Return to Syria: Balancing hope and apprehension

DW (English)

Many Syrians are euphoric after the fall of the Assad regime, with some already returning from exile. What awaits those choosing to return home?

Transcript

00:00After 50 years of brutal rule, the Assad regime has fallen.

00:14Syria is celebrating, and the first refugees are returning.

00:19We want to live in dignity, that's the main thing.

00:23But the country now finds itself ruled by Islamists.

00:26So what awaits the exiled Syrians who are now coming home?

00:46The first Friday prayers after the fall of the Assad regime have just finished.

00:51Tens of thousands of Syrians are gathering in Umayyad Square in Damascus.

00:58One of them is Omar al-Masri.

01:00He left Syria ten years ago.

01:02He's now back in the capital for the first time.

01:05I never imagined I'd be able to stand here and celebrate, or stand here and say what

01:11I wanted without being afraid.

01:13I hope we can rebuild the country, and that everyone can live together, peacefully, and

01:22above all, in freedom.

01:36Their singing long live Syria, Assad has fallen.

01:40Just a few days ago, that would have been unthinkable.

01:43For Omar and many of the people here, it's the first time they've attended a gathering

01:48like this, where they can voice their opinions out loud.

01:53Later, Omar takes us to his home village.

01:58As we leave Damascus, we pass traces of the recent upheaval, destroyed tanks and flattened

02:04stores.

02:06Omar grew up in Qatna, just a few kilometers from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

02:20I haven't seen this area for ten years.

02:24Back then, they arrested me over there.

02:26There were tanks everywhere.

02:29There are still a few tanks remaining on this abandoned military base.

02:40They arrested me on the street.

02:41They accused me of taking part in a demonstration and spying for Israel.

02:46I was put in solitary confinement and tortured.

02:49They knocked out a few of my teeth.

02:51I still suffer from the pain.

03:02Omar was imprisoned for four months.

03:04Today he's overjoyed that he can live in the family home again, together with his brother

03:08Yasser.

03:09Both brothers were in exile in Lebanon for ten years, doing odd jobs to make ends meet.

03:15Yasser worked as an electrician.

03:17Omar did construction and farming work.

03:19There are now seven of them living together.

03:24I missed everything here, the streets, the neighbors, the children.

03:31I even longed to hear our beautiful Syrian dialect.

03:40For a long time, coming back here was out of the question.

03:44Omar wasn't the only one who'd been in prison.

03:46His brother Hussein was too.

03:48Yasser tells the rest of the family that Hussein had always looked after everybody.

03:53A year after his arrest, they were told that he'd died in prison.

03:59Yasser still needs daily medication to help him cope with the grief.

04:06We didn't know how to tell his children that their father had been killed.

04:10We were paralyzed.

04:12He worked as a car mechanic and had nothing to do with politics.

04:20But they still arrested and murdered him.

04:22They never gave us his body.

04:25It was the same with all the murdered prisoners from our region.

04:31Nobody knows where they're buried.

04:37This is Sednaya Prison, on the outskirts of Damascus.

04:42Coming here, it becomes clear that what happened to the al-Masri family was not an isolated incident.

04:49Human rights organization Amnesty International calls the prison a human slaughterhouse.

04:55Thousands of regime opponents are said to have been tortured to death here.

05:00Days after Assad's ouster, thousands of Syrians are still coming here each day in search of relatives.

05:06They search the papers, looking for names, clues, any evidence their loved ones may still be alive.

05:14Jamil al-Obaid first came here looking for his son.

05:17Now he's trying to bring order to the chaos.

05:21He calls up the names that have already been documented.

05:27Nobody knows which of the prisoners are still alive.

05:34But we're searching all the documents and gathering information.

05:45Inside, walls are still being drilled into as people look for secret rooms or hiding places.

05:54Youssef al-Shemla is searching for his brother, who was arrested 10 years ago.

06:00One of his acquaintances denounced him.

06:03He told the secret police that my brother was with the Islamic State. That was a lie.

06:07The family sold all their possessions to pay for lawyers, but they couldn't free Youssef's brother.

06:13Last year, he came here himself to beg the guards.

06:16They responded by locking Youssef up for two days.

06:19He and 70 others were held in cell 10.

06:24One day in Sednaya felt like 10 years, because of the fear.

06:32Lots of people got tuberculosis.

06:38The fear made you sick.

06:46After the fall of the regime, bodies were brought from Sednaya prison

06:51to this Damascus hospital, named al-Mujdahid.

06:58We were able to find various signs of torture, as well as gunshot wounds.

07:02But we couldn't see everything, because of the decomposition.

07:06A lot of parents can't recognize their children.

07:08The people had also changed.

07:10For example, if a boy was arrested aged 16,

07:1310 years later he'd no longer look the way he did in the photos his parents still had.

07:21In front of the hospital, staff have hung up photos of the deceased

07:25to stop crowds of desperate relatives from coming into the mortuary.

07:34My son Ahmad Zakari was a bus driver.

07:39He was dragged off the bus and arrested.

07:45If anyone knows anything, please get in touch.

07:50Until now, no one knows anything about him.

07:53There's a fourth one.

07:55Omar, Imran and Mustafa.

07:57And Mahyeddin.

07:59Mahyeddin Ain.

08:01I've been looking for my son for 14 years.

08:03They trampled on our dignity.

08:05Assad is a dog.

08:20The Assad family controlled Syria for more than half a century.

08:24Hafez al-Assad came to power in a coup in 1970,

08:28then ruled as a brutal dictator.

08:31After his death, his son Bashar took over.

08:34He promised political reforms,

08:36but soon began crushing popular protests using poison gas and barrel bombs.

08:41Tens of thousands were killed or arrested.

08:44Millions fled the country.

08:46In recent years, Assad has held on to power

08:49thanks to military support from Russia,

08:51where he and his family have now fled.

08:59What does the future hold for Syria?

09:02That's a question Omar al-Masri has been asking.

09:05But it didn't stop him coming home.

09:08After Friday prayers in Damascus,

09:10he talks to Syria's new authorities,

09:12the Islamist militia, HTS.

09:18They're good people.

09:20They liberated us, and they treat us well.

09:23Much better than the old regime that oppressed and imprisoned us.

09:30The militia fighters are polite and open.

09:33They're happy Omar has returned.

09:38People should return to Syria.

09:41After all, it's their homeland,

09:43and there'll be peace and calm again.

09:46All the institutions are going to resume their work.

09:50We'll forget the past,

09:52and that pig Assad won't be coming back.

09:56We're going to build an Islamic state.

10:02But so far, the new rulers haven't specified what they mean by this.

10:06In a country where people of different religions

10:09and ethnic groups coexist,

10:11that's unsettling many.

10:13A group of activists is meeting in Damascus

10:16to discuss their hopes and fears for the future.

10:22Most of all, I'm worried about our freedoms,

10:25our freedoms as women.

10:30I'm worried that we've just changed the regime,

10:33and now a new dictator is coming in a different guise.

10:36We had a military authoritarian dictator.

10:39I'm afraid that we'll now have an Islamist dictator.

10:45That's a concern for many of Syria's Christians too,

10:48says Yousef Lajin.

10:50He heads Damascus' Faculty of Catholic Theology.

10:54He wants displaced people to return,

10:56to help rebuild their country.

10:58Before the war, Christians made up nearly 10%

11:01of the Syrian population.

11:03The militias came here.

11:05They said things like,

11:07we are your friends.

11:09We don't want to change anything.

11:12Stay the way you are.

11:14But I understand the fear.

11:16The future brings with it a certain fear,

11:19especially for young people.

11:21The future brings with it a certain fear,

11:24especially for young people.

11:26The future brings with it a certain fear,

11:29especially for young people.

11:31But back in Qatna,

11:33Omar al-Masri and his family are convinced

11:36that the time for fear is over.

11:38Despite their suffering under Assad,

11:41they're not seeking revenge.

11:44Everyone should be able to live well and with dignity.

11:47Houses and businesses need to be rebuilt.

11:50I need a job that allows me to feed my family,

11:53and their children should go back to school.

11:56That's what we want.

11:58The Syrian people have high hopes.

12:01Now it's up to the country's new rulers

12:04to follow up with actions.

12:06Only then will millions of exiled Syrians

12:09decide whether their homeland

12:11can offer them a secure future.

12:28You

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