When Will There Be a Return to Al-Hajar Al-Aswad?

After a long wait, official government statements have begun to indicate residents may be allowed to return to the city of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad south of Damascus, though no concrete action has yet been taken to enable that.

In late 2020 Quneitra governor AbdulHalim Khalil called on displaced residents of the city to return and repair their homes, promising to provide the necessary support. The Quneitra governorate is overseeing repairs in the Tishreen and Thawra neighbourhoods, in agreement with the Damascus Countryside governorate.

Mr Khalil’s statement came as he inspected the works in the two neighbourhoods. Mr Khalil also said that the schools in the city that were affiliated with Quneitra’s Directorate of Education may be reopened to students when they return to live there.

Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad was once home to a large number of people displaced from the Golan Heights after the 1967 war. After 2011, many of them left the city, settling down in the Quneitra governorate due to their familial and tribal relations. These interlocking relations explain the Quneitra governorate’s involvement in Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad, despite the city belonging administratively to the Damascus Countryside governorate.

The city of Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad is the administrative centre of a 536-hectare large district where around 200,000 people lived before 2011. Most of the housing in the district is informal.

Opposition forces seized Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad in 2012, followed by the Islamic State (ISIS) in mid-2015. Regime forces then recaptured the city in 2018, displacing the remaining residents and barring them from returning.

The mayor of Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad, Khaled Khamis, said in late 2020 that around 10,000 families would return to the city’s Al-Thawra and Tishreen neighbourhoods, and that 80 percent of the buildings there were habitable. However, Mr Khamis did not specify when this return would occur, indicating it would coincide with the completion of repairs to infrastructure.

Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad is divided into several residential neighbourhoods: Al-Thawra, Tishreen, Al-Aalaf, Al-Maqasem and Al-Jazira. Talk of returns has so far only included Al-Thawra and Tishreen, which form only about 60 percent of the city’s total land area. Al-Jazira and Al-Aalaf are the most heavily damaged due to the tunnels dug beneath them by ISIS during its period of control, as well as the heavy bombing by regime and Russian forces in their last military campaign against the city.

The reconciliation committee in Quneitra, which formed after the southern Syria’s reconciliation agreement in mid-2018, submitted a written request to the Baath Party’s Damascus Countryside branch, asking to allow the rehabilitation of Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad and for residents’ return. The branch responded in February 2019 agreeing to allow residents to return after obtaining the approval of National Security and Military Intelligence. They decided that infrastructure would have to be rehabilitated before returns could occur, according to the pro-opposition Sowt Al-Asimeh news website.

As in other areas, returnees must present documents proving their ownership of real estate in Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad. Many people who wish to return to the city are unable to prove their ownership, after losing documents over years of war, siege and displacement, as well as a mysterious fire at the district headquarter in 2012, which destroyed all the city’s real estate records. Those wishing to return must also pay their water and electricity bills, and register with the municipality, all while applying for security approval. It is not clear when these procedures may begin. Municipal and governorate officials have refused to determine a specific date for displaced residents to submit return requests, saying they await the completion of rubble removal and infrastructure repairs.  

Damascus Countryside governorate officials previously announced that work to open the main roads in Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad and remove rubble from Tishreen and Al-Thawra had been completed.  However, a correspondent for The Syria Report in the areaindicated that the people benefiting most from the rubble removal are ‘workshops’ run by looters, who were struggling to reach some sites due to the debris. The workshops are linked to the Fourth Division and the local Military Security branch.

A large part of Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad also remains submerged in sewage water, especially the Aalaf neighbourhood. Activists from the neighbourhood told The Syria Report that, in the long run, this may damage building foundations, reducing the chances that displaced residents will be able to return.

Source: Social Media.