12 April 2011
Damascus Dispatch: Another Day in the Revolution
Damascus Dispatch: Another Day in the Revolution
Damascus – The conflicts of the past few weeks here keeps fooling us. Protests against the government happen and the government responds and more protests follow. In some cities, things have gotten far more violent than here; the body count now is between 170 and 200 people killed in political clashes across the country.
Yesterday, it came even closer for me. For the first time since the protests began, a demonstration was held at the University of Damascus. Though it was overwhelmingly organized by and made up of students, a number of those of us who are a bit ‘older’ had come to lend support. A friend of mine on the faculty had alerted me and I had rushed over.
Students assembled and began chanting “The people of Syria are one!” a slogan that emphasizes the non-sectarian and non-regionalist nature of our movement; we are not Islamists or Communists or Baathists or Nationalists; we are not men or women, not Arab or Kurd, Christian or Muslim or Druze or Alawi; we are Syrians and as Syrians we are struggling for freedom, dignity, and democracy for all of us.
The pro-democracy demonstration was made up of a few hundred people and we began marching … meanwhile, a second demonstration of pro-government students also began. The University of Damascus is thick with party members in both faculty and students so it wasn’t that surprising; though party members tend to be more pro-government, there are some party members in the pro-democracy movement; the faculty member who tipped me off is a Baath Party member!
I started getting nervous; I could see that the pro-government demonstration was almost all male and had a lot of ‘tough’ looking guys whom I’d guess had military training in it. I feared what would happen when the more mixed pro-democracy group and it collided … I had earlier been in a similar situation where two crowds ended in a giant brawl in the suqh.
But that wasn’t what happened. Instead, security forces had been called out. They had batons drawn and began attacking the pro-democracy demonstrators; I would guess that at least twenty or thirty were badly beaten.
But they also had guns. There was the sound of gunfire. I watched a young man, a good-looking guy who, one could imagine, had a promising future ahead of him as a doctor or an engineer and who, when he won a place at the university, had been the pride of his family. He fell to the ground. He twitched slightly and I knew he was dead, shot as a martyr to freedom. Another dream destroyed by this regime.
We scattered. I dove into an empty building. I realized I was shaking. Sorrow for the young man I had seen die – I didn’t even catch his name but I had seen him in that moment, both as a hero and a martyr, his life stomped out when it had barely begun for … saying that the Syrian People are One!
And now … fear increases across Syria. Everyone shares scraps of information in soft voices and, with the information, fear, no matter whether we are with government or with the opposition. In Banyas, one of the major ports and a center for oil refining, nineteen soldiers were killed; one rumor says that they were ambushed by forces loyal to former VP Khaddam; another, possibly more reliable, says that the dead soldiers were killed by other soldiers who refused to put down demonstrations and fire on civilians. Now, Banyas is closed and under siege while there are rumors of fighting in the other towns and villages of the coast. There are ongoing clashes in Dera’a, down south, in Homs and in suburbs of Damascus.
We worry that we might be headed inevitably for civil war, something that, I believe, no one really wants. The government makes offers of reform but it seems too little, too late; and they can only give so much without weakening their own base … and each clash, each creation of new martyrs on both sides, makes the next step more likely. I hope some good can come out of this and we can have a peaceful transition to democracy … but I am not sure. I know we have no choice but to try. If I had questioned whether it was worth it before yesterday, today, my mind is clear. That handsome young man I never knew, the one who died in front of me, means, for me that I have no choice but to make his death meaningful. He will be remembered in a democratic Syria … and soon!
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1 comments:
Hi Amina
I work as a journalist in London for a news radio station- we're finding it really hard to get through to people in Syria right now- would you be up for talking to our listeners and telling them the situation there? We wouldn't use your name on air if you didn't want us to. Please email on jastinder.khera@googlemail.com if this is of interest. Yislamu!
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