Human rights sources are
reporting to SwissInfo that no less than 126 people have died Friday in Syria, mainly in Damascus and Aleppo. No mention of the conditions in Latakia.
Of the dead reported, apparently 10 are citizens from Douma who were killed by government forces.
With so many reports from outside human rights sources that civilians
are harmed by the army of the Syrian regime (namely, that of al-Assad) I
tend to believe atrocities are being committed, and I can only think of
a few reasons why Bashar al-Assad would allow such acts
- He is afraid for his regime. Obviously there
are a handful of neighboring Arab countries where the power of the
people, with a little outside help in some cases, cased regime change.
Syria is a small country which means it is harder to get news about it,
good or bad. Assad perhaps realizes this and is choosing to silence the
people, violating human rights in a major way, knowing they will not be
able to call for aid.
- He is extremely confident in his regime. On the
other hand, he could be very comfortable in his regime’s ability to
withstand or halt the uprising (seems to be the later). He could know
that the outside world will not do a thing to help the Syrians and there
is no interest in defense of their human rights, let alone the
strategic value of a new regime in Syria.
In the end, this is more complicated than I try to paint it. Of
course Assad is not sitting in a lair in Damascus cackling vilely and
wringing his fingers as generals show images of dead Syrian children.
There could be an honest break in the chain-of-command somewhere.
Judging by how he and his father have governed Syria in the past? The
break is not that huge.
