Continuous Demonstrations in Deir Ez-Zur and the Syrian Democratic Forces Control Oil Smuggling
Continuous Demonstrations in Deir Ez-Zur and the Syrian Democratic Forces Control Oil Smuggling
Officials in the local administrations of the Self-Administration in the north and east of Syria believe that the fuel crisis in their areas will soon stabilize after the seizure of oil smuggling operations in the areas of the Syrian government control of, in light of popular protests in some areas of the east of the Euphrates in Deir Ez-Zur governorate, demanding services and lowering of prices.
With the return of the residents to their villages and towns of Deir Ez-Zur , after the expulsion of the “Islamic State ” organization, on March 23 by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the area suffers from a lack of services in all sectors, which created a state of public discontent that pushed the people out in protests demanding the improvement of services.
Commenting on the issue, Muhammad Abu Mutaz, a resident of the city of Hajin, says that the situation of services in the area is very bad, he adds: “We suffer from the problem of electricity where the prices of amperes of private generators are very expensive, and we suffer from bad roads. As for health situation, we have no health center or hospitals even the private ones are too expensive.
“We depend on agriculture for our livelihood, so we demand the operation of water plants so that we can water our land, We call on relief organizations to help us, our areas have been largely destroyed,” he said.
Abu Moataz points out that they suffer more from the issue of fuels “our region is rich in oil wells, but we buy the diesel liter for /200/SYP, as we buy gas cylinders for /3000/SYP, these are high prices after we return from displacement especially that most of the residents of the region are poor.”
Abu Ahmed, another resident, describing the high prices in the region as “excessive”, pointed to the existence of “significant unemployment”.
In the opinion of the Civil council officials, the reasons that prevent meeting all the demands of the population, is because the region has recently got out of the war against the organization of the “Islamic State”.
According to the officials, the organization “destroyed a lot of infrastructure and vital facilities in Deir Ez-Zur, which created challenges for the Civil Council of the city to meet the demands of civilians as required.”
According to civil council officials in the region, their potential is “limited”, referring to the “absence of the role of relief and humanitarian organizations.”
The protests are for human rights
In an interview for “North Press “, a prominent member of The al-Bakkir clan, Ibrahim al-Hamad, a resident of the town of Alsour east of Deir Ez-Zur, says: “The protesters went out to claim their rights and not for vandalizing or something, where
most people here are in poor conditions, and the concerned authorities promised to provide them with services, but to no avail, which pushed people to demonstrate and go out to the street.”
He added; “A liter of diesel fuel is sold at 200 SYP in Deir Ez-Zur, and in the governorate of Hasaka it is sold at 50 pounds. This is also the case with gasoline, which weighs heavily on the citizens.”
Ibrahim al-Hamad noted “our areas are agricultural and the season of agriculture is very soon and people need fuel.”
Popular protests have recently witnessed a remarkable development, with some protesters carrying arms and shooting randomly in the countryside of AlSour.
“The protests are nothing more than peoples’ demand for their rights and not more,” he described the bearers of arms in the protests as ” vandals.”
The solution
Mish’al al-Abdullah, the co-chair of the town council, said that “the demands of the protesters are right” because there is a lack of some services, but he believes that “citizens’ exit in demonstrations is wrong.”
“They were supposed to come to the councils, and we in turn submit their requests to the competent authorities to meet their requirements, but the disruption of roads is wrong, because some international or regional authorities are exploiting the protests to achieve other goals,” he says.
Al-Abdullah said they contacted the protesters and carried out some of their demands, including relief aid and fuel for agriculture.
As for the high prices, he said: “We discussed this with the concerned authorities, where there were some smuggling of oil through the Euphrates River to the areas controlled by the Syrian Government, but the authorities intervened and prevented all operations and will reduce prices soon.”
The commander of the special forces of the Deir Ez-Zur military council, Muhammed Abu Ghazaleh, said in an earlier statement to “North Press”, that they seized a lot of oil smuggling operations to the areas controlled by the Syrian Government and they prevented those operations, and will hold the smugglers accountable.
Deir Ez- Zur – Delsouz Yousef – NPA