The protesters are measurless, mushrooming in random but closely tied lines at the ‘Clock Square’ in Syria. Few cases of self immolation have been reported.
Angry revolutionaries burn the posters of President Bashar al- Assad. They yell in unison ‘God, Syria, Freedom is enough.’
’29 years’
Syria, locked in emergency for the past 48 years, was perhaps waiting for this renaissance of change. It was difficult to emulate Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. To start with, Syria is not as wealthy as Libya. Secondly, it does not have so many people, as Egypt had.
But the worse was the scar of the past.
In 1982, thousands of protesters were mercilesly killed by the current President’s father Hafez al- Assad. An event, perhaps similar as Jallianwala Bagh Massacre which India witnessed on 13th April 1919.
It has taken 29 years for Syria to revolt again. This time, the revolt is led by students, journalists, young academics, writers and family members of political prisoners.
Just like, one after the other, military coup in Syria, makes it difficult to embrace the governance in the country; the brutual and sometimes, meaningless arrest of activists, makes it impossible to understand Syria.
Some call it liberal and stable, while others call it one of the most authoritarian countries in Arab. Whom to trust? No one knows.
Strected within vast villages, no one in Syria is allowed to speak with outsiders. There is the security force of ‘Mukhbarat’ which closely follows every single human trail. Interestingly, though the posters of Assad are present here there, everywhere- there are few villagers who do not know who he is.
There are people who did not know they are under the emergency rule.
While, others paid price of revolting against it. Years back, a 19 year old girl Tal was once called to the Syrian government, just because she used to blog about the causes. She never returned after that day. Till now, no one knows where she is.
One of the Human Rights activists says ‘Fragmentation has replaced unity. Repression has replaced freedom in the country.’
When on 30th March, everyone expected Assad to come and speak. He did do. But spoke the monotonous blame game, complaining the US and outside forces to cause problems in his country.
What is interesting is how Israel would deal with Syria’s new changes in government. Questions like, will Assad surrender, would emergency end, would prisoners be set free– all lies in a turmoil, silent vaccum as of now.
Credits: Picture from AP Photos
shubhdachaudhary 