QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Days pass while the people of Syria’s southern governorate of Suwayda are still protesting against the government decisions that negatively affected the living and economic situation.
The incidents started when the Syrian government issued a decision through which it ruled out subsidy offered to thousands of families who benefited from the ration card.
The government subsidy will not be granted to those who make higher incomes and have the ability to support themselves according to norms including property and wealth on the one hand, and income on the other, Assistant Minister of Communications for Digital Transformation, Eng. Fadia Suleiman, had earlier said in a statement to a local pro-government radio.
Since then, protests in the Druze majority governorate of Suwayda erupted and occupied a wide space as it moved from one town or village to another.
Methods of protests
Early in February, the people of the southern and eastern countryside of Suwayda forced some state bakeries to close down while compelled others to sell bread with subsidized price according to the ration card.
Additionally, the protesters shut down the state institutions denying civil state employees to get into their offices. They also, blocked the Suwayda-Damascus highway, set tires on fire and prevented the vehicles to move towards the Damascus.
Not only that, the protesters blocked the roads among several villages and town in the countryside of Suwayda preventing state employees to get to state directorates, and students to go to schools.
The government’s decision to lift subsidy from a wide segment of people “those who can afford goods with free price”, amid deteriorating living conditions, have raised discontent in all Syrian government-held areas, not only in Suwayda city.
Approximately 596,628 families, who used to benefit from the ration card, were ruled out (more than 15% of the families).
Reactions and solidarities
As the protests prolonged, statements and messages of solidarity with the people of Suwayda began to be released.
Layth al-Bal’ous, son of Wahid al-Bal’ous, the founder of Men of Dignity Movement, warned against any assault on Suwayda people who “demand their simplest necessities of life”.
The media office of Men of Dignity Movement had earlier told North Press that lifting subsidy is a part of a systematic work with the objective to strangle the Syrians.
The Men of Dignity is a self-defense militia established after the outbreak of the Syrian war to defend the Suwayda area. Described as a terror organization by Russia, it took an initial position against the Syrian government in the early days of the war but did not engage in any armed struggle with government forces.
The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) expressed solidarity with the “revolutionary movement” in Syria’s southern governorate of Suwayda noting that this popular movement is a revival of the “revolution of rights.”
“The popular movement is a new challenge in the face of tyranny, and a proof that the revolution of human rights never ends,” the SDC said in a statement.
The SDC called on the leaders of the popular movement to run their own revolution and counter any attempts aim to distort its peaceful path, and its demands for democratic change and for Syria to be a state of social justice, freedom, equality and law.
On February 12, the Akl Sheikhdom of the Druze Unitarian Community in Lebanon announced on its official page the solidarity with the popular movement in Syria’s southern governorate of Suwayda.
“We express our solidarity with the people of Suwayda city in Jabal al-Arab in their popular movement against the general economic, living and social conditions that threaten their decent living and their right to peacefully demand of food and basics to face the brunt of the various current crises,” said Sheikh Akl of the Druze sect, Sami Abi al-Muna.
Abi Al-Muna called on all the Druze Unitarian Community in Jabal al-Arab to deal wisely and steadfastly with the status quo and unify their position.
While Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, called for mobilizing world opinion and raising the issue of Suwayda through international forums in order to ensure the return of security and safety to residents of the region in general.
For its part, the Future Syria Party expressed its solidarity with the popular movement in Suwayda, calling on Syrian government to consider their demands, so that “this peaceful movement isn’t drawn into violence.”
“The events that have been taking place in Syria for a decade have proven that the security solution has not and will not work,” the statement said.
“The solution lies in a comprehensive intra-Syrian dialogue among all Syrian communities, the implementation of UN Resolution 2254, and the enactment of a new constitution for the country that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people,” the statement added.
It worth mentioning that ISIS attacked Suwayda in 2018, killing more than 250 people and wounding hundreds. Suwayda’s residents voiced accusations against government and Russian forces saying they were responsible for hundreds of ISIS members to enter the city following an agreement signed in Yarmouk Camp, south of Damascus.