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| The Faculty of Agriculture in al-Tijara district |
Syrian rebels attempted to attack Russian experts residing in Damascus on
Thursday.
Russia Today (RT),
a government-funded global multilingual news network based in Russia, broke the
news the same day in
Arabic. The Syrian news network Syria-online
carries the report without comment this morning.
RT said the armed group attacked the building housing the Russian experts
and their families in the al-Tijara district of Damascus on Thursday morning.
Al-Tijara district is home to Damascus University’s Faculty of Agriculture.
None of the Russian experts or their dependents was hurt, but one member
of the security forces was injured in the attack, according to RT. It said two
raiders were captured and the rest are on the run after making their way though
a park to the adjoining al-Barza district.
RT said the “Syrian government contracted the services of Soviet experts
30 yeas ago,” without elaborating.
“Road to Damascus”
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| RT News Correspondent Sara Firth |
Separately, RT Friday featured the 10th post in a series
titled “Road to Damascus” authored by RT News Correspondent Sara Firth, who joined
the Russian news network in November 2009 and holds a BA honors in
Law and a PG Diploma in Investigative Journalism from City University London.
First day back and
stoically Damascus seems to continue its attempt to keep up appearances. Life
buzzes along. But it’s fraying at the edges and more than ever you can feel the
undercurrent of tension here.
It’s there when we
drive down a side street near the centre (to pop to a pharmacy) only to run
into a plain-clothes security officer pointing a Kalashnikov directly at us as
we slam on the breaks. Apparently we’d caught him off guard – no harm
done.
But the reaction, the
increased security presence in itself here, are all telltale signs of the toll
taken by months of conflict in the country, which have seen the fight come
right to Damascus’ doorstep.
People seem weary here
-- weary and wary.
Questions about the
upcoming parliamentary elections or the observer mission are not met with much
optimism.
So far there are about
30 monitors here, around 100 more are expected to join towards the end of the
month – the total should be around 300.
The head of the
mission, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, has said even 1000 observers wouldn’t be
enough.
George Jabour, a former
government adviser and political speaker I spoke to today agreed:
“It has to come from
the Syrian people – success is in the hands of the Syrians essentially.”
When I asked him what
else was needed he said:
“Killing does not lead
to a solution. Talking does. Dialogue does. Dialogue should start. I suppose
that the minute this dialogue starts the violence will be less.”
Now that has its
preconditions of course. It should be a suitable environment – an
environment that does not exist right now.
But this suitable
environment can be created through dialogue. You cannot have a totally suitable
environment in advance of the dialogue.
The dialogue precedes
and aids its own conditions of success.
A bit of a chicken and
egg problem if ever there was one, but it reminded me of a conversation I’d had
earlier in the day.
Discussing the observer
mission a friend and I had tried to recall the six points of the peace plan.
Obviously there was
ending the violence.
It’s the main and
arguably most vital point. End the bloodshed.
And what about the
other points? Well, they are loosely:
- Commit to work with the Envoy in an inclusive Syrian-led political process
- Cessation of violence.
- Humanitarian assistance – with a 2-hour daily ceasefire.
- Release of political prisoners.
- Access and freedom of movement for journalists
- Right to demonstrate peacefully
Many of the points continue
to be openly flouted.
A huge number of people
I’ve spoken to today have serious concerns about the level of detentions that
are still being carried out.
They include young
people and activists. And the news came today that two sons of Fayez Sara, an
independent and well-respected opposition figure, had been taken from their
homes. Bassam Sara and Wissam Sara (who I think is just 26) both have children
of their own.
It’s still not clear
where they were taken and by whom, but the assumption is that they’ve been
detained by security forces.
Yet whilst ending the
violence, with its noblest intentions, is talked about constantly, I’ve barely
heard a word breathed about progress or plans regarding detentions.
Then whilst discussing
the peace plan and the UN’s implementation of it, the person I was talking to
said something that made so much sense to me.
“Perhaps the observers
have got it the wrong way around. Perhaps everyone is so concerned with ending
the violence that the other points are being overlooked. Until you put a stop
to people being detained without charge, until you have freedom to demonstrate
peacefully, how can you ever hope to achieve an end to the violence?”
Perhaps, my friend
pondered, they should work through that list backwards and the first point
should be the last point to be achieved.
