On January 28, the anti-Syrian, Saudi owned Elaph website carried the following report: “The Islamic, Democratic Independent Movement in Syria, one of the components of the Alliance of the Damascus Announcement for National Democratic Change, has announced the organization of a “wide and major” protest in front of the headquarters of the People’s Council (the parliament) in Damascus on Saturday the 5th of the upcoming month.
“The movement said: “We warn the Syrian regime against the danger of keeping up the oppression and the arrests against the free ones, and the exile of the honorable ones, in addition to putting the relatives and the affiliates [of the Syrian regime] in control of the country’s resources, the most important of which are the two cell phone companies. [The Syrian regime] must therefore take immediate definitive decisions prior to the major popular protests that will be taking place in front of the people’s council in Damascus.”
“The movement added – through a statement issued in Damascus, a copy of which was delivered to Elaph – : “We finally address our people and say: A soul that accepts Islam as a religion would not accept to rest afterwards…” The movement stressed: “We announce to everyone, very proudly, that Syria will always belong to all its sons, sects, religions, and ethnicities…” In addition, there were calls plastered on internet pages signed by “the popular committees of the Aleppo governorate” calling for groupings of protests in the down town of the northern city [of Aleppo], the second largest Syrian cities.
“…On the other hand, the Syrian city of Al-Rekka witnessed a night protest “in order to condemn the killing of two members of the Organization of Western Kurdistan by the Syrian forces,” according to the organization’s announcement. [The announcement] added that the Movement of the Democratic Youth in the Syrian city of Al-Rekka has organized a nighttime protest this past Wednesday…adding that the youth protested and held out torches, and condemned the “chauvinistic and racist policies of the regime including the starvation, terrorism, arrests, and killings…”
“It should be mentioned that, following the success of the intifada in Tunisia, the Syrian authorities banned the use of programs that allow access to chatting services on Facebook via cell phones, thus imposing additional restrictions on the internet… Mazen Darwish, the President of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Speech, which was closed down by the authorities three years ago, said: “There is no positive indication to any change in the policy of tight censorship in Syria following the Tunisian revolution.”
“…The Syrian authorities failed to comment on these new restrictions. However, Syrian officials had previously said that the social website, Facebook, is banned in order to prevent Israel from “infiltrating the Syrian youth.” The Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, who had helped in expanding the use of the internet in Syria, has a Facebook page…” - Elaph, United Kingdom
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