DAMASCUS (AP) — At Damascus worldwide airport, the brand new head of safety, one of many rebels who they marched through Syria to the capital – arrived along with his staff. The few upkeep staff who confirmed up for work huddled round Maj Hamza al-Ahmed, wanting to know what occurs subsequent.
They rapidly unloaded all of the grievances that they had been too afraid to precise throughout President Bashar Assad’s rule, which is now, inconceivably, over.
They instructed the bearded fighter that that they had been denied promotions and perks in favor of pro-Assad favorites, and that bosses had threatened them with jail for working too slowly. They warned of the presence of hardcore Assad supporters among the many airport employees, able to return at any time when the power reopens.
Trustworthy information and day by day delights, straight to your inbox
See for your self: The Yodel is your go-to supply for day by day information, leisure and feel-good tales.
As Al-Ahmed tried to reassure them, Osama Najm, an engineer, introduced: “This is the primary time we’re speaking.”
This was Syria’s first week of transformation after that The unexpected fall of Assad.
The rebels, all of a sudden in command, encountered a inhabitants filled with feelings: enthusiasm for brand spanking new freedoms; ache from years of repression; and hopes, expectations and considerations for the long run. Some have been overwhelmed to the purpose of tears.
The transition was surprisingly clean. Reports of reprisals, revenge killings and sectarian violence have been minimal. Looting and destruction was rapidly contained and insurgent fighters have been disciplined. People continued their lives as regular within the capital Damascus on Saturday. Only a van of fighters was seen.
There are one million methods this might go fallacious.
Afterwards, the city is destroyed and remoted five decades of Assad family rule. Families have been torn aside by warfare, former prisoners are traumatized by the brutality they’ve suffered, and tens of hundreds of detainees are lacking. The economic system is collapsing, poverty is widespread, inflation and unemployment are excessive. Corruption seeps into day by day life.
But on this time of change, many are able to attempt the highway forward.
At the airport, al-Ahmed instructed employees: “The new path will current challenges, however that is why we mentioned Syria is for everybody and all of us have to work collectively.”
The rebels have mentioned all the correct issues up to now, Najm mentioned. “But we is not going to as soon as once more stay silent about one thing fallacious.”
Idlib arrives in Damascus
In a torched police station, photographs of Assad have been torn up and recordsdata destroyed after insurgents entered town on December 8. All Assad-era police and safety personnel have disappeared.
On Saturday, the constructing was occupied by 10 males serving within the police drive of the rebels’ de facto “salvation authorities”, which for years has dominated the insurgent enclave of Idlib in northwestern Syria.
Rebel cops maintain watch over the station, coping with experiences of petty thefts and road brawls. A girl complains that her neighbors have sabotaged her electrical energy provide. A policeman tells her to attend for the courts to begin functioning once more.
“It will take a yr to repair the issues,” he muttered.
The rebels have sought to revive order to Damascus by replicating the construction of its authorities in Idlib. But there’s a downside of scale. One of the policemen estimates that the variety of insurgent policemen is just round 4,000; half are based mostly in Idlib and the remainder are tasked with sustaining safety in Damascus and elsewhere. Some specialists estimate the insurgents’ complete combating forces to be round 20,000.
Right now, fighters and audiences are attending to know one another.
The fighters drive giant SUVs and newer automobile fashions which can be out of attain of most residents in Damascus, the place they price 10 instances extra on account of customs duties and bribes. The fighters carry with them the Turkish lira, lengthy banned in government-controlled areas, fairly than the collapsing Syrian pound.
Most of the bearded fighters come from provincial and conservative areas. Many are hardline Muslims.
The predominant insurgent drive, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has renounced its al-Qaida previous, and its leaders are working to reassure Syria’s non secular and ethnic communities that the long run will likely be pluralistic and tolerant.
But many Syrians stay suspicious. Some fighters sport ribbons with Islamic slogans on their uniforms and never all belong to HTS, essentially the most organized group.
“The folks we see on the streets don’t characterize us,” mentioned Hani Zia, a Damascus resident of the southern metropolis of Daraa, the place the 2011 anti-Assad rebellion started. He was involved about experiences of assaults on minorities and revenge killings.
“We ought to be afraid,” he mentioned, including that he fears some rebels will really feel superior to different Syrians due to their years of combating. “With all due respect to those that sacrificed themselves, all of us sacrificed ourselves.”
However, worry just isn’t prevalent in Damascus, the place many insist they are going to not enable themselves to be oppressed.
Some eating places have began serving alcohol overtly once more, others extra discreetly to check the temper.
At an out of doors bar within the Christian Quarter of the historic Old City, males have been consuming beer when a patrol of fighters handed by. The males turned to one another uncertainly, however the combatants did nothing. When a person brandishing a gun harassed a liquor retailer in one other a part of the Old City, insurgent police arrested him, a policeman mentioned.
Salem Hajjo, a drama trainer who participated within the 2011 protests, mentioned he disagrees with the rebels’ Islamist views however is impressed by their expertise in operating their very own affairs. And he expects to have a say within the new Syria.
“We have by no means been extra comfy,” he mentioned. “The worry has disappeared. The relaxation will depend on us.”
Fighters make a concerted effort to reassure
The night time after Assad’s fall, armed males roamed the streets, celebrating victory with deafening gunfire. Some safety company buildings have been set on fireplace. People ransacked the airport responsibility free store, breaking all of the liquor bottles. The rebels blamed a few of this on fleeing authorities loyalists.
THE the public remained at home, peeking on the new arrivals. The outlets shut.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham moved to impose order, ordering a nighttime curfew for 3 days. He banned celebratory gunfire and moved fighters to guard property.
After a day, folks started to emerge.
For tens of hundreds, their first vacation spot was Assad’s prisons notably Saydnaya, on the outskirts of the capital, to seek for family members who disappeared years in the past. Few have found traces.
It was heartbreaking but in addition unifying. The rebels, a few of whom have been additionally concerned within the search, mingled with the kin of the lacking at midnight rooms of the prisons that everybody had feared for years.
During the street celebrations, armed males invited kids to climb into their armored autos. The insurgents posed for photographs with girls, some with their hair uncovered. Pro-revolution songs sounded from the vehicles. Suddenly outlets and partitions in all places are plastered with revolutionary flags and posters of activists killed by Assad’s state.
The TV stations did not miss a beat, switching from praising Assad to taking part in revolutionary songs. State media unfold the flurry of statements launched by the brand new rebel-led transitional authorities.
The new administration known as on and urged folks to return to work Syrian refugees around the world come again to assist rebuild. He introduced plans to rehabilitate and management safety forces to forestall the return of “these with blood on their palms.” The fighters reassured airport employees, a lot of them authorities loyalists, that their properties wouldn’t be attacked, one worker mentioned.
But Syria’s troubles do far from resolved.
While costs for agricultural merchandise collapsed after Assad’s fall as merchants not wanted to pay giant customs charges and bribes, gas distribution was severely disrupted, elevating transportation prices and inflicting lengthy, widespread blackouts.
Officials say they wish to reopen the airport as quickly as potential, and upkeep staff inspected a handful of planes on the tarmac this week. Cleaners eliminated garbage, destroyed furnishings and items.
A cleaner, who recognized himself solely as Murad, mentioned he earns the equal of $15 a month and has six kids to feed, together with one with a incapacity. He goals of getting a mobile phone.
“We want quite a lot of time to wash this up,” he mentioned.
___
Associated Press author Ghaith Alsayed contributed.
