Raqqa – Mostafa al-Khalil – North-Press Agency
The military operations between Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Islamic State (ISIS) militants and the Global Coalition airstrikes in Raqqa in 2017 have severely damaged the infrastructure, most bridges, roads, buildings, hospitals, schools, drinking water and sewage networks were out of service, as well as almost complete destruction of residential buildings.
According to a report by Amnesty International, the Global Coalition fighter jets have destroyed more than 11.000 residential buildings in Raqqa, statistics indicate that the percentage of total destruction in Raqqa is about %95.
Reconstruction
After the expulsion of ISIS militants from Raqqa in 2017, the issue of reconstructing the city and compensating the people whose properties and houses were damaged, was circulating in the Arab and Western media. However, the issue took a different direction, where the donor countries which were supposed to start funding Raqqa Civil Council, made it clear that the transition to this stage will only take place after a radical political solution to the conflict in all of Syria.
Some donor countries provide support to Raqqa Civil Council and NGOs, but it was “a limited and incompatible support comparing with the scale of the massive destruction in the city”, said Ibrahim al-Hassan, the head of the Planning and Studies Committee in Raqqa Civil Council.
Based on this reality, some of the people of Raqqa who were affected by the heavy military, started reconstructing their properties and houses, but this percentage is very small compared with the category of population who lost everything, while some of them had left the city to turn the page of reconstructing their properties.
In al-Ujeili neighborhood which is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the old city of Raqqa, Muhallab al-Ujeili s repairing his house which was damaged by the Global Coalition bombardment.
Muhallab has a four-storey building which was damaged as a result of the Global Coalition airstrikes and is no longer habitable, where ISIS militants transformed the building’s entrance into a factory for preparing and manufacturing IEDs and booby-traps, “I recognized as we returned to Raqqa after liberation, as I informed the competent authorities of SDF, where they responded, investigated the situation, examined it and cleansed the remnants of the tools from which IEDs and booby traps were made,” Muhallab told North-Press.
“Is this the reason for the destruction of my house by Global Coalition aircraft?” Muhallab wondered, adding: “We waited a lot for the reconstruction, but it seems that we’ll wait much longer.”
While he was busy repairing his house, Muhallab used the plaster instead of cement because of its “availability and low prices compared to cement, which costs about 80.000 SYP ($131) per ton.”
The cost of rehabilitation and restoration of the ground floor of Muhallab’s building has reached more than 630.000 SYP (about $1000), where he borrowed the amount from some friends, as he said.
“Despite the high prices of the construction materials, especially cement and iron, I am now restoring my house and at my own expense in order to return to it,” Muhallab added.
Muhallab called on donor countries to compensate “for the damage done to us and to our houses at least in part,” noting that the support “should be guided and balanced and not only for the countryside, because the countryside of Raqqa was not much damaged in comparison with heavy damage of the city of Raqqa”.
In Sayf al-Dawla Street in the center of Raqqa, Ghofran al-Matar with her husband and children live in her parents’ house after their house was also destroyed by airstrikes.
Ghofran told “North Press” about the possibility of renovating her house, saying “Our financial potential is very weak, my husband is a simple worker who goes to Museum Street every morning (Workers gathering place in Raqqa), looking for a job to provide the living for me and my children”, noting that there are few job opportunities in the city, “my husband works one day and waits for another working opportunity for ten days.”
Ghofran continues her talk and her artificial smile (overcoming the situation) could not hide her tears that began to pour down, “A group of ISIS militants made the house next to ours a military point and brought a cannon, then my husband and I decided to leave the house and go to one of our relatives’, because this place became a target for the warplanes.” The war planes then bombed her house and the next house which was a military point.
“Will the donor countries compensate us one day, what is our fault if our neighbors’ house was turned into a military point for ISIS?”
The countryside
The situation in the countryside of Raqqa differs from the city, there is little damage to the houses compared to the city. However, in all the places where fighting took place, were damaged and the proportions remain very different and verifying.
Ahmad al-Issa al-Faraj from the village of Ratla some 10 km south of Raqqa, his house was also damaged by the fierce military operations, where his house became a front line between the fighting groups.
“A group of ISIS militants fled the village of Kusrat Muhammad Ali and hid in my house, the the war planes targeted the house with three rockets, turning the three-room urban house with the modest bathroom into a rubble,” Al-Faraj said.
“After the stabilization of the situation in the area, I visited some competent authorities in Raqqa and the incident was written down in the Municipality of al-Kusrat in order to be compensated for what happened, since then, we have heard about reconstruction and compensation for those affected, but we have not seen anything,” al-Faraj added.
Al-Faraj who is responsible for six individuals and owns a land which he sold a part of it in order to build a two-room house, demands to be compensated for the damage and destruction of his property.
Raqqa Civil Council
Lawyer Ibrahim al-Hassan, the head of the Planning and Studies Committee of Raqqa Civil Council, spoke to North-Press about reconstruction saying: “The issue of reconstruction in its true sense is subject to a comprehensive political process which produces a lasting solution to the conflict in our country,” noting “a real reconstruction process cannot be done unless we start to rebuild the residents’ houses which were destroyed by the bombardment and compensate those affected.”
“We relied on our modest capabilities to rehabilitate many vital bridges in Raqqa without any support from any supporting party or country,” Al-Hassan added, noting that they habilitated Raqqa’s old bridge, Raqqa Samra bridge, al-Khatoniya bridge, Shneina bridge, Khass bridge, Ujeil bridge and ar-Reyyash bridge, noting that electricity was delivered to al-Mashlab and al-Sena’a neighborhoods and the lighting of several streets in Raqqa was repaired.
Al-Hassan pointed out that they are currently working on paving roads and streets inside the city with asphalt which is “a continuation of last year’s plan to pave roads at the entrances and in the surrounding areas of the city.”
Planning and Studies Committee which was established a few months ago, is specialized in studying construction and reconstruction projects and putting urgent plans for the development of the work.
Suna’a al-Mustaqbal Organization
For his part, Nizar al-Issa, the director of Suna’a al-Mustaqbal Organization said: “All what we, as Suna’a al-Mustaqbal Organization and other NGOs opertaing in Raqqa, fall under the name of the ambulatory situation which is a case of “support stability” that is far from reconstruction, which depends on a huge and comprehensive political process linked to the interests of the active countries in the political process in Syria, that stage is called the heavy reconstruction stage.”
Nizar added: “Within that stage is a reconstruction, not a rehabilitation,” noting that they as an NGO: “when we submit a study to the donor countries, we are required to be under rehabilitation article and if it’s under the name of reconstruction, then the project will not be approved by those donors.”
Nizar pointed out that all their educational and psychological projects, psychological support for children, rehabilitation of roads, irrigation and agriculture projects are “only emergency cases”.
As for reconstruction in Raqqa, whether ambulatory, heavy or otherwise, was contingent upon a comprehensive political process, especially during the circumstances in the region in general and northeastern Syria in particular, along with intensification of Ankara’s threats to invade the region, war-affected people will wait a lot to resolve the reconstruction issue.