“Day of Rage” fails in Damascus

PanARMENIAN.Net - In stark contrast to several other Arab capitals, where hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated against their governments, a planned “Day of Rage” in Damascus, Syria, on Friday, February 4, failed to attract any protesters against President Bashar al-Assad, a sign that the opposition here remains too weak to challenge one of the region’s most entrenched ruling parties.

Campaigns on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter called for Syrians to demonstrate Friday and Saturday in Damascus against the government of Mr. Assad, who inherited power in 2000 from his father, Hafez, who himself had ruled the country for nearly three decades with an iron fist.

But Damascus was relatively quiet on Friday, save for a gentle rain that washed its streets. There was a heavy presence of security forces and police officers in front of Parliament, where the protesters were planning to stage their demonstration. Men in plain clothes and the black leather jackets popular among security forces here were scattered around the area. Others sat waiting in white vehicles.

Aside from fearing the strong security apparatus, which has never been hesitant to use force to quiet dissidents, Mr. Assad had recently announced a 17 percent pay raise for the two million Syrians who work for the government, making them unlikely to participate in any protest, activists here said.

In addition, they said, the opposition is not strong enough to lead a street movement capable of changing the government, and many here fear a situation in which the banned Muslim Brotherhood would take over if Mr. Assad were toppled.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement that at least 10 people were summoned by the police in the previous 48 hours and pressed to not demonstrate. There were also reports that prominent opposition figures like Michel Kilo and Riad Turk, among others, many of whom spent years in jail for opposing the government, were also summoned, The New York Times reported.