One Million Syrians March Against al-Assad and his Regime

More than one million people protested in two marches in Hama and Deir Ezzor, Syria, on Friday, against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. This is the largest assembly of Syrians yet in protest against the al-Assad dictatorship.

A spokesman for Syrian human rights group OSDH (l’observatoire syrien des doits d’Homme) said that the marches and their numbers were important because they show that the protests are growing.

It was the OSHD which gave the numbers of Syrians rallying on Friday. It reported that security forces opened fire on protesters in Damascus, Idleb and Deraa. It said that in Damascus, 16 protesters were killed, and another five in other cities.  

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Friday protests show that the country cannot go back because al-Assad has lost all legitimacy.

US Syrian Ambassador Robert Ford said that the al-Assad regime now risks being “swept away” by the marchers and that he must now make the difficult decision to begin serious reform.

The official Syrian news agency SANA reported that armed men shot at the security forces, which fired back to protect marchers.

There were also Friday marches in Homs, Raqqa, Alep, Amouda, Ain al-Arab and Douma.

Bashar al-Assad’s Baas party and the security forces are members of a minority tribal group in Syria, and some analysts believe that this is the reason they are fighting back so violently against the marchers, who are members on the majority tribes. Al-Assad’s forces know that they will suffer severely if they retreat. It is something like the shiite-sunni divisions in Bahrain or Iraq.

The opposition has announced a conference in Damascus and Istanbul for Saturday to try to reach a plan for overturning the Syrian regime.

Al-Assad must now be wondering why the repression that has kept the Syrian people under control for 40 years is suddenly no longer working. He should be thinking also about how to extricate himself from what is rapidly becoming a global push to oust him and investigate his terrorist political policies.