Syria: the tanks roll in and life goes on

RNW, 5 August 2011, By Jannie Schipper    

        

(Photo: ANP)

Tanks are firing on Hama. Scores of demonstrators are taking to the streets. Thousands of refugees are heading for the border with Turkey. One glance at the daily news will tell you that all of Syria is in an uproar. Yet in the capital Damascus, people are out buying groceries, the buses are running as usual and the police barely give your passport a second look. A Dutchman in Syria gives his perspective.

“There’s one big difference compared to before the uprising,” says Johan Akersloot*. “There used to be an awkward silence if you were talking to a group of Syrians and you mentioned the state of the country. Now they are beginning to talk, albeit cautiously, about domestic politics.” Johan sees a clear division between two camps: the people who support the regime and those who want to see it disappear as quickly as possible.

Senior Syrian human rights activist speaks out

• The elderly lawyer Haytham al-Maleh, Syrian’s best-known human rights activist, spent many years in prison during the Assad regime. Now he’s free again, he’s visiting the Netherlands.
  
  RNW’s Arabic department spoke with him:
  
  “We expect European countries to put more pressure on the criminal Assad regime. The assets of the leaders of the Assad regime should be frozen and they should no longer be allowed to travel. European countries should call their ambassadors back from Syria and expel Syrian diplomats. The Security Council should come with a resolution, making it possible for the leaders of the Assad regime to be prosecuted by the ICC.”
  
  His views on the nearby future of Syria: “There are signs of a split in the army. That would be the final blow for the Syrian regime.”
  
  And on the sectarian violence and civil war some are afraid of: “We don’t have any sectarian problems. The Syrian people have proved with the revolution that it operates as one. Listen to the demonstrators’ slogans: ‘The Syrian people are one, one!’ Most of the Alawis [the religious minority to which the Assad family belong] are poor and don’t have any interest in supporting this regime. They are on our side and will contribute to the downfall of this regime.”

“I reckon the balance is around 50-50. It also depends on where people come from, their ethnic background. For instance, Christians are more likely to be for the regime than Palestinians. But both sides are unanimous in wanting change. It’s the way things should change that prompts serious differences of opinion.”

The real thing

Johan Akersloot has seen Syria take small steps in the right direction over the years. “You could say Syria has actually experienced a major revolution since Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father.” The new leader committed himself to a programme of economic development.

Seven years ago, everyone was driving around in Eastern European cars: Ladas and Skodas. International brands and ATMs were nowhere to be seen. “Even getting hold of a can of coke – the real thing – was an adventure,” Johan recalls. “It was smuggled in from Lebanon and sold under the counter.” But not everyone benefitted equally from the economic progress, and political and social developments lagged behind.

In Johan’s view, the violence perpetrated by the regime has given birth to two Syrias. “Cities like Damascus and Aleppo – where life is pretty much continuing as normal – and the scenes of the violent uprising.” In Damascus people are getting up late, because it is Ramadan. They go out, do their shopping and stay up late.

Catching the bus

Tourists and foreign students have largely disappeared from the streets since Western embassies advised them to leave the country. In some districts, police checks have been stepped up. But Johan can still walk freely through the city or catch the bus to other towns such as Homs, Hama or Deir az-Zur.

It’s not only the outside world that is having trouble gauging the nature and the scale of current events in Syria. Even Syrians themselves don’t know the full story.

“I spoke to someone recently who said: the media are all liars. The international media says one thing and the regime says another. We citizens haven’t the faintest idea what’s really going on. It could all amount to nothing, as the government claims, because you can often see how few checkpoints there are on certain bus routes. But things could also be just as bad as the international media suggest.”

Social media

Syrians have access to satellite television channels such as Al-Jazeera and BBC Arabic. “People piece together the news from various sources and mix in what they hear from people who come from the area,” Johan thinks.

The role played by social media is more limited than the West would like to believe. “There’s a small group of grateful users, but without Twitter and Facebook the situation would be exactly the same.” People even have trouble explaining events they have witnessed with their own eyes. Johan recalls “One day after evening prayers, a group of men suddenly began to shoot wildly in all directions. Who were they? There has been all kinds of speculation, but no one really knows.”

Hug

For Johan, Syria is still the country where the taxi driver will wait patiently for you if you forget your bag and where friendship transcends religious and ethnic boundaries. But the Dutchman looks to the future with trepidation.

“By nature, Syrians are not inclined to pick a fight. In the bath house recently, I heard two guys talking politics. One of them said ‘Well, you would say that, you’re an Alawite.’ And the other said: ‘Yes, that’s true’. And then they gave each other a friendly hug. I really hope that people can hold onto that frame of mind. But when there’s violence, like the government is inflicting on the big cities, it could easily go the other way.”

* Johan Akersloot is a pseudonym used to protect the identity of the interviewee.

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