Revolution or civil war?

Homs, Syria


Hassan the smuggler got on his motorbike and disappeared up a dirt track that led from Lebanon into Syria. He did not return and an hour or so after nightfall we heard long, echoing bursts of automatic fire. Hassan had been captured by a Syrian Army patrol, said one of the villagers. No, he had run away, said someone else. He had been killed, said a third person. He had escaped. He told us the story the next morning, grinning triumphantly. He had bolted when it became clear he could not bribe his way out and the patrol was going to hand him over to the secret police. Just before he ran, pursued by bullets, Hassan, a Sunni, told his captor, an Alawite officer: ‘My family and my tribe know where you live. If I die here tonight, they will slaughter your village.’

It was a telling exchange. The public impression of the Syrian revolution so far is a simple one of almost unbelievably brave protestors being shot down in the streets for their peaceful demand for freedom. That remains true but in a week of travelling covertly in the country we also saw a growing insurgency. And always hanging in the air was the sectarian question, hovering malignantly, informing people’s fears, increasingly dictating their actions.

We entered Syria from Lebanon with volunteers running guns to those who have taken up arms against the regime. The volunteers were all Sunni, like 75 per cent of Syria’s population. Some were Lebanese Sunnis. They were wary of the Lebanese villages nearby which were Shiite, or which were Alawite, like the 10 to 12 per cent ruling Syrian minority. Those Lebanese villages were supporting their Syrian counterparts too, said the smugglers. It is easy to see how this conflict could spread.

We crept across the border just before midnight, happy that we had not accepted Hassan’s offer of a lift on his motorbike.