No government can reinforce its legitimacy by killing its population on a regular basis. For four months protesters have been marching every week in Syria, and the security forces have killed hundreds of people. The president's two speeches have been ineffective, and he has refused to address the need for serious reform. The government in Syria is losing control of its country, and it refuses to recognise that fundamental change is required.
This Friday recorded the largest marches so far with over a million people on the streets. But at least 28 people were killed by the security forces, with at least seven of the deaths occurring in Damascus. It is important that the protests have finally started in Damascus, which is the largest city in Syria and the capital.
Its relative quiet over the past four months has allowed President Bashar Al Assad's regime to portray the protests as a rural sideshow, but reports of heavy gunfire in more than four locations in the capital show that the regime's core support from the urban middle classes is weakening.
It is a scandal that the government's response is to continue shooting people. It will not solve anything for the government to try and blame ‘armed gangs' while trying to show the protesters as armed Islamists seeking sectarian chaos. Al Assad is trying to show that his regime is the only way to stop an Islamist takeover.
The president shows a miserable lack of faith in his people's ability to manage their own affairs. He must understand that there was a Syria before the Al Assad family ran the government, and there will be a Syria after the family leaves office. If the government continues to resist change, change when it comes will be all the more sweeping.
