Renaud Bernard

This article writes about changes in attitudes to Syria, in the foreign media and in a former 'pro-revolutionary' reporting source from within Syria.

On Sunday 2 June, 2013, on the 8pm French news on France2, there was a change in reporting on Syria. Prior to this French reporting had been as counter-Assad as Australia's.

Here is a link to the original news video. The Maria Saadeh interview starts at about 15.10 minutes in.

This report of June 2 showed how the people of Damascus were continuing to do business and enjoy recreation due to the protection of the Syrian army, which was providing them with remarkable safety in the interior of Syria's capital.

The road out of Damascus was not choked with refugees fleeing the city. Showing the reporter around Damascus was Marie Saadeh, a French-speaking mother of a family and former independent member of parliament who said that when in parliament she had been able to criticise the government.

She asked, "Why do France and Europe give support to the opposition and arm rebel groups?"

French reporter, Renaud Bernard, said, "Because they believe that the Syrian government is doing the same thing against its people, shooting its people, and torturing its people."

The ex-MP shakes her head in disbelief and disagreement. "Monsieur, there is a government and a state."

Renaud Bernard gave his impression: The Syrians are wondering why France and Europe are abandoning them and supporting their attackers. They wonder why the world is not helping Syria to survive as the last secular Arab state in the region. They are not fleeing the country because they are relying on the government to defend it. They are united by the war in support of the government (headed by Assad) and rely on the government to support them.

In other words, they prefer a stable government to a revolution or the state of chaos that masquerades as the promise of a revolution.

Edward Dark on Al-Monitor wonders why they threw peace away

There is an interesting article called "How we lost the Syrian Revolution," posted by Edward Dark on 28 May at Al-Monitor. Edward Dark is better known as a middle-class sympathiser with the 'revolution', but in this article he says,

"Away from all the agendas, whitewashing, propaganda, and outright lies of the global media stations, what we saw on the ground when the rebel fighters entered Aleppo was a far different reality. It hit home hard. It was a shock, especially to those of us who had supported and believed in the uprising all along. It was the ultimate betrayal."

[...]But why was this so? Why were they doing it? It became apparent soon enough, that it was simply a case of us versus them. They were the underprivileged rural class who took up arms and stormed the city, and they were out for revenge against the perceived injustices of years past.[...]

[...] Over the course of our activist work, some of our group were jailed and injured, one was even killed. That is why it never hit home so hard, and never have I felt as sad as when, shortly after Aleppo was raided by the rebels, I received messages from some of those people I used to work with. One said, “How could we have been so stupid? We were betrayed!” and another said, “Tell your children someday that we once had a beautiful country, but we destroyed it because of our ignorance and hatred."

It was around about that time that I gave up on the revolution, such as it had become, and saw that the only way to Syria’s salvation was through reconciliation and a renunciation of violence. Many felt this way, too. Unfortunately, that is not a view shared by the warmongers and power brokers who still think that more Syrian blood should be spilled to appease the insatiable appetites of their sordid aspirations.[...]