Global IssuesSyria Promises Reform as U.N. Condemns Crackdown
Protesters braved live ammunition from security forces Monday in the southern Syrian city of Dara'a, where rights groups say more than 60 people have been killed since pro-democracy activists took to the streets to demand greater freedoms from the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an investigation into the recent crackdown in Dara'a. Last week, Syrian authorities reportedly used tear gas and live ammunition on protesters who gathered in response to the government's arrest of children earlier this month for spraying anti-government graffiti.
'The secretary-general reiterates his call on the Syrian authorities to refrain from violence and to abide by their international commitments regarding human rights, including the right to peaceful assembly,' Martin Nesirky, Ban's spokesperson, told reporters Wednesday.
Since then, the situation has worsened considerably, said the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as the protests spread across the country and the violence and killings persist.
On Friday morning, Ban spoke with Assad and emphasised that the government had a responsibility to respect Syrian citizens' fundamental rights and that protesters had been expressing their aspirations peacefully.
The U.N.'s response to events in Syria has kept in line with rhetoric on Yemen and Bahrain, among other Middle Eastern countries, and the secretary-general's reminders that governments should act in accordance with international humanitarian law and address their peoples' needs through political dialogue and reform.
Philip Luther, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, called the Syrian government's crackdown 'appalling and brutal'. He said that Amnesty was 'deeply disturbed by reports' of killings in Dara'a.
Human Rights Watch declared, 'Syria's security forces should immediately stop using live ammunition against protesters.' It also called for the government to immediately release those who had been detained for peaceful protesting.
Growing unrest met with empty promises
Protests and demonstrations have spread to other cities in Syria, including Damascus, Hama, and Aleppo, with reports of security forces shooting protesters and killing some in Sanamein and Damascus. Protesters' demands include an end to corruption, release of political prisoners, and lifting of the emergency law.
In an acknowledgement of these grievances, Buthaina Shaaban, a government spokeperson, said Thursday that the Syrian government would consider lifting the emergency law, in place since 1963, and pledged to investigate the violence.
Other gestures included promises to increase salaries and decrease taxes. Yet according to the BBC, she blamed the protests on foreign elements and denied that the Syrian government had ordered security forces to fire on protesters.
Many experts question the validity of promises for reform.
'A lot of these things were just rhetorical promises with nothing very concrete,' Nadim Houry, Syria researcher for Human Rights Watch, said of the government's pledges.
'Whether the government reforms or promises of reform will be enough to quench the thirst of the protesters for freedom… remains to be seen,' Houry told IPS in an interview.
Syrians too doubt the validity of these promises, according to Houry, who spoke with two Syrian activists on Friday.
'Their views were, 'Look, we've heard these promises since 2005 and nothing has materialised yet so we don't really trust the government to do them,'' Houry explained.
One of the reasons so many Syrians are demonstrating is that many of them 'are sceptical that these reforms will be acted upon,' he added.
Now that the protests have turned violent, the belief that blood cannot be spilled in vain has heightened Syrians' demands for tangible action. Their reactions to the government's pledges, Houry said, are simply, 'Well, you're saying this but you're actually killing us at the same time… How can we trust you if you turn your guns on your own people?'
Amnesty International also expressed doubt about the validity of the pledges, citing Syria's historical lack of tolerance for dissent and the fact that the government has made similar statements before, to no avail.
Richard Bulliet, aprofessor of Middle Eastern History at Columbia University, agreed that the government's promises are 'conciliatory gestures' that are 'losing their effectiveness'.
A history of violence and repression
The Syrian government is notorious for quelling dissent whether through political repression or brute force. For example, the current emergency law allows for arrests without warrants and imprisonment without trial, and forbids gatherings.
The most infamous crackdown in Syrian history took place at Hama in 1982, when the army used brute force to put down an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood. Casualty estimates numbered in the tens of thousands.
Despite the lingering memory of the massacre at Hama, however, both Bulliet and Houry doubt that the government response now could escalate to the same level.
Houry pointed out that the 1980s in Syria were 'a different era' and that the circumstances of the events at Hama were completely different from current demonstrations.
In an email to IPS, Bulliet acknowledged, 'The movement in Syria is coming quite late in the game,' perhaps because 'Syrians have a greater fear of a brutal crackdown than other Arabs.'
But he did not think that history would necessarily repeat itself. 'Now that there has been U.S.-NATO-Arab League intervention to protect the slaughter of civilians,' he stated, 'I think the Syrians would think twice before replaying the Hama script.'
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service