Too Little, Too Late, Too Suspicious

"In every household [in Sweida] someone has died."

"I think after the massacres that happened, there is not a single person in Sweida that wants anything to do with this government, unfortunately."

"This government butchered people, and butchered any possibility to [bring[ reconciliation and harmonize the south [of Syria]."

Expatriate Syrian Druze returned to Syria

Smoke rising in the city of Sweida. At least 718 people have been killed in Sweida province after nearly a week of fighting. Photograph: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP/Getty Images

 

"We are for national unity, but not the unity of terrorist gangs", stated Syrian Kurd Saber Abou Ras, professor of medical sciences at Sweida university, his hopes for a better future for Syria emerging from 14 years of civil war, completely shattered. His days as an academic and health care professional have been suspended in southern Syria's Druze-majority Sweida; he carries now not a stethoscope but arms, refusing to surrender them to the government, in despair for a united Syria.

 

The violence that occurred last week started by kidnappings between Bedouin militias and fighters with the Druze religious minority, and quickly escalated to the point where hundreds of people were savagely killed -- (mostly Druze civilians), threatening to unravel Syria's tentative postwar transition. When Syrian government forces intervened to reestablish order and put a stop to the fighting and brutal slaughter, they did so in support of the Bedouin, fellow Sunni Muslims, against the offshoot-Shiite-Muslim Druze minority.

 

Details of the humiliating abuse of Druze civilians and the gruesome executions that followed, were seen in videos and reports that surfaced of sectarian insults culminating in savage killings. Gunmen in military uniforms asked an unarmed man for his proof of identity beyond that he is merely Syrian. "What do you mean Syrian? Are you Sunni or Druze?' At the man's admission of being Druze, the uniformed gunmen open fire, killing him.

 

Syrian Druze fighters,  Photo AFP

 

Druze number approximately a million, more than half of whom live in Syria, while others are in Lebanon and Israel, including the Golan Heights, part of Israel since the 1967 Mideast war, annexed in 1981. Within Syria's population of over 20 million, the Druze constitute a small community where Sweida's Druze are proud in having aided in liberating the country from Ottoman and later French colonial rule. They welcomed Assad's fall in a rebel offensive ending the Assad dynasty tyrannical rule.

 

Skeptical of the background of Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, given his Islamist credentials as a past leader of the Nusra Front linked to al-Qaeda, many among the Druze population, including influential clerics supported engaging diplomatically with the new leadership while some remained hostile to his presidency. There were some clashes between government forces and Druze armed groups that were resolved with a security agreement in May, intended to lead to long-term co-existence. 

 

Bedouin fighters stand on a pickup truck as they arrive at al-Dour village on the outskirts of Sweida city, during clashes between Bedouin clans and Druze militias, southern Syria. (AP/Ghaith Alsayed)

 

After a wave of sectarian violence that broke out months ago on Syria's coast mostly targeting the minority Alawite Shias, Druze began to feel that reaching a fair settlement with the government diplomatically had been compromised. An official investigation into the coastal violence verified that over 1,400 people had been killed, mostly civilians. Worse for ongoing relations with Syria's minority groups, members of the security forces were implicated in the attacks.

 

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa. (SANA / AFP)

 

Syria's president, Al-Sharaa, promised he would hold perpetrators of the attacks and bloodshed to account, restating his vow not to exclude Syria's minority groups, insisting Druze are not being targeted, but rather it was armed factions challenging state authority, led by Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, antagonistic to the new regime, that his government was concerned with. 

 

Israel's interventions were cited as an aggravating condition by Al-Sharaa, in attempting, he said, to exacerbate divisions in Syria, by launching airstrikes on government forces in the province, in defence of the Druze.  Kurdish forces controlling Syria's northeast, in negotiations with Damascus to merge with the new national army, are now reconsidering the move to surrender their weapons following the violence that was unleashed in Sweida. 

 

Syrian government security forces block Bedouin fighters, background, from entering Sweida province, in Busra al-Harir village, southern Syria on Sunday. Omar Sanadiki/AP