The Syrian revolution has taken a
significant and possibly key turn today after what has been a very
bloody week. As thousands of protesters once again took to the streets,
the regime has unleashed the most barbaric repression, no doubt gambling
on the idea that total repression can stop the movement. But cracks are
now appearing within the armed forces.
The Syrian revolution has taken a
significant and possibly key turn today after what has been a very
bloody week. As thousands of protesters once again took to the streets,
the regime has unleashed the most barbaric repression, no doubt gambling
on the idea that total repression can stop the movement. But cracks are
now appearing within the armed forces.
Immediately
after airing the speech of the President to the new cabinet the
Saturday before last, people in different parts of the country took to
the streets to protest with particular intensity in Homs and Latakia.
The security forces came down very heavily on them killing many and
launching a campaign of arrests in what seemed designed as a message
that the people should not read the President’s speech as if the regime
were making any concessions.
The repression was particularly brutal in Homs and its surrounding
villages; so much so that it provoked a very big demonstration the next
day in which people managed to occupy the main square of the city for a
few hours and the numbers were in many thousands. The security apparatus
dealt with the situation mercilessly evacuating the square with the
naked force of arms killing many and arresting many more. They behaved
in their usual barbaric manner, following the injured to the hospitals
and either killing them there on the spot or abducting them. They even
killed people who had come to donate blood. This was a complete and
thorough campaign of terror. The Sunday of Jalaa – April 17, official
independence day (Eid Al-Jalaa) which activists dubbed the Sunday of
Al-Jalaa , the “Sunday of Departure” – also witnessed widespread
protests in many other parts of the country)
After that bloody weekend last week was relatively quiet with
sporadic protests here and there including in the universities of
Damascus and Aleppo. Last Wednesday we saw the first signs of the
organized working class beginning to move, with the trade unions in the
Governorate of Darr’a severing all their links with the Ba’ath party. On
Thursday Asad lifted the Emergency Law in preparation for the Great
Friday that activists called for people to protest on. Great Friday is
the Arabic name for Good Friday, activists choosing this day to refute
the regime’s propaganda about the Islamist nature of the movement.
Lifting the Emergency Law, however, did not help as this Great Friday
proved to be absolutely the bloodiest day in the course of the
revolution as around 120 were murdered by the security forces on Friday
and the following Saturday during the funerals of the martyrs. The
killing was especially brutal in Darr’a and its towns and provoked two
resignations among the Darr’a Members of Parliaments that were followed
by a number of resignations from the governorate council of Darr’a.
The hysterical reaction of the regime continued yesterday. They
besieged the town of Jableh near Latakia, killing at least 10 and
arresting many more. However, the most important development came at
dawn the next day [Monday, April 26] when very large numbers of security
forces, backed up by army units, entered Darr’a and started shooting at
people who were out for the dawn prayers and then randomly shooting at
residential buildings. This was accompanied by a very dense deployment
of security forces in the towns surrounding Damascus, such as Douma and
Mouadamieyah (which have been besieged for many days), and a campaign of
shooting and random arrests.
It seems clear from all this that the regime – in spite of its moves
to accommodate to the “market economy” – is still very rooted in its
previous Stalinist traditions when it comes to dealing with mass
protests. It has chosen the road of using the utmost available force to
deal with the situation and they are gambling with using the army
against unarmed civilians.
The deployment of army units in Darr’a appears to be a desperate
measure and a gamble that very quickly backfired on the regime. Shortly
after entering Darr’a, eye witnesses on Al-Jazeera reported seeing armed
clashes between the army units and the security and intelligence
forces. According to the witness the intelligence forces were giving
orders to the army units but at a certain point some officers refused to
carry out the orders and turned their guns on the intelligence
officers.
Later the Syrian Revolution website on Facebook reported news of a
mutiny within the Syrian army but it is impossible to get reliable
information on how widespread this was, as Darr’a is still completely
isolated. However, a few names of lower ranking officers who broke with
their units have already come out, proving that some kind of revolt
within the army has indeed taken place. There are also many rumors about
entire brigades revolting and engaging with the paratroops in armed
clashes, but as of yet nothing can be confirmed, although this would be a
logical outcome of the recent developments.
The regime is trying to cover up its military operation in Darr’a by
describing what they are doing as a fight against Muslim extremists who
according to the regime are behind all the violence in the country.
Exploiting the fears and prejudices of different layers of Syrian
society, the regime is trying gain some time to deal with the situation
with utmost force before it gets out of hand. In doing this it is
treading on dangerous ground as it is not clear how the armed forces
will react under this kind of pressure and what the balance of forces
would be in the case of a major split in the army. The next few days may
carry fateful developments for the country and the revolution.
