Thursday, November 17, 2005

Protest: Syrian Style

Just who is demonstrating on behalf of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad? The two groups of people with the greatest liberty under the Assad regime of course: Children and prisoners.
In Syria, even the prisoners are supporting the government in its standoff with the United Nations: They're on a three-day hunger strike to express solidarity.
It's all part of a new and more aggressive stance by President Bashar Assad, who's made clear in recent days that his country intends to fight back hard against a U.N. probe that implicated Syria in murder.

Some may dismiss the hunger strike as a government-staged stunt. But it shows how far Damascus will go to prove that normal Syrians support the president:

- Children ages 6 to 10 have held a pro-regime sit-in.
- Syria's black, red and white flag flutters from all balconies and car windows.
- And, according to an association that cares for prisoners, 90 percent of inmates in Damascus jails began a hunger strike this week to protest the international pressure.

It's nice to think that those imprisoned in Syria's jails are so patriotic. Actually, they just might be true Syrian patriots who prefer a democratic government as opposed the current inept regime which put them in the poke in the first place.