“Finally the monster woke up”

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SMN No. 14, February 22, 2011

Reports of a spontaneous protest by hundreds of Syrians in the centre of Damascus have sparked the launch of new online initiatives for change and reform.

The Annidaa website reported that in the afternoon of February 17, more than 1,500 people gathered in the Harika area of in Damascus to protest at the beating of a young man by traffic police.

Protesters shouted slogans including, “Syrian people can’t be humiliated” and “thieves, thieves,” in reference to the police apparatus in Syria.

The demonstration led to the minister of interior, Saed Samour, promising to investigate the incident and to punish those responsible for the beating.

Some hours after the incident, a five-minute video of the protest was published on YouTube and subsequently viewed more than 22,000 times in less than 24 hours. Dozens of comments were posted on the YouTube website supporting the protest.

“Finally the monster woke up,” read one post. “This is a civilized brave protest,” “it seems that our people start to learn how to ask for their legal rights,” read others.

The event surprised many Syrians, especially after the failure of a “day of rage” recently called for by the opposition in exile.

The movement “Enough silence” wrote on its website, “Without an appointed time, far from the big slogans and unaffected by the despair and the words of the desperate that we are ‘different’ – with all the negativities of frustration and the loss of confidence for the individual and society this ‘difference’ bears – Syrians took to the streets to declare, ‘We refuse to be humiliated and disgraced.’

“This happened without the advocates for ‘days of rage,’ without opposition movements, loyalists or television screens,” the article continued.” It happened as it usually does, with the awakening of a people who refuse to continue years of humiliation, and it proves that a sense of dignity and freedom can be suppressed, but it can never be taken away. We salute the Syrian people for their suffering and resistance to the silencing of their voices and the edge of the winds of change, blowing across the region.”

Subsequently, a Facebook page entitled “Youth Movement Syria” was created, attracting dozens of members. Its creators identified themselves as young Syrians fighting for freedom, justice and social equality, and identified a number of demands, such as the release of political prisoners and the abolition of martial law.

They said they wanted to encourage further political involvement and the formation of committees across the country to organise cultural, social, political and economic movements, paving the way to a national conference, a new constitution and the holding of free and fair legislative elections.

Another page entitled “The Syrian people can’t be humiliated” also attracted dozens of members. “It is clear that there is a great injustice occurring to the people, and it’s their right to lift up that injustice, and to ask those responsible for the injustice to stop or to leave their positions,” read the founding statement. “At the same time this does not absolve people of responsibility, even if minimal, which is to talk about the mistakes and raise the alarm because the silence means participation and acceptance of mistakes and injustice and crime.”

A number of Syrians also launched an online petition on behalf addressed to the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, asking him to work on improving their living situation, the fight against corruption and to launch greater public freedoms.