Syrians Return to Homes Devastated by War

"We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this," Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi said - AFP
"We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this," Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi said - AFP
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Syrians Return to Homes Devastated by War

"We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this," Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi said - AFP
"We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this," Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi said - AFP

When Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi returned to his house near Damascus after Bashar al-Assad's ouster, he saw unfathomable destruction.

Now, cushions and plants brighten the wreckage that he is determined to call home again.

"As soon as we found out that... the regime was gone and that people were coming back... we sorted our things" and packed the car, said Kafozi, 74, standing in the wreckage of his home in a former opposition bastion near the capital.

"I had to come home and stay by any means," he told AFP. "We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this."

Plastic sheeting covers windows in what remains of the home where he and his family are living with no electricity, running water or even a proper bathroom, in the town of Hammuriyeh.

Syria's war began in 2011 when Assad unleashed a crackdown on democracy protests, prompting soldiers to defect from the army and civilians to take up weapons.

When Eastern Ghouta, where Hammuriyeh is located, fell out of Assad's control, the government imposed a siege and launched a ferocious air and ground assault.

Assad's forces were accused of conducting chemical attacks on opposition areas of Eastern Ghouta.

In 2018, tens of thousands of fighters and civilians were bussed to opposition-held northwest Syria under evacuation deals brokered by Assad backer Russia.

Among those who left the area at the time were Kafozi and his family.

His granddaughter Baraa, now eight and carrying a bright pink school bag, "was an infant in our arms" when they left, he said.

Fast-forward to December 2024, Assad was ousted in an offensive spearheaded by opposition militants, allowing displaced Syrians to return to their homes.

Kafozi said that when Baraa first saw the damage, "she just stared and said, 'what's this destroyed house of ours? Why did we come? Let's go back.'"

"I told her, this is our home, we have to come back to it," he said.

- No regrets -

Until their return to Hammuriyeh, his family sought refuge in the northwest and survived a 2023 earthquake that hit Syria and neighbouring Türkiye.

Despite the damage to his home, Kafozi said: "I don't regret coming back."

Outside, children played in the dusty street, while a truck delivered gas bottles and people passed on bicycles.

Next door, Kafozi's nephew Ahmed, 40, has also returned with his wife and four children, but they are staying with relatives because of the damage to their home.

From the shell of a bedroom, the day worker looked out at a bleak landscape of buildings crumpled and torn by bombing.

"Our hope is that there will be reconstruction in the country," he said.

"I don't think an individual effort can bear this, it's too big, the damage in the country is great."

Syria's 13-year-war has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions more and ravaged the country's infrastructure and industry.

Local official Baibars Zein, 46, said bus transport had been arranged for people displaced from Hammuriyeh.

"We've taken around 106 families -- the total number of families that want to come back is around 2,000," he said near a mosque with a damaged minaret.

- 'Oppression is gone' -

Among those who returned was Zein's brother Saria, who left his wife and five children in northwest Syria to try to make their flat inhabitable before they return.

"This damage is from the battle that happened and regime bombardment -- they bombed us with barrels and missiles," said Saria, 47, pointing to cracked walls.

Rights groups documented the extensive use during the war by Assad's army of so-called barrel bombs, an improvised explosive dropped from planes.

To Saria, the devastation was a grim reminder of a 2015 strike that killed his seven-year-old daughter.

His wife narrowly missed being hit by shrapnel that took a chunk out of the wall, he said.

His children "are really excited, they call me and say 'Dad, we want to come back,'" he said.

"We are very very optimistic -- the oppression is gone," he said. "That's the most important thing."



Things to Know About the UN Special Rapporteur Sanctioned by the US

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
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Things to Know About the UN Special Rapporteur Sanctioned by the US

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)

A UN special rapporteur was sanctioned by the United States over her work as an independent investigator scrutinizing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, a high-profile role in a network of experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Francesca Albanese is among the experts chosen by the 47-member council in Geneva. They report to the body as a means of monitoring human rights records in various countries and the global observance of specific rights.

Special rapporteurs don't represent the UN and have no formal authority. Still, their reports can step up pressure on countries, while their findings inform prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and other venues working on transnational justice cases.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement announcing sanctions against Albanese on Wednesday that she “has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.”

Albanese said Thursday that she believed the sanctions were “calculated to weaken my mission.” She said at a news conference in Slovenia that “I’ll continue to do what I have to do.”

She questioned why she had been sanctioned — “for having exposed a genocide? For having denounced the system? They never challenged me on the facts.”

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called for a “prompt reversal” of the US sanctions. He added that “even in face of fierce disagreement, UN member states should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures.”

Prominent expert

Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer, has developed an unusually high profile as the special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, a post she has held since May 2022.

Last week, she named several large US companies among those aiding Israel as it fights a war with Hamas in Gaza, saying her report “shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many.”

Israel has long had a rocky relationship with the Human Rights Council, Albanese and previous rapporteurs, accusing them of bias. It has refused to cooperate with a special “Commission of Inquiry” established following a 2021 conflict with Hamas.

Albanese has been vocal about what she describes as a genocide by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel and the US, which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied the accusation.

‘Nothing justifies what Israel is doing’

In recent weeks, Albanese issued a series of letters urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip. She also has been a strong supporter of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allegations of war crimes.

Albanese said at a news conference last year that she has “always been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate,” adding that criticism wouldn't force her to step down.

“It just infuriates me, it pisses me off, of course it does, but then it creates even more pressure not to step back,” she said. “Human rights work is first and foremost amplifying the voice of people who are not heard.”

She added that “of course, one condemned Hamas — how not to condemn Hamas? But at the same time, nothing justifies what Israel is doing.”

Albanese became an affiliate scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University in 2015, and has taught and lectured in recent years at various universities in Europe and the Middle East. She also has written publications and opinions on Palestinian issues.

Albanese worked between 2003 and 2013 with arms of the UN, including the legal affairs department of the UN Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, and the UN human rights office, according to her biography on the Georgetown website.

She was in Washington between 2013 and 2015 and worked for an American nongovernmental organization, Project Concern International, as an adviser on protection issues during an Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Member of a small group

Albanese is one of 14 current council-appointed experts on specific countries and territories.

Special rapporteurs, who document rights violations and abuses, usually have renewable mandates of one year and generally work without the support of the country under investigation. There are rapporteurs for Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Russia and Syria.

There also are three country-specific “independent experts,” a role more focused on technical assistance, for the Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia.

Additionally, there are several dozen “thematic mandates,” which task experts or working groups to analyze phenomena related to particular human rights. Those include special rapporteurs on “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” the human rights of migrants, the elimination of discrimination against people affected by leprosy and the sale, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children.