The : Political analysis with original testimony from key figures

By Michael Weiss and Hannah Stuart Additional research by Samuel Hunter

©Copyright Henry Jackson Society, 2011 Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

INTRODUCTION 4

BACKGROUND at a glance 5 Timeline of the protests 7

PART ONE – OPPOSITION IN SYRIA Who are the opposition? 14 Key regime & opposition figures 14 The National Initiative for Change 15 Syria Conference for Change: Antalya 18 The role of the and Islamists 18 Military defections: myth or reality? 18 Opposition voices on the ground – original interviews 19

PART TWO – FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT Perceptions of Western inaction 22 Assad and the ‘peace process’ 23 The Iranian-Syrian alliance 24 ’s influence 24

CONCLUSION 25

APPENDIX: Full transcripts of original interviews 26

2 Executive Summary

REGIME BRUTALITY Over the last three months, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime – including the security forces, the army and private militia – has been responsible for at least 1,100 killings, 4,000 injuries to men, women and children and 10,000 arbitrary detentions. Despite initial promises of reform, Assad shows no signs of relenting in his suppression of the opposition. Whole cities and surrounding areas remain under siege, with little or no access to water, electricity, communications and medical supplies.

THE OPPOSITION Initially ad-hoc, the opposition movement has developed coherence and sophistication throughout the uprising, culminating in the creation of the National Initiative for Change (NIC). The NIC released a joint statement signed by 150 figures within and outside Syria, demonstrating a practical road-map for a democratic post-Assad Syria. The opposition is broadly pro-Western. Despite the regime claims to the contrary, the Islamist quotient among the opposition is very low. Protesters have decried regime propaganda that they are controlled by ‘Salafis’ and have denounced Iranian and Russian meddling by burning their national flags in the streets. The revolution is not characterised by sectarianism. Desire for freedom from Assad and the co-ordination of oppositionists both inside and outside of Syria has, for now, quelled the country’s sectarian differences.

INTERNATIONAL INVOLVEMENT Responses from the West, Arab states and the international community as a whole have been muted, especially in comparison to international reaction to and . The opposition believes that increased condemnation from the , the European Union and the would encourage the to defect from the regime

THE IRANIAN-SYRIAN ALLIANCE Iranian influence in Assad’s suppression of the Syrian revolution is an accepted fact by both the United States government and the opposition. Commercial and military ties between and Syria have never been stronger. The opposition are fiercely anti-. After Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian- sponsored Lebanese terrorist organisation, pledged his support for Assad’s regime, protesters burned his picture in the streets.

ASSAD AND THE ‘PEACE PROCESS’ The revolution has been generally free of anti- sentiment. The exception – cited by several domestic oppositionists we spoke with – is the perception that the West acquiesces to Assad’s brutality because of its belief in Syria’s strategic role in brokering Israel- Palestine peace.

TURKEY’S INFLUENCE Turkey and Syria have grown commercially and militarily closer over the past three years. The Turkish Prime Minister has only said that he is ‘quite concerned and annoyed’ by Assad’s crackdown. This is in stark contrast to his calls for regime change in Egypt and Libya, where Turkish troops are currently helping to enforce the Nato-led no-fly zone. Despite this lack of direct support, between 300 and 400 Syrian oppositionists met for a three-day conference in in the Turkish resort of Antalya at the end of May. The goal of the meeting was to produce some form of logistical and legal support for the revolutionaries.

RECOMMENDATIONS Western governments are uniquely placed to support Syrian aspirations for freedom, and simultaneously de-stabilise Iranian influence in the region and transform an anti-Western regime into a key strategic ally. They should take the following steps: RHETORICAL SUPPORT The US, UK and the EU must call for the immediate resignation of Bashar al-Assad from power, along with his inner circle. The UN Security Council should pass a resolution condemning Assad’s violence and demanding his immediate resignation.

PRACTICAL SUPPORT The US and the UK should work closely with the opposition umbrella group, the National Initiative for Change (NIC), to help establish a transitional council in Syria that can be recognised by the international community. The US and the UK should provide the opposition with greater material aid, in particular encrypted laptops and satellite phones and SIM cards in order to withstand the regime’s media blackouts and continue the uninterrupted documentation of regime atrocities and abuses

MILITARY SUPPORT The Syrian opposition pins its hopes on turning the Syrian Army over to its side and then serve as a caretaker government in the transition to . The US and UK ought to use regional intelligence assets to persuade or entice sympathetic Syrian officers to defect. The Syrian opposition is not yet calling for military intervention but this option should be seriously considered by the US, UK and Nato and preparations should be made in the event that this transpires.

3 INTRODUCTION

Three months into the uprising in Syria, there is little sign of either side backing down. The authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad continues to violently suppress demonstrations by his own people (despite condemnation from the international community) while the opposition – now more coherent than ever – has made it clear that the people will accept nothing less than his removal from power. Assad’s regime – including the security forces, the army and private militia – are responsible for at least 1,100 killings and 4,000 injuries to men, women and children. Entire communities in and around the cities of Deraa and and elsewhere remain under siege, with little or no access to water, electricity, communications and medical supplies. Despite this state-sponsored violence, ordinary continue to defy the regime by protesting in their thousands. Chants such as ‘the people want to topple the regime’ can be heard across the country by members of all sects of Syrian society. The desire for freedom from Assad and the co-ordination of oppositionists both inside and outside of Syria has, for now, quelled the country’s sectarian differences. and policy-makers have been slow to react to events in Syria in contrast to their handling of the uprisings in Egypt or Libya. Little is known of the Syrian opposition; specifically its organisation, ideology and strategy for transitioning from dictatorship to democracy. Assad’s regime continues to prohibit free movement of journalists, making accurate information difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, The Henry Jackson Society has obtained exclusive interviews with opposition figures in the urban centres of the Syrian revolution: Deraa, , Douma, the Al-Tall District, and Homs. We have also interviewed two key Western spokespersons of the opposition, , a Maryland-based spokesperson, and Radwan Ziadeh, author of the statement by the National Initiative for Change (NIC), the most coherent template for what Syria ought to become if the revolution succeeds produced thus far. This briefing provides an overview of the uprising – namely the protests and resultant violence and casualty figures – and provides unique insight into the situation on the ground in Syria. It also examines geopolitical calculations relevant to Western policy in the region and concludes with policy prescriptions for Western governments.

A boy holds up a placard during an anti-government protest in – AP Syrian protestors call for UN condemnation of Assad’s violence. –

4 BACKGROUND – SYRIA: AT A GLANCE

The Syrian Arab Republic came into being in 1961, after Syria broke away from the which it had joined with Egypt in 1958. Syria is a predominantly Arab nation with a small Kurdish and Armenian minority. It is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim (74%) in religious orientation; 14% are Alawite Muslim; Shia and minorities make up 2%; and various Christian denominations make up 10-12%. There is also a very small Jewish population centered in Damascus, Qamishly and . The UN Human Development Index, which measures health, education and income, ranks the country 111 out of 169 with comparable data, concluding that Syria is below regional average for human development.1 Total population: 22,500,000 approx. (61% is young or middle-aged, 15-64 years old) Population below poverty line: 11.9% Unemployment rate: 8.3% (94th most jobless country worldwide) National literacy rate: high (estimates vary 79.6% – 84.7%) Total internet users nationally: low (4.469 million, 17.3 per 100 people) POWER IN SYRIA Power is held disproportionately by the country’s Alawite religious-tribal minority elites, who dominate the ruling Syrian Ba’ath Party and the military. Syria has been controlled by the Assad family for the last four decades: Hafez al-Assad, a former Air Force lieutenant and member of the Syrian Ba’ath Party seized power in a bloodless coup in 1970, and was succeeded after his death in 2000 by the current President Bashar al-Assad. Hafez al-Assad served as Defence Minister in 1967 when Syria lost the to Israel in the Six-Day War. His rule was characterized by strong ant-Israeli actions abroad and brutal domestic oppression at home, most notably, the Hama massacre in 1982, in which tens of thousands are said to have been killed. With the succession of Bashar al-Assad, Syria saw the beginnings of reform, as many political prisoners were released, but substantial change has yet to materialize. The state security and intelligence services, known as the mukhabarat, remain loyal to Assad. The various apparatuses include the State Security (Amn al-Dawla), Political Security (Amn al-Siyasi) and Military Security (Amn al-Askari) forces.2

5 THE SYRIAN ECONOMY Although there were signs of growth from 2008-2010 (4-5%), the Syrian economy is extremely modest, with a GDP of $59.63 billion. Of a population of more than 22 million, just 5.5 million are members of the Syrian labour force. The economy is largely state-controlled. A stock exchange was opened in Damascus, the capital, in 2009.3 Syria is the 56th largest oil exporter, and the 180th largest natural gas producer Most Syrians are employed in the service sector (67%) Iran claims to be increasing its trade relations with Syria from $400 million per year to $5 billion In 2010, the inflation rate was 5.9%

FREEDOM IN SYRIA Syria is not a politically free country. Since emergency rule was imposed in 1963, human rights activists in Syria have faced arbitrary detention without trial, unfair trials, torture and ‘disappearance’ by Syrian security forces. Freedom House designates Syria ‘Not Free’, as it is a state in which ‘basic political rights are absent and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied’. Recent assessments show there has been minimal improvement in Syria’s aggregate freedom score between 2003 and 20011. Syria is a republic under an authoritarian regime, ranked 152 out of 167 countries with comparable data in the Economist Democracy Index 2010. Syrian media is predominately state-owned; criticism of the president and his family is prohibited and the press (domestic and foreign) is censored. Private radio broadcasters, first established in 2005, are prohibited from transmitting news or political content. Two thirds of the population have satellite dishes, which provide access to foreign A protester displays words on his hands, reading ‘Yes to freedom, no to violence’ – AP media.4

THE SHABBIHA Violence directed against the protest movement has been conducted by the Syrian security forces, reportedly with the aid of a militant group known as the shabbiha. The shabbiha operate a criminal network throughout Syrian coastal regions and specialise in smuggling, robbery and prostitution. Members are drawn from the Shiite Alawite community and the group is connected to the Assad family – the senior leaders are said to be first cousins of Assad. The shabbiha are accused of conducting violent attacks against protestors under orders from the Syrian regime. The extent to which the militia are taking orders from Assad is unclear. It is also unclear whether they seek to capitalise on civil unrest and consolidate their criminal network through intimidation.5 Operate a network of illegal activities in coastal areas Members come from the Shiite Alawite sect Loyal to the Assad family Believed to be involved in violent suppression of Syrian protestors

6 TIMELINE OF THE PROTESTS

Syrian authorities have not allowed the free movement of journalists during the uprising. As such, the information contained in this timeline has been obtained from news agencies, human rights organisations6 and blogs run by Syrian exiles, including Ammar Abdulhamid’s Syrian Revolution Digest, which reliably charts daily developments in the uprising.7 WEEK ONE – Monday 14 March – Sunday 20 March At first, oppositionists called for reform rather than full-scale revolution. On Tuesday 15 March, 40 people gathered in al-Hamidiyeh souk in the capital Damascus’ old city chanting ‘God, Syria, Freedom – that’s enough’ and ‘Peaceful, Peaceful’. Galvanised by the , the Syrian chants echoed those heard in Egypt’s Tahrir Square. 16 March, commonly considered the beginning of the uprising, saw 150 demonstrators outside the Ministry of the Interior in central Damascus, protest against the imprisonment of 21 human rights activists. They were confronted by Assad’s feared mukhabarat, the state security forces, and between four and 18 protesters were arrested. One protester, Suhair Atassi, a veteran human rights campaigner, was severely beaten by the security forces, who pledged: ‘We sacrifice our soul and blood for you, Bashar.’ The following day, at least 32 protesters were charged with attacking the ‘reputation of the state’. By Friday, 18 March, protests had spread to Deraa, a city in south west Syria near the border with ; Homs, the third largest city in Syria; and the coastal city of Baniyas in the north west. Friday prayers were utilised by the opposition from the start, with ‘Days of Dignity’ called to coincide with Islamic worship. Four are killed in Deraa when the security forces shot at those protesting in response to the arrest and torture of 15 schoolchildren who had graffitied city walls with anti-regime slogans. By Sunday, the platform of reform had transformed into a full-scale insurrection. Protesters set fire tothe headquarters of the Ba’ath party in Deraa, tore down a statue of former President Hafez al-Assad and defaced walls with the slogan, ‘Down with Assad’. Chants included: ‘No, no to emergency law. We are a people infatuated with freedom!’8 A Facebook page called ‘The Syrian revolution 2011’ was established (it currently has over 150,000 followers) to provide updates on the timings of protests and the fate of detained or killed protestors. Protests in: Damascus, Deraa, Homs and Baniyas Week one casualties: 4 killed

Protesters in Douma, a Damascus suburb

7 WEEK TWO – Monday 21 March – Sunday 27 March Tuesday, 22 March, saw protests spread to Nawa, a city 15 miles north of Deraa in the south west. On Wednesday, the sixth day of protest in Deraa, Syrian forces killed six people during an attack on protesters in Omari mosque.9 In response, Assad removed Faisal Kalthoum from his position as regional governor of Deraa, and the next day announced that the government would consider the removal of emergency law and adopting new legislation to license political parties. A further 15 people were killed in Deraa the same day.10 Assad’s response was to alternately blame these incidents on the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, the ‘Salafis’ or the Israeli Mossad, much like Gaddafi tried to attribute the Libyan rebellion to Al Qaeda. Significantly, any Islamist affiliation has been loudly played down by the opposition, who chanted: ‘No to Iran, No to Hezbollah. We want Muslims that fear Allah.’11 By Friday, 25 March, protesters in Deraa began to call for regime change, and the size of the protests increased dramatically, with numbers up to 300,000, between 20 and 100 were reported as killed.12 Protests of between 100 and 3,000 people took place in and around Damascus, including the suburb of Mazzeh and in nearby Douma and Mouddamiyeh.13 Six protesters in Al-Tall District were arrested and taken to nearby Damascus, where they were interrogated and tortured by the security service agencies.14 There were also widespread protests that day in solidarity with those in Deraa.15 There were small protests for the first time in Syria’s second city Aleppo; in , around 40 miles from Aleppo in the north west; and in Lattakia, Syria’s principal city port in the north west, where 12 demonstrators are killed by Assad’s forces.16 In the north east, protests spread to Deir Ezzor, the largest city in that region, and to Qamishly, where armed gangs reportedly patrolled the streets intimidating the city’s predominantly Kurdish population.17 Protests also spread to Hama, the central city attacked by former President Hafez al-Assad during the Hama Massacre in 1982.18 Protests in: Damascus, Douma, Mouddamiyeh, Deraa, Homs, Baniyas, Nawa, Al-Tall, Hama, Aleppo, Idlib, Lattakia, Deir Ezzor and Qamishly cumulative death toll: 19 22 March = 6 Week two casualties: 50–150 killed WEEK THREE – Monday 28 March – Sunday 3 April Reports of shabbiha terrorising communities in Lattakia and Damascus emerged early during the third week of the uprising. The gangs, known for their criminal activities along the Syrian coast, started patrolling the streets targeting both civilians and local police officers.20 On Tuesday, the government officially resigned and Naji al-Otari, head of the former government since 2003, was appointed caretaker prime minister.21 The following day, Assad addressed the Syrian People’s Assembly and blame foreign conspirators for the national disruptions and labelled parliamentarians ‘reformers’. He also told the Assembly that security forces had been ordered not to use violence against protesters.22 Assad’s speech was dismissed by protesters who took to the streets of Deraa and Lattakia minutes later chanting for freedom and calling for an end to the regime. At least one protester was killed in Lattakia and a 10-year-old boy was left severely injured.23 Friday, 1 April, saw repeated protests across the country. Fifteen people were killed in Douma,24 and a massacre was reported near a military checkpoint near Deraa between the villages of Ankhen and Sanamein.25 In Homs, the city’s Bedouin population joined the on-going protests, and two people were killed.26 Thousands took to the streets in Deraa, Lattakia, Baniyas, Homs, Qamishly, Deir Ezzor, Idlib and the Damascus suburb of Dariyyah. For the first time, protests spread to the coastal city of ,27 and the predominantly Kurdish city of Amouda in the north on the border with Turkey.28 On Sunday, a new government was formed, and former agriculture minister was appointed prime minister.29 On the same day in Douma, over 20,000 people took part in a public funeral for two of the people killed during Friday’s protests.30 Protests in: Damascus, Douma, Mouddamiye, Deraa, Homs, Baniyas, Lattakia, Qamishly, Deir Ezzor, Idlib, Jableh and Amouda Week three casualties: at least 18 killed; casualties in Deraa massacre unknown

8 WEEK FOUR – Monday 4 April – Sunday 10 April Early in the week, security forces continued to arrest protesters in Homs, Deraa and Aleppo in an unsuccessful bid to quell their support. Citizens of Deraa and Homs staged a general strike in solidarity with the protestors of Douma, and there were sit-ins reported in Deir Ezzor.31 An increasing number of women were seen participating in the protests and leading chants, anew trend by the opposition.32 There were protests in the areas surrounding Damascus – to the north in Al-Tall, to the east in Kafar Batna, Douma, and Saqba, to the west in Mouddamiyeh and to the south in Kisweh – with an unknown number killed in Mouddamiyeh and 33 seven killed in nearby Wadee Al-Masharee. Protesters burning the Iranian flag – www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQia0Bz On Wednesday, Assad reversed a recent ban on schoolteachers’ 7VQ&feature=player_embedded#at=11 wearing the niqab, the Islamic head-covering, a move denounced by the opposition as a token gesture to the country’s Islamists.34 Friday, 8 April, saw up to 500,000 protesters gather in multiple cities across the country, including for the first time in Tartous, a coastal city south of Lattakia, and in Albou Kamal, a town on the border with .35 The cities of Deraa and Homs were besieged by the Syrian Army. In Deraa, security forces attempted to block access to the city to prevent the protest from escalating, but were overwhelmed. The Ba’ath party headquarters were burnt and protesters attempting to enter the security headquarters were shot at, leaving between 40 and 100 protesters dead. In Homs, 10,000 protesters came under heavy gunfire from security forces, but casualty figures were unknown. Protests in the Damascus suburb of Harasta were also violent – with one reported fatality – as security forces opened fire on protesters. Members of the shabbiha also opened fire on protesters in Lattakia.36 Protests in: Damascus, Douma, Al-Tall, Mouddamiyeh, Dariyyah, Harasta, Deraa, Homs, Baniyas, Hama, Lattakia, Deir Ezzor, Qamishly, Amouda, Idlib, Jableh, Tartous and Albou Kamal Week four casualties: 47 – 107 at least killed Amnesty International cumulative death toll: 8 April = 171 WEEK FIVE – Monday 11 April – Sunday 17 April The cities of Deraa, Baniyas, Lattakia, Homs and Douma began the week under siege.38 On Tuesday, the village of Al- Bayda, near Baniyas, was attacked by theshabbiha, 39 who arrested hundreds of citizens and beat them in the public square.40 In solidarity, protests were held across the country. The uprising spread for the first time to Suweida, a primarily Druze city in the south-west. This prompted blogger oppositionist Abdulhamid to observe: ‘with Suweida now on board, every major city and town in Syria can be said to have been hit by protests’.41 Friday’s protests saw the largest turn-out since the beginning of the uprising; fatalities were relatively low, with one in Lattakia and ‘several’ in Homs.42 Also, Human Rights Watch reported that Syrian troops had stopped ambulances carrying wounded protestors to hospital in Deraa.43 On Sunday, 17 April, thousands of protesters co-opted Syrian Independence Day for revolutionary purposes. In Homs, Suweida, Mouddamiyeh and Lattakia protesters were met with heavy gunfire and teargas, leaving 30 dead in Homs and 12 in Lattakia.44 In the same week, human rights organisations reported that the security service had been arbitrarily detaining hundreds of protesters in Deraa, Damascus, Douma, Al-Tall, Homs and Baniyas and subjecting many to torture. Techniques reported by the detainees include electro-shock devices, whips and beatings. Human rights activists and protesters, their families, lawyers, journalists, writers, university and high-school students, community leaders and those found using mobile phones to record the protests were singled out for abusive treatment as well. Children were also among those detained.45 In some areas – for example, Deraa – detentions were completely arbitrary.46 Protests in: Damascus, Douma, Mouddamiyeh, Deraa, Homs, Baniyas, Al-Bayda, Hama, Lattakia, Aleppo, Jableh, Idlib, Deir Ezzor and Suweida Amnesty International cumulative death toll: 14 April = 200

9 WEEK SIX – Monday 18 April – Sunday 24 April Assad ended emergency law, which had been in place for 48 years.47 Unsatisfied with anything short of Assad’s removal, the Syrian people continued to mount demonstrations across the country.48 Friday 22 April, which oppositionists subsequently called ‘Great Friday’, saw the bloodiest single day thus far in the Syrian revolution. Live rounds were used against protesters and 112 people were killed in the space of a few hours during protests covering nearly every major city, town and suburb in Syria – 47 deaths were reported in Damascus and surrounding areas, 32 in Deraa and surrounding areas, 27 in Homs and surrounding areas , five in Hama and one in Lattakia.49 The scale of brutality led Nasser al-Hariri and Khalil al-Rifaei, two recently elected members of the People’s Assembly, to resign, along with the mufti of Deraa, Rezq Abdulrahman Abazeid.50 Protests in: Damascus, Deraa, Douma, Deir Ezzor, Mouddamiyeh, Homs, Baniyas, Hama, Lattakia, Aleppo, Jableh, Idlib, and Suweida Amnesty International cumulative death toll: 20 April = 220; 21 April = 228; 22 April = 303; 25 April = 393 WEEK SEVEN – Monday 25 April – Sunday 1 May Assad’s regime continued its major military deployment in Deraa. Protesters chanted: ‘Lift the siege, lift the siege’ and 25 were killed in clashes with troops. Basic services, including water, electricity, phone lines and internet services were cut off. Assad’s forces blocked incoming food and medical aid. Residents reported that they were too afraid to collect the bodies from the street and a local Imam was recorded saying that the army opened fire on protesters without provocation.51 Abdulhamid wrote that in Deraa: […] gunfire and the echoes of artillery shells continue to reverberate through the street of this small city. House to house searches were conducted in certain neighborhoods, and dozens of arrests were made. Some were shot on the spot by some eyewitness reports. Even doctors and patients at the National Hospital were put under arrest.52 Reports emerged that members of the army in Deraa were defecting, a claim substantiated by video footage showing residents providing medical treatment to soldiers who said they had been shot by the security service for refusing to fire on protesters.53 Later in the week, the regime claimed to have quelled the mutiny and, according to Abdulhamid, broadcast a ‘staged fireworks celebration that was billed as “spontaneous” show of how happy the people of Deraa were with the arrival of the army to liberate them from the Salafist phantoms’.54 In Homs, video footage showed security forces opening fire into a crowd of unarmed protesters and there were reports similar actions in nearby Tal Kalakh.55 In Damascus, video footage showed snipers on the Jobar-Zamalka Bridge, as protesters chanted the now ubiquitous phrases: ‘The people want to topple the regime’ and ‘We choose death before humiliation’. Another video showed a silent Kurdish demonstration in Amouda and a small protest in the Ramleh district in Lattakia was ‘quickly and violent put down by security forces and shabbiha gangs’.56 Reports from Syrian human rights campaigners and protesters claimed that the suppression of protests in Homs and towns surrounding Damascus had resulted in the disappearance of numerous residents from each of these areas. A significant rise in the number of women targeted by Assad’s detention campaign was also reported.57 Opposition figures declared a national ‘Day of Rage’ on Friday, 30 April, on social media networks. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets: the death toll was estimated at 62, but other reports claimed 60 were killed in Deraa alone with a further 30 in Homs, five in Lattakia and one in Damascus.58 In the same week, the newly-formed umbrella opposition group, the National Initiative for Change (NIC), released a document with 150 signatories, claiming to represent the majority of ethnic and religious groups across Syria. The growing protests across Syria were increasingly defined by their cross-ethnic support which appeared to collapse long-standing sectarian and inter-communal rivalries. Protests in: Damascus, Deraa, Homs, Tal Kalakh, Baniyas, Nawa, Hama, Lattakia, Aleppo, Suweida, Douma, Jableh, Mouddamiyyeh, Jassem, Ankhel, Amouda and Zabadani Week seven casualties: 93 – 127 Cumulative death toll reaches 474 by 27 April59 and reported to be up to 1,000 on 1 May 60

10 WEEK EIGHT – Monday 2 May – Sunday 8 May The army siege of Deraa and Homs continued, while mass arrests took place across Syria. Towns and suburbs near Damascus – including Saqba, Zabadani, Al-Tall and Arbeen – were subject to house-to-house arrests; in Deraa, detainees were said to number 500, including many teenagers. Kurdish activists in Qamishly were also arrested, as an increasing number of joined the uprising. In addition, a major student-led protest in Aleppo numbering 2,000 prompted university sit-ins across the country.61 Reports also emerged of Assad’s security forces raiding mortuaries and removing bodies to hide evidence of their brutality.62 The ‘Friday of Defiance’ saw mass protests across the country: 3,000 people in Damascus; 3,000 in Qamishly; 5,000 in Deir Ezzor, in the east, and 10,000 in Homs.63 The protesters in Deraa were clear about who they are and what they want: one banner read ‘No to terrorism, no salafism, we reject intervention by security forces’; while a protest speaker told the crowd, ‘martyrs fell only when there were security forces around […] we want the international community to intervene to stop the bloodshed’.64 Friday also saw at least 30 protesters killed across the country, including in Homs, Hama, Deir Ezzor, Jableh and Lattakia.65 That night, Baniyas was raided: basic services, including water, electricity and communications were cut off and six people, including four women, were killed.66 On Sunday, Assad’s forces targeted areas to the south where the uprising started and 14 people – including a 12 year old boy – were killed in Homs.67 Protests in: Damascus, Deraa, Homs, Baniyas, Nawa, Hama, Lattakia, Aleppo, Suweida, Douma, Jableh, Mouddamiyyeh, Jassem, Ankhel, Amouda, Zabadani, Al-Tall, Arbeen, Deir Ezzor, Albou Kamal and Qamishly Amnesty International cumulative death toll: 3 May – 542; 9 May – 580 INSAN detention figures: ‘the number of detainees and the missing to date could exceed 8000’68

Graffiti on a burnt car in Banias challenges shabbiha – AP 11 WEEK NINE – Monday 9 May – Sunday 15 May During the week, the regime increased its efforts to suppress the protests. Tanks were deployed across the country and basic services were still down in Deraa, Baniyas, Jableh, Lattakia, Deir Ezzor, parts of Homs and Mouddamiyyeh, where three protesters were killed. Communities across the south endured heavy shelling and gunfire, including in Tafas, Jassem, Ankhel and Al-Harra, where 13 were reported dead.69 Following promises of restraint by the security forces, three protesters were killed in Homs during Friday’s protests, along with two in Damascus and one in Deraa.70 Also the same week, hundreds of protesters were imprisoned following house-to-house raids across the country. Activist sources claimed that up to 10,000 protesters had been detained by the authorities since the uprising began, including 500 in two days alone.71 Martin Fletcher, a journalist withThe Times of London, who had been arrested in Homs after stealing into Syria to report on the revolution, described the conditions of his imprisonment to the BBC: I was taken from a checkpoint on the edge of the city into a windowless basement of a drab apartment block down a barricaded side street […] what I saw inside was literally scores of young men sitting huddled on the floor. And, during the six hours I was held, more young men were brought in at regular intervals and put into this room. Quite clearly what was happening was that the regime was rounding up any young man of fighting age it could find on the streets and locking them up.72

Protests in: Damascus, Deraa, Homs, Baniyas, Nawa, Hama, Lattakia, Aleppo, Suweida, Douma, Jableh, Mouddamiyyeh, Jassem, Ankhel, Amouda, Zabadani, Al-Tall, Arbeen, Deir Ezzor, Albou Kamal, Al-Harra, Tafas, and Tal Kalakh WEEK TEN – Monday 16 May – Sunday 22 May The tenth week of the uprising saw new military operations launched around Deraa, in the local communities of Sanamein, Al-Haraak and Kafar Shams.73 Communications were not functioning or cut off in parts of Homs, Idlib, Deir Ezzor as well as in Darayyah, Mouaddamiyyah, Saqba and Douma.74 Further reports of mass graves in Deraa emerged, with between 25 and 40 bodies discovered before being removed by the army.75 The death toll rose to 27 in Tal Kalakh; 13 in Jassem; and 21 in Ankhel.76 There were mass arrests of students in Aleppo, and in Baniyas, a women’s protest was disrupted with gunfire.78 Friday, 20 May, was named ‘Azadi Friday’ after the Kurdish word for ‘freedom’, to reflect what Abdulhamid refers to as ‘the growing coordination between Arab and Kurdish protesters.’ He claims the term also ‘denotes the failure of Assad’s policies aimed at neutralizing the Kurds’.79 On this day, Assad’s security forces killed at least 44 people in what was described as ‘the largest day of protest yet’.80 The following day, security forces kill 11 after they open fire on a funeral procession numbering 50,000 for those killed the previous day in Homs81 In the same week, YouTube footage emerged showing demonstrators burning the Iranian, Russian and Chinese flags.82 One video shows protesters carrying signs written in Russian saying: ‘Mr Medvedev, I beg your pardon, but the Syrian people want freedom’.83 Protests in: Damascus and suburbs, Hama and suburbs, Homs and suburbs, Idlib and suburbs, Deraa and suburbs, Albou Kamal, Deir Ezzor, Qamishly, Amouda, Kobani (in the north), Baniyas, Jableh, Tal Kalakh, Jassem and Ankhel. Amnesty International cumulative death toll: 17 May = 622

12 WEEK ELEVEN – Monday 23 May – Sunday 29 May Protests continued across the country, from Deraa in the south to the capital Damascus to Aleppo in the north.84 Idlib and surrounding towns and villages were the centre of a number of protests, which were violently put down.85 The National Organistation for released a statement stating that Syrian and international human rights organisations had documented more than 1,100 killings and approximately 4,000 injuries ‘causing permanent disabilities to young men, women and children.’ 86 On Wednesday, 25 May, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah pledged his support for Assad’s regime, a longtime patron of the Lebanese terrorist organisation. Nasrallah claimed that the regime’s downfall would serve American and Israeli interests. Marking the 11th anniversary of Israeli troops leaving , Nasrallah called for a rejection of sanctions against Syria, saying: ‘No one denies that Syria has committed mistakes, but no one can deny the historic achievement of Syria to Lebanon, also Syria’s stance on Israel and the Palestinian resistance.’87 In response, protesters in Albou Kamal burned pictures of Nasrallah.88 On Thursday, the opposition called on the army to join the uprising against Assad’s regime. In an attempt to capitalise on recent defections, an open letter posted on the Syrian revolution 2011 Facebook page claimed that Friday’s protests would honour the army, which was referred to as the ‘Guardians of the Nation’.89 On the same day, European countries urged the United Nations Security Council to warn the Syrian regime that ‘the widespread and systematic attacks currently taking place in Syria by the authorities against its people may amount to crimes against humanity’. A draft resolution condemned the regime’s violence and called for the lifting of the siege against Deraa.91 This was followed by a similar call from the Group of Eight (G8), which released a draft statement stating: ‘Should the Syrian authorities not heed this call, we will consider action in the United Nations Security Council.’92 Protests in: Damascus and suburbs, Hama and suburbs, Homs and suburbs, Idlib and suburbs, Deraa and suburbs, Albou Kamal, Deir Ezzor, Jebleh, Qamishly, Amouda, Kobani, Rastan and Baniyas WEEK TWELVE – Monday 30 May – Tuesday 31 May An online video began to circulate showing the mutilated body of Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, a 13 year-old boy who was abducted by security forces on 29 April at a protest in Jiza, a village to the south of Deraa. The regime had returned Hamza’s corpse to his parents on the condition that they make public any statements about his torture and murder. Hamza’s body, shown bloated and empurpled on the video, was burnt with cigarettes, his arms and legs were stripped of their skin, and his genitalia cut off. A 58,000-strong Facebook page memorialising him describes Hamza as a ‘child martyr’. Activists marched on what some called the ‘Saturday of Hamza’, and opposition figures, including Radwan Ziadeh and human rights attorney Razan Zeitouneh, suggested that Hamza’s death could be the incendiary symbol that takes the revolution to its next level. As a result of the video, and the new wave of protests his brutal death precipitated, the regime detained Hamza’s father. On Tuesday, 31 May, Assad offered ‘amnesty’ to all oppositionists engaged in anti-regime activity prior to that date. His offer was generally dismissed by the opposition as both insufficient and a sign of his weakening position.93

Vigil for Hamza al-Khatib in Beirut, Lebanon – EuroNews 13 PART ONE: OPPOSITION IN SYRIA

WHO ARE THE OPPOSITION? KEY REGIME FIGURES INVOLVED IN Although the modest protest of 40 or so people that broke out on 15 March 2011 in Damascus’ old city VIOLENCE AGAINST PROTESTORS seemed spontaneous, there is some evidence of coordination and planning. Western spokesperson Maher al-Assad – Bashar’s younger brother; Ammar Abdulhamid told the New York Times that Commander of the Syrian Army’s 4th Division; the Jasmine Revolution in inspired Syrians to member of Ba’ath Party Central; main actor wage their own campaign against authoritarianism, in violent suppression of protest movement; although the timing caught even him by surprise: implicated by United Nations investigators in the I wanted it to be in the summer because I 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime felt that we weren’t quite ready. I knew that Minister Rafik Hariri so many regions of the country didn’t have Ali Mamlouk – Head of General Intelligence Service; shown in WikiLeaks-obtained documents people to monitor events because the media boasting of his ability to penetrate ‘terrorist was completely unfree. I also knew that the organisations’ opposition in Syria couldn’t play a role like Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Chaar – Minister of the they did in Egypt. I knew that everything Interior had to be underground. 95 – Colonel and Head of Unit in General Intelligence Directorate, Damascus Abdulhamid added that Colonel ’s Branch devastation of Libya, and the international calls for Mohammed Dib Zeitoun – Head of Political sanctions and a no-fly zone, accelerated the Syrian Security ferment to mid-March. Amjad Al-Abbas – Head of Political Security in In an original interview for this report, Radwan Ziadeh, Banais opposition figure and founder of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies, described three – Syrian businessman; Bashar al- types of opposition forces working in concert in Syria: Assad’s cousin and associate of Maher al-Assad; finances a lot of regime activities; estimated to be A ‘traditional’ opposition, consisting of worth billions; Owns Syriatel Telecommunications longtime socialists and nationalists who Company; oil interests; owns Syria’s only private played a role in the so-called ‘Damascus newspaper; told New York Times on 10 May 2011: Spring’ of 2001, when it was thought ‘If there is no stability here, there’s no way there Bashar al-Assad’s ascension to power will be stability in Israel. No way, and nobody can would lead to a thaw in authoritarian guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, rule. anything happens to this regime.’96 A new consortium of local leaders Abd Al-Fatah Qudsiyah – Head of Syrian Military Intelligence; led committee that investigated 2008 coordinating activities at the street- assassination of Hezbollah head level in major towns and cities and in Damascus (thought to have been perpetrated suburbs. by Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad) An online-based activist corps that uses Jamil Hassan – Head of Facebook, Skype and social networking Intelligence technologies to disseminate information Rustum Ghazali – Head of Syrian Military about the timings of protests, relay Intelligence, Damascus Countryside Branch the footage of the regime’s crackdown Fawwaz Al-Assad – Regime coordinator, on protests, and unify the political shabbiha militia messages to be pursued. Mundir Al-Assad – Regime coordinator, shabbiha militia

14 KEY OPPOSITION FIGURES

Mouhja Kahf – Poet at the University of Arkansas Najib Ghadbian – Kahf’s husband, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas Ausama Monajed – Director of the Strategic Research and Communication Centre Osama Kadi – Co-founder and president of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies, based in Washington, D.C. Ammar Abdulhamid – Director of the Tharwa Foundation; prominent Western spokesperson for the opposition, based in Maryland; author of the Syrian Revolution Digest blog Radwan Ziadeh – Founding director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies; executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies, based in Washington, D.C – Professor of Oriental Studies at the Sorbonne in – Former Syrian MP detained a number of times by the Assad regime Abdurrazzaq Eid – Member Elected to Consultative Council at Antalya meeting Amr Al-Azm – Member Elected to Consultative Council at Antalya meeting Ghassan Mifleh – Member Elected to Consultative Council at Antalya meeting

THE NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR CHANGE Six weeks into the uprisings in Syria, the opposition began to develop an organistational structure. On 22 April, ‘Great Friday’, key figures from major cities and towns, acting in so-called ‘local coordinating committees’, released a joint statement of principles and demands, which included: An immediate end to torture, violence and extrajudicial killings A transparent media State assumption of responsibility for all violence The release of all political prisoners and detainees from the protests Constitutional amendments that will usher in a democratic transition whereby Syria will become a ‘multi-national, multi-ethnic, and religiously tolerant society’ Free and fair elections to both national parliament and municipal councils An independent judiciary Compensation for political exiles

Protests following mass arrests and civilian deaths in Deraa – Reuters 15 A week later, a group known as the National Initiative for Change (NIC) was formed by three Syrian exiles – Radwan Ziadeh, Ausama Monajed and Najib Ghadbian – to represent the Syrian people in their common cause. The NIC produced a statement, ‘Towards a Peaceful Transition to Democracy in Syria’, that was signed by 150 people both within and outside Syria, mainly drawn from the secular and nationalist camps although including a few Islamists. Largely congruent with the local coordinating committees’ joint statement, the NIC called for: Rewriting of the constitution to guarantee basic rights and checks and balances Separation of powers between and among the executive, legislative and judiciary Immediate end to extrajudicial, special, martial and field courts Release of all political prisoners Commitment to non-interference in the affairs of Lebanon Repositioning of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the forefront of Syrian foreign policy aims Formation of a free and independent media Development of the economy and more investment in infrastructure Formation of a truth and reconciliation committee to investigate crimes of the regime Compensation for political exiles and disappeared political prisoners Political rights for the Syrian Kurdish minority Military supervision of a transitional government

The NIC statement was written by Ziadeh, who provided The Henry Jackson Society with an original English translation. Based on the Eastern European, Latin American, Spanish and South African models for post-dictatorship transitions to democracy, the NIC’s platform includes a detailed road-map for handing off power to a caretaker government composed of Syrian military officials; overhauling the security and intelligence apparatuses, instituting a targeted de-Ba’athification programme and refashioning state-controlled media as an independent and transparent public corporation. “Towards a Peaceful Transition to Democracy in Syria” NIC – KEY POINTS

Transition Period State security and police forces, the Syrian parliament (‘People’s Assembly’), the state-controlled media and the Syrian executive are all rendered illegitimate arbiters for easing the country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. Instead, the Syrian military is presented as the only trusted national institution to oversee the transitional period. The NIC emphasizes on the role of current Minister of Defense General Ali Habib and the Chief of Staff General Dawud Rajha: Both individuals represent a background that Syrians can positively relate with that enables them to take a key pivotal role during the transition process by leading negotiations with civilian representatives from the leadership of the opposition or other respected individuals to form an interim government. By entering the negotiation phase that should take us on a specified timeline to accomplish the democratic transition by first drafting an interim constitution for the country that should be ratified by a national referendum. The transition government will be responsible to monitor the elections and safeguard the successful accomplishment of the transition period beginning with certifying a new constitution drafted by professional constitutional andreform specialists. Afterwards, the interim government shall issue a new election and political party law to regulate the election process for the president and members of the parliament which is monitored by an independent national committee based on judicial as well as domestic and international observers with an open door policy welcoming the formation of political parties that will participate in the elections.

16 Protest in Duma, a city near Damascus, Syria

SECURITY APPARATUS The NIC calls the party ‘nothing but sanctions for his complicity in the a facade that was manipulated as regime’s crackdown on protestors. REFORM one of the pillars of the totalitarian The NIC calls for unencumbered The state security and intelligence regime in order to further its hold press freedom whereby state organs forces are not earmarked for in a pyramid-like power structure’. are transformed into independently dismantling but will be redefined Money and property taken from run, taxpayer-funded organisations as beholden to the ‘people’ the public purse to pay Ba’ath Party on the model of the BBC. They rather than the state. The NIC employees’ salaries and state-owned recommend that the Ministry of recommends a period of ‘cleansing facilities intended for party use is to Information be dissolved, and for all and rehabilitation’ whereby leaders be returned. However, if any current current outlets to be merged into a will be subjected to ‘legal and members wish to reconstitute the joint corporation that is managed by judicial accountability’ – i.e. trials party in light of post-revolutionary a board of directors. for those involved in extrajudicial changes to the constitution and killings or torture – while the government, they are free to do so, TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL security apparatus is reduced in pending a review of their complicity In an exclusive interview with The size from four units to two and in ‘corruption or violations of human Henry Jackson Society, Ammar professionalised. They recommend rights.’ Abdulhamid said that the goal of that the police department be the anti-Assad groups was to form similarly modernised and made to PRESS FREEDOM a ‘transitional council’ amenable to establish ‘general order,’ in keeping At present, almost all Syrian both internal and external protest with newly affirmed constitutional news outlets (television, radio, leaders, under the aegis of the rights of the people. newspapers, online) are state- NIC. This would be followed by controlled under the auspices of the international legitimation, on the DE-BA’ATHIFICATION Ministry of Information. The only model of Libya’s National Transitional The Ba’ath Party is designated under ‘privately owned’ newspaper belongs Council, which has earned diplomatic the 1973 Syrian Constitution as the to Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin recognition from , Italy, ‘leader of the state and society’. and confidant, now targeted by US and other countries.

17 SYRIA CONFERENCE FOR CHANGE: ANTALYA From 31 May – 2 June, a large contingent Syrian oppositionists, under the name of the Syria Conference for Change, met at the Mediterranean resort town of Antalya, Turkey to discuss a joint doctrine and core strategy for removing Assad from power. All key figures cited earlier in the report -- barring Ausama Monajad -- were present as delegates of the opposition to establish a ‘consultative council’ with 31 elected members. The Conference also issued a statement calling for ‘president Bashar al-Assad to resign immediately from all of his duties’ and to hand over power to Syrian Vice President Farouk al- Sharaa until the election of a transitional council that will draft a new constitution and oversee parliamentary and president elections ‘within a period not to exceed one year’ from Assad’s resignation. Recognising the multi-ethnic composition of Syrian society, the delegates also established the ‘legitimate and equal rights of all under a new Syrian constitution based on national unity, civil state and a pluralistic, parliamentary, and democratic regime.’ A second opposition conference took place at the Renaissance Hotel in at the weekend of 4 June - 5 June. According to organiser Bassem Hatahet, the aim of this conference was to further pressurise Assad to either end his crackdown or renounce power.

THE ROLE OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND ISLAMISTS As to the Muslim Brotherhood representation in the opposition, Ziadeh told us that this was minimal, largely because of the regime’s long persecution of the Islamist group: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria is different from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, where the group is the primary beneficiaries of the post-Mubarak political landscape.’ Noting that Hafez al-Assad destroyed most of the Brotherhood during his scorched earth campaign in Hama in 1982, where at least 10,000 people were killed, Ziadeh contended that the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria is still present but not powerful. Membership in the organisation was made punishable by death, and though informal members are scattered in Hama and Aleppo, their presence elsewhere is limited. ‘The business elite in Damascus is not affiliated with the Brotherhood at all’, Ziadeh said. Abdulhamid affirmed that the Islamists constitute ‘less than a third’ of the opposition and that the Islamists are themselves ‘diverse’ and atomised. The Muslim Brotherhood, he agrees, is a spent force: What’s emerging right now is a pretty pragmatic group, and I believe that, considering the diversity of ethnic, religious and ideological groups in the country, pragmatic arrangements will end coloring the political landscape in Syria. We all know about politics and bedfellows. One thing Western leaders should understand: Islamists can neither be excluded from, nor can they dominate, the political scene in Syria. According to , director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, at the Syria Conference for Change in Antalya: Muslim Brothers and Islamists were under intense pressure to accept the notion of a secular government where religion and state would be separate. They resisted this most of the day but ultimately conceded at the eleventh hour. We do not have the statement or wording on this ‘secular’ statement. But the MB accepted to not contest the separation of state and religion in the conference statement.

MILITARY DEFECTIONS: MYTH OR REALITY? Rumours of wide-scale military defections have strengthened the opposition’s strategy to turn the Syrian Army against the Assad regime. In early May, the Times of London reported that 81 soldiers’ corpses had been transferred from Deraa to Damascus, ‘most of them killed by a gunshot bullet to the back’, according to the Damascus Centre for Human Rights.97 On 12 May, three Syrian soldiers sought asylum in Lebanon for protecting refugees. The soldiers were subsequently deported back to Syria, where they are likely to face execution. According to a Syrian human rights monitor Wissam Tarif, Mourad Hejjo, a conscript to Assad’s militia who refused to fire on civilians in Madaya village, was shot in the back by snipers.98 YouTube footage of injured or dead soldiers appears to confirm that Assad’s militias have resorted to martial executions.99 However, the Army’s command structure remains intact, and on 18 May the US imposed sanctions on Assad and his inner circle, including Defence Minister Ali Habib, one of two men the opposition had hoped would turn to their side.100 Abdulhamid told HJS: ‘We still need to keep pushing for army support, and the idea is not to split the army along confessional lines, but to get the support of many Alawite officers and generals.’

18 OPPOSITION VOICES ON THE GROUND

The Henry Jackson Society interviewed opposition figures in the major cities of the Syrian revolution: Deraa, Damascus, Douma, the Al-Tall District, Hama and Homs. We have omitted the names and any identifying trace of these figures out of concern for their personal safety. The following extracts are their responses to key issues surrounding the protests, including Assad’s tactics; the nature of the opposition; international involvement; and the future of the protests. ASSAD’S TACTICS – ARRESTS AND TORTURE: what is going on; they can’t even speak to friends or family. [In Douma] the system is going after Damascus SUPPORT FOR ASSAD: all the former politicians, thinkers, [T]here are no Ba’athists, they don’t doctors and lawyers who have COMMUNITIES UNDER SIEGE: rule us […] We are occupied by a resigned from the Ba’ath Party. The family and its criminal friends. Every regime is subjecting them to torture. On a mass scale, this regime has cut power, electricity, communications, death in Syria is under the name of Douma Bashar al-Assad […] food supplies, baby formula; and They are pulling out toe and killed, arrested and tortured its The head of the Deraa Ba’athist fingernails, teeth and eyes. own people in the thousands, and Party, an important person, was Rape, death by firing squad and you think we won’t continue to arrested and tortured. No one is safe amputations are the reality of what demonstrate? from this mafia; there is no Ba’athist will happen to you if you are arrested Hama Party, just Assad. People are only in and yet tens of thousands in every the party because of fear. city still come out. Today we have had snipers on the Deraa rooftops of schools, security forces in Hama cars driving recklessly and looking to I know it is hard for the West to run over people. Even an 11-year old understand, but [Assad] has been THE SHABBIHA: child was killed. the most brutal dictatorship ever in The security forces use trucks to Homs the Middle East. They are old men bring these shabbiha. They all look [the ones doing the killing], the like cows, fat and ugly. Believe it or THE OPPOSITION – same men who made thousands not, these guys get paid 500 Syrian of Lebanese vanish during the Civil Lira [USD 10.5] to kill fellow Syrian DEMANDS: War. They are Assad’s men, loyal people. with business interests. The opposition is the people. If the Hama killing hadn’t started, then we’d Damascus MEDIA PROPAGANDA: have just wanted reforms. Now we MASS GRAVES: need the system to fall. The government is the sectarian Douma We got news that while the [player], not us. Christians, occupation force was in Deraa, some and Sunnis are demonstrating. The Having a party manifesto is down of those who were arrested were regime is the one through its media the line. We are not for Israel; we killed and buried in mass graves. channels making allegations of are not doing this for Israel and So as soon as the occupation force sectarianism. the West. We are doing this to get retreated to other villages, we went rid of a dictator, be it peacefully or Damascus in and dug up the mass graves. We bloodily. have identified five people who were The army isn’t to blame. They are Deraa killed. forced to attack us by the militias and security forces. They have no We are a people at the heart and the Deraa access to phones, the internet, or cradle of civilization; we will not be [The security forces] have been television. They actually believe ruled by a dictator and his friends. banning people from burying we are armed and are Salafis or We will not be a footnote in the the their dead to avoid further Mossad [Israeli intelligence agency] history books, we will make history. demonstrations that they can’t or foreign powers. […] Hama control, then they come in at night There is no rift in the army, because and attempt to steal the bodies in they have a media blanket like the ORGANISATION: order to hide their crimes. rest of the world, with no access to At the beginning, for the first four Homs weeks, there wasn’t anyone who

19 actively organized demonstrations... biggest IT companies who also Ten died in Libya today and the media But that all changed when martyrs provide us with ideas and solutions went crazy. More than one hundred started to fall so we created a local on how to bypass security measures died today and no one cares. council.[…] by the regime. Damascus [Then] a delegation from those Douma We know what we are doing and who were elected to the council as what we got ourselves into, we the representatives of Douma went LOW ISLAMIST QUOTIENT: just didn’t know the international to meet directly to negotiate with I estimate the number arrested is community was going to be so representatives for President Assad. from four thousand to five thousand muted. We are smart and educated Instead they were kidnapped and in the area […] the few that have been people, we know what would tortured, including prominent doctor released have suffered great trauma happen if no one came in. But now Bassel Hammdan.101 under the hands of the occupation. we prefer it this way. We need to do Douma Beaten to a pulp and made to sign it on our own. We also had a council, at the beginning papers claiming that they are part an Deraa Islamist uprising, which is not true. of local representatives that the We are not stupid and don’t expect Deraa never had Islamists. regime attempted to arrest. They are anything from the international all in hiding in various areas in Houran. Deraa community. We will free our country Deraa The people of Syria are the opposition, ourselves. We don’t care for your The first recorded death is Bashir there are no figureheads, and there’s support; this is our revolution and Doulan. We are documenting and been no opposition here for decades, not yours. keeping track of all the names of no Islamists, no one […] This is a Damascus those killed, missing, kidnapped true people’s revolution; we have no 102 and tortured. We are identifying guidance, no ElBaradei, no-one. IMPACT OF SANCTIONS: the names and identities of those Damascus What Syria is going through today perpetrating the violence against is massacre and death to all, so we the Syrian people. LACK OF SUPPORT FOR either come out now or never, but Douma HEZBOLLAH: after what the EU just did, there We even found a Hezbollah flag from will be increase of 90%. The more USE OF THE INTERNET AND one of the security forces and burnt pressure applied from abroad the SOCIAL MEDIA: it – funny how they have supported more people, who were scared, will come out. If the West wanted to help those who some uprisings, others not all and have signed papers condemning actually work to suppress one. Hama the brutal oppression of the people Homs or those who resigned, how would PERCEPTIONS OF WESTERN they know who they are? Read what SECTARIANISM: SUPPORT – ISRAEL: we post […] If I die or get arrested, Our revolution is not sectarian. All We know the West wants Bashar and then someone else will create a page the people of Syria are part of it […] does not care about the real people. and upload pictures and videos and We are not sectarian; we are poor They are allowing him to kill and demonstrate. and need our freedom. torture us for Israel. But our message Damascus Deraa is that we don’t care about Israel, we The command centre of the revolution We will never stop, Druze, Sunni, don’t care about Islamists and we in the city is always the demonstrators Alawite and Kurd, we will never stop. don’t want the interference of the West, we just want our freedom. themselves. They make the decisions Homs and we get everything published. Deraa We decide who the brothers are on INTERNATIONAL each demonstration that are doing INVOLVEMENT – IRAN: the filming and we have a group that It is crucial for Hezbollah, Iran and goes through what everyone else LACK OF INTERNATIONAL Israel to keep Assad in place, but we sends in. SUPPORT: tell you this: We don’t care about Douma who is outside, we care about our History has never seen such a criminal freedom. We also have professional designers regime like the one we are facing Deraa working in the biggest international peacefully, yet the international companies who have designed a community is doing nothing to help. [The regime] has nowhere – but Iran private webpage for the city. We – to go Deraa have people who also work for the Hama

20 LACK OF SUPPORT FROM ARMY DEFECTIONS: become much worse than Libya. Deraa GULF COUNTRIES: We have heard through the Once we free our country, we grapevine that for the Army to STRATEGY: split and to have a major coup that won’t let anyone in to visit. That The strategy is to continue is our revenge. First the GCC [Gulf Damascus and Aleppo – the only two major cities that haven’t risen on the demonstrating until the militias Cooperation Council] states for not are left directly under the control supporting us. scale of the country – to rise in their millions. of Assad – when everything is Damascus transparent – then it becomes clear Deraa to everyone who and what is going THE FUTURE – With more of the elite fleeing Syria, on and then we have a shot at Look at it this way: the city has one the Army will notice something is up liberating our country. hundred and fifty thousand people, and will splinter. Damascus with over three hundred killed, five Al-Tall District Eventually, all chapters will join up thousand wounded and dying due to and become a united front so that lack of medicine, supplies and food. Now with this news about the US the people will officially become the There is no turning back. and Europe adding pressure, we opposition. Deraa hope that the army will finally Douma If things carry on the same way, splinter. With talk of over seven You will see a lot more tactical this dictatorial regime cannot hundred soldiers killed by the system demonstrations and manoeuvres survive more than five weeks and those senior staff fleeing then it now. Damascus is planning them before collapsing. There are many is a matter of time. and so is Aleppo, to avoid being reasons: the images of mass graves Hama caught because you don’t want to be reaching all Syrians; the collapse of We have it on good authority, there caught, if you do then you’re either the economy; the paralysis of the are senior army deserters, at least going to be severely tortured to the country; the smuggling of funds by four who have deserted to Turkey, point it damages your body or you families allied to the regime; the start but we can’t say their names until die. of sympathy being shown by the army their families are safe, because this to the people; crushing the barrier Homs regime goes after everyone you of fear by the wider population; What we are going to do? Because know. divisions within the security forces; of lack of security in prisons due to the steadfastness of the people for Homs everyone being sent to attack us, a peaceful revolution; and finally the there are very few guards, so we impact on the economy the drop in PROTESTERS TAKING UP are trying to get word out for prison tourism will have. ARMS: outbreaks or try and break in. That is Al-Tall District Some have said that they will pick up one tactic that we can use if things arms, and that is their prerogative escalate. […] if we pick up arms, then this will Al-Tall District

“Down with al-Assad”. Regime-critical graffiti was an early sign of the uprising

21 PART TWO: FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT

PERCEPTIONS OF WESTERN against Assad. The New York Times government could easily ride out the quoted a White House official who sanctions.110 INACTION explained the US position: ‘[Assad] On 17 May, Clinton indicated an Most Syrian oppositionists have sees himself as a Westernised leader abrupt about-face, criticising Assad expressed impatience and and we think he’ll react if he believes and his cohort more forcefully for dissatisfaction with the pace of he is being lumped in with brutal ‘embrac[ing] the worst tactics of Western actions against the Assad dictators’.105 On 22 April, President their Iranian ally’ and for a ‘heavy- regime, in particular the United Obama again ‘encouraged’ Assad handed, brutal crackdown [that] States’ slow-paced condemnations to implement ‘meaningful reforms’ shows [Assad’s] true intentions’.112 and sanctions. Although President and ‘respect the rights of the Syrian Newer and tougher sanctions on Obama called for the departures of people’.106 Another unnamed White Syria, she insisted, were imminent. both Egypt’s and House official offered another Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben-Ali after explanation for sluggishness in These arrived the following day, comparatively fewer protestors had confronting Syria: ‘We’re talking targeting Assad personally as well been killed in those country’s about a country whose economy is as his inner circle: Vice President uprisings, he has been relatively about the size of Pittsburgh’s’.107 Farouk al-Shara, Prime Minister silent on Syria. On 8 April, Adel Safar, Interior the White House issued its Minister Mohammad first statement: ‘It is time On 8 April, the White House issued Ibrahim al-Shaar, for the Syrian government its first statement: ‘It is time for Defense Minister Ali to stop repressing its Habib Mahmoud, citizens and to listen to the the Syrian government to stop head of Syrian Military voices of the Syrian people Intelligence Abdul calling for meaningful repressing its citizens and to listen Fatah Qudsiya and political and economic to the voices of the Syrian people Political Security reforms’.103 Directorate Chief calling for meaningful political and Mohammed Dib The US National Security Zaitoun. Council held two meetings economic reforms’. in mid-April with Western In his Middle East representatives of the Syrian On 6 May, US Secretary of State foreign policy speech, delivered on opposition, who asked the US to Hillary Rodham Clinton was still citing 19 May, President Obama offered his impose sanctions on Damascus, Assad’s potential for ‘reform’, telling most aggressive challenge to Assad, publicly condemn Assad, and the Italian television programme In whom he said must either facilitate propose a resolution to the United Mezz’Ora, ‘People do believe there a peaceful transition to democracy Nations Human Rights Council is a possible path forward with or ‘get out of the way’. criticizing Assad’s actions. The US Syria. So we’re going to continue When asked about the slow pace maintains that it lacked the leverage joining with all of our allies to keep of the West’s push-back against 108 to deal with Assad in the way it had pressing very hard on that’. Three Assad, Abdulhamid told HJS that with other autocrats engulfed by the days later, the European Union – this was due to a variety of factors Arab Spring. Minor sanctions against led by Britain, Germany, Sweden including the ‘stability of Lebanon, a handful of Assad’s outlying officials and the Netherlands – passed an the Kurdish Question, the borders were imposed in mid-April, but not arms embargo against Syria, along with Iraq, the Iranian alliance and against the dictator himself. with sanctions and travel bans on the [Israel-Palestine] peace process’, By mid-May, the United States subordinate members of the Assad all of which would be dramatically had shifted its position somewhat, regime. , a senior affected by regime change. advisor to Assad who spoke to the condemning Syria for trying to build Abdulhamid believes that while an illegal nuclear reactor (bombed New York Times’ Anthony Shadid on the condition that he spend Assad is viewed as a consummate by Israel in 2005) and asking the mischief-maker – the patron of International Atomic Energy Agency a ‘few hours’ in country where a blanket media blackout was still and Hezbollah and much (IAEA) to censure Syria on the of the Iraqi insurgency earlier in basis of a recently-concluded UN in place, seemed sanguine about 109 the decade – Western leaders investigation.104 the US response. The comments by Obama and Clinton, Shaaban nevertheless view his removal from Yet there was little movement said, were ‘not too bad’, and her power as a de-stabilising force in

22 the Middle East. Yet Abdulhamid is November 2007 the Emir of Qatar hundreds of Syrians flooded into convinced that as the told US Senator John Kerry: the hitherto pacified Golan Heights and regime violence escalate, the In Qatar’s view, now is the time under the pretext of ‘Nakba Day’ ‘international community will be to reach out to Damascus. protests – the Palestinian national left with little choice in this matter: The Syrian Government can day of remembrance for the instability is fast becoming a self- help Arab extremists make ‘catastrophe’ of Israel’s founding. fulfilling prophecy’. tough choices, but only if Several Syrians breached the Golan border-fence and entered Israeli On 27 May, Ziadeh published an op- the US, whose involvement territory. At least a dozen protesters ed in the New York Daily News calling is essential, demonstrates to were killed when a small contingent for UN Security Council resolution Syria early on a willingness of Israel Defence Force soldiers – on Syria as the ‘continued silence to address the return of the caught by surprise – open fired on of the Security Council sends the Golan Heights and supports them after non-lethal crowd controls chilling message that the protestors Turkey’s mediation efforts 113 methods failed to halt their advance. are alone and that the world will between Israel and Syria. Tragically, some of the Syrians turn a blind eye as murder continues As the chairman of the Senate raiding Israel seemed to be fleeing on the streets’. Foreign Relations Committee, Assad’s persecution, not staging a Senator Kerry has long endorsed pro-Palestinian demonstration.117 ASSAD AND THE ‘PEACE US rapprochement with Assad PROCESS’ Others, according to oppositionists on the ground, were Several domestic Syrian-Palestinian oppositionists with refugees who had whom we spoke argued been bused en masse that Israel’s preference by the regime to the to keep Assad in Golan Heights a day power has been a earlier.118 major motivation for Western acquiescence This civilian invasion, to his atrocities – even which could not have though many Israeli been accomplished officials have publicly without the aid and condemned the acquiescence of the violence in Syria. Syrian state, was a demonstration of This is the exception to the seriousness of what has so far been a Makhlouf’s threat to mass movement free of Assad after dismissing his government – Syrian TV via Reuters Israel. As Abdulhamid the kind of anti-Israel sentiment seen along these lines, as has former stated on his blog: elsewhere in Arab Spring countries. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, So far, there is no evidence of anti- with whom Kerry wrote a Wall Street Of course, there was nothing Semitic iconography being used Journal op-ed in 2008 entitled, ‘It’s spontaneous about the 114 by any Syrians to rally protestors, Time to Talk To Syria’, and former border incursions that took in marked contrast to widespread Democratic Speaker of the House place in the Golan Heights Egyptian accusations that Hosni Representative Nancy Pelosi, who today. If the fact that this is Mubarak was a stooge of Israel. If has said: ‘The road to Damascus is a happening for the very first 115 anything, such scaremongering and road of peace.’ time since 1974 and only scapegoating has been the purview Furthermore, the supposed threat of days after Bashar Al-Assad’s of the Assad regime in trying to de-stabilising Israel’s security is one cousin, Rami Makhlouf, made discredit the opposition. being made by the Syrian regime his threatening statements is not a clear enough indication Nevertheless, there is strong itself. On 10 May, Rami Makhlouf, of this, then let’s mourn the evidence that the US establishment Assad’s cousin and the billionaire death of reason, and glory has long believed in Syria’s strategic Syrian industrialist now sanctioned in the triumph of impunity role in brokering Israel-Palestine by the US, told the New York Times: and willful blindness over peace. This misapprehension – ‘If there is no stability here, there’s everything decent. 119 encouraged by Arab autocrats – no way there will be stability in Israel. has contributed to Washington’s No way, and nobody can guarantee sluggishness in confronting Assad. what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime’.116 According to WikiLeaks-obtained State Department cables, in The following week, Sunday 15 May,

23 THE IRANIAN-SYRIAN and Damascus, denies this Assad’s crackdown. He’s described meeting took place.123 the Syrian revolution as, ‘the ALLIANCE However, Abdul-Halim Khaddam, equivalent of internal politics for Iranian influence in Assad’s the former Syrian vice president Turkey.’ 125 suppression of the Syrian revolution who served under both Assad and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet is an accepted fact for both the US his father, observed: ‘Anyone who Davutoglu has, by his own estimation, government and the opposition. believes that political decisions in travelled to Syria more than 60 times Commercial and military ties Damascus are taken without Iran over the past eight years. While between Iran and Syria have never these days is mistaken. Bashar and Davutoglu acknowledges the Assad been stronger. The Islamic Republic his brother Maher have become regime’s killing of civilians and claims News Agency, Tehran’s state-owned vicarious agents of the Iranian that ‘time is running out’ for any media outlet, recently claimed that Revolutionary Guard.’124 resolution to the crisis, as of 25 May, trade relations with Syria is set to Abdulhamid agreed: ‘The Iranian the eleventh week of the uprising, increase from $400 million to $5 alliance is all too real and several the most Davutoglu would offer on billion.120 treaties, including a mutual defense Assad was: ‘Now what he needs is In tandem with the Obama agreement, have been signed over shock therapy to gain the heart of administration’s 18 May sanctions, the years. Iran has a lot to lose if the his people’.126 the US Treasury Department Assads were removed from power.’ Such ‘shock therapy’ evidently imposed sanctions against two includes anti-corruption efforts, prominent Iranian nationals: TURKEY’S INFLUENCE reform for the security apparatus Qasem Soleimani, commander of Turkey has used the crisis as a means and a national dialogue inclusive the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of flexing its growing geopolitical of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), who is clout in the Middle East. Although which Turkish officials believe ought cited in the sanctions order as ‘the Syria and Turkey nearly went to to be offered two ministries in a new conduit for Iranian material support’ war with each other in 1998, the Syrian government.127 to the Syrian General Intelligence current relationship between Despite Ankara’s lenience toward Directorate; and Mohsen Chizari, Damascus and Ankara is warm. Assad, on Wednesday, 31 May, the commander of operations and Turkey and Syria currently hold joint between 300 and 400 Syrian training for the IRGC-QF.121 military exercises. Trade has tripled oppositionists met for a three- ‘Green Voice of Freedom’, an Iranian since 2008. And visa requirements day conference in in the Turkish opposition website, alleges that were lifted, creating open borders resort of Antalya.128 The goal of Iranian Brig Gen Ahmad Reza Radan, between the two neighbors the meeting was to produce some the police commander responsible Compared with his calls for regime form of logistical and legal support for suppressing the 2009 protest change in Egypt and Libya, where for the revolutionaries. Syrian movement in Iran, visited Damascus Turkish troops are currently helping Muslim Brotherhood members in mid-April to instruct his Syrian to enforce the Nato-led no-fly zone, had met earlier in Turkey as part counterparts on how to similarly Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip of a contingent of groups 122 handle their own popular revolt. Erdogan has merely said that he is hosted there, an event that rankled However, a former Iranian diplomat, ‘quite concerned and annoyed’ by Damascus. who attests to the intimacy between

‘Green Voice of Freedom’, an Iranian opposition website, alleges that Iranian Brig Gen Ahmad Reza Radan, the police commander responsible for suppressing the 2009 protest movement in Iran, visited Damascus in mid-April to instruct his Syrian counterparts on how to similarly handle their own popular revolt.

24 CONCLUSION

The Syrian opposition is the most Western-friendly Assad believes that the revolution will eventually peter movement to emerge from the Arab spring, yet has out, calculating that without increased international received the least amount of support from the West, pressure and external aid to the opposition, the Syrian which has so far offered only token condemnations of Army will remain loyal to the regime and that in the face violence and minimal economic penalties against a of ongoing brutality, the protesters will eventually give regime that has killed an estimated 1,100 people and up. imprisoned 10,000 more. Western governments are uniquely placed to support With Western forces engaged in military operations Syrian aspirations for freedom, as well as de-stabilising in Afghanistan and Libya Syria is not seen as a priority. Iranian influence in the region and transforming an anti- Geopolitical calculations have been made about Assad’s Western regime into a key strategic ally. Israel will be role as peacemaker in the Israel-Palestine conflict, his blamed by Assad for fomenting a national crisis no matter perceived potential to “reform” and the economic what it says or does. But by demanding and facilitating negligibility of Syria. However, the West could benefit an end to his dictatorial rule, Western countries will from a revived liberalized Syrian economy and the scale helpfully be able to demonstrate that they are not and nature of Assad’s brutality belie his image as a stable putting Israel’s security concerns above the democratic force in the region. aspirations of the Syrian people. The Syrian people, like the Tunisians and Egyptians The Syrian oppositionists have clearly indicated the before them, have stated their aims clearly: they direction they want for their country. They have decried seek freedom, human rights and genuine democratic regime propaganda that they are controlled by ‘Salafists’. accountability. Unlike the Tunisians and Egyptians, the Rather than resort to any form of characteristic anti- Syrians have developed a coherent and sophisticated Americanism, they have denounced Russian and Iranian platform for democracy that, based on our examination hegemony and indicted Hezbollah as co-conspirator in of on-the-ground sentiments, approaches the national Assad’s depredations. consensus. Western governments should strongly support Syrian aspirations for freedom in the following ways:

Rhetorical support The US, UK and the EU must call for the immediate resignation of Bashar al-Assad from power, along with his inner circle. The UN Security Council should pass a resolution condemning Assad’s violence and demanding his immediate resignation. Practical support The US and the UK should work closely with the opposition umbrella group, the National Initiative for Change (NIC), to help establish a transitional council in Syria that can be recognised by the international community. The US and the UK should provide the opposition with greater material aid, in particular encrypted laptops and satellite phones and SIM cards in order to withstand the regime’s media blackouts and continue the uninterrupted documentation of regime atrocities and human rights abuses Military support The Syrian opposition pins its hopes on turning the Syrian Army over to its side and then serve as a caretaker government in the transition to democracy. The US and UK ought to use regional intelligence assetsto persuade or entice sympathetic Syrian officers to defect. Syrian opposition is not yet calling for military intervention but this option should be seriously considered by the US, UK and Nato and preparations should be made in the event that this transpires.

25 APPENDIX: Full transcripts of original interviews

Through the use of an intermediary I estimate the number arrested is two major cities that haven’t risen based in Beirut, The Henry Jackson from four thousand to five thousand on the scale of the country – to rise Society was able to obtain exclusive in the area. If you look at all the in their millions. interviews with opposition figures pictures we have posted you will The majority in the Army has no clue in the major cities of the Syrian find the majority of those killed what is going on. They think we are revolution: Deraa, Damascus, died from head and chest wounds – armed people, and they are working Douma, the al-Tall District, Hama snipers of the criminal regime. under the guidance of the shabbiha and Homs. At the moment, we have around five and the security forces. We have We have omitted the names and hundred people on the critical list, in started to notice and hear of splits, any identifying traces of these homes dying slowly as we speak. and the longer we drag this out, the individuals out of concern for their The few that have been released more apparent it becomes because personal safety. suffered great trauma at the hands of you can’t be at war with Salafists in the occupation. Beaten to a pulp and every city in your country and not Deraa made to sign papers claiming that have contact with your family or the We got news that while the they are part an Islamist uprising, outside world for several months. occupation force was in Deraa, which is not true. Deraa never had There will be a point that someone some of the arrested were killed and Islamists. [from the Army] will say, ‘That is it, enough! This has to stop’. buried in mass graves. So as soon as We know the West wants Bashar and the occupation force retreated to does not care about the real people. There will be further massacres, the other villages, we went in and dug up They are allowing him to kill and system is adamant to keep ruling the mass graves. We have identified torture us for Israel. But our message and has nowhere to go. It is crucial five people who were killed. is that we don’t care about Israel, we for Hezbollah, Iran and Israel to keep Now the news is that following don’t care about Islamists and we Assad in place, but we tell you this: what we have discovered, security don’t want the interference of the we don’t care about who is outside, forces are going to come in to Deraa West, we just want our freedom, and we care about our freedom. again and raid all those homes in an we are thinking about it day to day, If we fail in splitting the Army, then attempt to remove all mobile phone and once we topple Assad, and we there will be a true catastrophe. We devices. They also want to claim don’t get the freedom that we asked are now afraid of people being killed these bodies back in an attempt to for then we will continue to protest in the millions. We worry that as the hide what happened. until we have a democratic Syria that regime turns this into a sectarian war However, there were more is run by the people for the people. there will be no way out of this. The demonstrations, and people’s Even the Salafists want that - system is encouraging the Alawites steadfastness with this news is whoever they are – but if they to stay with it and is inciting fear and increasing with more demonstrations are out there then they are a tiny hatred towards the rest of Syria. The from Deraa. Look at it this way: minority who has not been part of village of Tal Kalakh, where everyone the city has one hundred and fifty this protest movement. is fleeing to Lebanon is surrounded by around one hundred and twenty thousand people, with over three We have had enough and just want Alawite villages. There we are seeing hundred killed and five thousand freedom like the people of Tunisia and hearing about major massacres, wounded and dying due to lack of and Egypt. medicine, supplies and food. There is arrests and vandalism by Alawite Our revolution is not sectarian. All no turning back. We have discovered militias loyal to the regime. the people of Syria are part of it, what this family [the Assads] is all Why haven’t more people from there are those who sullied their about and we will not stop. Damascus and Aleppo protested? hands and attacked their own people Because people in those affluent We fear the thousands arrested with their gangs. Most Syrians are cities are still afraid. They think they will end up in mass graves. Deraa poor, and we have had enough. We would lose what they have and die. is surrounded by around two have paid our taxes for this Army to But the students in the city and the hundred villages, all of those kill us? We are not sectarian; we are poor in the suburbs have already, villages are Houran, and Deraa is poor and need our freedom. the capital. History has never seen and the regime has been clever in We have heard through the such a criminal regime like the one clearing up all protests, by arresting grapevine that for the Army to we are facing peacefully, yet the most of the thinkers and those split and to have a major coup that international community is doing who pose a threat and by sending Damascus and Aleppo – the only nothing to help. in heavy security before it all really

26 started. Every student that has killing by the regime continues, then that’s why they are getting support protested has been expelled from we fear it will turn extremely bloody from Alawites – otherwise, we university, we have a list of all those for everyone. don’t care about religion, we want who have been kicked out. If we pick up arms, then this will freedom. Two weeks ago there were protests become much worse than Libya. The regime is utilizing the lack of in those cities that ran into tens of We don’t think ahead about peace Western intervention to press ahead thousands, but they only lasted with Israel. We think about how to with their violent repression, but we ten to fifteen minutes as security gain our freedom step by step, but don’t care. forces swooped in. I guess now for the future, we want peace with As the people of Syria, we knew we are going to have to get more everyone. what we were getting ourselves into. organized as a single front in all Having a party manifesto is down Our fear is the regime might kill cities instead of chapters. We also the line. We are not for Israel; we the ten thousand people they had a council, at the beginning, of are not doing this for Israel and have arrested so far, on top of the local representatives that the regime the West. We are doing this to get thousand who are dead already. And attempted to arrest. They are all in rid of a dictator, be it peacefully or that they won’t stop, they will carry hiding in various areas in Houran. bloodily. What the system has done on. We know what we are doing and to us is insulting, and we will never There is no opposition in Syria, it’s what we got ourselves into, we forget. fragmented, we don’t have leaders. just didn’t know the international I can’t begin to describe the type of If the West wanted to help those community was going to be so torture people are being subjected to. who have signed papers condemning muted. We are smart and educated the brutal oppression of the people people, we know what would No one is helping, no one is helping. or those who resigned, how would happen if no-one came in. But now We don’t analyze what people are they know who they are? Read we prefer it this way. We need to do thinking, we are focused on staying what we post. This is a true people’s it on our own. alive and getting rid of the dictator. revolution; we have no guidance, We get stuff from the system through We are mostly disappointed with no ElBaradei [Mohamed ElBaradei, bribing them. These guys are bought the Saudi people, untill now they former head of the Atomic Energy by money, they don’t agree with have not said a thing. Agency and prospective Egyptian what is going on but they have to First of all, there are no Ba’athists, presidential candidate who became do it or die. But they are victims too. they don’t rule us and it shows now a figurehead of the opposition We are all victims. because hundreds have resigned and during the uprisings in Egypt], no- the system has gone in after them Damascus one. to kill them or arrest them. We are We don’t have leadership; we are If I die or get arrested, then occupied by a family and its criminal just Syrian people who have had someone else will create a page friends. Every death in Syria is under enough of decades of oppression. and upload pictures and videos and the name of Bashar al-Assad. He is demonstrate. responsible for every death as he is We are not organized, we plan day The people of Syria are the the one that gives all the orders. by day, but we are getting more focused, we are just demonstrating, opposition, there are no figureheads, The head of the Deraa Ba’athist and we are going to continue in that and there’s been no opposition here Party, an important person, was path. for decades, no Islamists, no one. arrested and tortured. No one is safe If I give you names of who the West from this mafia; there is no Ba’athist We have broken the fear barrier can back, then I have to give you all Party, just Assad. People are only in and are taking to the streets against the Syrian people’s names because the party because of fear. the militias and the security forces, peacefully, for over a month now this is the people’s revolution. We Look, there are no weapons in Syria, and will continue. don’t speak English; we don’t have a only the Alawites have them, but central command. they are our brothers and they also The government is the sectarian I know it is hard for the West to fear Assad. [player], not us. Christians, Alawites and Sunnis are demonstrating. understand, but [Assad] has been We had a famous saying in Syria: The regime is the one through its the most brutal dictatorship ever in ‘Death before degradation’. Now it’s media channels making allegations the Middle East. death to all who believe that. of sectarianism. It is not true and They are old men [the ones doing Some have said that they will pick up everybody is falling for it. You see, the killing], the same men who arms, and that is their prerogative. for forty years people have been made thousands of Lebanese vanish We can’t tell them what to do, they brainwashed, and that kind of during the Civil War there. They are still have to defend themselves but persecution works on some. Assad’s men, loyal with business we say, ‘stay peaceful’. But if the People are falling for the propaganda, interests.

27 I can’t begin to tell you about the we speak. actively organized demonstrations. dead and kidnapped, there are We are not stupid and don’t expect There was no opposition or figures too many. Those who are seen as anything from the international who instigated or external forces prominent have had all their toes community. We will free our country who looked to rally the people of broken for a start. We fear a mass- ourselves, we don’t care for your the city. But that all changed when scale killing of all those arrested. We support; this is our revolution and martyrs started to fall so we created have the names of the killed and not yours. a local council [to get organized]. arrested. It’s all published, and they Once we free our country, we What happened then was, a are all being referred to the military won’t let anyone in to visit. That delegation from those who were court, which has often ordered is our revenge. First the GCC [Gulf elected to the council as the death sentences over the last forty Cooperation Council] states for not representatives of Douma went years. supporting us. to meet directly to negotiate with The army isn’t to blame. They are representatives for President Assad The GCC are worried that if Assad forced to attack us by the militias but instead they were kidnapped goes then the Arab people are and security forces. They have no and tortured, including prominent capable of anything, toppling all access to phones, the internet, or doctor Bassel Hammdan [note: he Arab governments. Assad is the television. has been released but is keeping a worst, and we will topple him. He low profile -- ed]. They actually believe we are armed had forty years to get his own army and are Salafists or Mossad [Israeli and we will die facing that army. So what we are seeing in Douma intelligence agency] or foreign is that the system is going after all The strategy is to continue powers. the former politicians, thinkers, demonstrating until the militias doctors and lawyers who have They don’t know who they are are left directly under the control resigned from the Ba’ath Party. killing. They are told, and they obey. of Assad – when everything is The regime is subjecting them to There is no rift in the army, because transparent – then it becomes torture using equipment that date they have a media blanket like the clear to everyone who and what is backs to the Ottomans; claiming rest of the world with no access to going on and then we have a shot at that these people are communists what is going on, because they can’t liberating our country. and socialists, who, after forty years, even speak to friends or family. I have children and I am willing to don’t even exist in the city. People are scared to speak on die just for them and not have Assad The opposition is the people. If the the phone. Everything is watched rule over them, to live in peace. killing hadn’t started, then we’d and monitored, so they don’t call, The demonstrations have not been have just wanted reforms. Now we because if they do, then they go restricted to certain [socioeconomic] need the system to fall. missing. neighbourhoods. This shows that What is propelling the people is the There is no DSL, [the regime] has it is not a working class revolution killing. The wall of fear is destroyed; cut all broadband internet to stop or a middle class one. We are all the more killing, kidnapping, and us from posting online videos and people. It has taken place in every assassinating taking place, and the pictures. But they also know that neighbourhood and city regardless more the average person sees, the Syria was on the cusp of a business of social status. less likely they will continue to fall revolution, so they at least kept We have no weapons. There has for Syrian propaganda. some internet. been a thirty year ban on weapons. The first recorded death is Bashir Aleppo is trying to rise, and we hope This revolution can’t turn violent. Doulan. We are documenting and it will. This week is called ‘Aleppo keeping track of all the names of Friday’ [Friday 20 May]. Douma those killed, missing, kidnapped, The situation in Douma has [The international community] tortured and we are identifying deteriorated to a point where it’s is afraid of Israel, hence the the names and identities of those too dangerous to make mobile response from the international perpetrating the violence against phone calls. Mass arrests are still community and the response from the Syrian people. Arab governments. We don’t want taking places as security forces look The command centre of the support from anyone. Israel wants at those who have led the protests revolution in the city is always the Assad and we don’t want Assad, and by breaking into people’s homes demonstrators themselves. They we don’t care about Israel, we just and taking members of families if make the decisions and we get want freedom. they can’t find who they are looking everything published. We decide Ten died in Libya today and the for, and we can’t use Skype to communicate. who the brothers are on each media went crazy. More than one demonstration that are doing the At the beginning, for the first four hundred died today and no one filming and we have a group that weeks, there wasn’t anyone who cares. Massacres are taking place as goes through what everyone else

28 sends in. up and will splinter. People have the cradle of civilization; we will So far, the procedures of the United seen the pictures now, of what not be ruled by a dictator and his Nations and the world powers are happened to their loved ones and friends. We will not be a footnote only cosmetic procedures [note: they will continue to rise. The news in the history books, we will make statement given before the US is that the various security forces in history. passed sanctions against Assad and the provinces are going through our Here, after prayers, we break out and his inner circle --ed], and will not videos, and writing down the name head into the biggest square, at the impact on this system because it is of every protester and they are Great Mosque. There we are joined not interested in any of the pressures circulating this. by our Christian brothers. We shout on Syria. I mean the names of everyone, have slogans for Deraa and freedom, and We also have professional designers they gone insane? We have been justice to what happened to our working in the biggest international told that Assad has asked his close people in ’82 [reference to the Hama companies who have designed a business allies to place people in massacre of 1982]. Sometimes, private webpage for the city. We their warehouses. I do worry that it doesn’t have to be a certain have people who also work for what happened in Deraa will happen prayer, few hundred people from a the biggest IT companies who also in every Syrian city. We have already neighbourhood start, and are joined provide us with ideas and solutions had Douma, Homs, Hama and now by others. It’s very sporadic and on how to bypass security measures Tal Kalakh and Arida. That will last as keeps us safe from their bullets. by the regime. The estimated long as the others, but the weapons What Syria is going through today number of detainees in Douma is there smuggled from Lebanon. So is massacre and death to all, so we around 1,200 people. it could be the start of the messy either come out now or never, but revolution that we didn’t want. In There is a site that has the list of all after what the EU just did, there Jassem, we hear that the security detainees and dead. We also have will be increase of 90%. The more forces there said that they will kill translators, editors and those who pressure applied from abroad the anyone on site, not even a curfew, collect the videos. We will stop more people, who were scared, will it just shows that they have lost the announcing when and where we are come out. plot. demonstrating to avoid the snipers. On a mass scale, this regime has cut Eventually, all chapters will join up What has happened here has power, electricity, communications, and become a united front so that happened in every other city, town food supplies, baby formula; and the people will officially become the or village – mass arrests, deaths. killed, arrested and tortured its opposition. What are we going to do? Because own people in the thousands, and of lack of security in prisons due to you think we won’t continue to Al-Tall District everyone being sent to attack us, demonstrate. That is it, they are It has been very hard to get news out there are very few guards, so we done. from here, Homs and Hama, because are trying to get word out for prison They are pulling out toe and most neighbourhoods don’t have outbreaks or try and break in. That is fingernails, teeth and eyes. internet access. one tactic that we can use if things Rape, death by firing squad and If things carry on the same way, escalate. amputations is the reality of what this dictatorial regime cannot will happen to you if you are survive more than five weeks Hama arrested and yet tens of thousands before collapsing. There are many How is day-to-day living here? in every city still come out. This is reasons: the images of mass graves Listen, my life and the life of every the bravery of a Syrian who does not reaching all Syrians; the collapse of free Arab Syrian is the same – we want Syria and the people of Syria to the economy; the paralysis of the freedom fighters go out every day be remembered for Assad. We made country; the smuggling of funds by to find truth and achieve dignity and history and will re-write it. Mubarak families allied to the regime; the respect. was a pussy cat compared to Assad. start of sympathy being shown by We are the people of the revolution They are not letting Syrians either in the army to the people; crushing and we are the people who will reach or out at borders, and when they are the barrier of fear by the wider and get our freedom because we are raiding homes they are making sure population; divisions within the a great race and we will achieve this that nothing of value is left there. In security forces; the steadfastness of against the most brutal and evil of Tal Kalakh, those shabbiha stoop to the people for a peaceful revolution; all dictators, who has killed us in the a lower level and take people’s food, and finally the impact on the tens of thousands over the decades, such as pickled supplies, cheeses and economy the drop in tourism will imprisoned hundreds of thousands olives and stick them in the washing have. and exiled thousands of the sons of machine. I mean how stupid is that? With more of the elite fleeing Syria, this great nation. This is the type of mentality of the the Army will notice something is We are the people at the heart and people who are hired by the system

29 to kill us. we got the better of the shabbiha, We will never stop – Druze, Sunni, Hundreds are in underground prisons when we out-flanked them, out- Alawite and Kurd, we will never stop. in Hama, and now they are using the numbered them in the thousands, They have been trying to apply football stadiums. This government beat them and the security forces pressure on the community leaders is doing exactly the opposite of what had to drag them away to safety. to stop us from demonstrating, it is saying on television. With not Then they fired an unprecedented but we won’t stop. In Aleppo, they one soldier on the Israeli border, and amount of tear gas canisters that it called in the Grand Mufti and one of we are the ones working with Israel? began affecting the people inside the Imams of an area that has seen This government is anti-democracy their homes. the most uprising so far there. They and against its own people – it is You will see a lot more tactical left saying they have no interest in working for its self, its own interest, demonstrations and manoeuvres speaking to the regime again. This is how it can stay in power and not now. Damascus is planning them it, we won’t back down. lose it. Because [the regime] has and so is Aleppo, to avoid being We called Azadi Week, it’s a Kurdish nowhere – but Iran – to go, and I am caught because you don’t want to be word – we are all in this together. sure they don’t want them to fail. caught, if you do then you’re either There were no Kurds inside Homs, We have one thing to say to this going to be severely tortured to the yet we sang that word out as we fell government: freedom is for us and point it damages your body or you against the bullets of the tyrants. we are going to take it no matter die. That was in Saifi Square. We even found a Hezbollah flag what. We have a freedom chant: We have it on good authority, there from one of the security forces and “Al Janna Rayheen Shuhadaa bil are senior army deserters, at least burnt it – funny how they support malayeen” [to heaven we go, four who have deserted to Turkey, some uprisings, others not at all and martyrs in the millions]. but we can’t say their names until actually work to suppress one. The security forces use trucks to their families are safe, because After Azadi Friday we found two bring these shabbiha. They all look this regime goes after everyone kids, aged 11 and 9, both killed. We like cows, fat and ugly. Believe it or you know. You know the first US got them to their families but the not, these guys get paid five hundred movie dubbed into Arabic was “The father is missing – presumed dead. Syrian Lira [USD 10.5] to kill fellow Godfather” – what does that tell Syrian people. you about the Assad family? They’re mad. Now with this news about the US and Europe adding pressure, we hope Not only do we have to put up with that the army will finally splinter. their killings, torturing, rape and With talk of over seven hundred the slaying of children. Also, when soldiers killed by the system and they break into your home that is it; those senior staff fleeing then it is anything of value is gone and your just a matter of time. In the end, the home is destroyed. Israel hasn’t more they kill the more there will be done this to the Palestinians. of us demonstrating, because the We have been resilient in Homs, longer this goes on the more levels but they have also been using of fear we break, and in the end it ambulances to close in on us then is going to be an all-out war with open fire. We fear what happened Assad. in Deraa, Douma and Baniyas will We have been publishing, and happen to all of Syria, they just don’t people have been sending pictures have enough people to send them to of old Hama that was destroyed in all the cities at once. ‘82. The people never forget. They have been banning people from burying the their dead to avoid Homs further demonstrations that they The security forces have lost the can’t control, and then they come plot completely; they are becoming in at night and attempt to steal the increasingly erratic in their actions. bodies in order to hide their crimes. Today we have had snipers on the We know the names of those who rooftops of schools, security forces order the army and the security in cars driving recklessly and looking forces to kill us in Homs: Officer to run over people. Even an 11-year- Ahmed al Yabasi, General Rafiq old child was killed. Maqdeed [4th division]. In the 10th We have been tactical in our and 1st division it is Lieutenant demonstrations, and in one instance Mohammed Ali Kaed.

30 End notes

1 CIA Fact Book, Syria, available at www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sy.html; Economist Intelligence Unit, Syria, available at country.eiu.com/Syria; United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Index, Syria, available at hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/SYR.html 2 Syria profile, BBC News, 21 May 2011, available at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/801669.stm; Hafez al-Assad, obituary,Guardian , 15 June 2000, available at www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2000/jun/15/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1;‘Syria: Rampant Torture of Protesters’, Human Rights Watch briefing, 15 April 3 CIA Fact Book, Syria; Economist Intelligence Unit, Syria; United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Index, Syria 4 CIA Fact Book, Syria; Economist Intelligence Unit, Syria; United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Index, Syria; Freedom in the World, Freedom House, January 2011, MENA map and comparison maps available at www.freedomhouse.org/images/File/fiw/FIW2011_MENA_Map_1st%20draft.pdf; www.freedomhouse.org/ images/File/fiw/Maps_2003_2007_2011_FINAL.pdf 5 The structure of Syria’s Repression’, Foreign Affairs, 3 May 2011, available at www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67823/ahed-al-hendi/the-structure-of-syrias-repression?page=2; ‘Syria’s unrest: a bloody mess’, Economist, 28 March 2011, available at www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/03/syrias_unrest;‘Syria: feared militia kills up to 21 people as protests continue’, Daily Telegraph, 27 March 2011, available at www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8409870/Syria-feared-militia-kills-up-to-21-people- as-protests-continue.html;’We will never cease our struggle until we bring down Assad’, Independent, 2 May 2011, available at www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ fisk/robert-fisk-we-will-never-cease-our-struggle-until-we-bring-down-assad-2277704.html 6 Including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London and INSAN, a not-for-profit, non-governmental human rights, democracy and development organisation based in Spain 7 Syrian Revolution Digest, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com 8 ‘Syrians demand end to 48 years of emergency law’, Daily Telegraph, 20 March, available at www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8393824/Syrians-demand- end-to-48-years-of-emergency-law.html 9 ‘Syrian forces shoot protesters, kill 6 in mosque’, Reuters, 23 March 2011, available at www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/23/us-syria-gunfire-idUSTRE72M04T20110323 10 ‘In Syrian flashpoint town, more deaths reported’, CNN, 25 March 2011 11 Syrian Revolution Digest, 22 March 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/03/massacre-in-deraa.html; video available on YouTube at www.youtube. com/watch?v=vQ5ktdYZbbQ&feature=player_embedded 12 ‘Protests erupt in Damascus in support of Deraa’, Channel 4 News, 25 March 2011, available at www.channel4.com/news/syria-protests-erupt-in-damascus-in-support-of-deraa 13 Syrian Revolution Digest, 25 March 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/03/quick-update-new-massacre-could-be.html and syrianrevolutiondigest. blogspot.com/2011/03/bashar-get-out.html 14 Syria: Rampant Torture of Protesters, Human Rights Watch, 15 April 2011 15 ‘There was a massacre in the streets but we are not afraid’, The Times, 25 March, available at www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article2960466.ece 16 Syrian Revolution Digest, 25 March 2011 17 Ibid 18 Ibid 19 For this, and all other Amnesty death toll estimates see www.amnesty.org.uk/search.asp?q=+syria&submitted=-1 20 Syrian Revolution Digest, 27 March 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/03/playing-sectarian-card.html 21 ‘Syria’s Otari stays as caretaker prime minister’, Reuters, 29 March 2011, available at uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/29/us-syria-resignation-caretaker- idUKTRE72S38V20110329 22 Syrian Revolution Digest, 30 March 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/03/bad-man-behind-blue-eyes-loses-mask.html 23 Ibid 24 ‘Syria: Minister to form cabinet as Douma buries dead’, BBC News, 3 April 2011, available at www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12950039 25 Syrian Revolution Digest, 1 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/growing-pains-more-violent-crackdown-as.html; video available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=APWTr71C1tI&feature=player_embedded 26 Syrian Revolution Digest, 1 April 2011 27 Video available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_dzaeSdcyM&feature=player_embedded 28 Syrian Revolution Digest, 1 April 2011 29 ‘Syria: Minister to form cabinet as Douma buries dead’, BBC News, 3 April 2011, available at www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12950039 30 Syrian Revolution Digest, 3 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/tensions-death-toll-mount.html 31 Syrian Revolution Digest, 4 and 5 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/turmoil-in-lions-lair.html and syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot. com/2011/04/damascus-under-siege.html 32 Ibid 33 Ibid 34 ‘Syria lifts niqab ban, shuts casino, in nod to Sunnis’, Reuters, 6 April 2011, available at uk.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/uk-syria-assad-niqab-idUKTRE7353SH20110406 35 Syrian Revolution Digest, 8 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/moving-in-different-orbits.html; syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot. com/2011/04/friday-bloody-friday.html; and syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/friday-bloody-friday-part-two-stories.html 36 Syrian Revolution Digest, 8 and 9 April 2011, the latter is available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/mourning-after.html 38 Syrian Revolution Digest 11 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/shabbiha-assads-mercenaries.html‘Syrian crackdown gathers pace’, Financial Times, 11 April 2011, available at www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1cd30ace-6392-11e0-bd7f-00144feab49a.html 39 ‘Troops move into Syrian oil town torn by fighting’, The Daily Telegraph, 12 April 2011, available at www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8443642/Troops- move-into-Syrian-oil-town-torn-by-fighting.html 40 Syrian Revolution Digest 12 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/peaceful-against-all-odds.html 41 Syrian Revolution Digest 14 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/thursday-regime.html 42 Syrian Revolution Digest 16 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/almost-bloodless-friday.html 43 ‘Syrian troops stop protestors reaching hospitals’, Daily Telegraph, 13 April 2011, available at www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8446010/Syrian-troops- stop-protesters-reaching-hospitals.html 44 Syrian Revolution Digest 17 and 18 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/independence-day.html and syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot. com/2011/04/making-of-syrias-second-independence.html 45 Syria: Rampant Torture of Protesters, Human Rights Watch, 15 April 2011 46 Syria – brief on Arbitrary Detention and Death Toll Update, INSAN, available at insanintl.com/ 47 ‘Syria to lift emergency rule after 48 years’, Guardian, 20 April 2011, available at www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/19/syria-lift-emergency-rule-violence 48 ‘Protestors occupying city square vow to stay until Assad is ousted’, The Times, 19 April 2011, available at www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article2990836.ece 49 Syrian Revolution Digest, 24 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/backlash-to-bloodshed.html 50 Ibid 51 Syrian Revolution Digest, 27 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/mutiny-still-unconfirmed-but-continued.html

31 52 Syrian Revolution Digest, 28 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/coming-together-in-face-of-all-odds.html 53 Ibid 54 Syrian Revolution Digest, 29 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/waiting-on-tenterhooks.html 55 Syrian Revolution Digest, 27 April 2011 56 Ibid 57 Syria – brief on Arbitrary Detention and Death Toll Update, INSAN/ 58 Syrian Revolution Digest, 30 April 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/04/another-friday-of-defiance-bloodshed.html 59 Syrian Revolution Digest, 27 April 2011 60 Syrian Revolution Digest, 2 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/body-snatchers-must-go.html 61 Syrian Revolution Digest, 1 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/lift-siege.html 62 Syrian Revolution Digest, 2 May 2011 and 3 May 2011, the latter is available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/arrests-protests-and-military-action.html 63 Syrian Revolution Digest, 7 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/tgif.html and syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/death-lies-and- youtube.html 64 Syrian Revolution Digest, 9 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/deraa-banyas-homs-for-assads-tanks-are.html 65 Syrian Revolution Digest, 7 May 2011 66 Ibid 67 Syrian Revolution Digest, 9 May 2011 68 Syria – brief on Arbitrary Detention and Death Toll Update, INSAN, available at insanintl.com/ 69 Syrian Revolution Digest, 11 and 13 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/in-valley-of-assad.html and syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot. com/2011/05/belly-of-beast.html 70 Syrian Revolution Digest, 14 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/people-still-want-to-topple-regime.html 71 Syrian Revolution Digest, 11 May 2011 72 Interview with Martin Fletcher, ‘Inside Syria’s “windowless basements”’, BBC News, 11 May 2001, available at news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9482000/9482458.stm 73 Syrian Revolution Digest, 20 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/azadi-rising.html 74 Ibid 75 ‘Mass grave reportedly discovered in Syria’, Los Angeles Times, 16 May 2011, available at www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-syria-grave-20110517,0,6257066. story 76 Syrian Revolution Digest, 16 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/mass-murder-in-deraa-city-whos-to-blame.html 78 Ibid 79 Syrian Revolution Digest, 20 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/azadi-rising.html 80 Syrian Revolution Digest, 21 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/back-to-beginning.html 81 Ibid 82 Video available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQia0Bz7VQ&feature=player_embedded 83 Video available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtvfT_zApuI&feature=youtu.be 84 Syrian Revolution Digest, 23 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/idlibs-turn.html 85 Ibid 86 ‘Syria opposition urges army troops to join revolt,’ The Daily Star, 27 May 2011, available at: www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/May-27/Syria-opposition-urges-army-troops-to-join-revolt.ashx#ixzz1NYcchpxw ; see also Syrian Revolution Digest, 24 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/could-us-waste-another-historic.html 87 ‘Lebanon’s Hizbollah leader pledges support for Assad in Syria’, The National, 26 May 2011, available at www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/lebanons-hizbollah- leader-pledges-support-for-assad-in-syria 88 ‘Protests sweep Syria’s east, Nasrallah pictures burnt’, Jerusalem Post, 27 May 2011, available at www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=222502 89 ‘Syria opposition urges army troops to join revolt,’ The Daily Star, 27 May 2011 90 Ibid 91 Ibid. 92 ‘G8 to threaten Syria with UN Security Council action’, Ha’aretz, 27 May 2011, available at www.haaretz.com/news/mideast-in-turmoil/g8-to-threaten-syria-with-un-security- council-action-1.364260 93 ‘Syria: Bashar al-Assad “grants general amnesty”’, BBC, 31 May 2011, available at www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13607770 94 Katherine Zoepf, ‘Long Repressed in Syria, an Internal Opposition takes shape’ New York Times, April 27th 2011, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/world/ middleeast/28syria.html 95 Ibid. 96 Anthony Shadid, ‘Syrian Elite to Fight Protests to “the End”’, New York Times, 10 May 10 2011, available at www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/world/middleeast/11makhlouf. html?_r=2&hp 97 ‘Assad adopts Iranian terror tactics,The Times, 5 May 2011, available at www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article3008597.ece 98 ‘Syrian soldiers who defected to Lebanon are arrested’, Guardian, 16 May 2011, available at www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/16/syrian-soldiers-defected-lebanon- arrested 99 For example, ‘Syrian soldiers shot by fellow troops’, YouTube, uploaded 1 May 2011, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMtkFkTjaR8 100 ‘Syria: US sanctions target President Bashar al-Assad’,BBC News, 19 May 2011, available at www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-middle-east-13444179 101 Bassel Hammdan has been released but is keeping a low profile. 102 Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the Atomic Energy Agency and prospective Egyptian presidential candidate who became a figurehead of the opposition during the uprisings in Egypt 103 Statement from the President on the violence in Syria, 8 April 2011, available at www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/08/statement-president-violence-syria 104 ‘USPresses Nuclear Case against Damascus’, Wall Street Journal, 14 May 2011, available at online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704681904576321640560914206. html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5 105 ‘USFaces a Challenge in Trying to Punish Syria’, New York Times, 25 April 2011, available at www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/world/middleeast/26diplo.html 106 ‘Obama: Syria seeking Iran’s assistance to suppress protests’, Haaretz, 22 May 2011, available at www.haaretz.com/news/international/obama-syria-seeking-iran-s-assistance- to-suppress-protests-1.357687 107 Ibid. 108 ‘Interview with Lucia Annunziata of In Mezz’Ora’, U.S Department of State, Press Release, 6 May 2011, available at www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/05/162817.htm ‘US Faces a Challenge in Trying to Punish Syria’, New York Times, 25 April 2011, available at www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/world/middleeast/26diplo.html.

32 109 ‘Syria proclaims it now has the Upper hand over the uprising’, New York Times, 9 May 2011, available at www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/world/middleeast/10syria. html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp 110 Ibid 111 ‘USand EU say they plan new steps on Syria’, Reuters, 17 May 2011, available at uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/17/us-dl-syria-usa-idUKTRE74G6JI20110517 112 Ibid 113 Viewing cable 10DOHA70, ‘Senator Kerry’s Meeting with Qatar’s Emir’, available at www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2010/02/10DOHA70.html 114 ‘It’s Time to Talk to Syria’, Wall Street Journal, 5 June 2008, available at online.wsj.com/article/SB121262346490946859.html?mod=googlenews_wsj 115 ‘Pelosi brings message of peace to Assad’, Associated Press, 5 April 2007, available at www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-04-pelosi-syria_N.htm 116 ‘Syrian Elite to fight protests to “the End”’ New York Times, 10 May 2011, available at www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/world/middleeast/11makhlouf.html?_r=2&hp 117 ‘Deadly clashes on Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon’, Ynet, 15 May 2011, available at http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4068829,00.html 118 ‘Palestinian Border Protests: The Arab Spring Model for Confronting Israel’,Time , 16 May 2011, available at www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2071673,00.html 119 Syrian Revolution Digest, 15 May 2011, available at syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/2011/05/ghouls-of-war.html 120 ‘Syria and Iran: Some see the hand of Iran in Syria’s crackdown’, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2011, available at articles.latimes.com/2011/may/10/world/la-fg-syria- iran-20110511/2 121 ‘Syria’s Assad must step down, US’, Sky News, 20 May 2011, available at www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=615082&vId= 122 ‘Iran’s top torturer aiding Syrian regime in clampdown’, The Green Voice of Freedom, 2 May 2011, available at en.irangreenvoice.com/article/2011/may/02/3095 123 ‘Some see the hand of Iran in Syria’s crackdown’, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2011 124 Ibid 125 ‘Turkey Calls for Syrian Reforms on Order of ‘Shock Therapy’, New York Times, 25 May 2011, available at www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/world/europe/26turkey.html 126 Ibid 127 ‘Turkey PM calls Assad to press for reform’, Hurriyet, 27 May 2011, available at www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-pm-calls-assad-to-press-for-reform-2011-05-27 128 Syrian opposition meets in Turkey, Agence France-Presse, 31 May 2011, available at www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2011/May/middleeast_ May876.xml§ion=middleeast&col=

33