Der'a Updates - 20/03/11

The large demonstrations in Der'a continued today, with the Syrian government employing both stick (tear gas and live ammunitition, killing at least 1 protester today) and carrot (promising talks, offering to release the arrested schoolchildren). However, these measures were not enough to conciliate the people of Der'a. Instead, they destroyed several symbolic buildings within the city - the local Ba'ath Party HQ and the offices of Syriatel, the mobile phone company owned by Rami Makhlouf. Makhlouf, President Bashar al-Assad's cousin, is the richest man in Syria and is widely loathed because he is seen to epitomise the country's corruption.

This video shows the funeral of one of the martyrs of town.



And this shows crowds of protesters having tear gas fired at them.



Now that the situation in Der'a has escalated to the point of revolt against the Ba'thist regime there is a possibility that protests will spread throughout the Hauran region of southern Syria. The Hauran is an area of large tightly-knit families and it seems very possible other families will align with Der'a. There are already reports of large demonstrations in the nearby town of Da'il. The Hauran has a long history of rebellion, and an important place in Syrian national identity.  It was the place where the Great Syrian Revolt against French colonial rule began.

There were also protests in the north-east, in Qamishli. This can in part be explained by the fact that tomorrow is Nowruz, the Kurdish New Year. Syria has a Kurdish community of about 2 million (10% population), most of whom come from the north and north-east of the country and they are pretty much second-class citizens. Their language is officially banned, their nationalist parties are criminalised and they often suffer descrinimation. Several hundred thousand Kurds have even been deprived of Syrian citizenship. Nowruz provides an annual opportunity for them to assert their distinctive Kurdish identity. It is traditionally a time of clashes between young Kurdish nationalists and Syrian security officials.