Friday, February 25, 2011

Riots in Syria: The ruler makes on Facebook Youth

Popular with young and old: Bashar al-Assad lively Just as in the past few days it went on the side of the head of state for a long time to stop. "The best president," "the best president of the World" and similar praise visitors leave at present every minute on the Facebook Wall Bashar al-Assad, also a video showing him after visiting the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Only with great effort succeeded his bodyguards to keep the cheering crowd from him, the watchdogs are clearly energized. The 45-year-old ruler on the other hand enjoys the attention, waving his followers again and again. The message of the film is eight minutes clear: Syria may ring to overthrow the rulers with the Baathist regime is tottering, but not - thanks to both young and old popular leader.


More than 100,000 friends, the summer set up in 2008, in the past, sometimes for weeks now non-recorded page. On the whiteboard that the President just on 10 February brisk activity broke out, has a simple reason: The day before, picked up the regime's blockade of Facebook and YouTube, which applied since November 2007.

Also on the side of the first lady, Asma al-Assad since the day something's going on. The Syrian newspaper Al Watan wrote that the end of the barrier show "that the government confidence in their performance" was not "afraid of being threatened by these or other pages. A first step of liberalization, then, after years of shock in the country, "Reporters Without Borders regularly on its list of" enemies of the Internet "leads? Relaxations caused just by the success of Tunisian and Egyptian activists who just took advantage of those so-called social media, make sure to do their president? Hardly.

"The decision to release the pages back, was primarily a PR coup," says Anas Qtiesh, a Syrian blogger who as a researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University is working. "The regime can provide in this way his self-confidence amid the unrest in the region to show." Earlier this month, Facebook users who want to continue the protests of their comrades in North Africa.

But the reaction to the "day of wrath" had to be invited to the Facebook group "The Syrian Revolution" broke out miserably: only police and intelligence agents were found before the parliament in Damascus and other supposed meeting places in the capital and Aleppo one. In the past, imprisoned political opponents was not the failure of the Internet initiative so wrong, say political observers in Damascus.

At least ten people had been summoned to warn them against participating in the demonstrations. Including prominent representatives of the opposition, such as Riad al Turk and Michel Kilo were. They fear that the Syrian government would still relentless action against mass demonstrations as the guides of Egypt and Tunisia.

As the head of the now-closed Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, Mazen Darwich, the British Guardian newspaper last week gave an interview, he received a call the day after the secret services. The end of January had shown that the spark is not the regional revolt as easily would skip on Syria: A peaceful gathering in front of the Egyptian embassy was closed after a short time, on 2 February ended a vigil in memory of the Egyptian victims of the protests after a few minutes.

As the main organizer, Suheir Attasi, to the police station in the Christian district of Bab Tuma was about to complain, she was beaten and insulted. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal "said Assad confident that his close relationship is to the people the reason for the absence of major protests:" If there is a rift between official policy and the beliefs and interests of the people, is created that vacuum generates the conflict.

"Human rights organizations maintain, however Assad's security apparatus for the main reason that, absent major demonstrations against the ruling Baath regime in 1962. "Symbolic gestures such as allowing access to Facebook is not a substitute for maintaining general restrictions, criticized Jim Loughran of the organization" Front Line ", which is globally committed activist for the protection of human rights and lawyers.

The Syrian blogger Qtiesh says. "Although Facebook and Youtube are now freely available, is at the step just a more sophisticated monitoring methodology" Almost 200 pages are according to the university research project OpenNet inititiative further blocked the computer from Internet cafes usually monitoring software controls.

That wider access to the network by no means greater freedom of expression means, it became clear just shortly after the readmission of Facebook and Youtube. Mid-February, condemned the Syrian State Security Court, a 19-year-old blogger to five years in prison, you have worked for the CIA, accused the judge of her.

Tal al Malluhi was arrested in December 2009, it is one of at least four bloggers who landed in the past years in prison. The Committee to Protect Journalists 2009 will be so classified Syria as a most dangerous Arab country for bloggers. Loosening here - as repression: The contradictory decisions indicate a power struggle between reformers and even members of the "old guard" who were before Assad took office in 2000 to decision makers.

Telecom Minister Imad Saboni had demanded last December, "the awareness of the dangers of the Internet to strengthen - and do not block websites. Assad, who introduced a decade ago the Internet in Syria is apparently between two stools. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, "he admitted, after all, that the reform of the media sector was also shifted so as long as" us for lacking a clear vision.

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