Twelve months ago, a dozen school children from the southern Syrian town of Deraa were arrested for spraying anti-regime graffiti on walls. A week later these children were returned to their parents bloodied and bruised. Some had had their fingernails pulled out. They were not even teenagers. In previous years, they would have remained nameless torture victims of Assad’s regime. But in 2011, the people of Deraa drew on the inspiration of their Arab neighbors and rose up in a protest that has now engulfed the whole country.
Today the situation in Syria casts a long shadow over the Middle East. The cruel statistics of the regime’s repression speak for themselves: more than 7,500 Syrians have been killed, including 380 children, and over 10,000 detained without cause or trial. Grainy amateur footage has caught snipers in the act of shooting into funeral processions. The Homs district of Baba Amr has become a symbol of this regime’s shameful disregard for human life and its mistaken belief that legitimate aspirations can violently be suppressed.
The revelations this week that women and children were massacred in Homs show more clearly than ever that Assad has lost legitimacy and can no longer claim to lead Syria. The ongoing violence also shows that violence will never win out and that the regime is increasingly weak. Assad should step aside in the best interests of Syria and the unity of its people. One year after the regime first tried to stamp on dissent doing so to allow a genuine dialogue on transition would be the most fitting way to mark this tragic anniversary. Until it does, we will not forget the people of Syria for a single day.
For more: Syria’s Assad lost legitimacy
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