Syria Proclaims It Now Has Upper Hand Over Uprising
Published: May 9, 2011
DAMASCUS, Syria — The Syrian government has gained the upper hand over a seven-week uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, a senior official declared Monday, in the clearest sign yet that the leadership believes its crackdown will crush protests that have begun to falter in the face of hundreds of deaths and mass arrests.
The remarks by Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Mr. Assad who often serves as an official spokeswoman, suggested that a government accustomed to adapting in the face of crises was prepared to weather international condemnation and sanctions. Her confidence came in stark contrast to appearances just two weeks ago, when the government seemed to stagger before the breadth and resilience of protests in dozens of towns and cities.
“I hope we are witnessing the end of the story,” she said in an hourlong interview, for which a reporter was allowed in Syria for only a few hours. “I think now we’ve passed the most dangerous moment. I hope so, I think so.”
Her comments were a rare window on the thinking of a government that has barred most foreign journalists from Syria since the start of the uprising, which has threatened 40 years of rule by the Assad family. While much of the world has viewed the unrest as a popular demand for sweeping change in one of the region’s most authoritarian countries, Ms. Shaaban cast it as an armed uprising, a characterization the government has relied on to justify a ferocious crackdown.
That crackdown intensified Monday on the outskirts of Damascus, and in three other towns and cities across the country, with security forces raiding hundreds of houses and arresting men between the ages of 18 and 45, human rights groups and activists said. The military has deployed tanks in Baniyas, on the Mediterranean coast; Homs in central Syria, near the Lebanese border; and Tafas, in a restive region in the south, they said.
Baniyas has emerged as a focus of the crackdown. Amnesty International said Monday that more than 350 people, including 48 women and a 10-year-old child, were arrested there over the previous three days, with scores detained in a soccer field. More raids were carried out in Homs, a city that has proved among the most restive. At least nine soldiers were said to have defected there, though the reports could not be confirmed.
“They want to finish everything this week,” a human rights advocate in the city, Syria’s third largest, said by telephone. “No one in the regime has a clear policy. They cannot keep this strategy for a long time. We need political solutions, not more tanks.”
The tumult in parts of the country that have long been neglected by a government short of cash and beholden to unaccountable security forces contrasted with the scenes Monday in Damascus. There were few signs in the capital of a military buildup, except a few extra guards at some embassies and government buildings. Posters echoed the government’s contention that the uprising threatened Syria’s fragile mosaic of a Sunni Muslim majority and minorities of Christians, Kurds and heterodox Muslim sects, a theme often repeated by officials seeking to rally popular support for the broadening crackdown.
“No to discord,” one poster proclaimed. “Freedom doesn’t begin with ignorance, it begins with awareness,” another read.
Amnesty International said it had documented the names of 580 people killed since the uprising began in mid-March. Ms. Shaaban said nearly 100 soldiers and members of security forces were also killed by armed militants, whom she accused of manipulating “the legitimate demands of the people.” While administration officials in the United States and even some activists have acknowledged that some protesters have resorted to arms, they call them a minority.
Ms. Shaaban said, “We think these people are a combination of fundamentalists, extremists, smugglers, people who are ex-convicts and are being used to make trouble.”
She added later, “You can’t be very nice to people who are leading an armed rebellion, in a sense,” while acknowledging they were not the only factor in the tumult. In a sign that the government remained uncertain over the nature of the uprising, she declined to specify who was behind them, saying only that officials were still investigating.
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