Dozens of protests have taken place in regime-held areas in southern Syria since mid-August. People took to the streets after the government announced that the price for fuel would be increased by 200%. However, the protesters’ demands are not just economic – they are also calling for an end to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Our team spoke to a protester in As-Suwayda, a city with a large population of people from the Druze religious minority, where the recent protest movement has been especially strong.
Chants like “the people want the regime to fall!”, “Syria belongs to us, not the al-Assad family!” and “Get out, Bashar!” have been ringing through the streets of the Syrian city of As-Suwayda in recent days. It’s an echo: protesters from the city – many of the Druze minority – are using the same chants that demonstrators took up twelve years ago when the revolution first began in Syria.
A wave of protests has swept cities in southern Syria since the government’s announcement on August 15 that they intended to increase the price of petrol by 200%, a devastating price increase for a population whose financial situation has been ravaged by twelve years of war. More than 90% of the population lives under the poverty line. Government employees earn, on average, a monthly salary of just 12 euros.
The first group to respond to the government’s announcement were truck drivers in As-Suwayda. They called for a general strike and mobilisation.
'The protesters called for the overthrow of the regime, the liberation of political detainees and the application of resolution 2254'
Our Observer Shadi Al Dubaisi is a citizen journalist who lives in As-Suwayda. He participated in the protests.
Protests took place in dozens of places across the governorate. The roads were blocked. The local headquarters of the Baath party [Editor’s note: Bashar al-Assad’s party] and its branches were shut down.
People spray painted walls and handed out pamphlets. The protesters called for the overthrow of the regime, the liberation of political detainees and the application of resolution 2254 [Editor’s note: This UN resolution calls for a ceasefire and a political solution to the Syrian conflict].
The protesters have popular support as well as the support of the sheikh of the Druze, Hikmat al-Hijri. He supports the calls of the protesters and warns against any harm coming to them. It seems as if the security forces are unable to shut down these protests because of the large popular support as well as the participation of people from all sectors of society, including young people, women and the clergy.
The strike largely took place in As-Suwayda. Images shared on August 20 by the local media As-Suwayda 24 show dozens of shops in the town centre shut down.
On August 23, protesters set a large poster of Bashar al-Assad on fire.
Protests also took place in other cities. In Jableh, a town near the coastal city of Latakia, many people participated in the general strike. A video posted on social media on August 20 shows soldiers deployed to the town trying to force people to re-open their stores.
Protests also took place in Deraa as well as in the suburbs of Damascus. In Nawa, a suburb of Deraa, security forces carried out a violent crackdown on a peaceful nighttime protest on August 20.
'There won’t be an end to this conversation while Assad is here'
Firas Kontar, who is both French and Syrian, wrote the book “Syria: The Impossible Revolution.” (In French, “Syrie, la Révolution impossible”.)
The protests took place in places where the regime’s security services have less control. In Deraa, there is still a strong presence of militants from the Free Syrian Army, which means that the regime was unable to regain a firm hold on the territory.
People in As-Suwayda have never supported the regime or pro-regime militias. Instead, they supported the revolution from the beginning, which was embarrassing to the regime, which always pretended that minorities were on its side. It’s a big slap in the face for the regime.
We are experiencing the dislocation of a society, of a state that has left behind a terrible void in its wake. There’s been instability for the past 12 years. There won’t be an end to this conversation while Assad is here. The problems can’t be resolved with his presence. He is the knot that prevents any movement towards a pacification of the situation. And so this all continues.
An estimated 306,000 people have died in Syria since the war began in 2011, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. A further 15,281 people, at least, were tortured in the government’s prison cells according to the human rights NGO the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
During the Arab Spring, Syrians revolted against a regime that had been in place for more than 50 years. The regime has been accused of crimes against humanity for its bloody repression of the protest movement and its use of chemical weapons against civilians.
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