Ayoon Wa Azan (The Spark That Ignited the Crisis in Syria)

This month last year, the crisis erupted in Syria. President Bashar al-Assad could have contained it before March ended, but the series of mistakes that were made led to an uprising that is now entering its second year, and no one knows how or when it will end. Now, President Bashar al-Assad has accepted the peace plan proposed by the mediator, Kofi Annan. But what ultimately matters is its implementation. I am not claiming that I have a full picture of what happened a year ago, but I have ample information from sources that I trust. The spark in Tunisia was Mohammed Bouazizi’s self-immolation. In Syria, the spark was the arrest of young students in Daraa, but I want to recall two incidents that took place days before the arrest. On 15/3/2011, security forces assaulted the son of a merchant in Hariqa, one of Damascus’s suburbs, prompting the locals to demonstrate and chant: The Syrian people cannot be humiliated. At around the same time, Dr. Aisha al-Musalma was arrested in Daraa, after she called her friend in Egypt following the fall of Hosni Mubarak and congratulated her, saying: Hopefully it will happen here soon too. After the doctor was arrested, the dignitaries of Daraa went to the security services and managed to bring her back home. On the following day, young students wrote on the wall, in support of the doctor [Bashar Al Assad]: Down with the regime. They were subsequently arrested by the security services, along with some teachers and parents. The dignitaries of Daraa went to Atif Najeeb, head of the security branch in the town, and cousin of the President, and demanded the release of the detainees. I heard from many sources that he told them: Forget your children; or that he suggested that the people bring their women to the security services so that his men can breed for them other children. This took place, mind you, in a tribal town where honor comes above all else. The dignitaries gave the security services until Thursday to release the detainees, but this did not happen. On the following day, which was Friday 18/3, the blind Sheikh Ahmed al-Sayasnah, Imam of the Omari Mosque, gave a sermon that inflamed the worshippers’ sentiments, winning him the nickname of the ‘Sheikh of the Revolution’. Najib, along with the governor Faisal Kalthoum, then went to the mosque to calm the people but failed (they were sacked afterwards). The town was also visited by Major General Hisham Ikhtiar, head of National Security, and Osama Adi, the head of the Peasants Bureau. A young man then bore his chest to the security forces that surrounded the Omari Mosque, and challenged them to shoot him. While a security officer carrying a gun in front of him hesitated, a man in plain clothes took the gun from him and shot the young man dead. That day, Friday, four people were killed. Dr. Bashar al-Assad announced a package of reforms on the following Thursday, 24/3, which included immediate wage increases with a pledge to pass a law on political parties and the media, and to put an end to the land expropriation laws as well as security approval of land sales. The people of Daraa protested in the afternoon in support of these measures and chanted: We sacrifice our blood and souls for you Bashar. However, other protesters chanted against the regime at around 10 pm, and I heard they were Nasserists. At the same time, mediators went to Daraa (and also Douma and Daria) with the knowledge and approval of the regime, and met with the town dignitaries in the presence of Sheikh al-Sayasnah, and approved the people’s demands which included: - Naming the Daraa hospital after the martyr Ali Mahmoud (he was a doctor who was killed on his way to treat the wounded). - Reconciliation with the relatives of the martyrs. - Abolishing the emergency law. - Repealing the land expropriation law. - Prosecuting those responsible for the killings in the town. Before I continue tomorrow, I want to mention an incident that, if proven, would establish the regime’s claim, since day one, that there has been foreign meddling. Indeed, phone calls from abroad were made to people in Daraa and elsewhere, calling for the rejection of any mediation with the authorities and of any reforms offered by the government with promises of political and financial support. Today I will neither accept nor reject these accounts, but instead will wait for confirmation from new independent sources, different from the ones I confirmed, so that I can return to the readers with them. I continue tomorrow.