It was an episode that at any other time in Syria's history might have gone unnoticed. A month ago, a group of Syrian children, aged between 10 and 13, daubed anti-regime graffiti on a wall in a dusty town near the Jordan border. The security forces made some arrests. Relatives of the children protested. They were insulted and beaten.
Syrians have become used to this kind of brutality during the 11-year rule of Bashar al-Assad. But amid the revolt sweeping the Arab world, the incident quickly turned explosive. "It was unintentional," said Omar, 29, who identified himself as a family friend of the children in the original protest. "They saw on television Egypt and Tunisia and copied it." In the month since then, protests have swirled around Syria, raising questions about the durability of the Assad regime. A rally in Deraa ended with six people being killed by security forces. The movement spread to other areas – Homs, the Damascus suburb Douma, Aleppo and Latakia in the north, Banias on the coast. Every time the security services tried to quash the protests, it merely provoked more unrest. The number of protests has increased ever since, as has the death toll, which is now estimated at more than 200.
Assad has tried waving threadbare olive branches: on Thursday he offered a prisoner release and appointed a new cabinet. But on Friday security forces used teargas to prevent thousands of protesters from marching towards Damascus's main Abbasside Square, while thousands once again took to the streets in a number of towns and cities from Deraa to Banias.
For more: Syria's silent majority will determine next step as protests grow | World news | The Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment