Global IssuesWar Makes for Strange Bedfellows
A soldier and an Islamist - both fleeing the crackdown on Syrian pro-democracy protesters and seeking refuge in neighbouring Lebanon - have discovered that they share similar views on the ongoing uprising.
'Our different backgrounds have faded away here in Lebanon. Islamists and soldiers, whatever their faith, everyone from both ends of the spectrum, share similar views of the recent Syrian events,' explains one of the men, Sheikh Abdel Rahman.
Since the Baath regime came to power in the 1950s, Syria has been a traditionally secular country, using its military forces to suppress any Islamic threats. In 1982, for example, then president Hafez al-Assad launched a violent onslaught on Hama, where the Muslim Brotherhood had instigated an insurgency against the government. An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 people were killed by the military.
The use of army and intelligence services to suppress dissent has not changed under the rule of president Bashar al-Assad, who took over from his father, Hafez, after his death in 2000.
Since pro-democracy rallies broke out last March, a sprawling wave of violence has met protesters, resulting in over 1,400 deaths and over 5,000 arrests. The regime has attributed some of the unrest on radical Islamic factions.
Sitting across from Rahman in a small room overlooking the green fields separating Syria from Lebanon is Omar, a Syrian soldier who used to work in the media office of the Syrian army in Homs. 'The system is based on the principle of loyalty to the regime; people’s credentials or level of professionalism are unimportant. It boils down to their allegiance,' Omar told IPS, preferring not to use his full name.
This structure of cronyism has contributed to a growing feeling of mistrust among officers. 'Most soldiers are unhappy with the regime’s excessive reliance on violence, but they are too afraid to denounce it. It’s one soldier against the other, the informant always having the upper hand,' Omar explained.
A similar scenario is unfolding in other areas, such as Tell Kalakh, where neighbours are pitted against one another. The city, which lies some 30 kilometres away from Homs, boasts a population of some 30,000, including a Sunni community as well as an Alawite community - the same religious group to which the Syrian Assad regime belongs.
During the month of May, the region was the scene of a violent crackdown of pro-democracy protests. The Syrian news agency, ‘SANA’, however, blamed the unrest on Lebanese armed gangs that destroyed public and private property and 'killed, plundered and terrorised people'.
'Recent protests have only exacerbated tensions between the two communities, which are already high, especially since the arrest of a few hundred of our men last year for trafficking. The arrests focused on the Sunni community in spite of the fact that illegal smuggling is one of the main activities of all the region’s residents, whether Sunni or Alawite,' said Rahman, who added that the alleged participation of Alawites in the recent repression has further aggravated the situation.
The wave of violence has led Omar to doubt the military - which he joined 20 years ago. 'I started thinking that all I had been taught was a web of lies. The unrest was blamed on Islamist groups and foreign armed gangs, when on the ground I knew it was the work of our military forces,' he told IPS.
Such testimonials are very difficult to verify independently due to the media ban enforced in Syria.
The pathways of both the Islamist and the soldier seem to have crossed in Tell Kalakh. Omar acknowledges an informal network within the Syrian army facilitated his escape from Syria before an Islamic NGO picked him up in Lebanon.
Here, in a little Lebanese village by the Syrian border, the two men discuss the blindness and brutality of the system in place.
'If a soldier gets called up to the intelligence headquarters in Damascus, he knows he is finished,' says Omar. 'Nowadays, it does not take much to put one’s loyalty in doubt.'
Rahman’s experience was similar. Accused of fomenting sectarian strife, he was imprisoned last year for nine months before his release in March. He claims he was tortured during much of that period before he was set free when his culpability could not be established. 'The interrogator who was handling my case apologised to me, saying that torture was ‘routine procedure’,' Rahman said.
He went on to describe other humiliations - he was beaten for hours on one occasion for washing using toilet water before praying, which is strictly forbidden in the prison.
Omar wonders how Western countries - which traditionally fear Islamist movements - expect events in Syria to unfold considering the violent and demeaning situation the people face every day. 'Do they believe that the Syrian people will sit and silently witness the slaughter?' he asks. 'Soon enough we will all call for Jihad.'
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service