Syria's Hama

It's profoundly saddening to learn of the savage crackdown launched by the Syrian security forces on the eve of Ramazan killing some 140 protestors in a number of cities across the country. That the rebel city of Hama, said to be the citadel of Syria's dissenting democratic forces, bore the main brunt as over a hundred of its residents were killed in the day-long clashes, was expected.
In June, also, about 70 protestors were killed in Hama by the security forces - bringing back the memory of February 1982 when the city lost 10,000 of its residents in a bloody crackdown ordered by President Bashar al-Assad's father against an armed revolt. It is doubtful if the latest spell of savagery would help the government regain control of Hama.
What is said to have triggered the Sunday's crackdown is the fear of the regime that during the month of Ramazan, anti-government protests would grow and gain intensity further undercutting President Bashar al-Assad's hold on power. Whatever the reason for the latest wave of repression, it is very disturbing that the Syrian regime is so much disrespectful to the holy month of fasting.
No wonder the latest spell of brutality has earned world-wide condemnation, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's. But, regrettably, there is deafening silence in the Muslim world. Turkey is the only Muslim country that has condemned the Syrian crackdown on the eve of Ramazan, expressing its doubts about President Assad's commitment to political and social reforms. That violence against Syria's democratic forces won't relent he has made certain, in that addressing a military function simultaneous to the Hama crackdown, he bucked up the security forces as a role model of 'commitment to the nation's causes and defender of its rights'.
Whatever little progress is seen to have been made following his last week's government approval of the law allowing the functioning of other political parties along with ruling Baath Party has come to a naught. On the home front, the anti-government demonstrations calling for democracy and increased civil rights are likely to gain popularity. And whatever little support Syria had in the UN Security Council with Russia and China threatening to veto any anti-Assad resolution, would become increasingly unsustainable.
Likewise, the satisfaction Damascus earlier had, albeit vicariously, in the Council's non-permanent members' reluctance to support the resolution, fearing the document might become handy for foreign intervention, may no more be available. Given the ferocity of the latest crackdown, sustaining diplomatic support for President Assad's insatiable appetite for power is bound to be problematic, and should be made so by the fellow Muslim countries also.
Nothing has brought the Muslim world more international reproach and disgrace than its rulers, who having taken power in the name of democracy, held on to it by hook or by crook and brute use of force, especially in the Middle East. But that is going to change, as the Arab Spring permeates through the corridors of repressive regimes. Dictators in Egypt and Tunisia are now history, and there is no reason why others of the ilk don't crumble and disappear from the scene.
Of course, at the state level, many countries are reluctant to make up their minds and offer support to the Arab Spring but at the level of people throughout the world the situation is altogether different. Is there any doubt about the ousted rulers' plans and programmes to establish dynastic rules in their countries? So is the case in Syria where the Assad family is in control for over 40 years - drawing legitimacy from the barrel of the gun. That the security forces should kill thousands of peaceful demonstrators to keep dictators in eternal power is not acceptable.