HUNDREDS OF thousands of Syrians took to the streets in Damascus, Hama, Homs and Aleppo to demonstrate their support for President Bashar al-Assad, who is struggling to contain protests against the autocratic rule of the Baath Party.
Men, women and children filled the capital’s central square chanting, “We want Assad!”
Dr Assad, who is seen as a reformer, remains personally popular, although the regime he heads does not.
As a first of many promised steps, he met popular demands for change by accepting the resignation of the cabinet. Syrians expect he will announce the lifting or suspension of the emergency law, imposed in 1963, an opening to political parties, an anti-corruption drive or an end to media censorship in an address to parliament he is due to deliver today.
Children were given a holiday from school and civil servants a two-hour break to attend the government-approved rallies, dubbed the “loyalty to the nation march”.
Christian prelates in caftans with red piping, Muslim clerics in distinctive white turbans and Druze sheikhs attended the demonstration in Damascus in support of Syria’s secular system.
Syria’s patchwork of 18 confessional communities fears a slide towards sectarianism could ignite communal conflict. One of the prominent slogans displayed in the square in front of the central bank was, “No to sectarianism and no to civil strife.”
Syria is no stranger to unrest and violence. In the early 1960s, the country faced repeated coups that shook the confidence of the people.
Syria sits next to Lebanon, which suffered a bloody civil war from 1975-90 and endured repeated Israeli invasions and bombardments.
During the early 1980s Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood mounted a terrorist campaign with the aim of ousting the Baath regime. Hundreds of civilians were killed and wounded before Dr Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, who had taken power in 1970, cracked down on brotherhood strongholds in Hama and the north, killing between 15,000 and 30,000 people. Many Syrians are still traumatised by both the brotherhood campaign and the regime’s harsh response.
Six weeks ago Dr Assad expressed the view that Syria was immune to the uprisings taking place across the Arab world because the regime was in touch with the people.
Syrians also make the point that Damascus is independent of the West, regarded by most Arabs as Israel’s sponsor, and retains popularity by supporting the Palestinian cause.
Nevertheless, on March 18th, protests erupted in the south-eastern town of Deraa after 15 teenagers were arrested for spray-painting regime-change slogans on walls.
Since then at least 61 people have died in unprecedented demonstrations that have spread to many towns and cities.
