From Angry Arab correspondent in Syria:
"Deir
Salman is a village 15 Km to the south of Damascus on the eastern borders of
Al-Ghouta, the agricultural surrounding of Syrian capital.
Like
Douma, Zamalka, Irbeen, Saqba, Missraba and other towns of Al-Ghouta, Deir
Salman is a scene of fighting between the governmental forces and the rebels.
The only difference is that Deir Salman too small and too "insignificant" to be
mentioned by any media outlet.
Nevertheless,
the humanitarian tragedy, here, is not less by any mean. The village witnesses
daily clashes throughout the day and night and the few of its population who
haven't leaved live a real nightmare. At night, they are unable to sleep due to
the explosions and the clashes with automatic guns that take place in and around
the village. As for those who need to come out for one reason or another, the
trip to Damascus, that goes through narrow rural roads full of military
checkpoints, rebel ambushes and bandits, proves to be a real suffering and very
risky.
The
village itself is controlled by the rebels who impose their ruling and define
who is pro-regime and who is "revolutionary". They treat the residents harshly.
Surprisingly (unsurprisingly?), they don't find any inconsistency between their
alleged "revolutionary ethics" and looting the people they, presumably, protect
(the other day they instructed the residents to leave their homes, temporarily,
pretending they were planning to attack the nearby Damascus airport. One of the
residents, who insisted not to leave, saw them breaking into the vacant houses.
It turned out that they didn't want any witness, so they could attribute their
banditry to the Syrian army).
Bilal,
and this isn't his real name, is a member of one of the largest Deir Salman's
families, one that gave the Syrian army a number of military officers. One of
its branches converted to Shi'ism some 70 years ago, something that hasn't
presented any problem in the village… until recently when Bilal, a man in his
late thirties, married and father of two children of 5 and 11 years old,
appeared on the kill list of the "revolutionaries" along with his father,
brothers, uncles, and cousins. Bilal isn't shabiha, and he isn't even
pro-regime but this isn't of any relevancy for FSA.
Bilal,
and most of his family left the village towards other surrounding towns, where
the living conditions aren't less difficult but where, at least, they aren't
threatened. Bilal became jobless, his two children are traumatized and he's
planning to leave Syria to some far-east country where one of his relatives
lives. He told me he wants to move away for one year or so until the crisis is
over before wondering desperately: But what if they (FSA)
won?
This
is a short story that won't appear on NYT, Washington post, Aljazeera or
Alarabyia, the story of people who, suddenly, found themselves displaced
because of the criminal behavior, not of the Syrian regime, but this time, of
his counterpart gangs."
