SYRIA: Government organises foreign media trip in a now peaceful suburb of Damascus, attempting to convey the message that life goes on despite the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad

Record ID: 280249

  • Title: SYRIA: Government organises foreign media trip in a now peaceful suburb of Damascus, attempting to convey the message that life goes on despite the 11-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad
  • Date: 16th February 2012
  • Summary: HARASTA, DAMASCUS, SYRIA (FEBRUARY 15, 2012) (REUTERS) HARASTA'S MAIN STREET A SIGN OF "HARASTA'S MUNICIPALITY COUNCIL" STREET SCENES
  • Embargoed: 2nd March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAKP8MK71EWQ8GP2BEL6RE2MAV
  • Story Text: On a day when elite Syrian forces backed by armoured personnel carriers stormed part of Damascus, in another part of the Syrian capital peace seemed to reign.
    Journalists on Wednesday (February 15) were invited on an officially organised tour of the Harasta area, where streets were calm, market traders joked with customers, soldiers grinned for the cameras and children sat in a classroom learning English.
    Local chief official Adnan al-Wazza admitted some clashes were taking place in the countryside on the fringes of the suburb but said the army was keeping the peace in the area.
    Late last month, the area was reported to be tense with large numbers of troops standing by as the insurrection against President Bashar al-Assad moved closer to Damascus.
    On Wednesday, troops from the Fourth Armoured Division and Republican Guards erected roadblocks in main streets of the Barzeh neighbourhood, a residential neighbourhood north of Damascus city centre, searched houses and made arrests.
    Residents said the troops were looking for opposition activists and members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, which has been providing security for protests against Assad in the district.
    But in an apparently well stocked food market in Harasta, a veiled customer told Reuters:
    "Everything is normal thank God. We do not see armed groups at all."
    Another resident said there had been trouble in Harasta, but the market and the schools were now protected by the army.
    Assad offered on Wednesday to hold multi-party elections within four months, while his troops assaulted city districts held by rebels trying to oust him.
    Under world pressure to end a crackdown that has cost at least 6,000 lives, Assad promised a referendum in two weeks' time on a new constitution leading to elections within 90 days.
    Opposition figures spurned the offer and Assad made clear he was still intent on crushing the uprising with tanks and troops.
    The military unleashed a new offensive in Hama, a city with a bloody history of resistance to Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, firing at residential neighbourhoods with anti-aircraft guns mounted on armoured vehicles, opposition activists said.
    Artillery also shelled parts of Homs for the 13th day in a row. In Damascus, troops backed by armour swept into the Barzeh district, searching houses and making arrests, witnesses said.
    Assad dismisses the revolt as the work of terrorists backed by a conspiracy of enemy nations. He now faces rebels in an armed insurrection as well as peaceful demonstrators.
    Thousands of civilians have been killed since the uprising began in March, inspired by other Arab revolts. The government says it has lost more than 2,000 soldiers and police dead.
    Hundreds of people have been killed in the military's nearly two-week-old bombardment of rebel-held areas of Homs. Activists and aid groups report a growing humanitarian crisis there, with food running short and wounded people unable to get proper care.
    END
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