Assad regime forces are confiscating agricultural crops in several villages in Hama province in the framework of the implementation of the recently adopted Law No. 10. The Syrian Coalition has earlier warned of the grave implications should the Assad regime puts the controversial legalization into force.
According to Smart News Network, members of the Assad regime’s military security branch and paramilitary troops, who are known as shabiha, brought harvesters and began harvesting agricultural crops in several towns and villages northwest of Hama, especially in the towns of Safsafiya and Tureimsa.
The Network quoted local sources as saying that Assad’s shabiha told residents of these towns that Law No. 10 allows them to confiscate all farmlands whose owners are absent, especially those living outside Syria.
The Coalition has earlier warned European countries and human rights organizations about the implications of Law No. 10, stressing that the Assad regime issued the law with the aim of consolidating the mass forced displacement and demographic change by seizing the properties of all those absent from the country.
The Coalition said that reconstruction of Syria must take place only after all the displaced people have returned and a comprehensive political transition has been reached. It called on everyone to stand against the new law which will cause Syrian civilians terrible injustice should the Assad regime puts in into force.
In late May, Human Rights Watch said that Assad regime has passed Law No.10 to allow itself to seize private property, displace residents, and discourage refugees from returning.
The New York-based group said that Law 10 empowers authorities to confiscate property without compensating the owners or giving them an opportunity to appeal. The law, which the Assad regime is promoting as an urban planning measure, will create a major obstacle to returning home for displaced residents
“Law 10 is a worrisome addition to the Syrian government’s arsenal of ‘urban planning laws’ that it has used to confiscate property without due process or compensation,” said HRW’s deputy Middle East director Lama Fakih.
“Countries and donors supporting reconstruction in Syria have a responsibility to consider the obstacles this law poses to returning for millions of displaced Syrians,” Fakih said. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
