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Damascus (AFP) – Abu Mohammed thought he could finally return home after jihadists were expelled from his suburb of Damascus, but Syrian authorities blocked his return by mistakenly labeling his housing as unfit to live.
In May, regime forces chased the Islamic State group from part of the southern district of the capital, Tadamun, through a campaign of air strikes and bombings.
For the first time in six years, this meant the government's full control over the region, bringing with it a calm that raised the hope of a return to the country.
But instead, Abu Mohammed and other residents of Tadamun complain, authorities have ruled many homes unfit and prevent their owners from coming back before a controversial redevelopment plan.
Five months after the forced withdrawal of the Islamic State, the regime's roadblocks are preventing access to the former jihadist stronghold, which is now under high security, and an AFP team Could not enter.
At the last checkpoint, the rubble blocked the road. The floors of a neighboring building were covered with crepes one on the other and a hole was blown into the minaret of a mosque.
Abu Mohammed said that he had managed to visit his home before the arrival of the inspectors, and insisted that it was still possible to live despite the official decision.
"There was not even a bullet, it has just been looted," he said, giving a pseudonym to avoid retaliation.
"It's so unfair to citizens who have been waiting for years (coming back) and who are still standing alongside the state."
Othman al-Ayssami, 55, was also indignant.
"Why can not thousands of other residents go home?" asked the lawyer.
"After the end of the military operations, I entered the neighborhood hoping for considerable damage," he said.
But in his four-story house, "only the windows were broken," said Ayssami, without specifying whether his residence had been found unfit.
– & # 39; Right to go home & # 39; –
The district of Tadamun has long been in a gray area.
Once orchards, it has been populated since the late 1960s by people who fled the Golan Heights occupied by Israel or who invaded Damascus since the campaign, often without official permission.
But today, his fate seems particularly uncertain after the provincial authorities announced last month that he would be affected by a controversial law on development.
The law, known as Decree 10, allows the government to seize private property to create development areas, compensating the owners with new project actions.
If their land is selected, homeowners inevitably lose their property and must ask to receive shares in exchange.
Construction should not begin in Tadamun for several years, but officials have already been sent to inspect its homes.
A provincial commission was charged with badessing the damage and determining if approximately 25,000 residential units are fit for habitation.
Even if their homes are compliant, no resident can return home until further notice.
When they realized that a large number of houses considered unfit for war had not in fact been damaged during the fighting, community members held several meetings with the commission. .
To vent their frustration, they created a Facebook page called "Tadamun Exiles".
"We have the right to return home," wrote a displaced inhabitant.
– Red wax –
The commission divided the district into three sectors, the latter covering the area formerly controlled by the Islamic State.
Commission chief Faisal Srour told AFP that in the first two sectors, the inspectors "have already visited 10,000 homes, of which 2,500 are fit for life and 1,000 are not." .
The others were still being filed, he said, but most units in the former jihadist sector would probably be considered unfit.
"It's there that the fighting took place," he said.
Tadamun was invaded by rebels in 2012, and a party fell three years later to jihadists of the Islamic State.
Over the years, most residents have been forced to flee their homes. At present, only 65,000 people live there, up from 250,000 before the start of the war in 2011.
Houses declared suitable for housing are given a serial number and are sealed with red wax. Officials insist that owners can retrieve them easily.
A resident can "recover (his house) normally after proving his right of ownership," said Tadamun Mayor Ahmed Iskandar, to AFP, referring to the portrait of President Bashar al-Assad in military uniform and glbades of Sun.
But since Tadamun is an informal neighborhood, only 10% of the houses have officially registered titles – if they were not lost during the war.
Most other residents of the region have only informal documents indicating their residence.
Even for those who manage to return, the respite only seems temporary.
The reconstruction, which should begin in four or five years, should make it possible to shave the entire sector.
In addition, one-tenth of the suburban population will never be able to present deeds of ownership to receive shares in the reconstruction project.
But the head of the inspection commission, Srour, said that those who could not prove that they owned, probably at least 90% of the residents, would not be homeless.
"We will not put people on the street, but provide compensation or alternative housing," he said.
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