Activists in Suwayda call for Autonomous Administration in south Syria
SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Activists in Suwayda called for the Autonomous Administration in the southern region of Syria, because of the peculiarity of common customs and history that enables them to manage themselves.
The protests, which are backed by clergy, follow a decision by the cash-strapped government in early February to drop hundreds of thousands of people from a subsidy Programme on essential items, including bread, diesel, cooking gas and petrol.
The protesters called for the establishment of a just civil state without partisan, sectarian or ethnic discrimination and without a power monopolization, a state of law and institutions, not a state of corruption and tyranny.
“The accusations of separation and the formation of a Druze state in Suwayda are totally groundless, and they do not clarify the true goals of the protests in Suwayda, Political activist Muhannad Shihab, a founding member of the Secular Democratic Gathering and a member of the media office of the Syrian Council for Change in Suwayda, told North Press.
“The protests represent concerns of all Syrians, and they are a demand gfor Syrian rights that every Syrian has been deprived of due to the bad and failed political and economic management by the central government .”
He pointed out that the idea of the Autonomous administration in south Syria is logical and helps restore the political and economic life to all the Syrian regions.
Shihab stressed the need for it to be run by its residents, and that the establishment of the autonomous administration, decentralization or federalism does not mean separation from the state, but rather is an investment of human power within the regions to manage their affairs themselves.