After 14 years of battle, Syria has entered a brand new and unsure chapter. The nation is devastated – 90 per cent of Syrians dwell in poverty.
Regardless of the challenges as much as a million individuals residing in camps and displacement websites throughout the nation’s northwest intend to return house throughout the subsequent yr.
As these Syrians put together to return house, they’re starting the troublesome strategy of rebuilding and confronting the previous.
Ms. Al-Kateab, the filmmaker behind the award-winning documentary, For Sama, captured life underneath siege in Aleppo earlier than fleeing the nation in 2016.
Since then, she has remained a robust advocate for the Syrian individuals, co-founding Motion For Sama, a marketing campaign, advocating for human rights, dignity, and accountability for all.
On this interview with UN Information, as Syria stands at a crossroads, she shares her dedication to verify justice isn’t forgotten within the nation’s subsequent chapter.
This interview has been edited for readability and brevity.
UN Information: Waad, how have you ever been processing the previous few months?
Waad Al-Kateab: I feel it’s actually complicated. We’re over the moon, however on the identical time, it was one thing that appeared so far-off.
I assumed the ending of my story was dying in exile, not having the ability to return, by no means having the ability to see this stunning day. And it simply occurred out of the blue, with none indication.
We weren’t prepared, however that doesn’t matter. It occurred, and we’re actually glad.
On the identical time, the ache and grief we needed to undergo for the final 14 years – and for therefore many people, even 50 years, when Hafez al-Assad was president – it was simply an excessive amount of to deal with.
I’m nonetheless considering, is that this actual? Am I simply having an extended, stunning dream?
UN Information: Have you ever been in touch with individuals on the bottom in Syria? What have they been telling you?
Waad Al-Kateab: Till now, due to my refugee standing, I used to be not ready to return. However I am engaged on this, and hopefully, at any second I’ll get citizenship within the UK, so I will transfer freely.
© UNICEF/Rami Nader
My mother and father went again in January, and a few of our associates too. I used to be additionally in a position to talk with my household who had been in Syria the entire time, whereas earlier than, I could not even name or ship a message as a result of I used to be fearful of what the regime may do to them.
It’s not straightforward – the nation is drained, the economic system may be very dangerous, there’s no electrical energy, no water however what everybody has in frequent is the sensation that it’s positively a brand new starting.
We’re afraid, however we’re probably not scared. We will do something we wish.
UN Information: Whenever you nonetheless lived in Aleppo, you spent years capturing each the resilience of individuals and the devastation round them. What moments have stayed with you from that point?
Waad Al-Kateab: To be sincere, the scenario I couldn’t settle for was after we had been displaced out of Aleppo.
I understood early on that we had been combating in opposition to a dictatorship that might cease at nothing. I used to be okay with that. I knew the danger I used to be taking, the danger my husband Hamza was taking, even our personal daughter.
© UNOCHA/Mohanad Zayat
We had been combating in our personal manner – me, with my digicam, my husband, along with his work within the hospital.
Then got here the siege – six months with no treatment, no meals, no fundamental providers. After which, compelled displacement. That, for me, was essentially the most merciless factor: throw us out from our personal nation the place we wished to be.
It was the second which actually broke me. Saying goodbye to all the things – my house there, the hospital, the individuals we knew.
For the previous few years, I’ve compelled myself to not image going again as a result of it didn’t appear potential. However now, it’s.
So many individuals I do know went again. They ship me footage from the neighbourhood, the college: “See, it’s there. We’re again.”
And I can’t wait to be there myself.
UN Information: You discuss your pleasure, your loved ones’s pleasure, and this chapter closing. Do you suppose the toughest a part of the work has been performed now?
Waad Al-Kateab: Undoubtedly. The toughest work has been performed.
Now, with this new chapter, there’s quite a bit to do, and it’s troublesome in a really totally different manner. However the shelling, the bombings – that’s over.
There are such a lot of vital points – transitional justice, detainees, the disappeared. There are very troublesome conversations to have about revenge; and the economic system – it has greater than crashed.
There are such a lot of authorities, agendas and worldwide gamers in a rustic ranging from scratch. However now, we’re in cost. It’s very heavy to hold however we’re right here and we’re going to do it.
I’m very hopeful and excited.
UN Information: You point out transitional justice, what does actual accountability appear to be to you now?
Waad Al-Kateab: Bashar Al-Assad was accountable, however there are lots of others – those that ordered killings, those that carried them out, those that helped him. And I’m not simply speaking about people, but in addition international governments and armies.
There isn’t a method to have a future in Syria if we don’t face what occurred. For everybody accountable, it should begin with an apology and finish with accountability.
Proper now, militias and former regime troopers nonetheless have weapons, making an attempt to cover or defend themselves. That is very critical, and all weapons ought to be handed to the brand new authorities.
For victims like us, now it’s about asking: what do we wish? What can occur? How will we return to regular life? There’s a lot to be performed.
UN Information: You’ve lived within the UK for nearly a decade now. You stated you’d wish to return. Would that be long-term?
Waad Al-Kateab: To be sincere, we by no means imagined this second would occur, so we constructed a life away from Syria.
Even in our conversations with our daughters, I wished them to like Syria and perceive what occurred but in addition, I wished to guard them.
Now, I see they picked up far more than we realised, they picked up what we felt. For them, Syria was a spot the place individuals die.
They don’t perceive they usually ask: “What if Assad remains to be hiding there? What if he’s ready for us to go after which he kills us?”
The dialogue of going again has triggered many troublesome issues for them.
For me and Hamza, we don’t have to consider it, we wish to return in fact. So, we agreed on one go to and after we come again, we’ll speak – what we wish, what they need. They positively have an equal say.
No matter resolution we take, a method or one other, we might be again.
UN Information: Together with your advocacy, what position do you see your self having within the rebuilding of Syria?
Waad Al-Kateab: We’ve performed a lot all over the world – working with communities who know Syria effectively and others who know nothing about it.
© WFP
For us, the largest achievement has all the time been consciousness and preserving the narrative of what occurred. Now, greater than ever, that’s a precedence on the bottom in Syria.
For me, it’s not nearly For Sama as a movie, however about all the things I’ve realized as a filmmaker – years of telling my very own story and others’. Now, I wish to convey it again to Syria by means of screenings and conversations, not simply as a movie occasion, however as an area to listen to from individuals.
That is a part of transitional justice, particularly acknowledgment – serving to native communities speak to one another, perceive one another’s experiences and begin therapeutic.
UN Information: What can be your message to the worldwide group at present?
Waad Al-Kateab: Syria isn’t like another battle. Individuals tried to match it to Iraq or Afghanistan, however that is totally different. Even how the regime fell and what comes subsequent is unknown.
Because the U.S. slashes international support, Syrian civil society is susceptible to collapse. Organizations that fought for justice and guarded civilians for over a decade are actually struggling. The worldwide group should step up.
A profitable transition should be Syrian-led, free from armed teams or international affect.
The world has a duty to assist this in a manner that displays Syrians’ aspirations for peace, justice and accountability.
