The more dictator Bashar al-Assad brutalizes Syria, the more determined the people are to oppose him [-Hear that KR Hun Xen?]

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad addressed the Parliament on March 30, 2011. (Getty)

Tuesday, April 19th 2011
Editorials
NY Daily News (New York, USA)

It looks like they have finally had enough, and how could they not? The people of Syria, their will stiffened, are coming out in growing numbers to protest the rule of Bashar al-Assad - the man who calls himself president but has no more democratically legitimate claim to that mantle than you do.

But far more than Assad's legitimacy is at issue. There is also the brutality with which he has thrown into prison, or into graves, any who dared to challenge the state.

There is his attempt to suffocate expression by banning Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and other sources of communication.

There is his ongoing crackdown on mostly peaceful protests, in which dozens of ordinary Syrians have been killed and hundreds have been thrown into jail without charges.

The Syrian opposition last week released what it claimed was an official document detailing the regime's internal strategy for snuffing out dissent.

Among the orders: "Link the anti-regime demonstrations and protests to figures hated by the Syrian populace such as the usual Saudi and Lebanese figures, and connecting the lot of them to Zionism and to America."

And this, aimed at security forces who open fire on protests: "The number of people killed must not exceed 20 each time, because it would let them be more easily noticed and exposed, which may lead to situations of foreign intervention."

Perhaps heeding orders, security forces killed about 14 in their latest spree; in response, the mourners came out in force. It is a cycle: The more they kill, the more come out. The more they kill, the bolder the people get.

According to press estimates - which, thanks to Assad's repression, are sketchy - more than 10,000 filled the central square in the city of Homs yesterday. The security forces fired their weapons into the air. The people did not disperse.

And so there are finally signs Assad may be feeling some heat himself. In a televised address Saturday, he pledged to lift the country's 48-year-old state of emergency before the end of the week. The people are not fooled. Let us hope they will not have the nerve beaten out of them - but that their "leader" has the gun pried from his hands.

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