The city of Homs in central Syria has long held a unique position in the Syrian psyche. Home to a mix of ethnic groups, it became a symbol of resistance to Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2011, when activists gathered around the clock tower that stands at its centre before the dictator brutally suppressed their protest. At the same time, it was a significant regime stronghold. Much of the population depended on government jobs, and the local military academy churned out officers for Mr Assad’s army. The family of Mr Assad’s wife comes from Homs.
Two months after the fall of the regime, former supporters and opponents of Mr Assad in the city increasingly have something in common: a sense that the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s new president, has left them to fend for themselves. Mr Sharaa’s supporters are waiting in vain for redress following decades of dictatorship, even as he is failing to protect members of Mr Assad’s Alawite sect from retributive violence.
The mounting chaos in Homs exemplifies the challenge Mr Sharaa faces all over Syria. His government must ensure the safety of all ethnic groups while paying heed to the desire for justice among the formerly oppressed. It must also create economic opportunities across the board.
In Homs, things are not going well. Dozens of people have been killed or kidnapped in rural areas outside the city in recent weeks. Some, mostly Alawites seen as loyal to Mr Assad, have been targeted in sectarian revenge attacks; others by gangs hoping to extort ransom money. Locals say it is increasingly difficult to distinguish one from the other.
Crime is rampant. In the centre of town, the owner of a van parked on the kerb was cursing the thieves who had just made off with two rifles from the driver’s cab as your correspondent passed.
Local residents, though impressed with Mr Sharaa’s rhetoric, bemoan a gap between words and actions. Alaa Ibrahim, an Alawite activist attempting to mediate between the families of the kidnapped and Homs’s new rulers, believes Mr Sharaa’s fighters have no interest in meting out revenge. But he says he has found that Alawite concerns are being ignored. “Sometimes our messages to the chief of police go unanswered,” says Mr Ibrahim.
It does not help that the government’s attempts to impose order have been ham-fisted. Having dismissed most of the security forces and judges who served under Mr Assad, the new leaders lack the manpower to police the city or ensure that the courts function. Instead they have conducted showy raids of neighbourhoods associated with the old regime, summarily rounding up hundreds of young men and detaining them for weeks. With Mr Sharaa’s more obedient fighters tied up in Damascus, members of less disciplined and more radical groups are plugging the gaps.
Many are locals who were forced to flee Homs for Idlib, Mr Sharaa’s stronghold, a decade ago and have returned in recent weeks to find their homes destroyed. Hassan, a young fighter with Mr Sharaa’s rebels, was just 13 when he and his family fled Baba Amr, a Sunni neighbourhood associated with the resistance to Mr Assad. They returned to find that looters affiliated with the regime had stripped their house down to the rafters. Now Hassan patrols the streets, his wispy beard a testament to the Islamist worldview he adopted in Idlib. ”People feel they have been denied justice since the liberation,” says Kinan al-Nahas, an Islamist community leader.
The economic malaise is making things worse. Little outside support has materialised since Mr Sharaa’s victory two months ago. International sanctions on Syria’s financial sector remain in place, stalling economic recovery. The job market in Homs is so dire that young people speak of a looming “hunger revolution”.
Ziad Kashu, a Christian activist, says he fears the rise of organised crime and gangs far more than a sectarian explosion. Kidnapping for ransom, he says, became a lucrative line of business during the final years of the Assad regime and has remained so. Creating better job opportunities might reduce young people’s propensity to turn to crime or revenge, he suggests: “The solution is economic.”
For now, many in Homs hope that moderation will prevail. Suhail Junaid, the city’s most influential sheikh, says he is preaching tolerance. “This regime is rooting out sectarian division,” he promises. Much depends on whether the new government can deliver on such promises. Unless Mr Sharaa can put money in people’s pockets, deliver justice to the many who have been wronged by Mr Assad and ensure that minorities are safe, things are sure to get worse in Homs and all over Syria. ■
Sign up to the Middle East Dispatch, a weekly newsletter that keeps you in the loop on a fascinating, complex and consequential part of the world.