避難場所がない…地下壕や墓地を住居に　シリア

【タルトゥナＡＦＰ＝時事】敵陣に包囲されたシリア北西部の村タルトゥナの、オリーブの木が点々とするなだらかな丘から、シャムスディーン・ダラさん（35）は薄暗い地下壕（ごう）に下りていく。彼と彼の家族は今、ここを家と呼んでいる。（写真はシリア・イドリブ県タルトゥナ村で、県内やアレッポ県からの避難民数家族が一緒に暮らす地下壕）
　自宅があったイドリブ県に対するシリア政権軍の容赦ない攻撃を逃れたものの、行くあてはなかった。そして見つけたのはシリア内戦の初期、空爆から身を守るために村人たちが掘った地下壕だった。一家は荒れた内部を掃除し、移り住んだ。ダラさんと３人の兄弟、それぞれの妻たち、１０人を超える子どもたちがこの狭い部屋で一緒に暮らしている。

■蛇にサソリ
　新しい住まいに敷かれたカーペットの上で、ダラさんの子どもたちは身を寄せ合っていた。辺りには、フムス（豆のペースト）や乾燥オレガノ入りオリーブオイルのボウルが乗ったトレーが置かれていた。
　太陽の光は階段から差し込むだけだ。これが、陰気な暗闇を追いやる唯一の光源だ。
　部屋の隅にはわずかな持ち物が積まれ、赤と濃紺の毛布がかけてあった。「湿気に困っている。子どもたちは具合が悪い」とダラさん。横にいた子どもの一人は泣き出した。「それに虫もいる」。ダラさんは黒い厚手のパーカを着込んでいる。
　ダラさん一家からそう遠くないところで、アブ・モハメドさん（４０）も地下壕を避難生活の拠点にした。ここは、４０人ほどが住む避難民キャンプとなっている。
　「私たちが着いたときにはここは汚い洞窟で、動物のふんもあった」「村人たちからは蛇やサソリもいると注意されたが、他に選択肢はなかった」と言う。
　国連によると、シリアで昨年１２月以降、新たに避難民となった約１７万人は屋外や未完成の建物などに住んでいる。
　ＡＦＰ特派員は、避難場所がないため仕方なく車の中で暮らしたり、学校やモスク、さらには廃虚となった刑務所で寝泊まりしたりしている家族をいくつも見てきた。

■死者の間で
　しかし、さらに北にある町サルマダに住むユスラ・ハルスニさんの家族は、これ以上にひどい状況に陥っている。ハルスニさんと義理の娘、それに孫たちは、他の６０ほどの家族とともに地元の墓地のホールに住んでいる。日中、雨がやむと、墓の間から男女がぞろぞろと姿を現す。
　墓に囲まれて暮らすのは楽じゃない、とハルスニさんは言う。ある晩、幼い男の子が叫び出し、人々は霊に取り付かれたのだと思った。何かの霊を追い払うために「長老が２回来て、コーランを唱えていった」。
　しかしハルスニさんは死者の間で暮らすことを、諦めの気持ちで受け入れている。「もちろん、このような墓地の真ん中でも皆、死を怖がっている」。墓地で暮らすことは、「もう一つの恐怖よりはまし」だとハルスニさんは言った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/03/05-08:55）

In a field dotted with olive trees in embattled northwestern Syria, Shamseddeen Darra steps down into the gloomy underground shelter he and his family now call home.
After fleeing a deadly offensive by government forces on their home region of Idlib, they found nowhere else to go.
Beyond rolling hills in the village of Taltuna, Darra, his three brothers, their wives and more than a dozen children share a small room in the belly of the earth.
We're living here for lack of a better option, says 35-year-old Darra, who calls their makeshift shelter the cave.
We didn't have any tents. We stayed in the town mosque for two days. We looked for a place to stay but found nothing, he explained.
After they found the abandoned shelter, dug out by villagers earlier in the civil war to hide from air strikes, they cleaned it out and moved in.
Backed by Russia, government forces have been chipping away at Syria's last major rebel bastion since December.
The region is run by jihadists and allied rebel groups, and is home to around three million civilians.
The violence has forced 900,000 of them to flee their homes or shelters, more than half of them children.
- 'Scorpions and snakes' -
Inside their new underground home, Darra's children huddle on a carpet around a tray covered in small bowls of hummus and dried oregano in olive oil.
Sunshine seeps in only from the staircase, the only source of light to cast away the dank darkness.
In a corner, the family has piled its scant belongings under a red and navy blue blanket.
We're suffering from the humidity. The kids are sick, he said, as nearby one of them started crying.
And there are bugs, added Darra, wearing a thick black hooded sweatshirt.
Not far off, 40-year-old Abu Mohammed had also set up camp in an underground bunker.
He and around 40 people now share the space, where they have thrown a plastic rug on the ground and piled plastic jars of picked olives and other food along the uneven wall.
When we first arrived, the cave was dirty. There was animal excrement, said Abu Mohammed, wearing a black leather jacket and sporting a greying beard.
The villagers warned us there were scorpions and snakes, but we had no other option, he said.
Of those newly displaced since December, some 170,000 live out in the open or in unfinished buildings, the United Nations says.
AFP correspondents have seen families without shelter forced to camp out in their cars, sleep in schools or mosques, or even make home in an abandoned prison.
- Among the dead -
But in the town of Sarmada further north, Yusra Harsuni said she and her family had reached new lows.
She, her daughter-in-law and grandchildren were now among 60 families living in the hall of the local cemetery.
When the rain stops during the daytime, men and women emerge to stroll between the graves.
They and their children sit on the grass, breathing in fresh air beyond the white marble tomb stones.
Inside, the sunlit hall is divided into two sections according to gender, and heated up with large stoves.
Babies cry out, piercing through the low din of everyday chatter.
Here and there, essential belongings grabbed in flight have been piled up haphazardly. There are mattresses, carpets, saucepans and boxes of food.
There are lots of families inside, Harsuni said, sitting by a tomb with two small children.
Living next to a graveyard is not easy, she said.
One night a small boy started screaming and people thought he was possessed.
The sheikh twice had to come and recite the Quran to rid the place of any spirits, she said.
But the grandmother says she has now resigned herself to living among the dead.
Of course, here in the middle of tombs, people are scared of death, she said.
But it's the lesser of two evils.
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