Pressure mounts on Assad as south Syria protests enter second week

Protests in southern Syria have entered their second week, with demonstrators waving the colourful flag of the minority Druze community, burning banners of Assad regime and at one point raiding several offices of his ruling party.

The protests were initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country's spiralling economy but quickly shifted focus, with marchers calling for the fall of the Assad regime.

The protests have been centred in the regime-controlled province of Sweida, the heartland of Syria’s Druze, who had largely stayed on the sidelines during the long-running conflict between Assad and those trying to topple him.

In a scene that once would have been unthinkable in the Druze stronghold, protesters kicked members of Assad’s Baath party out of some of their offices, welded the doors shut and spray-painted anti-regime slogans on the walls.

The protests have rattled the Assad regime, but don't seem to pose an existential threat.

Still, anger is building, even among Syrians who did not join the initial anti-Assad protests in 2011 that were met by a harsh crackdown and plunged the country into years of civil war.

For some, the final straw came two weeks ago when the regime leader further scaled back the country’s expensive fuel and gasoline subsidy programme. A simultaneous doubling of meagre public sector wages and pensions did little to cushion the blow, as it accelerated inflation and further weakened the Syrian pound, further piling the pressure on millions living in poverty.

Soon after, protests kicked off in the provinces of Sweida and the neighbouring province of Daraa.

Over the past decade, Sweida had largely isolated itself from Syria’s uprising turned-conflict, although it witnessed sporadic protests decrying corruption and the country’s economic backslide. This time, crowds quickly swelled into the hundreds, calling out political repression by Assad's regime in an echo of protests that rocked the country in 2011.

“People have reached a point where they can no longer withstand the situation," Rayan Maarouf, editor-in-chief of the local activist media collective Suwayda24, told The Associated Press news agency. “Everything is crumbling.”

Life for much of the country’s population has become increasingly miserable. At least 300,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict, half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million has been displaced and large parts of the infrastructure have been crippled.

Ninety percent of Syrians live in poverty. Rampant corruption and Western-led sanctions have also worsened poverty and inflation.

In Daraa, often referred to as the birthplace of the 2011 uprising but now under regime control, at least 57 people were arrested in the current protests, according to the Britain-based Syrian Network for Human Rights.

In Sweida, the response has been more restrained, with Assad apparently wary of exerting too much force against the Druze. During the years of civil war, his regime presented itself as a defender of religious minorities against extremism.

Over the years, the province's young men have also armed themselves to defend their villages from Daesh terrorists and Damascus-associated militias that produce and trade in illegal amphetamine pills, known as Captagon.

Meanwhile, in Damascus, Lattakia, Tartous and other urban government strongholds, some are voicing their discontent more quietly. They write messages of support for the protests on paper, take pictures of those notes on the streets of their towns, and share them on social media.

Others suffer in silence and focus on daily survival. In Damascus, some have taken to carrying backpacks instead of wallets to carry the wads of cash they need to make everyday purchases amid the rampant inflation, while families struggle to buy basic necessities.

“If I buy (my son) two containers of milk, I’d have spent my entire month’s salary,” Damascus resident Ghaswan al Wadi told the AP while preparing her family dinner at home after a long day at work.

The ongoing protests highlight Assad's vulnerability as a result of the failing economy, even in areas without widespread ideologically driven opposition to his continued rule, such as Sweida.