Symbolic Homs district to be razed, rebuilt, with owners shut out

POSSESSION IS OWNERSHIP: The Homs City Council determined that the neighborhood Bab Amro in regime-controlled Homs city – the site of the some of the largest protests against the regime during the breakout of the revolution – is an “area of mass [building code] violations” and must be rebuilt from the ground up, according to a document discovered and leaked Monday by pro-opposition daily Zaman al-Wasl.

The document, dated September 23, 2014, stipulates the “preservation of the rights” of those currently living in the neighborhood, which is now under regime control and occupied by shabiha [pro-regime militia].

The pro-regime squatters currently in the neighborhood will live in the area after the reconstruction, while the actual property owners are kept out, causing outrage among regime opponents, who have long since maintained that the government wants to claim Homs for itself and fill it with its own supporters.

“They destroyed Bab Amro and forced families to flee [all] because of the decision by the Homs government to demolish the neighborhood under the pretext of rebuilding,” wrote one commenter on Facebook.

The regime has controlled Bab Amro since 2012, when the government conducted a bloody campaign against pro-opposition demonstrations in the neighborhood.

-October 28, 2014

–Photo courtesy of @kotaypamaher199, @Homs_dream and Mohammad Al-Louz.

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