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Many Syrians are euphoric after the fall of the Assad regime, with some already returning from exile. What awaits those choosing to return home?

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00:00After 50 years of brutal rule, the Assad regime has fallen.
00:14Syria is celebrating, and the first refugees are returning.
00:19We want to live in dignity, that's the main thing.
00:23But the country now finds itself ruled by Islamists.
00:26So what awaits the exiled Syrians who are now coming home?
00:46The first Friday prayers after the fall of the Assad regime have just finished.
00:51Tens of thousands of Syrians are gathering in Umayyad Square in Damascus.
00:58One of them is Omar al-Masri.
01:00He left Syria ten years ago.
01:02He's now back in the capital for the first time.
01:05I never imagined I'd be able to stand here and celebrate, or stand here and say what
01:11I wanted without being afraid.
01:13I hope we can rebuild the country, and that everyone can live together, peacefully, and
01:22above all, in freedom.
01:36Their singing long live Syria, Assad has fallen.
01:40Just a few days ago, that would have been unthinkable.
01:43For Omar and many of the people here, it's the first time they've attended a gathering
01:48like this, where they can voice their opinions out loud.
01:53Later, Omar takes us to his home village.
01:58As we leave Damascus, we pass traces of the recent upheaval, destroyed tanks and flattened
02:04stores.
02:06Omar grew up in Qatna, just a few kilometers from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
02:20I haven't seen this area for ten years.
02:24Back then, they arrested me over there.
02:26There were tanks everywhere.
02:29There are still a few tanks remaining on this abandoned military base.
02:40They arrested me on the street.
02:41They accused me of taking part in a demonstration and spying for Israel.
02:46I was put in solitary confinement and tortured.
02:49They knocked out a few of my teeth.
02:51I still suffer from the pain.
03:02Omar was imprisoned for four months.
03:04Today he's overjoyed that he can live in the family home again, together with his brother
03:08Yasser.
03:09Both brothers were in exile in Lebanon for ten years, doing odd jobs to make ends meet.
03:15Yasser worked as an electrician.
03:17Omar did construction and farming work.
03:19There are now seven of them living together.
03:24I missed everything here, the streets, the neighbors, the children.
03:31I even longed to hear our beautiful Syrian dialect.
03:40For a long time, coming back here was out of the question.
03:44Omar wasn't the only one who'd been in prison.
03:46His brother Hussein was too.
03:48Yasser tells the rest of the family that Hussein had always looked after everybody.
03:53A year after his arrest, they were told that he'd died in prison.
03:59Yasser still needs daily medication to help him cope with the grief.
04:06We didn't know how to tell his children that their father had been killed.
04:10We were paralyzed.
04:12He worked as a car mechanic and had nothing to do with politics.
04:20But they still arrested and murdered him.
04:22They never gave us his body.
04:25It was the same with all the murdered prisoners from our region.
04:31Nobody knows where they're buried.
04:37This is Sednaya Prison, on the outskirts of Damascus.
04:42Coming here, it becomes clear that what happened to the al-Masri family was not an isolated incident.
04:49Human rights organization Amnesty International calls the prison a human slaughterhouse.
04:55Thousands of regime opponents are said to have been tortured to death here.
05:00Days after Assad's ouster, thousands of Syrians are still coming here each day in search of relatives.
05:06They search the papers, looking for names, clues, any evidence their loved ones may still be alive.
05:14Jamil al-Obaid first came here looking for his son.
05:17Now he's trying to bring order to the chaos.
05:21He calls up the names that have already been documented.
05:27Nobody knows which of the prisoners are still alive.
05:34But we're searching all the documents and gathering information.
05:45Inside, walls are still being drilled into as people look for secret rooms or hiding places.
05:54Youssef al-Shemla is searching for his brother, who was arrested 10 years ago.
06:00One of his acquaintances denounced him.
06:03He told the secret police that my brother was with the Islamic State. That was a lie.
06:07The family sold all their possessions to pay for lawyers, but they couldn't free Youssef's brother.
06:13Last year, he came here himself to beg the guards.
06:16They responded by locking Youssef up for two days.
06:19He and 70 others were held in cell 10.
06:24One day in Sednaya felt like 10 years, because of the fear.
06:32Lots of people got tuberculosis.
06:38The fear made you sick.
06:46After the fall of the regime, bodies were brought from Sednaya prison
06:51to this Damascus hospital, named al-Mujdahid.
06:58We were able to find various signs of torture, as well as gunshot wounds.
07:02But we couldn't see everything, because of the decomposition.
07:06A lot of parents can't recognize their children.
07:08The people had also changed.
07:10For example, if a boy was arrested aged 16,
07:1310 years later he'd no longer look the way he did in the photos his parents still had.
07:21In front of the hospital, staff have hung up photos of the deceased
07:25to stop crowds of desperate relatives from coming into the mortuary.
07:34My son Ahmad Zakari was a bus driver.
07:39He was dragged off the bus and arrested.
07:45If anyone knows anything, please get in touch.
07:50Until now, no one knows anything about him.
07:53There's a fourth one.
07:55Omar, Imran and Mustafa.
07:57And Mahyeddin.
07:59Mahyeddin Ain.
08:01I've been looking for my son for 14 years.
08:03They trampled on our dignity.
08:05Assad is a dog.
08:20The Assad family controlled Syria for more than half a century.
08:24Hafez al-Assad came to power in a coup in 1970,
08:28then ruled as a brutal dictator.
08:31After his death, his son Bashar took over.
08:34He promised political reforms,
08:36but soon began crushing popular protests using poison gas and barrel bombs.
08:41Tens of thousands were killed or arrested.
08:44Millions fled the country.
08:46In recent years, Assad has held on to power
08:49thanks to military support from Russia,
08:51where he and his family have now fled.
08:59What does the future hold for Syria?
09:02That's a question Omar al-Masri has been asking.
09:05But it didn't stop him coming home.
09:08After Friday prayers in Damascus,
09:10he talks to Syria's new authorities,
09:12the Islamist militia, HTS.
09:18They're good people.
09:20They liberated us, and they treat us well.
09:23Much better than the old regime that oppressed and imprisoned us.
09:30The militia fighters are polite and open.
09:33They're happy Omar has returned.
09:38People should return to Syria.
09:41After all, it's their homeland,
09:43and there'll be peace and calm again.
09:46All the institutions are going to resume their work.
09:50We'll forget the past,
09:52and that pig Assad won't be coming back.
09:56We're going to build an Islamic state.
10:02But so far, the new rulers haven't specified what they mean by this.
10:06In a country where people of different religions
10:09and ethnic groups coexist,
10:11that's unsettling many.
10:13A group of activists is meeting in Damascus
10:16to discuss their hopes and fears for the future.
10:22Most of all, I'm worried about our freedoms,
10:25our freedoms as women.
10:30I'm worried that we've just changed the regime,
10:33and now a new dictator is coming in a different guise.
10:36We had a military authoritarian dictator.
10:39I'm afraid that we'll now have an Islamist dictator.
10:45That's a concern for many of Syria's Christians too,
10:48says Yousef Lajin.
10:50He heads Damascus' Faculty of Catholic Theology.
10:54He wants displaced people to return,
10:56to help rebuild their country.
10:58Before the war, Christians made up nearly 10%
11:01of the Syrian population.
11:03The militias came here.
11:05They said things like,
11:07we are your friends.
11:09We don't want to change anything.
11:12Stay the way you are.
11:14But I understand the fear.
11:16The future brings with it a certain fear,
11:19especially for young people.
11:21The future brings with it a certain fear,
11:24especially for young people.
11:26The future brings with it a certain fear,
11:29especially for young people.
11:31But back in Qatna,
11:33Omar al-Masri and his family are convinced
11:36that the time for fear is over.
11:38Despite their suffering under Assad,
11:41they're not seeking revenge.
11:44Everyone should be able to live well and with dignity.
11:47Houses and businesses need to be rebuilt.
11:50I need a job that allows me to feed my family,
11:53and their children should go back to school.
11:56That's what we want.
11:58The Syrian people have high hopes.
12:01Now it's up to the country's new rulers
12:04to follow up with actions.
12:06Only then will millions of exiled Syrians
12:09decide whether their homeland
12:11can offer them a secure future.
12:28You

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