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A30 world news
Diabierna 4 Juni 2021

In Syria camp, forgotten children are molded by IS ideology

own son and daughter. If home countries won’t re-
patriate, at least they should
“We want our children to help set up facilities to im-
learn. Our children should prove children’s lives, said
be able to read, to write, to Shixmus Ehmed, head of the
count,” said the 42-year-old, administration’s department
who was fully covered in for refugees and displaced.
black, including her face and
hands. She said her husband “We have suggested schools
was dead but refused to say be opened, as well as rehabili-
how. “We want to go home tation programs and fields to
and want our children to do sports,” Ehmed said. “But
have a childhood.” so far, there is nothing.”
The women in the camp are In the camp’s main section,
a mix. Some remain devoted UNICEF and Kurdish au-
to IS, but others became dis- thorities had set up 25 learn-
illusioned by its brutal rule ing centers, but they have
or by its defeat. Others were been closed since March
never ideologically commit- 2020 because of COVID-19.
ted but were brought into the UNICEF and its partners
“caliphate” by husbands or have distributed books for
family. kids to study on their own.

The camp began to be used In the annex, authorities have
to house the families of IS been unable to set up learn-
fighters in late 2018 as U.S.- ing centers. Instead, children
(AP) — At the sprawling governments often see the during a rare visit by The As- backed Kurdish-led forces re- there are largely taught by
al-Hol camp in northeast children as posing a danger sociated Press to the camp captured territory in eastern their mothers, mostly with IS
Syria, children pass their rather than as needing rescue. last month. Around a dozen Syria from the militants. In ideology, according to U.N.
days roaming the dirt young boys in the annex March 2019, they seized the and Kurdish officials.
roads, playing with mock “These children are ISIS’s hurled stones at the team, last IS-held villages, ending
swords and black banners first victims,” said Save the which was accompanied by the “caliphate” that the group Though the annex residents
in imitation of Islamic Children’s Syria Response Kurdish guards. A few waved declared over large parts of are considered the strongest
State group militants. Director Sonia Khush. “A sharp pieces of metal like Iraq and Syria in 2014. IS supporters, the group has a
Few can read or write. For 4-year-old boy does not re- swords. presence in the main section
some, the only education ally have an ideology. He Since then, the Kurdish ad- housing Syrians and Iraqis as
is from mothers giving has protection and learning “We will kill you because you ministrators running east- well.
them IS propaganda. needs.” are an infidel,” screamed one ern Syria have struggled to
child who looked around 10. repatriate camp residents in In late March, the Kurdish-
It has been more than two “The camps are no place for “You are the enemy of God. the face of local opposition led forces assisted by U.S.
years since the Islamic State children to live or grow up,” We are the Islamic State. You to their return or because of forces swept through the
group’s self-declared “caliph- she said. “It does not allow are a devil, and I will kill you the residents’ own fears of camp, seizing 125 suspected
ate” was brought down. And them to learn, socialize or be with a knife. I will blow you revenge attacks. Earlier this IS operatives, including Iraq-
it has been more than two children ... It does not allow up with a grenade.” year, hundreds of Syrian fam- is and Syrians.
years that some 27,000 chil- them to heal from all that ilies left the camp after a deal
dren have been left to lan- they have lived through.” Another child slid his hand was reached with their tribes Those sleeper cells had been
guish in al-Hol camp, which across his neck and said, to accept them. Last month, carrying out a campaign of
houses families of IS mem- In the fenced-off camp, row “With the knife, God will- 100 Iraqi families were re- killings against residents sus-
bers. after row of tents stretch for ing.” patriated to live in a camp in pected of abandoning the
nearly a square mile. Con- Iraq, but still face sharp op- group’s ideology, working
Most of them not yet teenag- ditions are rough. Multiple At a market inside the annex position among their neigh- as informants or defying its
ers, they are spending their families are often crammed where women sold sham- bors. rules by, for example, work-
childhood in a limbo of mis- together; medical facilities poo, bottled water and used ing as prostitutes for survival.
erable conditions with no are minimal, access to clean clothes, one woman looked Some former Soviet Union At least 47 people were killed
schools, no place to play or water and sanitation limited; at a reporter and said, “The states have let back some of this year, according to Kurd-
develop, and seemingly no the tents flood in the winter, Islamic State endures” — a their citizens, but other Arab, ish-led forces, while U.S. of-
international interest in re- and fires have broken out slogan of the group. European and African coun- ficials put the number at 60.
solving their situation. from use of gas stoves for tries have repatriated only
cooking or heat. During its nearly 5-year rule minimal numbers or have A Syrian woman who left the
Only one institution is left to over much of Syria and Iraq, refused. camp with her five grandchil-
mold them: remnants of the Some 50,000 Syrians and IS made a priority out of in- dren earlier this year told the
Islamic State group. IS opera- Iraqis are housed there. doctrinating children in its “Those children are there AP she knew of several wom-
tives and sympathizers have Nearly 20,000 of them are brutal interpretation of Is- through no fault of their en killed for alleged prostitu-
networks within the camp, children. Most of the rest are lamic law, aiming to entrench own, and they should not tion. In each case, a masked
and the group has sleeper women, the wives and wid- its “caliphate.” It trained chil- pay the consequences of man appeared at the woman’s
cells around eastern Syria ows of fighters. dren as fighters, taught them their parents’ choices,” Ted tent, identified himself as
that continue to wage a low- how to carry out beheadings Chaiban, Mideast and North an IS member and shot the
level insurgency, awaiting an In a separate, heavily guarded using dolls, and even had Africa director of the U.N. woman in front of neighbors
opportunity for a revival. section of the camp known as them carry out killings of children’s agency, UNICEF, or even her children, she said.
the annex are housed another captives in propaganda vid- told the AP. Chaiban visited
Kurdish authorities and aid 2,000 women from 57 other eos. al-Hol in December. She said it was common even
groups fear the camp will cre- countries, considered the in the main part of the camp
ate a new generation of mili- most die-hard IS support- A Russian-speaking woman The Kurdish-led administra- to see children chanting “the
tants. They are pleading with ers, along with their children, in the annex, who identified tion says it doesn’t have the Islamic State endures” and
home countries to take the numbering 8,000. herself as Madina Bakaraw, resources to maintain and carrying a stick with a black
women and children back. said she feared for the future guard the camp. bag tied to it to symbolize an
The problem is that home The IS influence was clear of the children, including her IS flag.