IS-occupied Syria like living in prison, say visitors to Damascus

Passengers exhausted by their long journey sit on the kerb or lounge against the buses that have brought them to Damascus from Raqqa in north central Syria, conquered by Islamic State (IS).

Some are from Raqqa itself, others from further north. Men predominate – tribesmen wearing red-and-white checked headdresses and fleece jackets, or farmers in suits or jeans and jackets. But there are also elderly Bedouin women with small facial tattoos and young mothers with children and lumpy bundles.

Men who come alone to Syria’s capital do so to consult doctors, renew identity documents and register births, marriages and deaths, while those with families are here to seek refuge.

The weary throng waits patiently for identity cards to be checked by besieged soldiers seeking to identify wanted persons and insurgents dispatched to plant bombs.

At a cafe over steaming mugs of sweet tea, seven farmers describe their home town – Raqqa – as it is today. The men, five in coats or sweaters and trousers, two in caftans, are eager to speak and offer their full names, which I cannot record since the internet is monitored by IS. The conversation flows, seamlessly, from one to another, clarifying, elaborating.

“Only buses come from Raqqa. Daesh [the Arabic acronym for IS, said in an insulting tone] does not allow us to carry anything. The trip is 13 hours. But it took us three hours to pass from Raqqa. It is controlled only by Daesh. It holds 20,000 acres [Raqqa city and countryside]. Daesh drove out other groups.”

Irrigation

When I asked about crops, a solid man with thinning, swept -back hair replies: “This year has been good for cotton, wheat, maize and vegetables. We have rain and irrigation. (Seeds were provided by the

World Food Programme

and delivered by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Sarc.)

“Raqqa has no government, no law, no courts, no schools ... Daesh arrests many people and puts them in prison. Sometimes for practising different Islam,” the man continues.

"You must pray five times a day. They fine people who smoke $10 and even put them in prison for a few days. Fighters use drugs that come from Afghanistan and Turkey. "

“US planes attack near the border, in the countryside, but not in town. The [Turkish] border is open,” says a serious man in a dark jacket, throwing his arms wide. “The Turks control the economy in Raqqa. They bring poor quality, second rate goods.

“There is no security. Everybody has to be careful ... A lot of armed Daesh are in the streets. Sixty per cent are foreigners – Afghans, Chechens, French, Italians, Turks, Germans, Chinese, Danes, Australians. Forty per cent are Arabs, Moroccans, Tunisians, Libyans, Saudis, Iraqis and Syrians. The Tunisians and the Saudis are the worst. The Saudis have a lot of money. Daesh does everything by force ... The common language is bad Arabic. Fifteen thousand control Raqqa.

"They have tanks and heavy weapons they brought from Iraq [since the fall of Mosul last June], but no air force," this man adds.

“Foreign fighters bring viruses and microbes but the Syrian ministry of health sends doctors with medicine and vaccines.” [The Sarc clinic closed recently. Some Sarc volunteers remain although others have left].

No cafes “It is like living in a prison. When we finish work, there is nothing to do. No cafes, no restaurants, no television, no books, no reading. You cannot open the radio. No mobile phones: the government stopped coverage, only satellite phones with Daesh that cost 50 Syrian pounds ($0.30) a minute, too expensive. We can have computers in our houses and there is foreign internet, not Syrian. Daesh publishes a newspaper,” he continues.

“Daesh collects taxes, 30 per cent of earnings, in US dollars. Food is available at high prices. We get three hours of electricity every 24 hours from private companies. We are going back 800 years.”

Raqqa was once the summer capital of Harun al-Rashid, he points out, the great Arab caliph who ruled from 789-806 AD and whose cultivation of learning made his reign the Golden Age of Islam. “They destroyed his statue and the statues of lions in the park and looted some things from the museum. The archaeologists moved most things to Damascus.”

Head

Civil servants continue to receive their salaries but “they have to go to Homs to collect their pay”, he says. “Daesh allows this so it does not have to aid these families.

"Sixty per cent of the people still live in Raqqa because they do not have the money to leave or they want to keep their homes and land. Daesh takes over the houses of people who leave. Before there were many refugees in Raqqa, from Homs, Hama and Aleppo. It was a safe area. They fled.

“No one knows where [Islamic State commander] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is. No one sees him. He is like a swallow,” says a smiling farmer with sparkling eyes, lifting and plunging his hand to imitate the flight of a swallow.

“Daesh will leave Raqqa. People do not accept this kind of treatment.”