime forces and different security forces, sometimes picked up from a park near my home, sometimes from the border, sometimes from a demonstration in the suburbs of Damascus. But I ended up in the last year, like, confined to my house. I wasn’t able to go out or report, you know, on the ground. I had to be constantly on the phone talking to people that I’ve trusted, I know for sure that they’re telling me the truth, and broadcast from my home. I was under country arrest. I wasn’t able to travel outside Syria. But I had, you know, tried my best so that I leave the country without violating any rules, because I didn’t want to provoke my right to come back.

However, you know, the threats continued even when I was outside. Several times, I was, like, put on the arrest list by different security police. And, you know, even if you are outside the country, you are always thinking of the ones you left behind, of family members, of friends who might get in trouble. People continue talking anonymously even when they are outside Syria, because they’re afraid about their freedom, their families, their safety.

So, that all is gone now. I feel for the first time we are in Syria, we don’t have worries about where to go, who to talk to. Actually, even if you walk on the streets, people come up to you, because they want to tell their stories. They want to share their stories. And one thing that is really incredible to see from my own eyes in my own country is, over the past years when I managed to bribe my way in and come here, I felt that this country has become dark and with heavy shoulder, that people have grown old with sadness and with poverty. Now there are big smiles on their faces. Their shoulders are upright. Their heads are up. They feel that, you know, they’re liberated and they’re proud of where they are today. And that’s a big difference.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Lina, I mean, in addition to this, you know, what you described, how Syrians are feeling this celebratory mood, there’s also a great deal of mourning for the hundreds of thousands who were disappeared or killed during Assad’s regime. So, if you could say a little bit about that, what you’ve learned about the missing, how many there are, and what’s been revealed of these mass graves, the prisons, the prison network, the vast prison network that Assad ran?

LINA SINJAB: You know, the detention haven’t started during Assad the son, but actually Assad the father. And there were many reports about former prisons, whether Palmyra or even Sednaya, in the old days of the father, where, you know, people were even killed using acid to melt their bodies. When the uprising began in 2011, protesters would pray for their families, to pray for them that they will get a bullet and get killed rather than get detained, because they know what detention means. And thousands of people disappeared over the years. You know, recently, the Syrian human rights organizations were talking about over 120,000 missing in Syrian prison, forcibly disappeared, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that over 60,000 were tortured to death inside prison. That’s all before prison cells were open to the public and some prisoners were released. At that point, a Syrian human rights organization came to the conclusion that yet another 80,000 or more have been tortured to death.

And then we came to the discovery of the mass graves, and many organizations who’ve been documenting and studying from satellite images the situation of the mass graves. They’re estimating that nearly 300,000 have been tortured to death. So, you know, the number of people who disappeared or tortured to death is really high in numbers. And that leaves many families, who were wanting answers and finding their beloved ones, in pain. And what they’re calling for now is justice. They want the criminals and those who have blood on their hands, who are those who participated in the killing and torture, to be prosecuted, so that they have a closure and they will be able to, you know, say a respectful payoff for their beloved ones.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Lina, if you could say — you know, there was the, in addition to the Alawite — the protests against the attack on the Alawite shrine, there were also reports of protests after a video went viral on social media of a Christmas tree that was burned. So, if you could respond to that? What’s known about that? And the fact that there’s speculation that there were foreigners who were responsible for setting that tree on fire? And who are the foreign fighters now in Syria? And where?

LINA SINJAB: Well, there are reports of some foreign fighters who joined the rebels who toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime. And, in fact, the HTS, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who is in charge now — it’s the leading force now —  they rushed to the scene when the Christmas tree was set on fire, tried to put it down and reassure the families and the Christians who wanted to celebrate that it will be repaired immediately and perpetrators will be arrested. And, in fact, they did come back and say that they’ve arrested them and that they are foreign fighters. And this is a big issue and big challenge, because, you know, nobody wants to see foreign fighters here in Syria.

However, what happened with the Alawite community is a different story. When rebels advanced in Aleppo in November, it seems that there was also an attack on the Alawite shrine. But there were reconciliations soon after. Suddenly, the videos were released again yesterday, and religious figures from the Alawite community urged people to protest, while at the same time there was an ambush against HTS security, who were trying to arrest former members of Assad’s regime who refused to give up their arms. And actually, they shot at HTS and killed 14 members of them. So, that happened as the protests also were taking place.

But the protests, it seems that, you know, calling for these protests, it had a different agenda behind it, because the Alawite community are worried about prosecution. Most of the Alawite community are supportive of President Assad, or former President Assad, and they had contributed or been part of the crackdown, the brutal crackdown, on the Syrians’ arrests, torture in prison and killing. So, they will be prosecuted. And that’s why they are, you know, out and about, trying to put pressure so there will be a general amnesty on the Alawite community.

This is something that is impossible to happen, because the families of those who died in prison, the families of those who were bombed and tortured to death or disappeared, they need justice. They need answers about what happened to their family members. And there is no way for peace and stability to happen in Syria without, you know, a prosecution, without a legal system that will hold those who have blood on their hands accountable for the sake of reconciliation in the country.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about the other protest this week. On Monday, thousands of women gathered to protest to demand that HTS, the new Islamist rulers, respect women’s rights. They also condemned attacks on Kurdish-led regions in the north of Syria. But talk about women and what they want, as HTS talks about an inclusive government.

LINA SINJAB: Yes, I think they have made their agenda clear, that they want an inclusive government, that they will protect the rights of minorities and the rights of women. And I have to say — you know, I’m here in the center of Damascus — life is just like normal. I mean, I don’t need to worry about wearing hijab. Or even like people — it was Christmas. They were celebrating in parties. They were drinking alcohol. And some HTS members, they were even seen in some of the parties celebrating with other people, while many of them were also protecting, you know, Christian neighborhoods, so that people, Christians, feel safe to have the Christmas Mass and celebrate Christmas, as well.

So, I think, you know, that’s something that is unnegotiable about women’s rights, about minorities’ rights. There are debates about — you know, there’s this transitional government because it’s all one-colored government, mainly from the Islamists, mainly men, who are in charge. So, that’s also raising some concerns. But civil society is really active. Many initiatives are out, talking about involvement in the framing the future of Syria, in writing the constitution, about participation of all the Syrian society into that. And actually, just two days ago, the leadership announced that almost all of the rebel factions dismantled will join the Syrian Army. And that’s something also very good, because that means that there won’t be any internal fighting for power, but they are all under one ministry and one army.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Lina, finally, as we end, if you could also say, you know, what your concerns are about the different foreign forms of intervention into Syria, from the presence of Iran-backed groups, Turkey, and, of course, these systematic Israeli military airstrikes on Syria?

LINA SINJAB: I think Syria have suffered for more than a decade of different regional powers, you know, deciding for on behalf of Syrians and, you know, having sovereignty over Syrian territories. Mainly, we’re talking about Iran, Hezbollah and the Russians, as well. You know, in the north, we’ve seen also Turkey supporting some Syrian-backed — Syrian forces, as well. And Israel has violated almost every right of sovereignty and, especially after the toppling of Assad, almost destroyed all the defense forces inside Syria. So, all of these are violations.

And really, as a Syrian, I feel that this is a golden opportunity for Syrians to work together to build the country together without any interference from foreign forces. But I have to say, the most feared one among people here is Iran and its affiliated militia, whether in Iraq or in Lebanon, from Hezbollah or the Shia militias in Iraq. They’re worried about them interfering in the society, causing disruption and causing instability, especially that many of the Alawites and the Shia in Syria have always been affiliated to foreign powers, like in Iran, and they are worried that this is going to continue.

AMY GOODMAN: Lina Sinjab, we thank you so much for being with us, Syrian journalist, BBC Middle East correspondent, speaking to us from Damascus, now back in the capital of Syria. She was the BBC Syria correspondent ’til 2013, when she was forced to flee Syria after threats from the Assad regime.

Next up, a new Washington Post investigation reveals 3,100 Indigenous students died at boarding schools here in the U.S. from 1828 and 1970 — three times more than was reported earlier this year. Stay with us.