The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been pursuing a divide-and-conquer strategy against dissent, using specific carrots-and-sticks to appease and repress the country’s complicated collection of tribal, ethnic and religious interests. But that does not appear to have diminished, on various local levels, the virulence of the rancor against the long rule of the Ba’ath Party and the perceived concentration of wealth and privilege in the hands of a small elite class. Indeed, while the various uprisings have not quite coalesced into the kind of mass movements that brought down the autocracies of Tunisia and Egypt, they have continued despite the violent response of the government; and the anger has spread over large swathes of Syrian territory.
On Saturday, security forces reportedly opened fire on demonstrators in the flashpoint southern town of Dara’a during funerals to bury the dead from the previous day’s anti-regime protests, the largest since unrest erupted across the country three weeks ago. Syrian opposition activists report that army troops are continuing to converge on Dara’a and the surrounding towns and villages in greater numbers in an apparent bid to crush the epicenter of the revolt.
All this comes a day after more than 30 people were reported killed when protests erupted across the country following noon prayers marking the Muslim holy day. The worst unrest was in Dara’a where activists say 31 people died in two separate confrontations with security forces. There were sizeable demonstrations in at least 15 other cities and towns, notably Homs where three people were reported killed and Latakia, Banias and Tartous on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. One YouTube video purportedly shows the bodies of 10 protestors killed in Dara’a on Friday. The short clip begins with someone holding up the front page of Saturday’s Tishreen newspaper in an attempt to confirm the date. Another shows protestors in Dara’a cheering as a man knocks down a bust of Hafez al-Assad, the former Syrian president and father of the current head of state. A third video shows the chaotic scenes of gunshot casualties being treated inside the landmark Omari mosque in Dara’a which has been turned into a makeshift field hospital.
The Syrian authorities have acknowledged the fatalities but blamed the violence on “saboteurs”. “This is what caused material and unfortunate human losses,” said Walid Muallem, Syria’s foreign minister. “Syria respects the right to peacefully demonstrate… [government] is working to respond to the demands [the people] through a reform program.”
