In Syria, the race to rebuild from civil war frustrates efforts to unearth the truth. White Helmets have collected more

[applegrove]

In Syria, the race to rebuild from civil war frustrates efforts to unearth the truth
White Helmets have collected more than 1,200 bodies, and found 70 mass graves, in the first 11 months since the fall of Assad

Mark MacKinnonSenior International Correspondent
Buser al-harir, syria

Hasan Belal/The Globe and Mail

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-the-harrowing-duty-of-syrias-white-helmets/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky

It was in the dirt yard outside a half-rebuilt factory in the south of Syria that the country’s bloody past collided with its hopes for the future.

It took three months for the residents of Buser al-Harir, a town near Syria’s border with Jordan, to get the necessary permits to convert the remains of a shattered carpet factory – the scene of ferocious battles early in the country’s 13-year civil war – into a kiln that would produce bricks to help people rebuild.

Then, shortly after work began in early October, they found a body. Workers laying a new outer wall for the factory-turned-kiln came across human remains – likely someone who fought in the civil war that ended last year with the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

After a three-week pause, work resumed. Anas al-Hariri, the mayor, said it wasn’t an option for the town to go without a kiln just because it was constructed on top of one or more graves. Progress and rebuilding, he said, were more important than digging into the country’s dark recent history.