From Akram, the Angry Arab correspondent in Syria:
"All
quiet on Damascus front… Three days of relative calm in the Syrian capital
after the government forces pushed the rebels deep in Al-Ghouta, a green
agricultural belt surrounding Damascus from the south and east, where brutal,
but rather forgotten clashes are taking place. Sounds of shelling and clashes, on
the rhythm of which the residents of Damascus were living, are rarely heard. The
streets are overcrowded and dominated by the usual traffic disorder and the
deafening noise of car horns. It seemed that
people are trying to take advantage of this limited period of silence before
the war is to knock their doors once again. Even the security men, with their
paramilitary look, supervising the many checkpoints that cut apart the city,
seem a little bit relaxed, smiling, joking and allowing the cars to go, without
even, in many cases, asking for the passengers IDs.
Nevertheless, the crisis hasn't simply vanished,
not even temporarily. One can discover its existence by just watching the small
details around him. The mere presence of the checkpoints is enough to remind us
that we're living an emergency, months after the emergency status in Syria was,
ironically, "lifted". The streets that have been closed because an
intelligence branch sits there is another evidence.
The public parks are full of displaced families
that can be seen spreading their few things on the grass: here you see a young
mother cleaning her baby child, and there a man preparing the tea using a
portable gas stove or children playing and screaming delightfully in
celebration of a "normal life" that they have missed for long time,
while a security man with plainclothes who isn't trying to conceal his identity
wandering in the park to make sure that those strangers won't make any trouble.
Their poor appearance contrasts with the clean look of the affluent
neighborhoods that "host" them. Residents of these neighborhoods,
many of them have never heard of towns like Nashabieh, Deir Salman or Deir
Al-Assafeer before the eruption of the crisis, let alone visiting them, are
little afraid of them, they try not to make any physical contact with them
because of what they hear about those troublemakers. Syrian societies are
getting to know each other in the most unpleasant way.
Walking the streets, you would be surprised with the huge number of beggars, mostly children,
with threadbare clothes
and dirty faces, following you persistently seeking of the few pennies that you
might give them.
Another indication of the crisis, hovering in the atmosphere, is the stress that
seethes the people's hearts, those hidden feelings that explode suddenly when you don't expect. Don't fix it, a taxi driver, Palestinian in his sixties,
told me, angrily, indicating the seat belt. No more seat belts… I lived 9
wars and 11 military coups but never saw such a number of victims, never feel such
a panic. I haven't understood, then, what has the safety belt to do with
wars and military coups, but I obeyed without saying a single word.
The
school season coming in few days is pressing heavily the government, not only
in provinces where the situation is too bad for schools to open their doors,
but also in more stable places like Damascus where many schools are occupied by
refugees. The Syrian minister of education said that the school year will not
be postponed under any circumstances. The government is calling for the
displaced to return to their homes and there are disturbing rumors that the
government is going to evacuate the schools by force if necessary. Yesterday, the
semi-official TV Addounia reported that Ain Tarma, Zamalka, Irbin and Saqba,
towns located near Damascus in Eastern Ghouta and almost deserted due to the
fighting, are "relatively safe"...
Few moments of peace? Not entirely… The clashes are still alive in quarters,
such as Al-Tadamon and reportedly in Al-Kaboun, that it has been said to be
"cleansed from the terrorist groups" where the rebels are still
practicing the same old Hit-and-Run tactic against the army units and the
popular committees, civilian groups armed and run under the regime's auspices. Yesterday,
Jaramana, a Rural Damascus town connected to Damascus, that is inhabited by
middle- class families, mostly Druze and Christians, was, once again, crucified
by a car bomb that killed 9 and dozens wounded. And once again, the perpetrator
is unknown but the objective is, for sure, very known".
