Latest news with #SyriansforTruthandJustice
New Indian Express
19-07-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Deadly violence in Syria could reshape domestic and regional alliances
Violence is only part of the problem. Syria's minority groups only have been given what many see as token representation in the interim government, according to Bassam Alahmad, executive director of Syrians for Truth and Justice, a civil society organization. 'It's a transitional period. We should have a dialogue, and they (the minorities) should feel that they're a real part of the state,' Alahmad said. Instead, with the incursion into Sweida, the new authorities have sent a message that they would use military force to 'control every part of Syria,' he said. 'Bashar Assad tried this way,' and it failed, he added. On the other hand, supporters of the new government fear that its decision to back down in Sweida could signal to other minorities that it's OK to demand their own autonomous regions, which would fragment and weaken the country. If Damascus cedes security control of Sweida to the Druze, 'of course everyone else is going to demand the same thing,' said Abdel Hakim al-Masri, a former official in the Turkish-backed regional government in Syria's northwest before Assad's fall. 'This is what we are afraid of,' he said. A rapprochement with Israel may be derailed Before this week's flare-up between Israel and Syria, and despite a long history of suspicion between the two countries, the Trump administration had been pushing their leaders to post-Assad to work toward normalizing relations – meaning that Syria would formally recognize Israel and establish diplomatic relations, or at least enter into some limited agreement on security matters. Syrian officials have acknowledged holding indirect talks with Israel, but defusing decades of tension was never going to be easy. After Assad's fall, Israeli forces seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in Syria and carried out airstrikes on military sites in what Israeli officials said was a move to create a demilitarized zone south of Damascus. Dareen Khalifa, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said she believes Israel could have gotten the same result through negotiations. But now it's unlikely Syria will be willing to continue down the path of reconciliation with Israel, at least in the short term, she said. 'I don't know how the Israelis could expect to drop bombs on Damascus and still have some kind of normal dialogue with the Syrians,' said Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a New York-based organization that focuses on global security challenges. 'Just like Netanyahu, al-Sharaa's got a domestic constituency that he's got to answer to.' Yet even after the events of this past week, the Trump administration still seems to have hope of keeping the talks alive. U.S. officials are 'engaging diplomatically with Israel and Syria at the highest levels, both to address the present crisis and reach a lasting agreement between two sovereign states,' says Dorothy Shea, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Shea said during a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on Thursday that 'the United States did not support recent Israeli strikes.' Syria could be drawn closer to Turkey During Syria's civil war, the U.S. was allied with Kurdish forces in the country's northeast in their fight against the Islamic State militant group. But since Assad's fall, the U.S. has begun gradually pulling its forces out of Syria and has encouraged the Kurds to integrate their forces with those of the new authorities in Damascus. To that end, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces agreed in March to a landmark deal that would merge them with the national army. But implementation has stalled. A major sticking point has been whether the SDF would remain as a cohesive unit in the new army or be dissolved completely. Khalifa said the conflict in Sweida is 'definitely going to complicate' those talks. Not only are the Kurds mistrustful of government forces after their attacks on Alawite and Druze minorities, but now they also view them as looking weak. 'Let's be frank, the government came out of this looking defeated,' Khalifa said. It's possible that the Kurds, like the Druze, might look to Israel for support, but Turkey is unlikely to stand by idly if they do, Khalifa said. The Turkish government considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. For that reason, it has long wanted to curtail the group's influence just across its border. Israel's latest military foray in Syria could give its new leaders an incentive to draw closer to Ankara, according to Clarke. That could include pursuing a defense pact that has been discussed but not implemented. Turkish defense ministry officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to procedures, said that if requested, Ankara is ready to assist Syria in strengthening its defense capabilities.
AsiaOne
30-04-2025
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Minutes to leave: Syria's Alawites evicted from private homes at gunpoint, Asia News
DAMASCUS — Early one evening in late January, 12 masked men stormed the Damascus home of Um Hassan's family, pointed AK-47 assault rifles in their faces and ordered them to leave. When they presented ownership documents, the men arrested Um Hassan's oldest brother and said they could only have him back once they had moved out. The family surrendered the house 24 hours later and picked him up, battered and bruised, from the local General Security Service headquarters, said Um Hassan, giving only her nickname for fear of reprisals. Her family is part of Syria's minority Alawite community, an offshoot of the Shi'ite faith and the sect of former strongman Bashar al-Assad. Their story is not unique. Since Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa seized power in December, hundreds of Alawites have been forced from their private homes in Damascus by the security forces, according to Syrian officials, Alawite leaders, human rights groups and 12 people with similar accounts who spoke to Reuters. "We're definitely not talking about independent incidents. We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of evictions," said Bassam Alahmad, executive director of human rights group Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ). The mass evictions of Alawites from privately owned homes have not been previously reported. For more than 50 years, Assad and his father before him crushed any opposition from Syria's Sunni Muslims, who make up more than 70 per cent of the population. Alawites took many of the top positions in government and the military and ran big businesses. They now accuse supporters of Sharaa, who once ran an al Qaeda affiliate, of systematically abusing them as payback. In March, hundreds of Alawites were killed in Syria's western coastal region and sectarian violence spread to Damascus in apparent retribution for a deadly ambush on Syria's new security forces by armed Assad loyalists. Two government officials said thousands of people had been kicked out of homes in Damascus since Assad was toppled by Sharaa's rebel force, with the majority being Alawites. The officials said most resided in government housing associated with their jobs in state institutions and, since they were no longer employed, they had lost their right to stay. But hundreds more, like Um Hassan, were evicted from their privately owned homes simply because they are Alawites, Reuters interviews with multiple officials and victims show. The interior ministry, which oversees the GSS, and Sharaa's office did not respond to requests for comment. 'War spoils committee' Sharaa has vowed to pursue inclusive policies to unite a country shattered by a 14-year sectarian civil war and attract foreign investment and aid. But Alawites fear the evictions are part of systematic sectarian score settling by Syria's new rulers. An official who declined to be named at the Damascus Countryside Directorate, which is responsible for managing public services, said they had received hundreds of complaints from people who had been violently evicted. An Alawite mayor in a Damascus suburb, who also asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said in March that 250 families out of 2,000 there had been evicted. The mayor shared with Reuters a call recorded in March with someone claiming to be a member of the General Security Service (GSS), a new agency made up of rebel fighters who ousted Assad. The GSS official demanded the mayor find an empty house for a family relocating from the north. When the mayor said there were no apartments for rent, the official told him to, "empty one of those houses that belong to one of those pigs", referring to Alawites. Muslims consider pigs unclean and impure and calling someone a pig is highly offensive. According to three senior GSS officials, the new authorities have established two committees to manage properties belonging to individuals perceived to be connected to the previous regime. One committee is responsible for confiscations, the other addresses complaints, the people said. Reuters was unable to determine to what extent Sharaa was aware of how homeowners were being evicted, or whether his office had oversight of the committees. They were created as Sharaa's forces closed in on Damascus in December and were modelled on a similar entity known as the "War Spoils Committee" in his former stronghold Idlib, the GSS sources said. "These evictions will certainly change the demographics of the city, similar to the changes that Assad implemented against his opponents in Sunni areas. We are talking about the same practice, but with different victims," said Alahmad at STJ. On April 16, STJ filed a complaint with the Damascus Suburbs Directorate, calling for an end to "sectarian-motivated" property violations and the return of looted properties. Two minutes to leave Assad's father Hafez al-Assad moved Alawites from coastal areas to urban centres to help cement his powerbase. Assad set up military installations and housing units for troops and their families around Damascus, where Alawites, who were over-represented in the army, made up a significant portion of the population, according to Fabrice Balanche, a Syria expert and an associate professor at the University of Lyon 2. Balanche estimated that half a million Alawites have moved to coastal areas after being evicted from the capital, Homs, Aleppo, and other parts of Syria following Assad's fall. In the Alawite neighbourhood of Dahyet al-Assad, civil servant and mother of four Um Hussein said two armed masked men came to her privately owned home on Jan 16 and identified themselves as GSS members. The newly created GSS deployed by Sharaa seems to be an extension of the security force that ruled Idlib province, said Syria expert Joshua Landis, head of the Centre for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. The GSS now seems to be the Police, FBI, CIA and national guard, all rolled into one, he said. Um Hussein said the men gave her 24 hours grace to leave, because of her son's dependence on a wheelchair. She appealed to numerous government bodies to keep her home, and received some assurances. The next day at about 10 a.m., the men returned and gave her two minutes to leave. Um Hussein said they also confiscated a shop her family owned in the neighbourhood and were renting out. "We have been living in this house for more than 22 years. All our money and savings have been invested in it. We cannot afford to rent elsewhere," said Um Hussein. Reuters spoke with two members of the security forces at the private homes they had occupied. One had seized two houses — including Um Hussein's — after evicting the owners. Hamid Mohamed, meanwhile, said his unit had taken over four empty homes belonging to Shabiha, a notorious pro-Assad militia. He said the security forces had not seized anything that wasn't theirs and recalled angrily that his home in a Damascus suburb was destroyed during the civil war. Mohamed said he moved to the capital after Assad's fall and had nowhere else to stay. 'Transitional injustice' On February 12, the Damascus governor called on citizens who say property has been unjustly confiscated to submit complaints at directorates. Reuters visited one in March where the official who declined to be named confirmed a pattern: armed individuals evicted people without a court order, prevented them from taking their belongings - and then moved in. The majority of confiscations targeted low- to middle-income Syrians who had lost their jobs and lacked the resources to pay their way out of the situation, the sources said. Another official in another Damascus directorate said the evictions happened overnight without due process. "It's chaotic, but there is a method to the madness, which is to terrify people and to let the whole world know that Alawites are no longer (in power)," said Landis. "There is no transitional justice. There's only transitional injustice." Seven armed men came to Rafaa Mahmoud's apartment on February 20 and threatened to kill her and her Alawite family unless she handed over the keys to the property they had bought 15 years earlier, she said. Mahmoud shared a 2 minute 27 second video with Reuters showing her standing behind her door, desperately arguing with the men, who warned the family to leave by nightfall. The men, who identified themselves as state security agents, called Mahmoud and her family "infidels and pigs". When Mahmoud asked for a court order, the men replied: "We only do things verbally here." [[nid:716914]]
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Minutes to leave: Syria's Alawites evicted from private homes at gunpoint
By Amina Ismail DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Early one evening in late January, 12 masked men stormed the Damascus home of Um Hassan's family, pointed AK-47 assault rifles in their faces and ordered them to leave. When they presented ownership documents, the men arrested Um Hassan's oldest brother and said they could only have him back once they had moved out. The family surrendered the house 24 hours later and picked him up, battered and bruised, from the local General Security Service headquarters, said Um Hassan, giving only her nickname for fear of reprisals. Her family is part of Syria's minority Alawite community, an offshoot of the Shi'ite faith and the sect of former strongman Bashar al-Assad. Their story is not unique. Since Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa seized power in December, hundreds of Alawites have been forced from their private homes in Damascus by the security forces, according to Syrian officials, Alawite leaders, human rights groups and 12 people with similar accounts who spoke to Reuters. "We're definitely not talking about independent incidents. We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of evictions," said Bassam Alahmad, executive director of human rights group Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ). The mass evictions of Alawites from privately owned homes have not been previously reported. For more than 50 years, Assad and his father before him crushed any opposition from Syria's Sunni Muslims, who make up more than 70% of the population. Alawites took many of the top positions in government and the military and ran big businesses. They now accuse supporters of Sharaa, who once ran an al Qaeda affiliate, of systematically abusing them as payback. In March, hundreds of Alawites were killed in Syria's western coastal region and sectarian violence spread to Damascus in apparent retribution for a deadly ambush on Syria's new security forces by armed Assad loyalists. Two government officials said thousands of people had been kicked out of homes in Damascus since Assad was toppled by Sharaa's rebel force, with the majority being Alawites. The officials said most resided in government housing associated with their jobs in state institutions and, since they were no longer employed, they had lost their right to stay. But hundreds more, like Um Hassan, were evicted from their privately owned homes simply because they are Alawites, Reuters interviews with multiple officials and victims show. The interior ministry, which oversees the GSS, and Sharaa's office did not respond to requests for comment. 'WAR SPOILS COMMITTEE' Sharaa has vowed to pursue inclusive policies to unite a country shattered by a 14-year sectarian civil war and attract foreign investment and aid. But Alawites fear the evictions are part of systematic sectarian score settling by Syria's new rulers. An official who declined to be named at the Damascus Countryside Directorate, which is responsible for managing public services, said they had received hundreds of complaints from people who had been violently evicted. An Alawite mayor in a Damascus suburb, who also asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said in March that 250 families out of 2,000 there had been evicted. The mayor shared with Reuters a call recorded in March with someone claiming to be a member of the General Security Service (GSS), a new agency made up of rebel fighters who ousted Assad. The GSS official demanded the mayor find an empty house for a family relocating from the north. When the mayor said there were no apartments for rent, the official told him to, "empty one of those houses that belong to one of those pigs", referring to Alawites. Muslims consider pigs unclean and impure and calling someone a pig is highly offensive. According to three senior GSS officials, the new authorities have established two committees to manage properties belonging to individuals perceived to be connected to the previous regime. One committee is responsible for confiscations, the other addresses complaints, the people said. Reuters was unable to determine to what extent Sharaa was aware of how homeowners were being evicted, or whether his office had oversight of the committees. They were created as Sharaa's forces closed in on Damascus in December and were modelled on a similar entity known as the "War Spoils Committee" in his former stronghold Idlib, the GSS sources said. "These evictions will certainly change the demographics of the city, similar to the changes that Assad implemented against his opponents in Sunni areas. We are talking about the same practice, but with different victims," said Alahmad at STJ. On April 16, STJ filed a complaint with the Damascus Suburbs Directorate, calling for an end to "sectarian-motivated" property violations and the return of looted properties. TWO MINUTES TO LEAVE Assad's father Hafez al-Assad moved Alawites from coastal areas to urban centres to help cement his powerbase. Assad set up military installations and housing units for troops and their families around Damascus, where Alawites, who were over-represented in the army, made up a significant portion of the population, according to Fabrice Balanche, a Syria expert and an associate professor at the University of Lyon 2. Balanche estimated that half a million Alawites have moved to coastal areas after being evicted from the capital, Homs, Aleppo, and other parts of Syria following Assad's fall. In the Alawite neighbourhood of Dahyet al-Assad, civil servant and mother of four Um Hussein said two armed masked men came to her privately owned home on January 16 and identified themselves as GSS members. The newly created GSS deployed by Sharaa seems to be an extension of the security force that ruled Idlib province, said Syria expert Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. The GSS now seems to be the Police, FBI, CIA and national guard, all rolled into one, he said. Um Hussein said the men gave her 24 hours grace to leave, because of her son's dependence on a wheelchair. She appealed to numerous government bodies to keep her home, and received some assurances. The next day at about 10 a.m., the men returned and gave her two minutes to leave. Um Hussein said they also confiscated a shop her family owned in the neighbourhood and were renting out. "We have been living in this house for more than 22 years. All our money and savings have been invested in it. We cannot afford to rent elsewhere," said Um Hussein. Reuters spoke with two members of the security forces at the private homes they had occupied. One had seized two houses - including Um Hussein's - after evicting the owners. Hamid Mohamed, meanwhile, said his unit had taken over four empty homes belonging to Shabiha, a notorious pro-Assad militia. He said the security forces had not seized anything that wasn't theirs and recalled angrily that his home in a Damascus suburb was destroyed during the civil war. Mohamed said he moved to the capital after Assad's fall and had nowhere else to stay. 'TRANSITIONAL INJUSTICE' On February 12, the Damascus governor called on citizens who say property has been unjustly confiscated to submit complaints at directorates. Reuters visited one in March where the official who declined to be named confirmed a pattern: armed individuals evicted people without a court order, prevented them from taking their belongings - and then moved in. The majority of confiscations targeted low- to middle-income Syrians who had lost their jobs and lacked the resources to pay their way out of the situation, the sources said. Another official in another Damascus directorate said the evictions happened overnight without due process. "It's chaotic, but there is a method to the madness, which is to terrify people and to let the whole world know that Alawites are no longer (in power)," said Landis. "There is no transitional justice. There's only transitional injustice." Seven armed men came to Rafaa Mahmoud's apartment on February 20 and threatened to kill her and her Alawite family unless she handed over the keys to the property they had bought 15 years earlier, she said. Mahmoud shared a 2 minute 27 second video with Reuters showing her standing behind her door, desperately arguing with the men, who warned the family to leave by nightfall. The men, who identified themselves as state security agents, called Mahmoud and her family "infidels and pigs". When Mahmoud asked for a court order, the men replied: "We only do things verbally here." (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by David Clarke)
Reuters
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Insight: Minutes to leave: Syria's Alawites evicted from private homes at gunpoint
Summary Alawites say they are being evicted from homes at gunpoint Human rights groups assert widespread abuses of Alawites New Syrian leader promises to create inclusive country DAMASCUS, April 30 (Reuters) - Early one evening in late January, 12 masked men stormed the Damascus home of Um Hassan's family, pointed AK-47 assault rifles in their faces and ordered them to leave. When they presented ownership documents, the men arrested Um Hassan's oldest brother and said they could only have him back once they had moved out. The family surrendered the house 24 hours later and picked him up, battered and bruised, from the local General Security Service headquarters, said Um Hassan, giving only her nickname for fear of reprisals. Her family is part of Syria's minority Alawite community, an offshoot of the Shi'ite faith and the sect of former strongman Bashar al-Assad. Their story is not unique. Since Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa seized power in December, hundreds of Alawites have been forced from their private homes in Damascus by the security forces, according to Syrian officials, Alawite leaders, human rights groups and 12 people with similar accounts who spoke to Reuters. "We're definitely not talking about independent incidents. We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of evictions," said Bassam Alahmad, executive director of human rights group Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ). The mass evictions of Alawites from privately owned homes have not been previously reported. For more than 50 years, Assad and his father before him crushed any opposition from Syria's Sunni Muslims, who make up more than 70% of the population. Alawites took many of the top positions in government and the military and ran big businesses. They now accuse supporters of Sharaa, who once ran an al Qaeda affiliate, of systematically abusing them as payback. In March, hundreds of Alawites were killed in Syria's western coastal region and sectarian violence spread to Damascus in apparent retribution for a deadly ambush on Syria's new security forces by armed Assad loyalists. Two government officials said thousands of people had been kicked out of homes in Damascus since Assad was toppled by Sharaa's rebel force, with the majority being Alawites. The officials said most resided in government housing associated with their jobs in state institutions and, since they were no longer employed, they had lost their right to stay. But hundreds more, like Um Hassan, were evicted from their privately owned homes simply because they are Alawites, Reuters interviews with multiple officials and victims show. The interior ministry, which oversees the GSS, and Sharaa's office did not respond to requests for comment. 'WAR SPOILS COMMITTEE' Sharaa has vowed to pursue inclusive policies to unite a country shattered by a 14-year sectarian civil war and attract foreign investment and aid. But Alawites fear the evictions are part of systematic sectarian score settling by Syria's new rulers. An official who declined to be named at the Damascus Countryside Directorate, which is responsible for managing public services, said they had received hundreds of complaints from people who had been violently evicted. An Alawite mayor in a Damascus suburb, who also asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said in March that 250 families out of 2,000 there had been evicted. The mayor shared with Reuters a call recorded in March with someone claiming to be a member of the General Security Service (GSS), a new agency made up of rebel fighters who ousted Assad. The GSS official demanded the mayor find an empty house for a family relocating from the north. When the mayor said there were no apartments for rent, the official told him to, "empty one of those houses that belong to one of those pigs", referring to Alawites. Muslims consider pigs unclean and impure and calling someone a pig is highly offensive. According to three senior GSS officials, the new authorities have established two committees to manage properties belonging to individuals perceived to be connected to the previous regime. One committee is responsible for confiscations, the other addresses complaints, the people said. Reuters was unable to determine to what extent Sharaa was aware of how homeowners were being evicted, or whether his office had oversight of the committees. They were created as Sharaa's forces closed in on Damascus in December and were modelled on a similar entity known as the "War Spoils Committee" in his former stronghold Idlib, the GSS sources said. "These evictions will certainly change the demographics of the city, similar to the changes that Assad implemented against his opponents in Sunni areas. We are talking about the same practice, but with different victims," said Alahmad at STJ. On April 16, STJ filed a complaint, opens new tab with the Damascus Suburbs Directorate, calling for an end to "sectarian-motivated" property violations and the return of looted properties. TWO MINUTES TO LEAVE Assad's father Hafez al-Assad moved Alawites from coastal areas to urban centres to help cement his powerbase. Assad set up military installations and housing units for troops and their families around Damascus, where Alawites, who were over-represented in the army, made up a significant portion of the population, according to Fabrice Balanche, a Syria expert and an associate professor at the University of Lyon 2. Balanche estimated that half a million Alawites have moved to coastal areas after being evicted from the capital, Homs, Aleppo, and other parts of Syria following Assad's fall. In the Alawite neighbourhood of Dahyet al-Assad, civil servant and mother of four Um Hussein said two armed masked men came to her privately owned home on January 16 and identified themselves as GSS members. The newly created GSS deployed by Sharaa seems to be an extension of the security force that ruled Idlib province, said Syria expert Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. The GSS now seems to be the Police, FBI, CIA and national guard, all rolled into one, he said. Um Hussein said the men gave her 24 hours grace to leave, because of her son's dependence on a wheelchair. She appealed to numerous government bodies to keep her home, and received some assurances. The next day at about 10 a.m., the men returned and gave her two minutes to leave. Um Hussein said they also confiscated a shop her family owned in the neighbourhood and were renting out. "We have been living in this house for more than 22 years. All our money and savings have been invested in it. We cannot afford to rent elsewhere," said Um Hussein. Reuters spoke with two members of the security forces at the private homes they had occupied. One had seized two houses - including Um Hussein's - after evicting the owners. Hamid Mohamed, meanwhile, said his unit had taken over four empty homes belonging to Shabiha, a notorious pro-Assad militia. He said the security forces had not seized anything that wasn't theirs and recalled angrily that his home in a Damascus suburb was destroyed during the civil war. Mohamed said he moved to the capital after Assad's fall and had nowhere else to stay. 'TRANSITIONAL INJUSTICE' On February 12, the Damascus governor called on citizens who say property has been unjustly confiscated to submit complaints at directorates. Reuters visited one in March where the official who declined to be named confirmed a pattern: armed individuals evicted people without a court order, prevented them from taking their belongings - and then moved in. The majority of confiscations targeted low- to middle-income Syrians who had lost their jobs and lacked the resources to pay their way out of the situation, the sources said. Another official in another Damascus directorate said the evictions happened overnight without due process. "It's chaotic, but there is a method to the madness, which is to terrify people and to let the whole world know that Alawites are no longer (in power)," said Landis. "There is no transitional justice. There's only transitional injustice." Seven armed men came to Rafaa Mahmoud's apartment on February 20 and threatened to kill her and her Alawite family unless she handed over the keys to the property they had bought 15 years earlier, she said. Mahmoud shared a 2 minute 27 second video with Reuters showing her standing behind her door, desperately arguing with the men, who warned the family to leave by nightfall. The men, who identified themselves as state security agents, called Mahmoud and her family "infidels and pigs". When Mahmoud asked for a court order, the men replied: "We only do things verbally here."
The Star
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Minutes to leave: Syria's Alawites evicted from private homes at gunpoint
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Early one evening in late January, 12 masked men stormed the Damascus home of Um Hassan's family, pointed AK-47 assault rifles in their faces and ordered them to leave. When they presented ownership documents, the men arrested Um Hassan's oldest brother and said they could only have him back once they had moved out. The family surrendered the house 24 hours later and picked him up, battered and bruised, from the local General Security Service headquarters, said Um Hassan, giving only her nickname for fear of reprisals. Her family is part of Syria's minority Alawite community, an offshoot of the Shi'ite faith and the sect of former strongman Bashar al-Assad. Their story is not unique. Since Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa seized power in December, hundreds of Alawites have been forced from their private homes in Damascus by the security forces, according to Syrian officials, Alawite leaders, human rights groups and 12 people with similar accounts who spoke to Reuters. "We're definitely not talking about independent incidents. We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of evictions," said Bassam Alahmad, executive director of human rights group Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ). The mass evictions of Alawites from privately owned homes have not been previously reported. For more than 50 years, Assad and his father before him crushed any opposition from Syria's Sunni Muslims, who make up more than 70% of the population. Alawites took many of the top positions in government and the military and ran big businesses. They now accuse supporters of Sharaa, who once ran an al Qaeda affiliate, of systematically abusing them as payback. In March, hundreds of Alawites were killed in Syria's western coastal region and sectarian violence spread to Damascus in apparent retribution for a deadly ambush on Syria's new security forces by armed Assad loyalists. Two government officials said thousands of people had been kicked out of homes in Damascus since Assad was toppled by Sharaa's rebel force, with the majority being Alawites. The officials said most resided in government housing associated with their jobs in state institutions and, since they were no longer employed, they had lost their right to stay. But hundreds more, like Um Hassan, were evicted from their privately owned homes simply because they are Alawites, Reuters interviews with multiple officials and victims show. The interior ministry, which oversees the GSS, and Sharaa's office did not respond to requests for comment. 'WAR SPOILS COMMITTEE' Sharaa has vowed to pursue inclusive policies to unite a country shattered by a 14-year sectarian civil war and attract foreign investment and aid. But Alawites fear the evictions are part of systematic sectarian score settling by Syria's new rulers. An official who declined to be named at the Damascus Countryside Directorate, which is responsible for managing public services, said they had received hundreds of complaints from people who had been violently evicted. An Alawite mayor in a Damascus suburb, who also asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said in March that 250 families out of 2,000 there had been evicted. The mayor shared with Reuters a call recorded in March with someone claiming to be a member of the General Security Service (GSS), a new agency made up of rebel fighters who ousted Assad. The GSS official demanded the mayor find an empty house for a family relocating from the north. When the mayor said there were no apartments for rent, the official told him to, "empty one of those houses that belong to one of those pigs", referring to Alawites. Muslims consider pigs unclean and impure and calling someone a pig is highly offensive. According to three senior GSS officials, the new authorities have established two committees to manage properties belonging to individuals perceived to be connected to the previous regime. One committee is responsible for confiscations, the other addresses complaints, the people said. Reuters was unable to determine to what extent Sharaa was aware of how homeowners were being evicted, or whether his office had oversight of the committees. They were created as Sharaa's forces closed in on Damascus in December and were modelled on a similar entity known as the "War Spoils Committee" in his former stronghold Idlib, the GSS sources said. "These evictions will certainly change the demographics of the city, similar to the changes that Assad implemented against his opponents in Sunni areas. We are talking about the same practice, but with different victims," said Alahmad at STJ. On April 16, STJ filed a complaint with the Damascus Suburbs Directorate, calling for an end to "sectarian-motivated" property violations and the return of looted properties. TWO MINUTES TO LEAVE Assad's father Hafez al-Assad moved Alawites from coastal areas to urban centres to help cement his powerbase. Assad set up military installations and housing units for troops and their families around Damascus, where Alawites, who were over-represented in the army, made up a significant portion of the population, according to Fabrice Balanche, a Syria expert and an associate professor at the University of Lyon 2. Balanche estimated that half a million Alawites have moved to coastal areas after being evicted from the capital, Homs, Aleppo, and other parts of Syria following Assad's fall. In the Alawite neighbourhood of Dahyet al-Assad, civil servant and mother of four Um Hussein said two armed masked men came to her privately owned home on January 16 and identified themselves as GSS members. The newly created GSS deployed by Sharaa seems to be an extension of the security force that ruled Idlib province, said Syria expert Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. The GSS now seems to be the Police, FBI, CIA and national guard, all rolled into one, he said. Um Hussein said the men gave her 24 hours grace to leave, because of her son's dependence on a wheelchair. She appealed to numerous government bodies to keep her home, and received some assurances. The next day at about 10 a.m., the men returned and gave her two minutes to leave. Um Hussein said they also confiscated a shop her family owned in the neighbourhood and were renting out. "We have been living in this house for more than 22 years. All our money and savings have been invested in it. We cannot afford to rent elsewhere," said Um Hussein. Reuters spoke with two members of the security forces at the private homes they had occupied. One had seized two houses - including Um Hussein's - after evicting the owners. Hamid Mohamed, meanwhile, said his unit had taken over four empty homes belonging to Shabiha, a notorious pro-Assad militia. He said the security forces had not seized anything that wasn't theirs and recalled angrily that his home in a Damascus suburb was destroyed during the civil war. Mohamed said he moved to the capital after Assad's fall and had nowhere else to stay. 'TRANSITIONAL INJUSTICE' On February 12, the Damascus governor called on citizens who say property has been unjustly confiscated to submit complaints at directorates. Reuters visited one in March where the official who declined to be named confirmed a pattern: armed individuals evicted people without a court order, prevented them from taking their belongings - and then moved in. The majority of confiscations targeted low- to middle-income Syrians who had lost their jobs and lacked the resources to pay their way out of the situation, the sources said. Another official in another Damascus directorate said the evictions happened overnight without due process. "It's chaotic, but there is a method to the madness, which is to terrify people and to let the whole world know that Alawites are no longer (in power)," said Landis. "There is no transitional justice. There's only transitional injustice." Seven armed men came to Rafaa Mahmoud's apartment on February 20 and threatened to kill her and her Alawite family unless she handed over the keys to the property they had bought 15 years earlier, she said. Mahmoud shared a 2 minute 27 second video with Reuters showing her standing behind her door, desperately arguing with the men, who warned the family to leave by nightfall. The men, who identified themselves as state security agents, called Mahmoud and her family "infidels and pigs". When Mahmoud asked for a court order, the men replied: "We only do things verbally here." (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by David Clarke)
