JORDAN/FILE: A Syrian boy whose anti-government graffiti two years ago triggered the bloody uprising says he feels no regret about his actions

Record ID: 173984

  • Title: JORDAN/FILE: A Syrian boy whose anti-government graffiti two years ago triggered the bloody uprising says he feels no regret about his actions
  • Date: 14th March 2013
  • Summary: RAMTHA, JORDAN (MARCH 12, 2013) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) BOY FROM DERAA, SAYING: "We used to follow the events in Tunis and Egypt on TV, how the protests toppled the regimes. So we drew the graffiti, and we expected the revolution to happen here [in Syria]."
  • Embargoed: 29th March 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan
  • City:
  • Country: Syrian Arab Republic Jordan
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVA1KIZDZAIYIRC8FF4NHBGPHN6F
  • Story Text: At the start of 2011, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad confidently predicted that his country was immune from the so-called "Arab Spring", which had seen the old, autocratic leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen swept from power.
    But on March 15, a few dozen protesters braved the streets of Damascus to call for more freedom.
    Days later, riots broke out in Deraa, on the border with Jordan, to protest against the torture of local boys caught writing anti-government graffiti.
    One of these boys have fled Syria and now lives in Jordan.
    Sitting with his back to the camera, the eighteen-and-a-half-year-old remembers how the group he was in decided to draw the graffiti.

    "We agreed at 7pm to meet up at 12:45 in this area here. We agreed that some of us would keep a look out, while others would draw the graffiti. We started writing phrases such as, 'Your turn will come, doctor' and 'The people want the downfall of the regime'."
    He and his friends expected the Syrian government to fall, just like the governments of Tunisia and Egypt had been toppled.

    "We used to follow the events in Tunis and Egypt on TV, how the protests toppled the regimes. So we drew the graffiti, and we expected the revolution to happen here [in Syria]," he said.
    But that did not happen.
    Over the past 24 months the unrest has morphed from a largely peaceful pro-democracy movement into a full-scale civil war with a sectarian dimension.
    Sometimes the boys from Deraa are blamed for their role in the conflict.
    But in spite of moments where they regret ever writing their graffiti, they say they know they are not responsible for the violence.

    "What we did was right, but some days we feel some regret, especially when somebody says to us, 'You are the cause of all this trouble, you brought destruction to Syria'. This makes me sensitive, but at the end of the day, I say this is God's will," he said.
    The unidentified boy says although his parents and the rest of the family are still in Deraa, they have been spared from any harassment. He says his own brother is fighting with the Free Syrian Army rebels and he is optimistic that one day he will be able to get back home to his family.

    "I pray that God helps them, and, God willing, victory is near," he said.
    Some 70,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict and more than one million refugees have fled the violence.
    END
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