Protests erupt across Syria in support of Deraa dead

Protests have spread across Syria in solidarity with the people of southern city Deraa, where a violent crackdown on anti-government protests left at least 25 people – and possibly as many as 100 – dead in recent days.

But the solidarity protests have led to more fatalities – with reports of between 20 and 100 people killed on Friday.

Syrian security forces reportedly opened fire on the protesters in the town of Sanamein, killing 20 people.

“There are more than 20 martyrs…they (security forces) opened fire haphazardly,” a witness told Al Jazeera.

Hundreds were also demonstrating in the centre of the Syrian capital Damascus, but the protest was broken up by security forces who arrested dozens of people. Damascus also saw counter demonstrations from supporters of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad. Reports suggested up to three demonstrators had been killed by security forces in the Damascus suburb of Mauadamieh, and the district had been sealed off.

As the violence intensified, the international community stepped forward to condemn the crackdown.

The UK’s Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, said: “I call on the Syrian government to respect the people’s right to peaceful protest and to address their legitimate grievances. I call for restraint on all sides but in particular from the Syrian security forces. Violence is never the right answer to these situations.”

US White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “We strongly condemn the Syrian Government’s attempts to repress and intimidate demonstrators.”

A leading Syrian opposition figure called on the world to intervene to “stop the massacres”, Reuters reported.

Deraa

In Deraa itself, thousands marched behind the coffins of dead protesters, chanting for freedom. They set fire to a statue of the former President Hafez al-Assad – father of Bashar – but were forced to flee when gunfire sounded across the city and tear gas was released.

The situation is potentially quite explosive in the sense that people do not have the opportunity to voice their political views except by violently challenging the regime. Middle East expert Dr Frederic Volpi

Among the targets of the crowd’s anger on Friday was Maher al-Assad, a brother of the President and head of the Republican Guard, a special security force, and Rami Makhlouf, a cousin who runs big businesses and is accused by the United States of corruption.

Protests also spread, for the first time, to other Syrian cities in support of Deraa – including in a town near Damascus called Tel as well as in Hama, a city in which the late President Hafez al-Assad sent in troops to quell a 1982 armed revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing many thousands.

A Facebook page called Syrian Revolution called on people to gather on the “Friday of Dignity” after prayers, “in all mosques, in all provinces, in the biggest squares”.

Middle East expert Dr Frederic Volpi, a senior lecturer at the University of St Andrew’s School of International Relations, told Channel 4 News the situation was “quite explosive”.

'Bloody week' 
"There are still likely to be protests in Deraa as this bloody week draws to a close. But the real test will be whether those demonstrations spread throughout Syria. If they do, then the military will be arguing that their hardline approach was right all along," a British-Arab journalist, formerly based in Syria, writes for Channel 4 News. 

Read more on Syria: the battle between reform and repression 

He said: “The Syrian regime is one of the more tightly controlled regimes in the region. The Assad family has been in charge for many decades and does not show any signs of opening up the regime, which makes the situation potentially quite explosive in the sense that people do not have the opportunity to voice their political views except by violently challenging the regime.”

Restraint

The United Nations’ human rights office has urged Syria to investigate the deadly police response to the protests in Deraa.

A spokesman said: “We will be watching with some nervousness what will go on in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.”

Dr Volpi said it was possible that President Assad was still formulating a response to the unprecedented revolts.

“Up until now, the regime has been quite ruthless in suppressing opposition,” he told Channel 4 News.

“During the former President’s regime, it did not hesitate to use the military to violently oppress popular uprisings in various towns in the early 80s. Bashar has not yet faced large-scale uprising, so up until now he has been able to suppress dissent before it gained momentum. What we are witnessing now is the beginning of momentum of popular protest, and it is still unclear how the regime will react in the long-term if the protests keep happening.

“It seems that for now he has chosen a mixed course of promising reform – although that talk could just be for the media – but harshly suppressing the demonstrations. Or it may be that the regime is still considering its options and there may be divisions in the regime over whether to offer political openings and calm down the protesters, or repress the demonstrations.”

Whatever happens, he said fears that the country could fall into the hands of extremists if the President falls were unfounded.

“This is the usual line used by the authoritarian regime – if they leave there will be chaos,” he said. “There are some radical Islamist movements in Syria as there are across the region but they are not particularly significant.”

The protests are part of a wave of uprisings which have spread across the Arab world, after revolts in Tunisia and Egypt overthrew entrenched leaders.

However, the so-called Arab Spring has been quelled in countries including Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, leading to violence and bloodshed – and, in Libya, intervention from the west.

Dr Volpi said it was too early to say which trajectory Syria could follow – but stressed it was unlikely to be like Tunisia because “the military in Syria has been known and is likely to use its hardware if the regime decides that it wants to repress its population.”

Control

In Syria, the Baath Party has been in control for more than 50 years. The current President, Bashar al-Assad, took over from his father 11 years ago.

Deraa is the stronghold of the Sunni majority, which resents the power and wealth amassed by the Alawite Muslim elite around the President and his family.

The unprecedented protests have raised hopes for change – but the regime has dealt with them fiercely. Unrest in Deraa came to a head this week after police detained more than a dozen schoolchildren for writing graffiti against the Government.

However, the President has also made major concessions to the protesters, in the hope of avoiding the fate of the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt.

On Thursday, his adviser Bouthaina Shaaban told a news conference the President had not ordered the army to fire on protesters, and promised a series of reforms including laws for more media freedom, allowing other political movements, and attempts to lift living standards. They also reportedly released political prisoners.

Read more in the Channel 4 News Special Report on the Arab revolts 

Middle East

President Assad’s Syria is allied with Shi’ite, non-Arab Iran against the West, and against Israel, at the heart of the Middle East‘s complex political web.

France was its colonial ruler between the two world wars. The international community has condemned its handling of the protests, with the US branding it “brutal”.

The International Crisis Group think-tank said: “For now, this remains a geographically isolated tragedy. But it also constitutes an ominous precedent with widespread popular resonance that could soon be repeated elsewhere.”