Syrian Revolution News Round-up

Coming together in the face of all odds!
For long people have been asking about the alternative, now the activists are fielding one.

We are now getting our act together as dissidents, activists and opposition members living inside and outside the country in order to field a recognizable alternative which the world can now engage. Decision-making will remain a collaborative process involving all members, and support networks abroad will soon be established.

Meanwhile, and on the ground, the situation in Deraa remains murky and tragic. Communications have been sporadic. But the few we had paint a serious humanitarian situation. Communications lines are down, basic services severed, food and water rations and medical supplies are running low, and gunfire and the echoes of artillery shells continue to reverberate through the street of this small city. House to house searches were conducted in certain neighborhoods, and dozens of arrests were made. Some were shot on the spot by some eyewitness reports. Even doctors and patients at the National Hospital were put under arrest.

Despite all this, more and more people are taking to the streets and mingling with tanks, trying to prevail upon more army troops to join and protect them. The size of the mutiny is not yet known, too many conflicting keep pouring in. But one thing is clear: the situation warranted the addition of thirty more tanks sent earlier this morning from Damascus – too much for a mere show of force, or to combat an armed gang.

Elsewhere, gunfire by security forces against unarmed protesters in Hawleh Town in Homs left many dead. A similar development took place in Tal Kalakh. But the protests in Homs’ Khaldiyyeh suburb went without incident, and so did the daily protests in Banyas City, the Damascene suburbs of Tal, Saqba and Qara among many others, and the towns of Jassem and Ankhel in Deraa Province.

The failure by the Security Council to come with a resolution was disappointing, but expected. We can all count on the Assads’ impunity to have the matter revisited soon however. Because we will not give up in our struggle for freedom, and they can never curtail for long their murderous appetites. Meanwhile, we renew our call for effective and comprehensive targeted sanctions, travel bans and assets freeze of all key members in the Assad regime.