By Samer Yassin
HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – A short time ago, Abdulhakim al-Hajji, 55, asked one of the young men who was standing next to a tent erected in the city of Hasakah, northeastern Syria, about what had happened there, only to be surprised that the young man was carrying a weapon and tampering with it without any regard for its dangers or even thinking about shooting a bullet that could kill the person across from.
“This is wrong and a big mistake,” al-Hajji said. “Reasonable people should bring awareness to these young men so that the people can live in stability and peace.”
What worries the man most is the spread of this phenomenon in a normal way that will affect children. “Children will carry they weapons find and start to tamper with them, causing a big problem.”
Cases of random weapon carrying by some individuals in the city of Hasakah have spread recently, following the tension that occurred between the Jubur tribe in the city and the National Defense Forces (NDF) affiliated with the government forces, following the attack by the commander of the NDF, Abdulqader Hamo, on a notable of the Arab tribes Sheikh Abdulaziz Muhammad al-Meslet, the matter led to the mobilization of members and young men of the tribe, by carrying weapons randomly and trying to attack the “Security Square”, government-held neighborhood within the city of Hasakah, and expel the NDF from it.
Direct clashes with live bullets took place between the two parties in the populated areas and the public squares crowded with people. As a result, four people from the Jubur tribe were wounded and a soldier of the government forces was killed after being injured for several days, which caused fear and panic among the residents during the past two weeks.
Ahmad al-Muhammad, a young man from Hasakah, supports the reaction of the Jubur tribe towards the behavior of the NDF, but he rejects the phenomenon of armed clashes randomly.
“Carrying weapons in this random way leads to the death of innocent people inside the city,” he said. “There are some innocent civilians who were injured in the recent clashes between members of the tribe and the NDF.”
“Arms proliferation have a great impact on the residents of the city, where terror and fear spread among them to reach a stage where some residents were afraid even to walk in the street,” he told North Press.
Abdulkarim al-Bashir, a sixty-year-old resident of Tel Hajar neighborhood, witnessed the recent clashes. ” Arms proliferation by any party cause concerns for residents because after the recent tension, insecurity spread in the city, not to mention the victims that can be left behind by any random clash regarding innocent civilians.”
“The continuation of such phenomena inside cities affects the general stability for the residents, and we hope that this very bad phenomenon would end,” he add.
“It was noticed that cases of random arms proliferation reappeared. The main reason for these cases is war and armed conflict that the country has been going through for more than 11 years,” said Khaled Jabr, a human rights and civil activist. “The culture of weapon was entrenched in general.”
“Regardless of the recent tension happened in Hasakah and the NDF’s violation against one of Arab tribes’ notables, the random arms proliferation is a negative phenomenon in society, therefore competent authorities should prevent it, and impose laws in cities to provide security and consolidate social cohesion,” Jabr told North Press.
“Arms proliferation have direct negative impacts on children’s psychology, social condition existing, and on medical condition in the cities,” he noted.
The civil activist relies mainly on societal awareness, and then legal awareness in this regard. “There are laws issued by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), and they are into force of implementation and activation, but competent authorities should activate these laws on the ground more because the phenomenon of arms proliferation is not civilized, and it does not rise to societal level we experience in our cities, and lead to many negatives in societies,” according to Jabr.