People's Democracy

Syria: Continuing Ferment

Yohannan Chemerapally

IT has been over five months since the street protests in Syria erupted. The protests which started in March in the small town of Daraa have now spread to some of the bigger cities like Homs and Hama. The violence, which reaches its crescendo on Fridays, has resulted in many deaths. The casualty toll is mounting every week, with civilians and security personnel among those killed and injured. In mid June, more than a hundred soldiers and police were killed in the town of Jisr al Shagour by armed Islamists. At least 1400 have already died and around 10,000 have fled to neighbouring countries like Turkey and Lebanon. The government led by president Bashar al Assad has in the last couple of months made repeated attempts to bring an end to the unrest. Assad in his recent speeches has acknowledged that the opposition has many legitimate grievances. He has promised to rewrite the constitution so that multi-party elections can be held.

In the second week of July, the government organised a “national dialogue” to bring the political impasse to an end in the resort town of Dimas, near the capital Damascus. Opposition leaders who are currently in exile as well as those within the country who are members of an alliance of opposition groups known as Syrian Opposition Party Coordination Board (SOPCB) were invited to attend. This is the first time that the government had officially called them for talks. The SOPCB however declined the invitation declaring that the government “continues to rely on violence to solve the crisis”, though many opposition figures did attend the conference in their individual capacities. Syrian opposition groups based outside the country are well financed by the Americans. Wikileaks cables from the US embassy in Damascus have revealed that many of these groups have received millions of dollars from Washington. Many of the conservative Gulf countries are also helping the opposition. Al Jazeera (owned by Qatar) and Al Arabiya (owned by the Saudis) have been spewing anti-government propaganda. Al Jazeera broadcast calls by two prominent Gulf based clerics who urged –“Kill a third of Syrians so the other two thirds may live”. The majority of Syrians are Sunnis, with the Allawites, Druze and Christians making up a sizeable minority.  

ATTEMPTS TO

DESTABILISE

The US has been trying to destabilise Syria for a long time. In fact, the US attempts to install a friendly regime there started in the early fifties even before the 1953 CIA led coup in Iran. After the 2003 Iraq invasion, Syria had again come under tremendous pressure from the US to change its foreign policy stance. Washington would have liked Syria to sign a separate peace deal with Israel thus paving the way for a realignment of forces in the region. As part of the plan, the West tried to implicate the Syrian government in the killing of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al Hariri. This was followed by a massive Israeli attack on Lebanon, Syria’s close ally. The purpose was to militarily decimate Hezbollah and put a pro-western government in power in Beirut. The American and Israeli machinations failed and the Syrian government emerged stronger.

Then came the so called Arab Spring. The unrest which swept the region had its impact on Syria too. The West used the window of opportunity to turn the screws on governments that were steadfast in their support for Palestine. Washington and its allies on the other hand have stood aside, while the governments in Yemen and Bahrain have trampled on the democratic opposition. The Syrian government has been alleging since the beginning that the leaders leading the revolt in their country have the tacit support of the West which is encouraging them to carry on with the violent protests.

These allegations gained credence when the American and French ambassadors to Syria chose to visit Hama just before the national reconciliation dialogue was due to start. Diplomatic courtesy demanded that the two ambassadors should have at least informed the foreign ministry in Damascus about their visit to the volatile town. The two ambassadors added insult to injury by saying that they had gone to Hama to establish “contact” with the opposition and “protect” the demonstrators who had assembled after Friday prayers. The town of Hama has traditionally been an opposition stronghold. In 1982, the government had to use tanks and heavy artillery to put down an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood. At least 20,000 people were reported killed. Evidently the scars left by that incident have still not healed.

The Syrian government already upset with Washington and Paris, predictably reacted with fury. The Syrian foreign ministry said that the visits were “contrary to diplomatic norms” and that the American ambassador Robert Ford had met “with saboteurs and incited them to more violence and protest”. The ministry statement also said that the diplomat encouraged the opposition leaders to boycott the “national dialogue”. The statement went on to add that visit of the diplomats to Hama to establish open contact with the leaders of the violent upheaval was “clear evidence of the United States involvement in current events in Syria and its attempt to incite an escalation in the situation, which disturbs Syria’s security and stability”. One of president Assad’s close associates and a key spokesperson, Buthaina Shaaban, said that Syria had expected the US to play a positive role and support the talks between the government and the opposition. “What we are trying to do in Syria is to have a peaceful transition to democracy, and what we expect from America as the largest democracy in the world is to support it”, she said.

The opposition leaders who participated in the “national dialogue” acknowledged that the government was serious about implementing a new political road map for Syria. The upheaval seems to have had a lasting impact on the government. President Assad, if his recent statements are any indication, seems reconciled to the fact that the days of untrammelled one party rule could soon be over. But even western commentators acknowledge that no single opposition leader has yet emerged who could pose a challenge to Assad.  “I can say without hesitation that the majority want president Assad to stay. And if you want to be democratic, you have to respect the decision of the majority”, Imad Fawzi Shuebi, who teaches Political Science at the University of Damascus and a participant in the conference told the Washington Post.

In a speech at the University in the third week of June, president Assad had stressed on the “historic nature” of the current crisis engulfing his country. He promised his total commitment to “wide ranging reforms” in several sectors and the re-writing of the constitution. At the same time, he said that Syria was being targeted by foreign countries because of its geo-strategic location and opposition to the Israeli agenda for the region. It is no secret that the US wants Syria to stop supporting Hezbollah and Hamas which are today in the forefront of the resistance to Israeli occupation. Another bug bear for the West is Syria’s close military and political ties to Iran.

FLAGRANT INTERFERENCE

OF THE US

Demonstrators in the Syrian capital staged demonstrations in front of the American and French embassies after the news about the visit of the diplomats broke. Graffiti criticising the West was sprayed on the wall and a few window panes were broken. Damascus in the last few months has witnessed many huge pro-government demonstrations. Even the critics of Assad admit that the government continues to have a reservoir of support among secular minded Syrians, especially the sizeable Christian minority. The Syrian government denied charges that it had incited the demonstrators to indulge in violence. Shaaban said that many demonstrators were arrested and two policemen injured. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, used the embassy incident to further distance the Obama administration from the Syrian government. “President Assad is not indispensable, and we have nothing invested in him remaining in power”, she told the media in Washington.

President Barack Obama also weighed in a few days later saying that Assad “was losing legitimacy in the eyes of the people” and had missed “opportunity after opportunity” to institute reforms. The American president also condemned what he termed as “unacceptable degree of brutality” the government is using in the ongoing efforts to quell the protests. In response, the Syrian government has said that the latest statements by top US officials were “further proof of the flagrant interference of the US” in the internal affairs of the country.