A Woman in the Crossfire (25 page)

“Our protests peaked on the Friday of Dignity, 22 April 2011, which they called Great Friday. It was the largest protest Jableh had ever seen. More than three thousand people took part, including a large number of women. One of those was the mother of the activist T.B., who is still in prison; she was carried on the people's shoulders as she chanted,
O Jableh, Where are your men, O Jableh!
Our slogans included:
One One One, Sunni and Alawite are One!
and
O Noble People of Jableh, Answer the Call of Freedom!
All our slogans always encouraged our brothers and sisters in the Alawite community to join us. When some of them did we realized full well how great the pressures and the difficulties were that surrounded their joining us. Over time our slogans evolved and we started to call boldly and clearly for the fall of the regime. On that Friday we marched through all of the neighbourhoods of Jableh with huge crowds until we reached the family home of Atef Najib. We called for him to be brought to justice for every drop of blood that was spilled in Dar‘a and for him to be prosecuted for his crimes. This was the first contact we had with members of the Alawite sect who rejected our demonstrations and our slogans. They blocked our path, meeting us armed with sticks and knives along with a large number of residents, standing in the way of our right to revenge. At this point a local
shaykh
got involved and addressed the young men, urging them to go home. They retraced their steps toward the cinema roundabout near Jableh town hall, where they collectively held evening prayer in the street before dispersing. One group went home while another decided to keep demonstrating. They headed on foot to the al-Amara roundabout, chanting for freedom and the martyrs. There were no more than a hundred, maybe two hundred of them and this was the second time Alawites prevented the demonstrators from advancing, blocking their way to the roundabout with fire trucks that began spraying the demonstrators with water as neighbourhood residents joined in pelting the demonstrators with rocks and vegetables. Curses were exchanged and one eyewitness reported that a resident of the al-Amara neighbourhood opened fire in the air in order to frighten them after rumours spread that the demonstrators had come to the neighbourhood in order to kill them and break into their homes and capture their women. In their pro-regime demonstrations they marched through every neighbourhood and we never opposed them or bothered them. Why wouldn't they let us peacefully demonstrate with our slogans the way they do? Are the streets theirs and theirs alone? That Friday ended with tensions running high between the two sects and nasty rumours on both sides, promises and threats, and nobody knew who started those rumours or where they had come from.

“The next day there was a pro-regime march in which cars and motorcycles went all over Jableh led by a Hyundai Tucson with a big mounted machine gun for all to see. When it passed by the Corniche, some young Sunni men from the neighbourhood blocked the street with trashcans and carried sticks and hunting rifles, in preparation for any direct contact between the two sides, especially since news of an armed assault had spread throughout Jableh. The real contact between the two sects took place after the Tucson opened fire and quickly sped away, jumping the curb with terrifying speed. Eyewitnesses from the neighbourhood said that a young man from the village of Zama was wounded and the young Sunni men rushed him away for treatment. The young men joined in breaking up the clashes and moving young Alawite men to safety, far away from the tense square.

“After this dangerous incident, high-level connections were called in by some of the well-known financial and commercial residents of Jableh in order to mend what had started to unravel between the two communities through reciprocal visits, in order to calm down the situation and bring it back to the way it was before. The mediators succeeded and both sides came out together in a joint march, chanting,
Sunnis and Alawites are One
, exchanging kisses and greetings. The early signs of tension that were clear for everyone to see came to an end and along with them the story of the popular checkpoints that had been set up after rumours spread about each sect attacking the other in order to kill them and put an end to their existence. These rumours had spread like wildfire throughout Jableh and its villages after we started going out to call for freedom. To this day, neither side knows the truth or the source of those rumours. One likely explanation was that they were a security fabrication, a threat from the regime regarding what would happen if security, safety and stability were lost, especially when there had been news of young men from the villages and from the Communist Party joining our demonstrations, no longer afraid of hoisting banners that called for the fall of the regime. The fear barrier had been broken. After this dangerous incident, we thought about evacuating Freedom Square to outside the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Mosque in order to avoid any confrontation with the other sect. Our battle isn't with the sect. The regime is our problem and we understand all too well how it seeks to hide behind the Alawite sect and exploit their fears in order to stay in power.

“The next week, Sunday afternoon to be specific, after the new governor in Latakia had been appointed, he came to see us, wishing to meet with city representatives and some of the young people of Jableh at the mosque at Freedom Square in order to hear our demands and needs. The meeting between the two sides ended two hours later with the young people announcing,
We want to topple the regime!
At this point the governor stormed out, vowing, “Now I'll show you all.” The very same day the city witnessed a substantial deployment of security forces and the army as well as a large number of regime
shabbiha
dressed in civilian clothes but who were distinguished by their tennis shoes and, of course, armed to the teeth with weapons and ammunition. Two hours after the meeting was over, public safety in Jableh was divided on a sectarian basis, with dirt barricades set up in all the Sunni neighbourhoods, particularly in all the ‘zones of disturbance', as they called them. The partition started outside the Teachers' Union and extended all the way to Jableh Stadium. Large trucks set up dirt and sand barricades at the entrance to the city and the entrances to the well-known neighbourhoods (al-‘Azza, al-Dariba, al-Jirkis, al-Saliba, al-Fayd); snipers were stationed on top of government buildings, giving them free rein to look down on the streets and easily watch all the action, destroying any green space in order to expose the area for them, like the Jableh cemetery, which had most of its famous ancient green trees chopped down at the root.

“The activity in the city that day was abnormal – suddenly a substantial and intimidating security presence on a calm and natural day where nothing seemed to indicate the need for such forces in a small city like Jableh. In less than two and a half hours, without any warning or alert, Jableh started to hear the heavy gunfire of a chaotic attack. For many hours throughout the day, shooting continued to blanket the city, forcing people to hide wherever they were, in stores, for example, to avoid being hit by bullets. They didn't know the reasons for all that gunfire, or who the targets were. A premeditated massacre befell the people of Jableh, with brutality and fury never before seen in its modest history. Nine young men were killed and many others were wounded. They prevented ambulances from arriving, which they might have targeted anyway. We were able to get some of the wounded out of there and into the neighbourhood mosque in order to treat them and prevent the theft of their organs by the regime
shabbiha
at the national hospital, as had happened with a young man from the Al Jum'a family. He had been assisted by K.Q. in his own responsibility as a member of the People's Council. Only the young man came out with his neck slit all the way down to his stomach, in spite of the fact that his original injury was to the foot. We depended upon doctors who hadn't been taken away for arrest and torture on the charge of aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists and infiltrators. It was obvious that the regime
shabbiha
were using very sophisticated weaponry and a kind of explosive ammunition that either killed people or completely incapacitated them. We were trying to help one guy who had been hit in the head by sniper fire, it was unreal to see his brains spill out like that. At that point we used the imam's cap to scoop his brains back inside his head. It was a sight I'll never, ever forget. Most of the martyrs had to be buried in secret and far away. Before allowing anyone to recover and bury the bodies, security required people to sign a form stating that the ones who killed them were armed men and saboteurs. Only a limited number of family members were allowed to be in the presence of the security agents.

“After the massacre, Jableh became a ghost town. Nobody dared leave their house for fear of a sniper's bullet and most of the inhabitants resorted to replacing the doors on their houses, which had always been wooden and open, with only a cloth curtain separating the inside from the outside. Now most doors were impenetrable black iron out of fear of another massacre like the last one. We had to limit ourselves to night-time demonstrations, some of which were ‘flying' and some of which were very crowded. Women participated along with us but we reduced the scope of our actions to very narrow limits in order to evade the eyes of the security, which had noticeably infiltrated us in Jableh despite its small size and narrow spaces. The scope of the infiltration was horrible. It was awful; none of us trusted anyone else. That's the only plausible explanation for the huge number of arrests the city has been subjected to up until now, on all kinds of charges, despite the fact that they had been releasing well-known criminals accused of smuggling and drug use ever since the first spark of the Syrian revolution. Day in, day out Jableh continued to live on rumours and predictions and every day it expected another onslaught, another massacre. To get ready, we all came up with new ways of self-defence, one of which we called ‘the eggplant', which was like an explosive stick of dynamite that made a booming sound but wouldn't kill anyone. People say the residents of the al-Dariba neighbourhood evacuated the women and children from their houses for fear of the impending unannounced raids. Now, by going out to demonstrate and calling for the fall of the regime, we were playing our part in a game that was becoming a turf war.”

I can imagine a turf war in Jableh. It's a small city and I know those poor alleyways the young man referred to. I want to transmit the news neutrally, but this is hard. I try to imagine the scenes, preoccupied by all the city's nooks and crannies. I love it now even more. I continue with the young man's testimony:

“The first day Jableh started calling out
Allahu Akbar
from inside the houses, the security and the
shabbiha
began treating people brutally. The security response was awful and very violent. They targeted everything they could find that moved and the city fell asleep that night to the sounds of gunfire and dynamite until the small hours. Unfortunately it resulted in the martyrdom of the young man, Ahmad al-Attall.

“The third incursion into the city was on 5 June, 2011. When news started to spread about the arrest of H., who had been wanted for some time by the security forces on the charge of murder and who went by the name of ‘The Prince of Jableh'. There were a lot of stories about the scandal over his propositioning his secretary. Some sympathized with him after the massacre of Jableh, in which the people saw his courage and bravery defending the city and its people, exposing himself to mortal danger on more than one occasion. But before that massacre the people were all disgusted by him and his machismo. They found it strange to see him walking around with his pump action weapons so conspicuously. As rumour of his arrest spread, some guys who were close to him or at least sympathetic hurried off with light weapons, including ‘eggplants' and hunting rifles. There were only about ten of them, and at 6:30 in the evening they clashed with security forces at the
shari‘a
school that had been converted into security headquarters. I heard gunfire and the sounds of ‘eggplants' and this adventurism resulted in death of three of them. Tensions flared high in Jableh into the evening and the security forces and the
shabbiha
wouldn't shut up about this failed attempt. They intended to terrorize the Sunni neighbourhoods with the sound of heavy and violent gunfire, which continued throughout the night with the thunderous sounds of Jeeps and Mercedes cruising the streets. Jableh is a small city, more or less cut off from the outside world. Its only trade is with the inhabitants of neighbouring villages. It has no other livelihood. The city is an epicentre of poverty. Education is limited. Most of the representatives from there and the surrounding villages, along with Atef Najib, were able to buy up most of the properties and houses under assumed names that were used as a front. A new class of businessmen appeared – call them the
nouveau riche
– overshadowing the original and historically well-known merchants, a completely different class known for its tight relationships with people in the regime and for working on its behalf. Now Jableh follows the rules of cat-and-mouse; turf wars to tire out the
shabbiha
, to distract them so the demonstrators can get out, even if only for a few minutes on Friday to call for the fall of the regime. That's why they seem so starved for any piece of news, especially since the bounty of the internet is unavailable in Jableh. TV is the only source of news and information.”

Here ends the story of Jableh, the city Atef Najib hails from; a relative of the president, he is the one responsible for the arrest and torture of the children of Dar‘a. We sons and daughters of that city know the influence of Atef Najib as well as everything else the young men say about his corruption, wealth and tyranny but it never once occurred to me that the oppression and ruination this criminal from my city carried out against the people's dignity might ignite the Syrian uprising.