A SYRIAN man now living in Huddersfield has called for the West to support revolutionaries in his home country – and says he will go back if the present repressive regime is overthrown.
Protestors have been demonstrating against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whose Baath party has dominated politics in the country for almost 50 years.
A deadly government crackdown earlier this week failed to crush three days of massive protests.
Father-of-three Mukhles Khalaf (pictured on the left), who lives on Fernside Avenue in Almondbury, took political asylum in the UK 10 years ago.
He said: “The international community should interfere, even if that means military action.
“The Syrian regime will not give up authority without a fight.”
The people of Syria have been living under a state of emergency for more than 40 years.
The country’s human rights record is among the worst in the world, according to human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch.
The authorities arrest democracy and human rights activists, censor websites, detain bloggers, and impose travel bans. Arbitrary detention, torture, and disappearances are widespread.
Despite the political repression and rights abuses, President al-Assad remains popular among many in the Arab world because he is seen as one of the few Arab leaders willing to stand up to Israel.
But since January, Syrian activists have used Facebook to organise demonstrations in front of parliament in the capital, Damascus, and at Syrian embassies across the world.
There was unrest in the city of Daraa last Friday after troops fired at protesters, killing five people.
Over the next two days, two more people died and authorities sealed the city, allowing people out but not in as enraged protesters set fire to government buildings and massed in their thousands around the city.
Mr Khalaf, 54, said he would be desperate to return to his home country if the regime was overthrown.
He said: “Syria has been like a prison, the people are like hostages.
“The situation is finally changing, the same as in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.”
Khalaf Dahowd, 35, (right of the two men) who is a friend of Mr Khalaf and co-chairman of the International Support Kurds in Syria Association, has been in the UK for five years.
He said: “I hope that my people – Kurds and Arabs – will rise up together against the regime in a peaceful and democratic way.
“It is the era for change. Democracy is the best solution for the Middle East. It will mean a safer world and better relations with the West.”
Syrian police launched a relentless assault yesterday on a neighbourhood sheltering anti-government protesters, killing at least 15 in an operation that lasted nearly 24 hours. Witnesses said at least six were killed in a pre-dawn attack on the al-Omari mosque in the southern agricultural city of Daraa, where protesters have taken to the streets in calls for reforms and political freedoms.
