Syria’s Assad’s ruling party shut by protests

Protesters demanding an end to
authoritarian rule shut the ruling Baath party headquarters in
the southwestern Syrian Druze city of Sweida as protests which
entered their second week showed no signs of abating, civic
activists and witnesses said.
Youths with welding machines sealed the gates of the
building of the party led by President Bashar al Assad, which
has been in power since a 1963 coup.
Hundreds again took to the streets for the seventh
consecutive day of peaceful protests over worsening living
conditions caused by steep gasoline prices and they demanded
sweeping political changes.
“Step down Bashar, we want to live in dignity,” they chanted
in the main square where Druze top spiritual leaders have given
their blessing for their protests without endorsing calls for an
end to five decades of Assad family rule.
A major economic crisis has seen the local currency
collapse, leading to soaring prices for food and basic supplies
and which Assad’s government blames on Western sanctions.
The rising dissent in loyalist areas that once stood with
Assad now pose the biggest challenge to his hold on power after
winning a more than decade-long civil war with crucial help from
Russia and Iran.
Officials have heightened security in Mediterranean coastal
areas, the ancestral homeland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect
that holds a tight control over the army and security forces, to
preempt growing calls to strike and protest about living
conditions, said Kenan Waqaf, a prominent journalist who was
imprisoned for criticizing the authorities.
Across the province, scores of local branches of the Baath
party whose officials hold top government posts were also closed
by protesters with its cadres fleeing, residents said.
In a rare act of defiance in areas under Assad’s rule,
protesters tore down posters of Assad, where the party has
promoted a personality cult around him and his late father.
Sweida, a city of over 100,000 people, has seen most public
institutions shut and public transport on strike and businesses
partially open, residents and civic activists said.
“This is civil disobedience that is unprecedented and draws
wide societal support from a large section of the Druze
community and its religious leaders,” said Ryan Marouf, a civic
activist and editor of the local Suwayda 24 news website.
The authorities have kept silent about the widening protests
but instructed the security apparatus to stay out of sight and
even vacated some checkpoints to avoid friction, officials
privately said.