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Protests hit Druze city in Syria for fifth day

August 24, 2023 at 7:29 pm

Displaced civilians and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) gather to protest against the blocking of humanitarian aid sent by the United Nations (UN) due to Russia’s veto at Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing in Idlib, Syria on August 2, 2023 [İzettin Kasım – Anadolu Agency]

Hundreds of Syrians in the mainly Druze city of Sweida took to the streets for a fifth consecutive day on Thursday, protesting at worsening economic conditions and demanding the departure of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, Reuters reports.

Residents converged to a main square of the south-western city in protests sparked last week by sudden steep gasoline price hikes, witnesses and civic activists said.

Prominent formerly pro-government Druze religious leaders met on Thursday for the first time since the protests erupted, acknowledging the right to protest peacefully against government policies, but refrained from endorsing the widespread calls for Assad to step down.

“These protests are the righteous voice of the Syrian people,” Sheikh Hikmat Hajri, the spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community, told followers. But he spoke against vandalism or the acts of violence seen last week, when youths burnt tyres and blocked access to the city.

Protesters, who on Wednesday burnt a huge poster of Assad that hung in the main square, chanted “Go, go, Assad. We want to eat.” Same chants could be heard at the start of pro-democracy protests in 2011 that were violently crushed by security forces and sparked a violent, an over-decade long conflict.

READ: Syria slashes gasoline subsidy, boosts public-sector salaries

Security sources said the authorities in Damascus have been careful to avoid any escalation in Sweida.

The city has remained in government hands during the conflict and its Druze minority has long resisted being drawn into a civil war that pits mainly rebels drawn from Syria’s majority Sunni population against Assad’s rule.

Syria is in the throes of a deep economic crisis that saw its currency collapse, leading to soaring prices for food and basic supplies and which Assad’s government blames on Western sanctions.

Protests in Sweida fuel officials’ concern they could spread to the Mediterranean coastal areas, strongholds of Assad’s minority Alawite sect and where there have been recently rare calls by activists for a strike, security sources and diplomats said.

State media did not mention the protests but pro-government commentators have blamed foreign powers for fuelling the unrest and warned of wider chaos if they persist.

“If the regime declares war on the province, we will get into a cycle of bloodshed that we were spared that opens the door for all possibilities,” said Ryan Marouf, a civic activist and editor of the local Suwayda 24 news website, told Reuters.

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