SYRIA: Taking to the streets in a 'Great Friday' of people power [Video]
Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Syria on Good Friday, chanting their boldest slogans to date as they marched through the streets where witnesses say they were shot at indiscriminately by security forces.
Demonstrations were reported in the suburbs of the Syrian capital of Damascus and many other cities and towns, including Madaya, Duma, Ezraa, Hrak, Latakia, Homs, Hama, Hasakah, Baniyas and Aleppo, where protesters stood defiantly despite the violent response by security forces and declared allegiance to their counterparts throughout the country.
Video claimed to have been filmed at Friday's bloody protests in Syria, in which nearly 70 people died, according to human rights activists, show demonstrators calling for the overthrow of the Syrian regime instead of calling for more reforms, which had been the case at previous demonstrations.
Demonstrators also stressed a sense of national unity in Friday's protests to offset government accusations that target and dismiss the popular demonstrations as divisive.
The video above, said to have been shot in the town of Amouda in the Syrian southwest on Friday, shows crowds of protesters draped in Syrian flags chanting “One, one, one, the Syrian people are one." Another batch of demonstrators were heard roaring "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" while other protest-goers were seen holding up banners reading "Peaceful, peaceful, peaceful" and "No to sectarianism."
In the suburbs of Damascus, where 34 protesters reportedly were killed, hundreds of people marched through narrow streets chanting "Zenga Zenga, Dar Dar, step down Bashar," playing on the speech of Libyan ruler Moammar Kadafi which was later turned into an infamous song on YouTube.
The march was able to get close to the Midan, close to the Damascus city center, despite a heavy security deployment and police crackdowns. Echoing gunshots overwhelmed crowds, piercing through their "peaceful, peaceful, peaceful" chants.
-- Roula Hajjar in Beirut
Videos: From above, protesters in Amouda take to the strees; inhabitants of Damascus suburbs take to the streets despite mass killings; arbitrary gunshot rings through Midan. Credit: YouTube
VERA: your comments echo those I've heard from Syrian friends and family who are living in Syria. The vacancy of knowledge regarding the protests and their legitimacy is unbelievable. Go to the facebook page titled The Syrian Revolution for countless videos taken directly from the protestors cell phones and you will soon realize that you have miscalculated this whole situation. Better yet, take a walk in Damascus Homs Deraa Banias and many many other cities and see all the torn down desecrated pictures of the great Assad. See it for yourself before you go claiming this is all made up. Open your eyes. The revolution is here.
Posted by: Michelle Urlacher | April 23, 2011 at 05:34 AM
maybe chant: "i wont shoot at peaceful protesters" "i wont shoot at unarmed non-violent people"
"A spokesperson for the ministry of information told Al Jazeera on Friday that security forces would fire on protesters only if they were fired upon first."
no shooting bullets at, use grenades, hitting with batons or sticks, throwing rocks/stones, or firing tear, nerve, CN, or cs gas, opening fire on, live ammunition at, slughtering, killing, bloody crackdown on, beating, tortureing, to disperse poeple that are not physcially abuseing, pointing/useing/shooting weapons at people
no opening fire on people for marching down Cairo Street.
Do not open fire at protesters just for burning tyres in the street
No fireing on crowds of people just for being protesters
no beating students to break up the gathering
No beating up and tortured people just for being a group of graffiti artists
No attacking sleeping people.
*allow people to freely enter and leave syria, if you didnt physically witness them (not video, or dont have accurate physical circumstantial evidence (not words/ video: physically abuse, or point/use weapons at people.
*no shooting people, that are carrying a gun, but is not pointing/shooting/useing it at anyone.
Do not take away people just for being doctors who had been helping to treat injured protesters.
No arresting people for spray-painting the words “The People Want the Fall of the Regime” on their school
allow the protests to reach the capital.
request people/protesters, armed people, police, and security forces, locally, and from different cities and departments, talk to eachother, and have free training on, what not to shoot.
Posted by: tre | April 22, 2011 at 09:07 PM
Hey Vera no one said they want to become American, they are not even close. This situation doesn't have an either/or solution, protesters simply want to live in peace and want freedom of assembly, which Assad, the zoo king isn't giving them. If anyone is influenced by the West, then it is the Assad himself and his wife, he lived and studied there.
Syrians are not timid they want freedom, but they realize that the system in place will not respond to their demands because they tried to protest in the 80s and 20000 Syrians were killed by the beast Assad.
Posted by: To Vera and to Toby | April 22, 2011 at 08:29 PM
The Syrian people are too timid to be able to overthrow their regime. They do not have the same fearlessness that Tunisians have.
Posted by: Toby Geralds | April 22, 2011 at 02:53 PM
Syrians want freedom like the rest of region - forget your conspiracy theories about the US - what you see is the frustrations of real people putting their lives in the line to end the corruption and lies endemic to the Arab world. If Syrians love Assad then he should have given them the chance to vote for him before it was too late. But just like the other tired lying dictators of the region Assad has blown his chance. 70 dead today was its proof, not a matter of if he will leave but when, dead or alive?
Posted by: seansan | April 22, 2011 at 02:38 PM
Suddenly everyone and his mother is an expert on "The Middle East". Uh. Who do you think staged these little mock "protests" in the first place? An american returning from Syria last week said there were numerous demonstrations and 100% were pro-government and festive in nature. So the CIA got a couple of riff raff illiterates to hold signs up that they cant even read and then photographed the "protests". Syrians are content with what they have and they will vote for Assad anytime so don't get your hopes up Ashkenazis and Neo-con artists. Get one thing through your head, when it comes to starting wars, sponsoring terror, financing development of useless killing toys, the US will print the money it doesn't have to pay for it all.
Posted by: Vera | April 22, 2011 at 12:21 PM