War in Syria Issues - Essay Example

This wave of protests came to be known as the Arab spring.  The uprising is believed to be caused by dictatorship, corruption and human rights violations among other grievances (Rosiny, 2).  Syrian war is a prolonged conflict that is currently taking place in Syria between the military and those opposed to the regime of Baa’thist government led by Bashar al-Assad.  It started during the Arab spring. Syrian Arab republic was established in 1920 as a French colony in Western Asia. It has its headquarters in Damascus. The country borders Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and the Mediterranean Sea.

At the time of the Arab spring Syrian president Bashar al Assad enjoyed a relatively good support from the citizens.  Bashar al Assad took the reign of power from his father, Hafez al- Assad in 2000 when the father died.  Hafez became president in 1970 through a coup de tat. After taking power, Hafez set up an authoritarian regime that didn’t tolerate activities of the Muslim brotherhood which was the main opposition to the ruling regime at that time.  He encouraged the idea of divide and rule. He enjoyed the support of the Sunni Arabs who made up almost 60% of the entire Syrian population and that of Christians. He also had the support of his minority group of the Alawis. He excluded those who were perceived not to be in support of his policies like the Kurds.  When his son took power in 2000, he introduced political and economical reform measures in Syria. He released scores of political prisoners and initiated a number of economic reforms that made him popular with the people. According to Assad Al-Saleh (2014), the period known as the Damascus spring which was during the earlier days of Bashar al- Assad tenure in office shows that the opposition and political activities were tolerated. But this did not last for long. Bashar al Assad regime was characterized by corruption and alienated other communities.  The regime was also oppressive and arrested opposition leaders. The people became dissatisfied with Assad’s regime.

The state of emergency law that was in place since 1963 gave the government the right to arrest citizens without charge and infringed on their privacy. This made protesting or demonstrations rare in Syria. But in March 15th 2011, young students from Daraa painted anti-government graffiti on the walls of their schools with oppositional messages.  They were arrested and detained. When they were released signs of severe torture during detention were evident. They had burns, bruises and even some of them their finger nails were pulled out (Al-Saleh, 3). This caused anger and uproar and people of Daraa swarmed the streets in peaceful protests and demonstrations.  This was the start of the Syrian uprising. At the start security officers tried to disperse the protesters using teargas and water cannons which did not work and they ended up using live bullets killing four of the protesters.  This enraged the protesters more and neighboring towns started joining the protests.  Initially the protesters were agitating for reforms by the government.  But with the inclusion of opposition in the protests they started demanding for the removal from office of Bashar al Assad and his government. Those killed during the protests were treated as martyrs and during their funeral processions, the people would use it to protest against the government and this could lead to more deaths from police shooting.  This led to a cycle with the number of protesters increasing each week (Al –Saleh, 3).

According to the human rights report, some of the worst police brutalities include the killing of more than 200 protesters during the siege of Daraa and neighboring towns.  The security forces also attacked al-Omari mosque killing more than 30 victims. According to the report, Police officers met the protesters with brutality without even trying to use other non lethal ways to try to disburse the protesters.

In a sign of trying to control the protests, the government gave in to some of the initial demands of the people.  The emergency law that was in place since independence was lifted and demonstrations allowed.  The government also invited opposition for dialogue to end the crisis and handed them a chance to form political parties.