Syria: Bashar al-Assad campaigns on impossible reconstruction
Audio 03:46
Campaign posters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hang on destroyed buildings in the city of Homs on May 23, 2021. © REUTERS - OMAR SANADIKI
By: Aabla Jounaïdi Follow
8 mins
In Syria, a decade of conflict, more than 500,000 dead, more than half of the population displaced, and now almost 90% of the poor.
It is on this record that Bashar al-Assad today calls on the Syrians to vote for a presidential election that has everything of a masquerade.
The Syrian president is expected to offer himself a fourth term of seven years.
On the 70% of the territory that his forces control, he has made a semblance of campaign on the reconstruction of the country.
Publicity
Election posters commemorating President Assad and his reconstruction efforts are paraded along the road.
Posters more numerous than road signs.
The images have received a lot of comment on social media in recent days.
Internet users are wondering where all this money can come from in a country where now almost all the population is poor.
In 2017, according to the World Bank, 30% of buildings in Syria were badly damaged or destroyed by years of conflict.
Unevenly distributed destruction, of course.
The so-called rebel areas that have suffered most of the bombardment by the regime and its allies.
In Homs, 54% of buildings are uninhabitable.
The destruction of the war is estimated by the UN at 380 billion dollars.
Yet the Syrian regime promises that it will rebuild the country
Since 2012, a government agency, the “Committee for Reconstruction”, has been responsible for helping Syrians rebuild their homes. In total, 386 billion Syrian pounds (or $ 1.4 billion) was raised, thanks to a 10% levy on certain direct and indirect taxes. Problem, even if it is difficult to know precisely how this manna is distributed so much transparency is lacking, it seems that it went mainly to furnish the administrations, and the needs of the army in infrastructure: housing and military hospitals on the first floor. chief. Even more revealing, according to research by the Carnegie Middle East Center, in 2017, the committee granted the equivalent of 340,000 euros for maintenance work in the Mazzeh 86 district in Damascus. It is a stronghold of the regime.While nearby Daraya, an opposition base heavily destroyed by the fighting, saw next to nothing of the reconstruction money.
In other words, the Syrian regime has a very narrow conception of the reconstruction of the country.
A partial, partial reconstruction, in which entire territories, because having supported the opposition in 2011 are forgotten. Through which projects that cement the maintenance in power of the Assad clan are privileged, favoring in the process a new class of businessmen enriched by the war economy. The regime's allies: Russia and Iran put up with it. They also wrest contracts for the construction of factories, naval bases or power stations in their areas of influence. Turkey has established itself for good in the far north of the country where its companies are building hospitals and schools. Syrian reconstruction, if it exists, is being carried out in sections, and for the benefit of a minority.
There is no question for the international community to finance the reconstruction of the country in this context
The allies of Damascus, led by Russia, still hope that the Europeans will foot the bill.
Washington and Brussels reiterated their position last March for the ten years since the start of the revolt.
They will only engage if a path is emerging towards a political transition, which involves a departure of Bashar al-Assad from power.
With the United States, the EU has pledged more than 5 billion euros this year
for the humanitarian needs of the population, particularly in the face of the health crisis.
This is half less than what the UN agencies were asking for.
A total reconstruction would cost $ 250 billion to $ 400 billion.
In order to rebuild houses, buildings, factories, destroyed transport routes or even health services, education, running water, electricity.
Which in any case would not make sense without certain political conditions being met.
Over the past ten years, Syria has mostly lost young people, talents who have died or left the country.
Without these exiles, no reconstruction is possible.
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Syria
Bashar al-Assad
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