Yahya Sharbaji, a prominent non-violent activist from Daraya detained by the Assad regime since 2011, has today been confirmed to have died while in detention. His family was informed by regime authorities earlier on Monday that both Yahya and his brother Mohammad had died in 2013 while in detention.
Yahya was a true leader of his community. He was known to be the mastermind behind non-violent protest tactics in Daraya’s revolutionary movement. Yahya firmly believed that the uprising must remain non-violent in order to truly achieve a transformation away from the regime’s coercive employment of violent methods. He was part of the ‘Darayya Youth’ group along with our Managing Director Haytham Alhamwi which was active in community work and promoting social change before the uprising in 2011, following the non-violent philosophy of Jawdat Said.
In Yahya’s own words, ‘I would rather be killed than be a killer.’
Yahya was a victim of the Syrian regime’s campaign early in the uprising of detaining front-line leaders of non-violent activism, which ultimately led militant enthusiasts and extremist groups to fill the void.
The Syrian regime is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed over the past seven years. Thousands of detainees have been killed in security branches and detention centres under torture. The fate of tens of thousands still in regime prisons remain unknown.
It is also responsible for devastatingly tarnishing a youth generation’s aspirations for progressive change to its country.
While international powers rush to contain the conflict without addressing underlying grievances through the current constitutional process, one thing is certain: there will be no peace without justice.
Rethink Rebuild Society is a Manchester-based charity that works towards improving the lives of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants, in particular but not exclusively Syrians in the UK, helping them become positively established within British society.
This documentary tells the story of Ghiyath Matar and the peaceful uprising of the city of Daraya in the suburbs of Damascus in 2011.
Daraya was the centre for peaceful protests in Damascus in 2011. It had a history of civic activism going back a decade; in 2003 civil society activists organised street cleaning exercises and public health and anti-corruption campaigns, and even organised demonstrations against the Iraq War, culminating in a silent demonstration to mark the fall of Baghdad to the American invasion. For these activities many activists were arrested and endured 2-3 years in prison.
The film documents, through interviews with activists inside Syria, and those forced into exile the story of Daraya’s uprising, and Ghiyath Matar’s role in it.
Although at the centre of the film, Ghiyath is never pictured; instead his comrades recount the beginning of the uprising, and how Ghiyath’s ideas of peaceful resistance to the Baathist tyranny were taken up and acted upon in Daraya.
The film is full of poignant moments as the exiled revolutionaries recount the days of the early protests, their first taste of freedom as they began to shout anti-government slogans for the first time and broke the barrier of fear that had been built around their minds.
Footage of the early protests is shown, and the activists explained how they wanted to keep the revolt peaceful as the best means to threaten the regime. This peaceful resistance was what the regime feared most, and Ghiyath was its champion. His friends recounted his fervent belief that the soldiers would not kill them as they were their fellow Syrians, and that their best hope was to appeal to them as Syrian brothers and fellow human beings.
Ghiyath was a key organiser of the tactic of holding roses on demonstrations, and of giving bottles of water to the police and soldier who come to repress the demonstrations. In the middle of summer 2011, many of the soldiers were thirsty and dehydrated and gladly accepted the water, although their commanders did their best to dissuade them from taking it by saying it was poisoned.
Usually the demonstrators would have to leave the bottles of water stood in the street for the soldiers to collect as they moved towards the protests. Activists would write notes and attach a rose to the bottle, sending messages of love and peace to them. On one occasion their protest accidentally marched into the ranks of the soldiers, and they were able to give the water bottles and flowers directly to them, infuriating their officers.
When the regime attempted to intimidate families from holding public funerals for murdered protestors, funerals which would inevitably themselves become protests, Ghiyath organised his activists to mobilise the local population so that tens of thousands of people marched to the homes of the victims to defy the regime’s intimidation.
Some of the most fascinating parts of the documentary are those filmed in besieged Daraya itself. Director Sam Kadi, speaking after the showing, outlined how they had recruited and trained a cameraman to film the scenes within the besieged area, and then arranged to have the film smuggled out to the US.
They had to smuggle the footage out of Daraya on thumb drives taped to the body of an activist who was escaping the siege. The thumb drives were smuggled to Damascus, then to Turkey then to LA where it was edited.
Motaz Morad and Muhammad Shihadeh, two of the original activists who worked with Ghiyath Daraya, and who remained behind in the siege, were interviewed in talking about how the ideas of Martin Luther King and the US civil rights movement influenced their work. As they talked, sniper fire could be heard in the background, interrupting their interview, a reminder of the regime’s constant attempts to wipe them out.
When the film footage reached the US, they found out the audio had been ruined by a strange humming noise. They thought it was broadcast by the regime on purpose to ruin any recording done within Daraya. In the end an editing studio agreed to do the cleaning up work for free when it learned what the content of the film was.
Hossam, a former resident of Daraya who attended the screening spoke about what made Daraya special:
“Daraya, what is special about Daraya? It’s the activists, the youth, they are very special, very humble and very dedicated to making a change in their country.
They were very dedicated to organising and structuring their work, so for instance you never see any abuse of human rights in Daraya. When it turned to militarise, they tried as much as possible to respect the law, so if they capture a soldier they never torture for instance.”
The regime’s response to Ghiyath and his comrades peaceful resistance was brutal. Peaceful activists were arrested and beaten and tortured, often to death. Activists took to living in outlying farms surrounding Daraya to escape the constant raids on the city by the security forces, only returning to organise and participate in protests. Eventually Ghiyath and another leading activists Yahya Shurbaji were lured back into the city and captured in a trap.
Several days later, Ghiyath’s horrifically tortured body was returned to his family. Yahya’s whereabouts are unknown, he has not been released nor had his body returned.
Najlaa Al-Sheikh, one of the women activists interviewed spoke about the anger felt by other peaceful activists when news of Ghiyath’s murder reached them. Although completely opposed to using violent means to overthrow the regime, the torture and murder of Ghiyath made them consider taking up arms against it, and drove many to support those groups already doing so.
When asked about the prospects for the future of Syria, Najlaa replied in a poetic fashion typical of many of the activists; “"We have sowed freedom and it will be reaped by our sons"
None of the activists believed the conflict would end soon, but they all felt that freedom would come to Syria, in time.
A poignant moment was brought to the discussion at the end, when a young Indian activist stood and talked about how the film had affected him. He mentioned how inspired he was by Ghiyath’s example, and that Ghiyath should not be known as ‘little Gandhi’, as that prevented linking his name with his actions, which deserved to be known in their own right. Instead he said, everyone should know Ghiyath Matar’s name so that he would have his own legacy and people would remember Ghiyath, not as a ‘little Gandhi’ but as an inspiring example of the Syrian revolution’s peaceful glory days, when everything seemed possible.
Media coverage of the conflict in Syria has been generally poor, but Simon Jenkins has crossed the line between poor analysis and outright offensiveness.
The article displays all the usual signs of somebody who knows little or nothing about Syria, but nonetheless has an axe to grind or a pre-existing theory to apply. Discussing the Middle East as if the only things that mattered were the invasion of Iraq and ancient sectarianism remains the go-to approach for the ill-informed would-be expert. It’s impressive, in a sense, that Jenkins has managed to write as though Western countries, whose responsibilities to protect have been called on and ignored, are the cause of everything, whereas Russian imperialism and Hezbollah death squads are a sort of optional add-on.
Where Jenkins surpasses the usual low standard of analysis is in his assertion that Syrians aren’t ready for democracy. He probably isn't aware, but the day the Guardian published his piece, the town of Daraya fell to Assadist forces. In 2011, the people of Daraya rose up in peaceful protest, calling for democracy and human rights, and were met with massacre. For four years they have been subjected to a starvation siege, barrel bombs and napalm, and they have resisted. In the midst of this they have organised their community democratically, and have been a symbol of the Syrian dream of freedom. How dare Jenkins speak of this heroic resistance in this way?
Jenkins says that a thousand years of tyranny are better than a day of anarchy. It seems unlikely that Jenkins would make such a comment about white Europeans.
Syria today suffers from tyranny and anarchy at the hands of the Assad regime. There are a great many Syrians who would give anything for the sort of comfort in which such flippant comments about tyranny can be made.
If Jenkins doesn’t know anything about Syria—and he doesn’t—he shouldn't write about it. Syrians could do without the condescension of the ignorant.
Signed
George Morris, Rethink Rebuild Society
Dr Mohammad Tammo, Kurds House
Dr Bachar Hakim, Syrian Society of Nottinghamshire
Abdullah Allabwani, Oxford Solidarity for Syria
Dr Mohammad Isreb, Syrian Association of Yorkshire
Mazen Ebjaei, Help 4Syria
Dr Amer Masri, Scotland4Syria
Dr Mohammad Alhadj Ali, Syrian Welsh Society
Clara Connolly, Syria Solidarity UK
Dr Fadel Moghrabi, Peace & Justice for Syria
Dr Abdullah Hanoun, Syrian Community of the South West
Reem Assil, Syrian Platform for Peace
Following the forced evacuation of the people of Daraya, the Local Council of Daraya has announced the following demands. Together for Syria calls on the UK government and international community to support and implement these demands:
Protect the civilians from Daraya wherever they are, whether forced to other besieged areas, or to the opposition held areas in the north that are under regime and Russian bombardment, or to the closed border with Jordan, or to the refugee camps of the region, or to the sea crossing to Europe.
Uphold the rights of the people of Daraya to their land and property. Set in operation a process to return the people to Daraya through political and legal means.
Break the sieges: redeem the broken promise on airlifts and airdrops to all remaining besieged areas.
Call on the UN to put its warehouses where they are needed: in the besieged areas.
Call on the UN to put their administrative hubs where they are needed: in the besieged areas, not the Four Seasons Hotel.
Call on governments to refuse UN agencies money to pay organisations run by regime members under EU sanctions.
Together for Syria signatories:
Help4Syria
Peace and Justice for Syria
Rethink Rebuild, Manchester
Syrian Association of Yorkshire
Syrian Platform for Peace
Syrian Society of Nottinghamshire
Syria Solidarity UK
Syrian Welsh Society
About Daraya—a town of fierce hope, whose betrayal is a lesson we must learn from.
Daraya has been a town of fierce hope and inspiration for four years, embodying the values of the Syrian revolution.
In 2011 the people of Daraya took to the streets to demand democracy and freedom from the oppressive dictatorship of Assad. In their hands they carried flowers, yet their peaceful demands were met with bullets. In late 2012 the Assad regime placed Daraya under siege.
For four years the town has defied brutal repression to establish a democratic, pluralist community, upholding the values of the revolution. The town has been democratically governed by an elected local council, who ran services including education, agricultural cultivation, a field hospital, and a public kitchen. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel fighters in Daraya were also subject to the control of this elected body. Freedom of expression has flourished, with dozens of radio stations and free newspapers discussing democracy, non violence and women’s rights. This in a country where voices have long been silenced, through the threat of torture, rape and arbitrary detention.
Daraya exposes the myths that have been cultivated about Syria, in the media and political spheres, that there is no alternative between dictatorship or DAESH.
The betrayal of Daraya by the international community is a potent symbol of the betrayal of the revolution and the lack of international will to do anything concrete to protect civilians.
Time and again the international community has failed to respond to the pleas of the people of Daraya for support and protection:
In late 2011 peace activist Ghiyath Matar was tortured to death by the regime for giving flowers and water to government soldiers. His detention received international attention, his funeral was attended by the US ambassador among others, yet no action was taken to save him and other political prisoners.
On 20-25 of August 2012, over 500 citizens of Daraya, men, women and children as young as eight were murdered in cold blood by Assad regime’s troops and pro regime militias. This was widely reported in the international press but the international community chose not to investigate this genocidal act. (1)
UN plans to deliver humanitarian aid have never been backed by real pressure on the regime, despite the existence of several UN Security Council resolutions demanding that they allow entry. This has amounted to collusion with the Assad regime's nationwide ‘kneel or starve’ strategy. The sole delivery of food from agencies to reach Daraya arrived on June 9 this year. It lasted less than one month and no further deliveries were made. This is how, although just ten miles from UN warehouses, residents of Daraya lived on the brink of starvation, subsisting on one meal a day. Grass soup became a common meal for the children of Daraya.
International measures to save Daraya from its suffering were not taken. The UK cross party call coordinated by the late Jo Cox MP for no bombing zones and humanitarian aid-drops by the RAF to besieged civilians failed, as it was not supported by the leadership of the main UK parties.
Daraya like other rebel held areas has been relentlessly bombed by the Assad regime and its Russian allies, with over 9000 barrel bombs dropped indiscriminately on the town. August 2016 saw the napalming of the town’s last hospital. The women of Daraya repeatedly made public calls for international protection, most recently on the 23 August. Once again their request went unheard. (2)
Daraya is not just a place, the values and ideas that it embodied can not be killed.
Daraya was a town where democracy and pluralism flourished against all the odds. As the fighters and civilians have left, forced out by Assad’s regime, the values and ideas of the revolution and the experience of those that lived them will endure. They are carried with them and by all who choose to support the values of the Syrian Revolution, of democracy, peace and freedom of expression for all Syrians.
This profile of Daraya Council was published in the 17 May 2016 issue of the APPG Friends of Syria's newsletter, Syria Notes.
According to the Local Council of Daraya City, it was founded on 17 October 2012, a few weeks after a massacre by the Assad regime of 700 civilians, mostly women, children, and elderly people.
The council serves a population of 8,300 people. The council has 120 members inside Daraya, as well as representatives working outside of Daraya. Every six months, individuals are elected to positions of responsibility by a secret ballot of all members of the council. An individual can only run for the same position for two consecutive rounds. The head of the council is elected by the people through public elections.
Daraya is living through its fourth year of siege, the longest period that any Syrian area has survived under siege. The council must provide all essential services, such as water, electricity, and communications. The council’s aid office does its best to provide aid to the population. It runs a public kitchen that provides a daily cooked meal for people, but it is dependent on availability of resources. The aid office supervises cultivation of farming land, and divides crops between the people. All aid services are provided free to all. So far more than 1,000 tons of aid have been provided.
As well as aid within Daraya, members of Daraya Council help organise aid in 40 different cities inside and outside Syria for refugees and displaced people from Daraya.
The council’s medical office provides services to those injured in attacks on the city. The office runs the only field hospital in the city, which deals with all kinds of medical needs, from traumatic injuries, to child birth, to complicated medical operations. The field hospital operates with very few resources.
The council runs three primary schools in Daraya. There were plans to expand to cover secondary education, but these were suspended because of the recent increase in attacks by the regime. There are no other forms of education in the town, due the constant bombardment and the lack of staff.
Other services include street cleaning, providing clean water, and fortifying shelters to protect civilians from bombardment.
Daraya is defended by its own. The Syrian Army in Daraya is made up of local citizens, and there are no other military forces in the town, nor any form of extremists. The military office is under the civil authority of the council.
