The face of oppression and resistance

In 1982 I traveled to Madaya Syria as a newlywed to meet my husband’s family and for an extended stay (17 months).  Madaya is located about 6 miles inside Syria’s border with Lebanon in the Fertile Crescent region, and is famous for its bountiful vegetable and fruit crops and natural spring waters.  It faces the eastern slopes of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in the lush Barada River Valley, is snow-capped in the winter, and is a popular tourist destination in the summer because of its gorgeous weather and large European-style market, offerings of which included genuine designer men’s and women’s Western clothing and shoes. 

The family home was large middle-class dwelling that was subdivided into 2 units downstairs and a large third 2-bedroom unit on the second floor, each unit with its own kitchen and bathroom, with an impressive third-level veranda that had a breathtaking view of the mountains and valley.  During the summer, they leased out half of the downstairs to tourists or visitors from other towns.  When I arrived there, I was greeted by the summer tenants, Ahmed (and his new wife), who was the younger brother of one of my husband’s close friends (Ali) back in the States who had come there to get his degree.  The couple, who was shy, humble, very kind and generous, presented me with a large bouquet of yellow roses with jasmine and honeysuckle sprays, as Ali had asked them to do for him, since he knew those were my favorite flowers.  The welcome I received extended beyond the household members to the townspeople, who made me feel right at home, despite our language and cultural differences.   

Madayans have a long proud history of resistance to occupation forces, dating back to Roman times.  The town often harbors refugees displaced by war, and political dissidents, including military defectors and local politicians, who have been deemed troublesome by the oppressive Baathist regime and are seeking safety.  In light of the recently escalated crackdown by Syrian government forces, I was searching You Tube today and was amazed when I stumbled across this footage of a meeting an Arab League Committee had with Madayan locals on January 15.  The clip has some English translation. 

At 3:17, I found AHMED telling the committee about what happened to his two sons, ages 18 and 19, who were recently “martyred” after they were executed by Assad’s forces.  Ali (named for his uncle), the younger of the two, deserted the army while serving his compulsory military time after he refused an order to open fire on unarmed demonstrators in a protest which his brother was attending.  The brother was arrested and jailed for being in the demonstration.  When Ali went to the prison 3 days later to visit his brother, he was identified by “security forces” as a deserter.  They shot him in the legs, pulled the brother out of his cell, then dragged him out to the street and executed both of them. 

The clip goes on to describe the difficulties Ahmed had over the next week retrieving his son’s bodies.  By Moslem practice, burials customarily occur within 24 hours of death.  Ahmed broke down crying when he reported the medical examiner’s findings, then made a plea for help to the committee members, in the Name of Jesus and Mohammed, prophets he believes were sent to "protect" us. 

My ex-husband and I have since divorced and remarried, but the experience I had with these people in that place had a profound effect on me and I will always deeply cherish those memories.  Ever since that time, I have often struggled with the sense that I am living my life out in two places at once.  I am at a real loss to know how to process this devastating news.  I am particularly struck by the courage it took Ahmed (who put himself at great personal risk) to allow himself to be video recorded telling this story in that situation and am overwhelmed trying to wrap my head around the profound grief he must be feeling.   I am also completely conflicted and confused by my own political convictions, among which is a strong belief in employing non-violent passive resistance and promoting peace-oriented diplomacy in conflict resolution.  On the other hand, when people become this desperate, they will take their help from anyplace they can find it.  As has been the case so many times before in that region, where the US has often withdrawn its “support,” the radical Islamic factions are more than happy to come in and fill that void. 

Ahmed clearly does not want to see “foreign intervention,” but in many other pieces I have read or viewed, the Syrian people are BEGGING for tougher sanctions, UN involvement, and even direct foreign military intervention, in an effort to avoid more of this horrible protracted civil strife.  Before I saw this video, I thought I was opposed to US involvement there, mostly based on economic considerations and being against US “meddling” in Middle Eastern countries’ political affairs.  Now, I simply do not know how I am supposed to feel anymore, and am not able to distinguish between right and wrong when it comes to US policy toward Syria.       

Any thoughts or comments?  BTW, I apologize for the length of my post today.  I know my verbosity gets on some people’s nerves BIGTIME, but I really didn’t know how else to tell this story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvG2Nem0ZKg