Sydney academic to host two-day pro-Assad conference

A Sydney academic who denounced Trump and Obama will host a conference supporting Assad.

Dr Tim Anderson from Sydney University.

The Sydney academic who denounced US presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama as being the “masterminds” behind terrorism in the Middle East will host an academic conference supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad whose regime is accused of launching a chemical weapon attack which killed scores of people, including children.

Dr Tim Anderson, a senior lecturer in economics and international politics at the University of Sydney, founded the pro-Assad Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies early last year.

Next week, the centre will host “After the War on Syria: Imperialism, Independence and Human Rights”, which will hear from a number of academics, bloggers and students who have publicly supported the Assad regime.

Dr Anderson, who has visited Syria four times, met Assad in 2013 and plans to return in coming months, rejected reports the Syrian government orchestrated a chemical weapons strike in Syria’s northern Idlib province last week.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 87 people, including 31 children and 20 women, were killed in the April 4 attack, in which sarin gas was reportedly used, causing victims to collapse and foam at the mouth.

Malcolm Turnbull described the attack as “a war crime of the worst sort.”

“There is no credible evidence that the Syrian Army has ever used chemical weapons, 2011-2017,” Dr Anderson wrote on his Facebook page, which has 13,000 followers. “Al Qa’ida’s multiple use of (chemical weapons), on the other hand, is well documented, in independent evidence.” In a tweet, he wrote: “I don’t recall Adolf Hitler being accused of targeting German civilians. Either Bashar al-Assad is worse than Hitler, or al-Qa’ida is lying.”

Dr Anderson, who was acquitted of the 1978 Sydney Hilton bombing, yesterday denied he had been censored by the University of Sydney despite founding the CCHS, which is dedicated to countering “western academic bodies (that) constrain, censor and marginalise” his area of research.

“It’s the whole academic world, really, because of the way it’s structured,” Dr Anderson said. “It’s talking generally about the western academic world ... (the centre is) really another opportunity for research publications in this particular area. It’s a virtual centre, its creating a research arm and debate.” The university said it did not censor Dr Anderson’s work.

Dr Anderson said next week’s conference, which will “critically explore self-determination and imperialism in Syria”, is the first of its kind. “It’s the first Australian academic conference on the conflict,” he said. “I believe people are intimidated, the personal attacks from some of the media … people cant talk out about these issues.”

A spokeswoman for Sydney University said the university is aware of the conference, but does not provide any “financial or administrative support”.