(Zaman Al Wasl)- Head of the media office in Aleppo Free Police command said that campaign launched by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other British media is not against the Free Police in Aleppo specifically, but against the supporting companies such as Ajax and Adam Smith International.
In its report, the BBC claimed that funds coming from Britain, one of the six countries supporting the Free Police program, is reaching terrorists or extremists.
Major Maher Maree told Zaman Al-Wasl that the support stopped around two weeks ago and that the supporting company sent an email to the Free Aleppo Police Commander, Brigadier Adib Ahmed Al-Shlaf, informing him that the support was suspended due to the BBC report.
Maree said the BBC's report aligns with the regime’s aims to eliminate any project or institution established since 2012 and noted that the BBC is the only major international media outlet with operational offices with the regime.
“Everyone has seen the pictures of its [BBC’s] correspondents and broadcasters laughing and conspiring with the regime officers in the regime-controlled areas,” he said, accusing the station of “relying in its report on the opinions and points of views those reporters conveyed.”
According to Major Maree, the Free Police institution provides civil services for civilians in cooperation with the service councils and civil society organizations, since it is a community police force, and it does not possess any weapons. The Free Police maintains the same relationship with all the factions on the ground, and it deals with the Higher Court Council.
He explained that the BBC report claims that 1800 US Dollars out of a total of 20 million US Dollars reached the hands of terrorists in the past five years. He added that Ajax company employees earn higher monthly salaries than that sum.
“It is shameful that a channel that claims objectivity and professionalism in its work and that has international fame and reach, issues such a report,” Major Maree said. He pointed out that the report, broadcasted as part of the Panorama program, was biased.
He stressed that the Free Police sent a refutation of the information included in the BBC report which claims to be investigative but lacks solid evidence. Major Maree called on those interested to send observers to assess the nature of the work of the free Aleppo police stations since 2012 until now, the amounts they have received and the amounts they have handed over to projects. He explained, “The Free Police have a financial system in place by which it is prohibited to hand over a salary except to the person entitled and then only after the person presents his identity card.”
He pointed out that the financial support sent to the Free Police to cover employees’ salaries and operational costs is delivered to the centers which then pay out employees’ salaries.
Major Maree said that he believes the support was suspended and did not stop. He added that the support would be restored once it was confirmed the BBC information were “fabrications”. “In the event the support is completely cut off, the Aleppo Free Police have relations with the local councils that will enable them to secure part of the support.”
He added that Free Police officers continue their work normally whether there are salaries or not. He explained that those most affected by the suspension of financial support are the community projects that rely entirely on external support and added that these projects have, in recent years, provided important services that facilitated the everyday life of people in liberated rural Aleppo.
“Since its establishment, the Free Police was and is a revolutionary institution and one of the civil society actors that has a good relationship with the civil society and organizations. This relationship is marked by coordination and cooperation. It [the Free Police] was never affiliated, or subordinate to any military body and this institution will continue to be on good terms with the people in the liberated areas to work to serve them and ensure their security in all circumstances and under all conditions,” Major Maree said.
The BBC report entitled, “Jihadis you pay for” considered that part of the money paid by the British Foreign Office to the Free Police, an unarmed Western-backed police force, reached “jihadists linked to extremist groups.”
The report relied on an internal investigation revealing that 1800 US Dollars of the 20 million US Dollars allocated to fund the police force had inadvertently reached officers in the Syrian Free Police connected with “extremist” groups. Adam Smith International, a British consulting firm that runs the “Access to Justice and Community Security” program which is funded by Britain and supports the Syrian Free Police in opposition controlled areas in Syria, described the information in the report as “completely false and misleading.”
The British Foreign Office, which finances the program along with five other governments, said the project was important to Britain's national security but suspended funding while investigations are ongoing.
The Foreign Office added, “These schemes that have international partner support as well, aim to make areas in Syria safer by providing basic civilian police services.”
The Syrian Free Police is formed of 3,300 officers, mostly unarmed officers, in opposition controlled areas in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib and Deraa.
Zaman A Wasl
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