Druze leader condemns ‘genocidal campaign' against the community
Syria's Druze take up arms to defend their town against Islamists
DAMASCUS: Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri on Thursday condemned what he called a 'genocidal campaign' against his people, after two days of deadly sectarian clashes. In a statement, Hijri described the violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya, near Damascus, as an 'unjustifiable genocidal campaign' and urged immediate intervention by 'international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes'. His call comes after sectarian clashes between Syrian security forces, fighters aligned with them, and local Druze fighters killed 17 people in Jaramana on Monday night and 22 people in Sahnaya on Tuesday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitor.
On Wednesday, 15 Druze fighters were killed in an ambush near Damascus, according to SOHR and local outlet Suweyda 24. The fighters were killed in 'an ambush carried out by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defense and gunmen associated with them,' the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, told AFP.
The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous. AFP was unable to confirm the recording's authenticity. A truce agreement was reached on Wednesday in Jaramana and Sahnaya following meetings between Druze representatives and government officials. Syrian authorities announced the deployment of their forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, accusing 'outlaw groups' of instigating the clashes.
However, Hijri said he no longer trusts 'an entity pretending to be a government... because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias... and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres'. 'The government (should) protect its people,' he added. The latest round of violence follows a series of massacres in Syria's coast in March, where the Observatory said security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites. It was the worst bloodshed since the December ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who is from the minority community. In a statement on Wednesday, Syria's foreign ministry vowed to 'protect all components' of society, including the Druze, and expressed its rejection of 'foreign interference'.
Taking up arms
Meanwhile, Syrian estate agent Fahd Haidar has shuttered his business and got out his rifle to defend his hometown of Jaramana when it came under attack this week by Islamists loyal to the new government. Seven Druze fighters were among the 17 people killed in the Damascus suburb as clashes raged from Monday into Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Wednesday, the sectarian violence spread to the nearby town of Sahnaya, where 22 combatants were killed, the Britain-based war monitor said. Fourteen years after former ruler Bashar Al-Assad's bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests triggered a devastating civil war, Haidar said he feared a return to 'chaos', a slide into a 'quagmire of grievances that will affect every Syrian'.
He appealed to the new authorities, who took over after Assad's ouster in December, to step back from the brink and find 'radical solutions' to rein in 'uncontrolled gangs' like those who attacked his mainly Druze and Christian hometown this week. In Jaramana, Druze leaders reached a deal with government representatives on Tuesday evening to put a halt to the fighting. On Wednesday morning, an AFP correspondent saw hundreds of armed Druze, some of them just boys, deployed across the town.
'War footing'
Behind mounds of earth piled up as improvised defenses, Druze fighters handed out weapons and ammunition. 'For the past two days, the people of Jaramana have been on a war footing,' said local activist Rabii Mondher. 'Everybody is scared - of war... of coming under siege, of a new assault and new martyrs.' Like many residents in the confessionally mixed town, Mondher said he hoped 'peace will be restored... because we have no choice but to live together'. Mounir Baaker lost his nephew Riadh in this week's clashes.
'We don't take an eye for an eye,' he said tearfully, as he received the condolences of friends and neighbors. 'Jaramana is not used to this,' he went on, holding up a photograph of his slain nephew, who was among a number of young Druze men from the town who signed up to join the new security forces after Assad's ouster. 'We're brought up to be tolerant, not to strike back and not to attack anyone, whoever they are,' he said. 'But we defend ourselves if we are attacked.'- AFP
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