Ignoring civilians, Bashar al-Assad spends money for the reconstruction of Syria on his regime

The British newspaper “The Guardian” confirmed that the Syrians in the Assad regime-controlled areas pay taxes in order to rebuild their country after the war, but they get only a few benefits, despite the support of foreign countries with funds for the reconstruction of Syria.

The newspaper added: “The Reconstruction Committee granted 175 million Syrian pounds in July 2017 for maintenance work in the Mazzeh Jabal 86 area, which represents the backbone of support for the Assad regime in Damascus, while it did not provide support to the areas that witnessed widespread destruction in Homs, Rural Damascus and Aleppo and the rest of the Syrian provinces”.

The Guardian explained: “The contributions of the reconstruction tax over the years, from 56 million dollars in 2016 to 132.4 million dollars in 2020, while spending disclosures show that the total liabilities amounted to 263 billion Syrian pounds, which means that there are about 117 billion Syrian pounds.
Not spent. ”

The Assad regime’s Reconstruction Committee raised about $ 307 million to help rebuild the destroyed homes, the newspaper quoted an investigation by the “OCCRP” organization for investigative journalism.

Some of the funds that the organization was able to track went to the renewal of military installations and housing the Assad regime forces, while the funds allocated to civilians went to areas loyal to Bashar al-Assad.

These findings are consistent with research from the Carnegie Middle East Center, which found that “the Assad regime has used (selective reconstruction) to enhance its political and economic power in some areas, while ignoring the poorer social groups, which it considers a threat.”

An analysis of the funds spent revealed that the Reconstruction Committee granted 50 million Syrian pounds in 2016 to 167 members of the Assad regime’s army and police, and 350 million Syrian pounds for efforts to restore and modernize military hospitals in the Lattakia and Tartous governorates.

Source: Agencies