BBC: Britisk og dansk u-landshjælp menes ende hos syriske ekstremister

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Officers from a UK-backed police force in Syria have also been working with courts carrying out brutal sentences, BBC online reports.

The Free Syrian Police (FSP) was set up following the uprising in Syria, to bring law and order to parts of the country that were controlled by opposition forces.

Adam Smith International (ASI), a British Company, has been running the project since October 2014.

Britain was one of six donor countries paying for the project, which provides community policing to the rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Idlib and Daraa provinces.

Herhjemme har VLAK-regeringen indefrosset et tocifret millionbeløb, der skulle have gået til sikkerhedsprojektet i Syrien efter mistanke om, at midlerne er endt i hos ekstremistiske grupper i Syrien.

Danmark har fra 2014 til juli 2017 sendt 54 mio. kr. til Det Frie Syriske Politi og i alt bevilliget 60 millioner. Yderligere 22,2 millioner kr. skulle være sendt afsted i december, men de bliver nu holdt tilbage.

“Situationen på jorden i Syrien er ekstremt vanskelig, og det er ikke uden risiko at støtte stabiliseringsindsatser der. Derfor har vi også et omfattende overvågningssystem for programmet. Danmark har netop givet støtte til det frie syriske politi for at modgå radikale gruppers indflydelse og skabe tryghed for den syriske civilbefolkning”, anfører Anders Samuelsen mandag.

BBC online fortsætter

The project is intended to be an unarmed civilian police force, and not co-operate with extremist groups, but Panorama has found examples where that was not the case. Among them are:

  • Police cooperating with courts that carry out summary executions – including a case where two women were stoned to death
  • Police being paid in cash and then being forced to hand over funds to an extremist group controlling the area
  • Police officers being handpicked by an extremist group
  • Dead and fictitious people are on the police payroll

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson announced in April that the UK would commit a further four million punds to the UK-funded Access to Justice and Community Security (AJACS) scheme that supports the FSP.

ASI says the FSP is an unarmed community police force that brings the rule of law and safety to millions of people in a war-torn country.

Panorama has obtained ASI documents that show how some police officers in Aleppo province were forced to hand over cash to the extremist group – Nour al-Din al-Zinki – in control of the area. The movement has been linked to atrocities, including the beheading of a young prisoner in 2016.

You can see more on this story on Panorama, Jihadis You Pay For on BBC One at 7.30pm on Monday 4 December and afterwards on iPlayer.