The uprising in Syria is reaching important milestones: first, on Sunday, March 20th, the ruling Baath Party's headquarters were torched by the opposition in the city of Deraa. In further defiance, the main courts complex as well as two phone company branches were set ablaze. What is significant is that one of them is owned by Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf.
Reuters reported that Makhlouf is under specific U.S. sanctions for what Washington regards as public corruption and has been a target of protesters chanting "thief." He owns several large businesses.
This morning, al-Arabiya news reported that a statue of Hafez al-Assad (Bashir al-Assad's father and predecessor) raising his arm in a Nazi salute has been destroyed in Deraa, as part of retaliation of Sunday's massacre of civilians by Syrian army tanks. Deraa's governor's house was also torched. There was a giant sit-in taking place in the central square of the city of Jassem earlier today. Jassem lies west of Deraa in Southern Syria.
Human Rights Watch issued a statement this morning which said:
Syrians have shown incredible courage in daring to protest publicly against one of the most repressive governments in the region, and they shouldn’t have to pay with their lives.
One of the activists stated that as the sit-in was put in place, the army was deployed at the gates of Deraa near the Jordanian border, where thousands of people who are demanding reform and denouncing corruption gathered for the funeral of a protester killed overnight by the security forces. In a gesture of 'good will', a government delegation had been sent to Deraa to pay condolences to the families of those who were killed.
In an effort to appease pro-democracy protesters, Bashir al-Assad promised to release 15 schoolchildren detained for writing protest graffiti, political freedoms and an end to corruption, but this has done little except fuel larger demonstrations.
The Syrian regime is very fearful that the opposition has now called on the Kurds to join the uprising on an Internet page. As reported in the Arab press, fear has changed sides, as the Syrian government has shut down several opposition websites. The attacks were signed by a Syrian hacker with three pseudonyms: Syriana 34G13,' 'Syriana Ghost' and 'Syriana Pro,' His signature included the following message:
If people are self-immolating to topple their governments in the world, then Syrians will burn the world and self-immolate to keep Assad in power.
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