Syria, where everything is normal, according to Johnson.

On 25th November last year, a British foreign correspondent called Johnson Miller was taken, under armed secret police escort, to the southern Syrian city of Dera’a.  He was accompanied by four Syrian government minders – and a driver (who was a secret policeman too). 

“Johnson” turned out to be me.

It was the name by which the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted me as saying that everything in Dera’a was “quite normal.”   (That’s one of my  minders, Monzer, by the way, sitting on my left in the photograph.)

Johnson’s “situation normal” quotation confused me as it was very clear to his alter ego, the foreign correspondent Jonathan Miller, that things in Dera’a were far from normal (as, I hope, was clear from the TV report we filed).

So surprising was my “situation normal” pronouncement that it prompted the Foreign Editor of Britain’s own state broadcaster, to tweet:  “Oh dear. Suspect C4N can do without official Syrian endorsement.”

Oh dear, indeed.  But since my visit, I’ve realised that the Syrian regime is so keen to convey to the world that “life is normal” in Dera’a that every hapless correspondent who bowls up there is asked by the local SANA reporter whether, in their opinion, um, life is normal.

Have a look:  It’s unbelievable! 

(And, by the way, I would just like to state to the minders and their masters in the Syrian regime:  THIS BEHAVIOUR IS DEFINITELY NOT NORMAL!) 

“Normal life in Daraa belies reports of misleading media” – SANA, 14 Dec 2011

“Life in Dara Normal, Reports of Biased Channels Contradict Reality” – SANA, 01 Jan 2012

“Spanish, Japanese and Italien Media Delegain Stress Normal Life in Daraa”– SANA, 11 Jan 2012

The reason they’re so keen to report that life is normal is that Dera’a has been chronically unstable ever since it emerged as the cradle of the Syrian revolution in March last year. 

For weeks on end, its people were besieged by government tanks. Many of those who dared to openly defy the regime were shot dead in the streets by snipers.  Hundreds are thought to have been killed; thousands have been imprisoned.

On Johnson Miller’s trip to Dara’a, he and his crew were taken, like every visiting journalist since then, on a tour of charred and bullet-riddled buildings, attacked, we were told, by “armed terrorist gangs.” 

This struck me as not particularly “normal” either.

The minders told Johnson that Dera’a was best known for its tomatoes. They  pointed out that markets were open, that there was traffic on the streets and that the happy, shiny people of Dera’a were free to talk to me as they please.

But Jonathan noticed that people he tried to talk to were either told what to say or didn’t have much choice, thanks to the malignant presence of the minders and a clutch of leather-jacketed secret-policemen.  We heard a burst of gunfire.  “Fireworks,” we were told.
 
Our tour ended as it had begun, with a visit to the Governor, who told me that “life in Dera’a was normal.”  It was at that point that I was approached by the SANA journalist and Dara’a paparazzi, cameras flashing.

“Well, it would appear to be normal,” I ventured. “But it is clear that there is still a security problem here. We visited the police station and court house which was attacked just four days ago.”

Turns out they weren’t much interested in the second bit and took what they wanted from the first.  Look, there’s nothing worse than listening to a journalist banging on about having been misquoted.  But, for the record, Johnson Miller was. 

Among the most recent journalistic visitors to Dera’a were the BBC – in the form of its Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen.  He produced a revelatory television report demonstrating the bravery of Dera’a residents.

The BBC’s visit to Dara’a is also reported on SANA under the headline: “Press Delegation Visiting Daraa:  ‘Situation Normal’ – predictably enough.

It’s not clear whether Jeremy himself was asked the fateful question – but I like to think his Foreign Editor might have warned him.