Terese Cristiansson: Syria can again become a war site for other countries’ power dreams
Just a couple of weeks ago, I and photographer Sami al-Ansi were on a reporting trip in Syria and visited the coastal strip, among other things. We interviewed a little boy who had his hand away from a hand grenade, thrown on the roadside, in the resort Baniyas.
It is the same place where some of the violence is now happening.
Already then the situation was tense. The primary Alawite area was largely untouched by the war, while many other parts of the country do not consist of anything other than war ponds and masses due to bombings since 2011. Not because all along the coast supported dictator Bashar al Assad, but many chose to turn away their face for the abuse committed. Those who, after all, protested were severely punished by the regime’s security forces. But for the Sunni Muslim taxi driver we went with the beautiful houses and the whole streets in the heart.
– How should we be able to trust them? Why did they do nothing? he said.
Armed and masked
In the new board’s road controls around the coastal area were heavily armed and masked men. Not at all smiling and relaxing as in the controls around Damascus or Idlib, for example. The dynamics were tense and on Thursday the situation completely charged between Assad-friendly groups and government-loyal groups. There will be different information about the number of dead, initially the most government -friendly, but since Thursday, hundreds of Alawiter were stated to be killed, far from all were armed.
The information is not confirmed but an Alawite woman writes to me:
“They have killed children, women, relatives of me. I don’t know what to say, ”she writes desperately.
A Sunni Muslim man who also lives in the area, writes:
“The pro-Assad groups first attacked and took control of buildings. But the groups that came here to stop it are without control. The government must send disciplined troops here to stop this massacre. “
The question is whether it will suffice. Syria is in an extremely fragile time where both Kurds in the northeast and Druser in the south are holding hard in their own weapons, not at all confident that the new self -proclaimed board will give them any rights. When they now see what is happening with the Alawitic minority along the coast, they are unlikely to want to put down weapons and be part of the Syrian army. The risk is great for civil war and that Syria is split between different groups.
Sent troops to the coast
President Ahmed Al Sharaa has sent troops to the coast to stop the violence and in a statement he says that what is happening was expected and that it is still possible to unite the country.
When I ask Syrians if there is a way back to the hopeful time when many believed in a united country, everyone is uncertain.
“Only if Sharaa makes sure that everyone who has acted on their own is arrested and it is investigated properly, but I am not sure if he has that strength right now. But no one wants war, everyone is tired of war. “
The question is whether, and in that case, which countries in the area will exploit the situation – in the worst case, history repeats itself and Syria again becomes a war site for other countries’ power dreams.