JORDAN: Prominent Syrian activist Najati Tayyara says the Syrian regime is trying to provoke a civil war after failing to silence protesters and only a political solution can stop the country from descending into civil war

Record ID: 276342

  • Title: JORDAN: Prominent Syrian activist Najati Tayyara says the Syrian regime is trying to provoke a civil war after failing to silence protesters and only a political solution can stop the country from descending into civil war
  • Date: 16th March 2012
  • Summary: AMMAN, JORDAN (MARCH 15, 2012) (REUTERS) SYRIAN ACTIVIST NAJATI TAYYARA TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN ACTIVIST NAJATI TAYYARA SAYING: "The strategy of the regime is civil war, after it failed to silence the people. So it's trying to protect its future by moving toward dividing the country. He recruits and terrorises sectarian groups and puts them in
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jordan, Jordan
  • Country: Jordan
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACI5E6NXCR6U5MZJAPUVWMFVLD
  • Story Text: Prominent Syrian activist Najati Tayyara said in Jordan on Thursday (March 15) that the Syrian regime is trying to provoke a civil war after failing to silence protesters and only a political solution could stop the country from descending into civil war.
    Najati Tayyara, 67, is a Sunni Muslim liberal who fled Syria to Jordan last month after the authorities bowed to pressure from Arab neighbours and released him from prison.
    One of Syria's most respected human rights campaigners, Tayyara was jailed in May 2011 after warning that the crackdown against protesters and the recruitment of minority Alawites into government militia was a recipe for sectarian disaster.
    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad himself is an Alawite and the sect makes up around 10 percent of Syria's 23 million-strong population. The Sunnis make up some 75 percent.
    "The strategy of the regime is civil war, after it failed to silence the people. So it's trying to protect its future by moving toward dividing the country. He recruits and terrorises sectarian groups and puts them in a defensive position to provoke a civil war and dividing the country. He himself used the term dividing the country. Assad started with a kingdom that he illegally inherited and is moving toward carving a smaller kingdom somewhere in his mountain, " he said.
    Tayyara said that if the current crisis continues, the country could plunge into a prolonged civil war.
    "If the current struggle continues, civil war would continue and go out of control and this war is crazy."
    Tayyara said the year-long revolution had brought to the surface sectarian tensions that had accumulated during five decades of Alawite domination over the country, which saw a small elite control the top jobs and cream off the rewards.
    "Since the start of the revolution and people demonstrations, sectarian slogans express an identity. Equal citizenship does not exist in Syria. Now sectarian slogans define people. Now Syrians do not trust each another, unless they are comfortable with their sect."
    "People tell us we were killed, insulted and raped and you want us to trust them! Sectarian climate has become very tense. The only way out is through a political decision. Political decision is the only way to end this problem. As long as there is a security solution, and a stern military solution to its highest degrees, including heavy bombardment. One year into this revolution, revolutions end in one or two months and the political solution starts. This regime did not accept the political solution until today and it continues to exclude any solution on the horizon."
    Assad has accused foreign powers of stirring up the unrest in Syria, which started one year ago and has spread to much of the country, and says "terrorists" are to blame for the violence.
    Syrian authorities point to a new constitution approved in a referendum last month which removed a clause granting Assad's ruling Baath Party a monopoly of power. Assad has set a parliamentary election for May 7.
    The United Nations estimates that Assad's forces have killed more than 8,000 people in their drive to crush the uprising. Damascus says rebels have killed some 2,000 soldiers.
    Tayyara was one of the leaders of the Damascus Spring movement, a brief period of openness a decade ago that Assad later crushed.
    The veteran campaigner saw little chance of success for the mediation efforts being led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, saying Annan had little way of pressuring Assad, with China and Russia blocking any Security Council resolution.
    He accused government-backed militias of carrying out ethnic cleansing, pointing to a massacre in a mixed area of Homs on Sunday which left up to 50 dead, according to activists.
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