While the Syrian government continues to keep independent journalists away from protesters, my colleague Anthony Shadid was permitted to make a brief visit to Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Monday to interview two close allies of President Bashar al-Assad — a senior official and a powerful businessman. He reports:
The tumult in parts of the country that have long been neglected by a government short of cash and beholden to unaccountable security forces contrasted with the scenes Monday in Damascus. There were few signs in the capital of a military buildup, except a few extra guards at some embassies and government buildings.
Syrian activists, however, continue to challenge accounts of the unrest in the government-controlled media — which claim that armed Islamic radicals are to blame — by posting video online of what they describe as peaceful protests disrupted with force. This new clip, uploaded to a Syrian activist YouTube channel early on Tuesday, is said to show protesters being rounded up after a demonstration in Arnous Square, in central Damascus on Monday night.
According to the information posted with the clip on the All4OurCountry channel on YouTube, the protesters were rounded up by plain-clothes officers after they chanted slogans including “A Message to the Army: Stop the Gunfire” and “We Want a Free Society for the People.”
Another blogger uploaded a copy of the video with English subtitles to YouTube a short time later. According to that blogger, who goes by the name Nouraannan on the video-sharing site, the protesters were recorded singing a Palestinian anthem called “Mawtini,” or “My Homeland,” at the start of the clip.
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