Violations continue in Afrin and hundreds of the area’s people are still detained
Aleppo Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: violations continue in Afrin area without being deterred or suppressed by a conscience for an authority, not even the violators are stopping their abuses on their own, and in the details obtained by the Syrian Observatory for Human Right: the factions of “Olive Branch” Operation continue to detain hundreds of people from Afrin area, and take them as a commodity to be trafficked with, by detaining them and then communicating with their relatives asking for a ransom in exchange for releasing every kidnapped person of Afrin area, the thing which raised the resentment of people and the residents who remained in the area Afrin, accusing the Turkish forces and factions of “Olive Branch” of clamping down on the people to force them to leave their lands and homes and to flee to areas outside of Afrin, such as the northern countryside of Aleppo, Manbij, and east of Euphrates also the camps of the displaced people in Afrin area are witnessing growing resentment as a result of the disastrous and tragic conditions of hundreds of thousands of displaced people, who live in camps that do not protect them from the heat of summer nor the cold of winter, while international and relief organizations are mostly turning a blind eye on the cries of the locals and the displaced people, who suffer from the lack of medical supplies, medicines, treatment, and the lack of food and other materials and supplies required to live in the simplest possible situation, also locals asserted that there are hundreds of people who have property in Aleppo city, but the regime continues to prevent residents from gaining access to their properties intentionally, amid demands to open the road to access their property and houses they own in Aleppo city and its suburbs.
The Syrian Observatory published on the 8th of April 2018 that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored cutting of hundreds of olive trees by the parties that are in charge of constructing the road of local councils and Turkish authorities, in order to complete constructing this road, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored yesterday, that the forces of the “Olive Branch” Operation, local councils and Turkish authorities, are continuing the seizure of citizens’ crops and the olive farms is continuing by the local councils in the area, and by the Turkish forces, where reliable sources confirmed that Jandairis Local Council issued a circular calling on the olive mills’ owners to transfer 10% of the outcome of the olive production to the council, and 5% to the mill, and this circular stressed on that the harvesting and pressing olive is prevented unless they have a letter certified by the Local Council in Jandairis, like in previous decisions related to the prohibition of harvesting olives or pressing it without official permission.
The Syrian Observatory has monitored the Turkish authorities and the factions fighting the remaining residents of Afrin area through 3 main ways: the first of which is the process of settling displaced people from the capital Damascus, Rif Dimashq, Ghouta, and other areas of southern and central Syria; and housing them in seized houses of which their former people were displaced from in the large wave of displacement, where more than 300000 Kurdish citizens had fled Afrin area towards the northern countryside of Aleppo, where displaced people are being resettled and sold land for $100 per 400 meters, and this glutton in the sale of real estate pushed the factions also to expel the displaced people and bring families of their fighters to Afrin and settling them in, while the second method was fighting through the seizure and restriction of their agricultural crops and clamping down on them in harvesting olives; and preventing them from compressing it except by an official papers and delivering crops, while the factions burn crops and trees of people who refuse to pay royalties depending on the size of the farm, the number of olive trees, and the nature of the area in which they reside, where the “Olive Branch” operation factions arbitrary control the economic resources in Afrin- came against the backdrop of the seizure of most of the olive plantations in Afrin by the factions of operation “Olive branch”, and leasing it dealers and workers to work in them and receive money in advance as a price for the lease of these seized plantations, which are more than 75% of the area of olive farms in Afrin, after the factions shared control of olive farms.
The factions also deliberately steal and loot property of citizens, their warehouses, and their shops without fear or deterrence from any other faction or authority, while the third method of fighting is by security-and-living pressure on the people, and pushing them to move out of Afrin area, amid facilities provided by the checkpoints for the people who are getting out of Afrin, of whom more than 750 families have gone to Manbij area, Ayn al-Arab (Kobani), and other areas under the control of Syria Democratic Forces, although the checkpoints themselves have been narrowing down for months on the citizens of Afrin area, who wish to return from areas of their displacement in the northern countryside of Aleppo to their cities, towns, and villages in Afrin, after their tragedy in the displacement camps escalated, and after the lack of relief provided to these camps of food, medicine, supplies and the camps themselves, and other than that, there are the royalties imposed on the civilian and the people who move in Afrin area on the main and sub-roads, where varying sums of money are paid to checkpoints of “Olive Branch” Forces, who stop the small, large, public and private vehicles, and sometimes it goes beyond royalty and turn to looting, not to mention the continuous loot of the property of citizens with each raid in Afrin city and its villages, whose losses are either physical through the factions’ looting of property and contents of the house, or through the arrest of a resident of the house after fabricating charges relating to the “cooperation with the Kurdish Forces”, in an attempt to impose their power over the area.