New Scheme to Reclaim Land on Mount Hass

Local council and town elders in effort to reorganise housing after huge displacement.

Ahmad al-Akla

(The southern Idlib suburbs – Syria) Following the scramble for land on Mount Hass in Aleppo governorate after opposition forces took control of the area, the local council has set up a scheme to divide plots equally among local residents.

The new project will seek to reclaim land settled by people since they fled their homes during the fighting and give it back to them in the form of organised plots.

Some of those who were displaced by the fighting claimed large swathes of land on the mountainside. Others continue to build stone barriers around plots that they have expropriated without permission.

As a result, many who were forced to flee their homes in the fighting have nowhere to settle.

Hassan, 30, defected from the regime’s police force and joined the Free Syrian Army’s police security office but has not been able to acquire any land in the area.

“My home was damaged by shells and I haven’t found a location on the mountain to build a house for the future,” he said.

Mount Hass stretches from the east of the town of Kafrouma to the west of Kafr Nabel. It reaches from the archaeological town of Shinshirah in the north down to Hass in the southern Idlib suburbs.

The area covers an estimated 11,000 dunums (or 11,000 square metres).

Before the uprising, the local council used to sell plots of land on the mountain. Each plot cost between 600,000 (3,500 US dollars) and 1.5 million Syrian pounds (8,500 US dollars) depending on size and location.

Under the new scheme the local council will divide the area into several cantons, each containing 10 plots. The plots will then be allocated to residents looking to build a house.

Anyone who rented land legitimately from the government prior to the uprising will not be required to give it up.

Abu Abed al-Rahman, a member of the Hass local council, is happy about the new scheme.

“Many people were wronged in the allocation of mountain land, and so we met to find a solution to this problem,” Abu Abed al-Rahman said. “We decided to help some educated people to organise the eastern side of the mountain so that each person who has family papers gets a plot of 600 metres. They pay 25,000 Syrian pounds (140 US dollars) for roads and for the future provision of services.”

Construction worker Abdallah, 29, registered to receive one of the plots that the local council aims to distribute.

“We are happy that the plots will be organised and distributed in an equal manner for everyone. It is a step in the right direction, since some people have taken advantage of the uprising to expropriate large plots, leaving others with nothing,” he said. “This is unjust. This is why people are now assisting the local council and several engineers in conducting a study of the mountain in order to divide and allocate it equally and in a civil manner.”

Adnan al-Mando who heads the security office for the Free Syrian Army in Hass, explained that the project will seek to address the housing problem in a fair way.

“Before the security office was established two years ago, many people expropriated mountain land and built apartment buildings and private businesses,” he said.

“We are unable to remove them or demolish those houses because the majority say that their houses have either been destroyed due to shelling or that they are at risk of being so.”

“We support and encourage this project which is being carried out in collaboration with the local council to organise the land and divide it equally between citizens without exception,” he added.

Abu Mohammad, 35, works in a shop that sells fuel. He is one of those who has claimed a patch of land on the mountain since the uprising. He built a small house for his family and has a small garden where he grows some vegetables.

“Since my neighborhood became a target for shelling, we had no choice but to head to the mountain because it is safer,” he said.

But Abu Mohammad says he is ready to return the land if it will then be distributed equally.

“I am ready to accept any project to reorganise the mountain completely if it is done in a fair manner for everyone,” he said.

The project is intended to be a pilot for the rest of the mountain.

When the area was under government control, the local authorities had planned to develop the mountain as part of a project that was to include parks, schools, roads, and apartment complexes. Some people had already put down payments as deposits for apartments but after the uprising began the plans were quickly forgotten.

Abu Yassin is the engineer responsible for the developing the area and he regrets that the original development has been ignored since the uprising.

“It is unjust that some people have taken control over most of the mountain,” he said. “Previously, the local council used to sell plots through open auctions and then integrate them into the master plan. Water and electricity would then be provided to the area and plans made for schools, mosques, gardens, and roads. Now, no one even acknowledges the existence of the plan.”