HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – In the early months of 2022 efforts were exerted by many parties to install hundreds of poles for streets lighting in the entrance and main streets of the town of Shaddadi, south of the city of Hasakah in northeastern Syria, to consolidate peace and security there.
The town of Shaddadi lies some 60 km to the south of Hasakah. It was a main bastion for the Islamic State (ISIS) when the group was controlling large swathes of territories. It is a tribal Arab area.
Lighting the main streets in the town that underwent transitions and transformations in the Syrian crisis brought a popular acceptance in the town founding themselves in a new different reality.
Amin Darwish, a resident of Shaddadi, said the project introduced a big difference. At night, the vision is clear in the town.
The project reduced robberies and gave more beauty to the town. A feeling of more security was too felt, according to Darwish.
Kanaan Barakat, co-chair of the Interior Board of the Jazira Region, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) told North Press, “Consolidating peace and security in the region is a priority for us in protecting citizens.”
The Jazira region is an administrative division that includes the cities of Qamishli, Hasakah, Derik (al-Malikiyah), Amuda and al-Qahtaniyah (Tirbe Spiyeh).
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated ISIS militarily.
Barakat added that the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) and other affiliated institutions “played a major role in preventing crimes, as the sleeper cells try to strike the current security status and hide in dark places and move freely.”
The streets lighting curbs every kind of crimes in the town and facilitates the mission of the competent bodies, Barakat noted.
The project, before putting into action, was preceded by untenable efforts represented in holding dialogue forums between the Asayish and locals to “be informed on the communal security, according to Nerges Omar director of DIMOS, a local organization.
Such dialogues were within “our security” shared by many local civil society associations in northeast Syria. Organizations facilitated holding a series of meetings between the Asayish and the local community in the town.
“We tried to convey demands of locals and to make them share their fears and engage them in consolidating the security in their city by making proposals and recommendations,” Omar said.
“We tried by consolidating the notion of communal police which implies that the security of a community is a whole responsibility,” she added.
Allawi al-Saleh, a resident who took part in the session held in Shaddadi said that a single meeting, though greatly important, is not enough to convey demands.
“The town needs conducting security patrols. The main streets are lit while the secondary ones remain dark. It is the case of the countryside too. Unemployment added to the deteriorating economic conditions among the youths leads to increasing security incidents,” he added.
Barakat laid much stress on the significance of what has been achieved in a number of cities in the [Jazira] region, “It is good, but not enough. It needs to be applied to all cities of the Jazira Region.”