Regime officers complain to Russia of expired food, corruption

Reporting by Abdul Salam Haj Bakri

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A Syrian Republican Guard officer complained of hunger to the Russians at a time when the administration of military appointments provided expired canned food to the army, causing several cases of poisoning in the regime-controlled Latakia countryside.

This comes after exclusive information published by Zaman al-Wasl revealed the arrest of the Director of Appointments Department of the Supply and Logistics Authority, Major General Sulayman al-Salama, who was detained in Sednaya detention center after discovering his role in falsifying the date of production of corrupt quantities of sardines and tuna which were distributed to the regime's army.

The investigation revealed that the inspection committees found in the office of Sulayman the seals of traders used to seal "fake deals", which resulted in the arrest of a number of those involved as a result of successive confessions.

Al-Salama is the second officer with senior rank to be arrested within a month after an order from Bashar al-Assad to arrest Maj. Gen. Abdul Basset Loki, director of the Mission Directorate in Sednaya, for his involvement in a $ 80 million deal who imported bullet proof protective suits from China.

The source suggested that the Russian pressure is behind the campaign of arrests in the army of the regime in order to push Assad to reduce corruption in the ranks of his forces.

Justification of corruption

Most loyalists justify the corruption of the top of Syria's power pyramid that these on the top do not know.

"In January 1986, Hafez al-Assad visited us at the observatory opposite Jabal al-Sheikh. It was very cold. He asked about our needs and whether we needed anything," said one retired aide.

He was accompanied by a large number of officers. I lifted my hand and told him that we were starving because of the lack of food items.

He said to one of the soldiers, "give me a snowball. When the soldier brought it, Hafez al-Asad took it from his hand and handed it over to the nearest officer, and asked him to give it to the next one, until the ball reached me. The ball melted. We send you lot, but they melt on the road, as happened with this snowball. "

This narrative is being circulated by Assad's supporters and they are always demanding that those responsible for the shortfall be punished.

The Republican Guard complains to the Russians

Some officers found an outlet to express their resentment at the malnutrition they suffered after the arrival of the Russians to Syria, and the emergence of their role on the scene as the officials of Assad and his army. A republican Guard officer filed a complaint attached to a picture of food to the Russian military base in Hemeimem concerning the amount of food sent by the leadership to his team consisting of 6 others. The food sent consists of two breads and a quantity of potatoes which are not enough to feed one person. The guard asked in his complaint not to be named.

The media channel of Hemeimim base published the complaint by the officer explaining that the matter may be investigated by a Syrian government agency.

The retired Brigadier General Saqr H in the Lattakia Veterans Association expressed his surprise at Zaman Al Wasl for directing this complaint, and by an officer of the Republican Guard who is more loyal to the Assad family, where the guards are considered the units of the military leadership.

He stressed that this reflects the extent of the deterioration of the situation in the army, and clearly shows that the Syrian officers have found who is able to protect them from the Syrian security forces, and the citizen can realize that the Syrian regime has lost control of his army. An officer in the Syrian army would not have dated to complain of food before and if he did, he would be detained by his commander if not arbitrarily dismissed.

Hunger and corruption are common

The army of the regime suffers from widespread corruption at various levels. Regime loyalists criticize of the quality of food offered to soldiers who fight or die in defense of Assad's chair.

Mamoun al-Bahr wrote on the page (news of Bahluliyah), “by God, they only bring us bad food and expired canned food wherever they find it."

Ward Juri described the army thieves and those responsible for feeding as ISIS inside and that they are not afraid of God," she said.

The Department of Military Appointments had sent in the middle of the July this year expired canned "ton, sardine and milk" to the military forces fighting with the Assad regime in the Lattakia countryside several soldiers and officers had food poisoning and were transferred to the military hospital in Latakia, according to private information received by media activist, Mohammed Sahili from a doctor in the hospital.

In a related context, a special source told Zaman al-Wasl that he joined a group of "university alumni" to take a military training course. They were assembled in Jableh and Lattakia at the beginning of this month. They were deported to Damascus in worn-out buses. In Lattakia, they paid for their ride to Damascus each a sum of 4000 SP.

"If you cannot deport us at the expense of the army according to the military laws, how will you feed us," one of them asked the colonel, head of the recruitment division in Lattakia.