‘The rebelling people have decided not to be ruled by this regime’

June 7, 2013

The facebook page “Free people of Damascus and its countryside” published a statement on Friday calling on the Syrian Coalition to boycott the Geneva talks as long as the Assad regime will be represented, to provide a full accounting of its spending and charges the Coalition with conspiring alongside the international community to “extinguish” the revolution.

While the facebook group is relatively small, with less than 2,000 members, we believe that the petition’s signatories, which include activists, journalists, aid workers and medical professionals, represent a wider contingent of Syrians looking to counter the Syrian regime’s narrative that the revolution is approaching its final phase. They point out that no government has been able to defeat a guerrilla war, adding that the regime announces the capture of areas from the rebels but fails to hold them. The original Arabic is here.

A statement directed to the Syrian Coalition

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

“Those who have done injustice; they shall see it turns against them.”

The war in brave al-Qusayr is a battle of attack-and-retreat. It’s part of street fighting and guerrilla war, in which no regime in history was able to defeat its people.

What the regime and the Party of Satan [Hezbollah] have achieved, through fierce battles in which the Persians participated, is a small and temporary media victory that only proves the regime’s bankruptcy. The only assistance the regime has not used is that of NATO, which has not yet supplied it with Patriot defenses to crack down on our revolution.

The regime is collapsing and is incapable of controlling the closest towns, from Darayya to the Damascus countryside through Jobar and al-Abbasid Square [in Damascus]. The regime is incapable of achieving a victory and holding what it acquires on the ground. This battle has its ups and downs; what the regime has achieved in four months, the rebels, God willing, will get it back within hours. Baba Amro is a clear example. The regime will remain embarrassed to declare any liberated areas because they can’t keep control over them so long as even one rebel is fighting on the ground.

The international system, represented by the West and America, has abandoned us to be slaughtered by the Persian guillotine. They wanted to pressure the rebels to minimize their demands so that they would unconditionally go to Geneva. They are attempting to save the regime, even if they sacrifice al-Assad, an animal who looks after their interests. They will try to save the criminal police regime.

The rebelling people have decided not to be ruled by this regime, regardless of how long it might take [to topple it]. Thus, they will not sit at any table [start a dialogue] before the criminal regime falls. All who sit at the table, whether they mean well or not, will be considered traitors of the revolution and its goals.

As for the Coalition, their declaration of the fall of al-Qusayr, and their silence since the beginning of the battle and up until the occupation of al-Qusayr, is proof that the Coalition is conspiring with the international community in order to force their will on the people rebelling against injustice and to extinguish the revolution of freedom and dignity.

We demand the following:

1. We demand that [George] Sabra not hasten in making a statement, and that activists abroad stay there until the activists inside work on liberating the occupied areas.

2. We demand a clarification from Suhair al-Atassi about freezing aid funds reported to be stolen. We demand that a clear accounting of spending be published.

3. We demand that the Coalition not go to Geneva except if and when a deadline is set for negotiations, and if there are guarantees, from the beginning, that al-Assad will be out of the transitional government and that the revolution will have full authority, including the ministries of foreign affairs, defense and the interior, in addition to the security forces.

4. The Coalition must publish a statement of the Syrian people’s funds expenditure, including travel, aid and arms. These funds belong to the Syrian people who have the right to know how they are managed, and to hold those who were irresponsible accountable.

5. If these demands weren’t met within three days, we the signatories, activists, journalists, aid workers, medics and military signing this document will not recognize the Coalition’s legitimacy and will publish audio and video tapes calling for the removal of their legitimacy by the Syrian people, and cancelling the authorization granted to the National Coalition of the Revolutionary and Opposition Forces to politically represent us.

God is the maker of success.

June 6, 2013

The signatories on the statement