![]() ![]() ![]() In Azraq, I speak to a Syrian dentist, Tarek, who fled Assad's regime and is now with his wife and five boys, in his own 6x4.5m metal box home. It is a crisis not just without precedent in number, but perhaps more importantly, without equal in hope. In all, more than three million Syrians have fled the country. In all, even a conservative estimate puts more than a thousand warlords, militias, armed gangs and insurgent groups in Syria, all fighting in a war that no longer has a centre of gravity.Īcting far more like a genuine army than the FSA ever did - and with millions of US dollars in funding, partly from horse-trading hostages to the countries who'd buy - they tore through the country, razing villages to the ground as they went, taking women as slaves, murdering anyone who would not convert to their brutal brand of hardline Islamism, making Syria's hell on earth that much hotter.įinally, the coalition airstrikes began against them - and Houmam Ahmed was of course right. The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) - in truth, never more than an uncomfortable mash of militias, an idea rather than an army, teachers and farmers taking up rusted rifles - has since splintered into groups of the original rebels, their more extremist elements, and their more extremist elements still, now all fighting each other as well as the troops of Assad. Since Zaatari was formed in 2012, Syria has become a maelstrom of competing wars. The relief remains rapid, but has often proved less than temporary. Situated just eight miles from the Syrian border, the Zaatari camp was meant as all modern refugee camps are meant, ever since the UNHCR's formation in 1950 to aid Europeans displaced by the Second World War: a rapid yet temporary relief. The soil is not great, the alkaline concentration makes growing things hard, but he hopes, at some point, for some more seeds, and he hopes they will grow. At a pinch, he may think of his new garden, small as it is, created in the half-metre gap between his 27-sq metre home and his brother's, in which currently grows a patch of spinach, and for which his son has big plans, or, at least, as big as it will allow. Back in Syria he was a minicab driver, but he has discovered himself to be a talented carpenter in a crisis. He may even look at the kitchen pan holders, wardrobe and cupboard, all of which he made himself after working as a labourer for the Norwegian Refugee Council building the community centre, each day asking if he could take the spare wood home. ![]() He may look to the walls, which he covered with the 18 grey blankets his family collected when they arrived, and which now act as both wallpaper and insulation, to keep the chill of the cold banished without and the ignoble sight of corrugated metal walls hidden within. He may look to the floor, which he first cleared of stones, then levelled with concrete, then padded with foam insulation. He will look around his 6x4.5m metal container home, one that he has fastidiously altered and added to and modified in the months since he arrived. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |