ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
It's been less than a week since a coalition of opposition fighters overthrew the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. Already, opposition leaders and government workers who've remained are trying to create a new country - to roll back decades of repression and corruption to build a functioning state. A key part of that work is securing the country's borders and regulating trade. NPR's Jane Arraf reports from Syria's Daraa province, near the Jordanian border.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: The day before, this border checkpoint had been deserted, completely empty apart from a couple of fighters with rifles. Some of those same fighters are now manning a checkpoint they had set up, leaning into car windows to check IDs and register the names of people leaving Syria.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: No computer system, mind you, so they were taking photos of the IDs to save onto a computer. There was another fighter opening and closing a blue iron gate with the original Syrian flag tied to it - the one before the al-Assad family changed it and changed the country. The fighter's name was Omran Khatib, 24 years old, a kid when the uprising that turned into civil war started here in Daraa province.
OMRAN KHATIB: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: He says, "is there anything more beautiful than this happiness? - that, after 14 years, we can smell the scent of freedom? This was a dream that came true."
Mohammad al-Qadri is head of the border regions of Daraa province for the opposition coalition, the South Military Command.
MOHAMMAD AL-QADRI: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "We protected everything immediately after the collapse," he tells us. "We closed the entire border wall, and we closed the entrances and put guards everywhere. And we asked the employees of border and customs to come back and make a new start and build Syria together."
(CROSSTALK)
ARRAF: In one of the customs buildings, officials and customs agents, freight forwarders, businesspeople have gathered to speak to administration officials. The head of customs gathers them in what was a VIP waiting lounge, high ceilings and velvet sofas along the walls. A couple of hundred men crowd in. There's no electricity yet. And in the dim light, cigarette smoke curls towards the ceiling.
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICIAL: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "My brothers, we came here to serve you and this country. We have a goal - for this country to stand on its feet, for our sake and the sake of our children," the official tells them.
He tells us he doesn't want to give his name and doesn't say why. He tells them they have to work together to get the border up and running to get exports flowing again. Everyone is talking about customs fees and transit fees and inspection procedures.
This is how history is made. This is how a state is re-created - a couple of hundred guys in a dimly lit room, smoke rising. Everyone has an idea. Everyone has a problem. Everyone has an opinion. But one of the differences now is they're allowed to express those opinions.
I ask one of the customs officials, Ihab al-Hatim, how he feels.
IHAB AL-HATIM: I can't say anything now. I can't say.
ARRAF: It's hard to hear him over the crowd. "Too early because it's a divided country - we want to be one people in one country from north to south, from east to west," he says.
But he says he isn't sure that Syria's neighbors want a strong country.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: A little further up the road at a border checkpoint, a group of boys and their fathers are painting the restored Syrian flag on concrete traffic barriers. They mix cans of green and white for the colors of the flag and then paint red stars with a stencil. The boys are about the same age as the children who were arrested and tortured by regime forces in 2011 here for writing antigovernment graffiti on a wall. The father of one of the boys was killed in 2011. Everyone here says they're indescribably happy at the fall of the regime, but they know there's a lot of work ahead.
Jane Arraf, NPR News, Daraa Province, Syria. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
