Syria’s alawites facing ‘eviction from homes at gunpoint’ under new regime

Syria’s alawites facing ‘eviction from homes at gunpoint’ under new regime

For more than 50 years, the Assads, who belong to the Alawite minority, crushed any opposition from Syria’s Sunni Muslims, who make up over 70% of the population; they now accuse supporters of Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once ran an al Qaeda affiliate, of abusing them as payback.

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 Shia 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 Mr. Sharaa, who once ran an al Qaeda affiliate, of systematically abusing them as payback.

Hundreds killed

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 Mr. 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.

Mr. 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 Alawite mayor in a Damascus suburb, who asked not to be named, said in March that 250 families out of 2,000 there had been evicted.

The mayor shared 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 that 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.

Committees formed

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 Mr. Sharaa was aware of how homeowners were being evicted, or whether his office had oversight of the committees.

They were created as Mr. 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.

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.

The newly created GSS deployed by Mr. 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, the men returned and gave her two minutes to leave.

“We have been living in this house for more than 22 years. We cannot afford to rent elsewhere,” said Um Hussein.

On February 12, the Damascus governor called on citizens who say property has been unjustly confiscated to submit complaints at directorates.

An 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.