By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN, May 28 (Reuters) – Sunni Muslim businesses closed in
Old Damascus on Monday in the biggest act of civil disobedience
by the capital’s merchant class, a backbone of support for
President Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s 14-month revolt,
activists said.
The show of defiance was in protest against the massacre of
at least 108 civilians in the town of Houla in central Syria,
and follows strikes elsewhere over the previous
two days, they said.
“More than 80 percent of shops have closed in some areas.
The army and police are going around the old city with
microphones shouting orders for merchants to re-open their
shops,” an activist called Nader said by phone from the area.
Sunni merchants from established commercial families have
traditionally formed the core of the business community in the
Syrian capital and in the commercial hub Aleppo.
Tied to Assad – from Syria’s minority Alawite sect – through
an intricate network of alliances forged by his late father, the
Sunni merchant class were seen as crucial in preventing a
collapse of the Syrian pound last year. Commercial guilds also
made public endorsements of Assad.
The merchants, however, have slowly withdrawn support as the
uprising, now coupled with an armed insurgency against Assad’s
rule, has shown no sign of abating and Western sanctions on the
declining economy have started to bite.
Another activist, Amer Momen, said security police forced
open dozens of shops in Old Damascus but businesses were largely
shut by the nightfall.
“Many of those who were forced to open remained defiant and
refused to sell to customers. We will see if this proves the
beginning of a prolonged strike,” Momen said.
“The merchants are a crucial power centre…They hire masses
of people and are the core of the silent majority. If they no
longer remain silent, then the revolt has hit a milestone.”
A police raid that killed six young men on Sunday in the
conservative Sunni district of Midan, just outside the old city
wall, and the killing of at least one mourner during their
funeral, further inflamed sentiment, opposition sources in
Damascus said.
Photos and videos posted online by activists showed a row of
shuttered shops on the capital’s main shopping thoroughfare
which dates back to Roman times.
Shops were also shown closed in Bab Sreijeh district and in
some areas of the Hamidiya souk in the capital, as well as the
staunchly Sunni district of Midan, the northern neighbourhood of
Qaboon and the southern Hajar al-Aswad district, home to tens of
thousands of refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
