SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Residents and activists in Suwayda governorate, southern Syria, believe that the intelligence apparatus of the Syrian government infiltrates the cities, towns, and government institutions of the governorate.
The governorate of Suwayda is home to the country’s Druze minority, an ethnoreligious group which practices a monotheistic Abrahamic religion and speaks the Arabic language. Historically, the region has been mostly pro-government, even from the start of the country’s nine-year-crisis and civil war.
All directorates and institutions of the Suwayda Governorate Council and the Syrian government, in addition to the branches and divisions of the Ba’ath Party, remain with formal authority that follows the decisions of the intelligence, according to local activists.
“The actual and local administration of Suwayda is a security par excellence for decades, and the civil administration is formal and worthless,” Raed al-Jamil (a pseudonym), a lawyer from the city of Shahba south of Suwayda, told North Press.
“The security and intelligence services are the de facto rulers in Suwayda.”
“Neither the governor nor the secretary of the Ba’ath Party can make any decisions by themselves,” he added.
According to al-Jamil, only the Military Security heads the security meetings and can make decisions.
There is a conflict over running Suwayda militarily between the Russian-backed Fifth Corps and the Iranian-backed Fourth Corps, both of whom are affiliated with the Syrian government.
Local groups in Suwayda are divided between those loyal to the Syrian government and Iran, and others who maintain their independence and remain silent about some security incidents, most notably the Sheikh al-Karama Forces.
Also, the National Defense group emerged as a powerful military front, and its members were trained by Lebanese Hezbollah to confront the Russian-backed Fifth Corps.
Syrian government forces are stationed on the outskirts of Suwayda and have not interfered in the city’s neighborhoods since 2001.
Ziyad al-Ali (a pseudonym), a retired soldier, said that the government forces are only present in their military barracks, and their leaders are in headquarters inside Suwayda, such as the headquarters of Division 15.
“The possibility of the interference of the army in Suwayda has become the complex of the Syrian government and its main concern,” al-Ali said.
The last incident where the government forces interfered directly dates back to 2001, when fighting broke out between some of the people of Suwayda and members of Bedouin tribes.
According to al-Ali, there are international and regional obstacles facing any military project within Suwayda, as it is under international pledges to protect the Druze, and the Syrian government will not dare to engage in a battle against a minority.
In July 2018, ISIS attacked Suwayda and killed 290 civilians, with government forces taking days to respond to the massacres, leaving civilians to fend for themselves against the terror group.
For more than 50 years, security agencies have impeded any civil or local political development that could be an alternative or partner in decision-making and managing the country’s affairs, according to activists from Suwayda.