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- shoop (
mcfnord) wrote,
meanwhile they march and die to be free
Just listen for for two-and-a-half minutes to the most enthusiastic defiance turn to screams of terror. Won't have those defiant chants! The students of Aleppo University have joined the revolution and may have turned Aleppo into a protest area, with the largest protests in their history at 15,000. If true, and if sustained, this is a critical turning-point in the revolution.
Some students tried to talk to the UN observers, to communicate their angst and anger and grievances, but it was futile. There was little opportunity for exchanging any useful information. The UN cars soon drifted on a sea of students, moving in waves towards the main University Square. The de facto protest grew in numbers and decibels, even though in most faculties it was exam time. Hafez Al Assad’s mosaic wall portrait— his mug that had been sneering down on us for years — was attacked and deformed beyond recognition. With their fearless actions, the students wiped the slate clean for all the earlier generations, including mine, who stood idly by, knowing the score but doing nothing, saying nothing. Today, all evidence and traces of the regime were cleansed from Sahet Al Jame’a (University Square), and were replaced by defiant revolution flags and chants demanding change.
And the armed resistence:
"Large shipments have got through," another opposition figure said. "Some areas are loaded with weapons."
The effect of the new arms appeared evident in Monday’s clash between opposition and government forces over control of the rebel-held city of Rastan, near Homs. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel forces who overran a government base had killed 23 Syrian soldiers.