return from exile for civilians and combatants in Eastern Ghouta

At the exit of Douma, about fifteen kilometers from Damascus, the concrete skeletons punctuating the horizon contrast with the agricultural gentleness of the olive trees and cabbage fields. “ It should be in the fourth row, around here, I can’t find it. 15 March 2015. His date of death must be written on his grave », mutters Hatim al-Hafiri while browsing the inscriptions drawn on the mortuary steles. In front of the hundreds of mounds of earth stuck together, Hatim cries.

A few tears that redden her eyes. Opposite, on a stone shelter is painted: « Douma Martyrs Cemetery ». Arriving the day before from Aleppo, he found the courage to visit the grave of his son, a young fighter killed during clashes against the Syrian army. « Under each grave there may be more than 9 buried bodies for a single registered name »Hatim despairs. Faced with the number of victims of the war, the inhabitants of Douma…