Displaced Syrians Flock to Damascus District after Truce
Hundreds of displaced Syrian families returned to check on their homes in southern Damascus on Wednesday under a truce deal between the regime and opposition fighters.
Carrying plastic bags and lugging suitcases, they gathered at a train station in the capital waiting to enter the rebel stronghold of Qadam.
A deal for the district was struck in 2014 and is being gradually implemented -- one of many localized truces reached around the country.
It called for an end to fighting and the return of a total of 2,000 families, Damascus governor Bushr al-Sabban said.
About 170 former opposition fighters will now "carry weapons in the right way, shoulder-to-shoulder with our brave forces to defend their region," Sabban said in comments carried by state media.
Many of the families now live in the southwest of Damascus province and returned in large, green buses, an AFP journalist said.
Umm Arab, 60, was squatting on the edge of the sidewalk with bags of food and clothes for her sons, who had stayed inside the district.
"I have been waiting since this morning for them to allow us to enter. I left four years ago and I don't know what happened to my house," she said.
Rosa, a 29-year-old woman carrying her toddler, said she wanted to live in her house even if she found it reduced to rubble.
"I left everything in my home, even my degrees, my documents, and my clothes, when I left three years ago, because I thought I would come back the next day," she said.
Umm Ahmad, 42, said she was returning just in time for her brother's wedding.
"We prepared everything for the celebration, and we will have a small party with my siblings and relatives," she said excitedly.
A security source in Qadam said that residents would be allowed to enter on Wednesday to check on their homes, but would have to leave again later in the day.
In the next stage of the agreement, the government will grant permission to residents who have registered with it to return more permanently and be able to come and go.
Syria's government has championed similar local ceasefires to try to end the conflict which has killed more than 260,000 people since March 2011.
But the opposition accuses the government of using siege tactics to force rebels to concede to the agreements.
Source: Agence France Presse
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