DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria (North Press) – Abdulsamad al-Ali, a resident of the city of al-Tabni in the western countryside of Deir ez-Zor, is helpless to do anything about the seizure of the home of his brother, who was displaced to the areas of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), by Syrian government forces.
Forces and security apparatuses affiliated with the regime regularly seize properties of civilians who were displaced to the western countryside of Deir ez-Zor to the areas run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during battles between the SDF and ISIS.
In March 2019, the SDF, supported by the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, expelled ISIS fighters from their last headquarters in al-Baghouz town, in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor.
Government forces, supported by Russia, controlled other areas in Deir ez-Zor. However, the war, the living crisis and the security pursuits prompted a number of residents to move to areas run by the AANES.
“A patrol of the government forces, accompanied by the municipal officials, informed the family who resides in my brother’s house to vacate the house within 48 hours,” al-Ali said.
“I am helpless to return the home of my brother, who the government forces described as “separatist” because he fled during the battles to the areas under the AANES’s control.”
Every day and in every street
Residents in government-held areas of Deir ez-Zor said they saw people reporting the residency of some families in those houses in order to be vacated.
Muhammad al-Abdullah (a pseudonym), an employee of al-Tabni municipality, said that “they conduct assessments of the houses and the shops that they seize within special records.”
“The records are transferred to the local administration of Deir ez-Zor in a monthly report that includes the number of houses and shops in addition to the date of the seizure,” he added.
The seized houses and shops are given to members of the government forces who came to Deir ez-Zor and its countryside for permanent or temporary residency, according to al-Abdullah.
Juma’ al-Aboush, a resident of the city of al-Bukamal, located near the Syrian-Iraqi border, said, “seizures of houses whose owners settled in AANES-held areas are conducted almost every day.”
“Every street in al-Bukamal has at least three houses that the government seized,” he added.
Fear
The directorates and the municipalities do not handle the seized property for 60 days to prove the presence of its owners in the AANES-held areas, according to residents whose relatives’ homes were seized.
Nawras al-Hassan, an IDP displaced from al-Tabni and who has lived in the city of Raqqa since 2017, is afraid to return home for fear of being pursued by security forces.
“In early 2018, members of the pro-Iranian Liwa Fatemiyoun seized my house after they expelled the tenant, according to what my friend in the town told me at the time,” he added.
He stated that what frightens him and other people displaced from Deir ez-Zor and its western and eastern countryside is to be accused of joining the ranks of the SDF during their residency in regions east of the Euphrates.