Demonstrators during the funeral of Jawad Al-Barouki in Suwayda (social networking sites)

Suwayda -

The tension and anticipation in Suwayda, south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, did not exceed one night following the fall of the first martyr in its current uprising, Jawad Al-Barouki (52 years old), last Wednesday, after a demonstration demanding the settlement of the conditions of those persecuted by the security and military forces.

The protesters, in the demonstration organized in front of the “Seventh of April” hall, which has been the headquarters of the “Settlements Committee” since 2022, demanded that the committee’s work be halted, chanting slogans calling for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad and the departure of the regime.

The last days of last February carried a high tone of escalation from the Suwayda movement, as its supervisors called, last Tuesday, for a general strike, to which broad political and popular activities responded, accompanied by storming the headquarters of the “Eastern Division of the Baath Party,” emptying it of its paper contents, and tearing up pictures. President of the Syrian regime and his father, Hafez al-Assad.

The same thing was repeated the following Friday morning with the headquarters of the “City Division of the Baath Party,” not far from the “Settlement Center,” but the center’s protection personnel confronted the demonstrators with bullets, resulting in one dead and one wounded.

Popular funeral

The funeral of the “martyr” Jawad Al-Barouki received a widespread popular, political and religious funeral in the presence of Sheikh Al-Aql Hamoud Al-Hanawi, who supports the Suwayda movement, and Youssef Jarbou, who is close to the Damascus regime.

Sheikh Aql of the Druze Unitarians, Hikmat Al-Hijri, had previously described the first martyrs of the Suwayda uprising as a “martyr of duty,” without attending the funeral ceremonies.

Despite the signs of caution and anticipation in the Druze street revolting against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, protesters arrived in large numbers to Karama Square in central Suwayda, after the burial ceremony ended, and chanted slogans condemning the head of the Syrian regime and describing him as a murderer after a long night had passed, accompanied by unknown gunmen targeting some security and military headquarters. With missiles, no casualties were reported.

For his part, Jamal Darwish, a member of the Political Body for National Action, told Al Jazeera Net that the Syrian regime, during the past seven months, tried to infiltrate the Suwayda movement using “soft power” due to its inability - for known reasons - to suppress the movement militarily.

He added that the regime was content with spreading disagreements between the political components of the movement on the one hand, and pushing people to propose separatist projects on the other hand, but those attempts did not bear any fruit after they were confronted by the movement’s successful administration.

In turn, Muhannad Shihab El-Din, a political activist, former detainee, and head of the “Hadaf” group, says that the regime, by sowing discord, tried to split the ranks of the Suwayda movement, using infiltrators and agents who acted in the interests of the regime, as he put it.

Shihab El-Din explained to Al-Jazeera Net that the regime sought to "promote treason as a commodity that harmed the Suwayda movement, and the disputes and side disputes associated with it that carried a lot of 'personalization', and it succeeded to some extent, without being victorious."

Explicit means

As for the visual artist Fadi Al-Halabi, a member of the political youth movement, he believes that the Syrian regime has not lost its oppression as some think, but rather international and regional circumstances do not help it today deal with the Suwayda uprising in the oppressive way it dealt with the rest of the Syrian governorates that revolted against it in 2011.

He told Al Jazeera Net that the regime aims to fragment the As-Suwayda movement from within in order to exhaust it, and this is what unofficial sources following the regime have stated more than once.

As for the head of the “We Are Al-Watan” group, Khaled Jammoul, he believes that re-presenting the demands of the Syrian street and implementing them in a sequential manner is closer to political realism and is more feasible, and then the regime may not find sufficient pretexts to confront the Suwayda movement.

He added to Al Jazeera Net, "The regime will not succeed in luring the Suwayda uprising to engage in counter-violence after one martyr was killed and another demonstrator was injured in front of the suspicious Security Settlements Center, as its methods have become exposed to the decision-making countries in the Syrian file."

It seems that ruling out the hypothesis that the Suwayda movement moved into a state of violence against the Syrian regime, after the fall of its first martyr, is finding more consensus about it. According to Fadi Al-Halabi, a member of the political youth movement, there is no possibility of luring the Suwayda movement into practicing violence, “but it is questioning the regime’s suspicious methods.” "It is possible."

He explains that the Syrian regime always has tools and methods that force people to be drawn into violence as a response, especially with the informal groups it possesses with different names, some of which are military, and others are social and religious.

Muhannad Shihab El-Din, an activist and former detainee, while participating in a protest in Suwayda (Al-Jazeera)

Cohesion and steadfastness

This is what Darwish also sees, and he tells Al Jazeera Net that the regime always seeks to provoke the demonstrators to drag them to its stadium, as happened recently when the martyr Al-Barouki fell in front of the Center for Security Settlements, but today the Suwayda movement has an identity that has achieved all this cohesion, steadfastness and continuity for it.

Muhannad Shihab El-Din, a political activist and former detainee, adds, naming some of the strengths of the Suwayda movement that caused its longevity. He told Al Jazeera Net, “The movement was able to establish a culture of rejection that was absent from the political space, and to create a culture of collective action, even if it was shy, but it is now present.” .

He continues, "Without forgetting the emergence of the professional association, which included previous activities such as the activity of agricultural and civil engineers and the activity of doctors and lawyers. It is a civil framework that came as an unprecedented case in gathering these civil components and placing them in a homogeneous political framework."

On Sunday, the third of March, the Suwayda movement will have completed its 200th day, without losing its momentum.

Source: Al Jazeera