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The Syrian government has been deliberately and systematically razing homes, buildings and entire rebel-held neighbourhoods to the ground with bulldozers and explosives, according to a rights group.A new report, released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday, accused the regime troops of entering opposition strongholds and destroying the buildings.
“Wiping entire neighbourhoods off the map is not a legitimate tactic of war,” said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at HRW. “These unlawful demolitions are the latest additions to a long list of crimes committed by the Syrian government.”
The total area demolished is about 200 soccer fields, according to the group, and is seen as punishment for Syrian civilians supporting rebel forces. The demolitions were supervised by military forces and took place in the wake of violence.
The group looked at 15 commercial satellite images and listened to testimony of 16 witnesses whose houses were lost, including media reports, government statements, and more than dozens of YouTube videos.
HRW interviewed Umm Oday of the Masha al-Arbeen neighbourhood in Hama, Syria, by telephone about demolitions in her community.
Oday said she left her house a month before her home was demolished fearing the violence of war.
She told HRW that she returned home as soon as she heard about the plans for demolition from a neighbour.
“I yelled, screamed and cried for them to let me pass to see what is going on with my house. When they allowed me and other women to pass, the bulldozer was already demolishing houses while their owners stood outside watching.
“I begged the soldier to let me in to collect my belongings. He let me, but I had only a few minutes. After I left, the bulldozer demolished my house. Nothing was left of it, not even the walls.”
She also reported to HRW that the Syrian army used tanks to block her from entering her street. HRW reported two waves of demolitions in the Qaboun neighbourhood of Damascus during a one-year period, where according to satellite imagery analysed by HRW, 18 hectares were affected.
The report said: “Human Rights Watch has not been able to find any government statement or decree explaining the reason for the demolitions in Qaboun. The first wave appears to have been directly related to intensive clashes between government and opposition forces in mid-July, 2012.”
Residents told HRW that government forces gave little or no warning of the demolitions so that they could collect their things or appeal. But HRW found no injuries or deaths related to the razing.
“The demolitions either served no necessary military purpose and appeared to intentionally punish the civilian population or caused disproportionate harm to civilians,” HRW reported.
Demolitions like the ones HRW uncovered were part of an urban revitalisation programme and ridding communities of illegal buildings constructed without permits, according to reports HRW cited from the government and pro-regime media.
Meanwhile, Syria’s peace talks are moving forward with greater ease but United Nations mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has warned against expecting substantive results during this round.
Brahimi said on Wednesday that the “ice is breaking”, calling the presence of both the government and the opposition at the negotiating table a step in the right direction.
“These people have not sat together for three years. They do not expect that there’ll be a magic wand,” Brahimi said, insisting he was “not disappointed.”
Delegations from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opposition National Coalition are set to determine on Friday when they will return to Geneva for the next round of talks, Brahimi said.
“I hope that the second session will be more structured and hopefully more productive than the first session,” he added.
Opposition delegation spokesman Louay Safi said that future talks needed to show “substantial progress”.
“We’re not going to stay here month after month just talking without progress,” he said. — Al Jazeera
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