DAMASCUS – Ever since the first protests began in Tunisia at the beginning of the year, observers inside and outside have wondered “Is Syria next?” And, it seemed, the answer was ‘no’. But maybe not any longer.
Syrian civil society and pro-democracy activists had been trying to rouse the Syrian people to action but, despite efforts, it seemed we were acting in vain. The regime was quick to offer concessions, often before they could be demanded, while the fear of repression remained paramount in many minds. Activists (including this writer) had visits from the security services and experienced preventative detainment. It seemed like the possibility of the pan-Arab revolution spreading here was quite unlikely and we would have to find vicarious pleasure in the success of the revolution in the other countries.
But this week everything may have changed.
A relatively small (around two to three hundred) number of people gathered on Tuesday to protest the imprisonment of activists outside the Ministry of the Interior. Our slogans were simple: “God, Syria, Freedom!” and, as in so many of the other countries, “Peaceful!” The police broke up the demonstration and, we thought, maybe that was it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_tRHhVagc4
But we were at it again the next day … and the police arrested 34 of us, including some key organizers, such as Suhair al Atassi (though the demonstrators were largely younger men, women, both covered and uncovered, as well as people of all ages were there. The organizing, though, has been largely spearheaded by women).
And it seemed like it might be another false start ….
On Friday (yesterday), this writer went for prayers at the Umayya Mosque, the large central mosque here. When the service ended, in the men’s section (separated by a rope from where I was), someone shouted “Freedom!” and the crowd took up the call. Repeated calls of the takbir (“God is greatest!”) and calls of freedom echoed through the ancient shrine. Police, who’d assembled outside, came in and pulled a few men out while everyone inside shouted out resistance. As we exited, we found that the regime had ‘astroturfed’ a demonstration of its own: about a hundred people had gathered for a ‘spontaneous’ show of support for Bashar Asad, carrying portraits of him, of his father and pro-regime signs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLdC3sMs3hY
I returned home feeling that perhaps it was still too soon …
But then we started hearing from all over the country. There had been demonstrations of hundreds of people not just in Damascus, but in Homs and Aleppo, the other two largest cities, as well as in Deir az Zour and Hasseke in the far east and in Idlib in the north. Perhaps most exciting, there’d even been a large and peaceful protest for democracy in Baniyas, a Mediterranean port in the very heart of the Alawi dominated area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTQ5zZ-53JA
But, saddest, was the news from the south. In Deraa, near the Jordanian border, demonstrators had been met by armed force: first, we heard that two of us had been killed when the police had opened fire on the crowd. Later, reports raised the number to three, then four, now five. The state had shown its fear of us and its naked violence.
Today, we are mourning the first martyrs of the revolution … and readying for the next stage.
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