:00:01. > :00:11.undercover in the country. This programme contains scenes of
:00:11. > :00:29.
:00:29. > :00:39.violence throughout. Syria, the sound of battle is now constant. An
:00:39. > :00:40.
:00:40. > :00:48.estimated 23,000 people are dead. Millions have abandoned their homes
:00:48. > :00:52.and hundreds of thousands have fled the country. And, after a year and
:00:52. > :01:02.a half of conflict, the two sides are as divorced from reality as it
:01:02. > :01:19.
:01:19. > :01:23.off. President Assad claims he has While the rebels dream on. We are
:01:23. > :01:28.sure of victory. The International Committee should help costs
:01:28. > :01:32.seriously. It will take only a few weeks. How did Syria find itself on
:01:32. > :01:42.this path towards death and destruction while the world looks
:01:42. > :01:59.
:02:00. > :02:05.How did it happen? I have kept in touch with people I have met on
:02:05. > :02:08.trips to Damascus and Homs, and by looking at what was happening in
:02:08. > :02:18.their eyes and attending to understand the tragic turn of
:02:18. > :02:21.
:02:21. > :02:28.events which has left Syria the disaster it is today. The origins
:02:28. > :02:34.of the uprising were modest. In January last year, a group of young
:02:34. > :02:37.people, Muslims and Christians put an invitation on Facebook to join a
:02:37. > :02:46.demonstration outside the Egyptian embassy in support of the
:02:46. > :02:53.protesters in the Square. Tie here square. A young film-maker was one
:02:53. > :02:58.of the organisers off of this first demonstration. We sat, we chanted,
:02:58. > :03:07.we lit candles, we sang the national anthem and a bar similar
:03:07. > :03:13.songs. Less than an hour later one of the more enthusiastic parts of
:03:13. > :03:21.the crowd started chanting, the wind of change has blow. That is
:03:21. > :03:25.when the security staff said we had to stop. Many were arrested.
:03:25. > :03:35.Cameras confiscated and they were told calls for change would not be
:03:35. > :03:38.
:03:38. > :03:45.tolerated. A 13-year-old boy and the south of the country was one of
:03:45. > :03:51.the first victims. He was arrested, tortured and killed. After a group
:03:51. > :04:01.of schoolboys inspired by the Arab Spring road and you regime slogans
:04:01. > :04:11.
:04:11. > :04:15.on their school wall. It was a This woman who I met in Damascus a
:04:15. > :04:25.year ago has crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon to update
:04:25. > :04:27.
:04:28. > :04:32.beyond the situation. She tells me how shocked everyone was when the
:04:32. > :04:42.child was murdered and how they will thought President Assad would
:04:42. > :04:43.
:04:43. > :04:49.Win the President came out on the first speech he should have
:04:49. > :04:53.admitted it was a mistake to react violently. That the people who did
:04:53. > :04:59.that would stand trial. He could have announced the official
:04:59. > :05:09.mourning for three days. That would have calmed people down. He did not.
:05:09. > :05:32.
:05:33. > :05:42.The first speech was announcing war Opposition was driven underground,
:05:43. > :05:51.
:05:51. > :05:56.and freedom of speech tonight. -- Journalists who had been allowed in
:05:56. > :05:59.officially were only given the government point of view. I wanted
:05:59. > :06:04.an alternative and as the first television reported to enter Syria
:06:04. > :06:11.during the uprising, had to go undercover and carry out interviews
:06:11. > :06:16.in hiding. Once in Damascus, at asked a well-known champion of
:06:16. > :06:26.media freedom whether I could meet openly with protesters and attend
:06:26. > :06:26.
:06:26. > :07:07.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds
:07:07. > :07:12.He set about co-ordinating the locals who wide by-now getting
:07:12. > :07:20.pictures out through YouTube. He has since been imprisoned for his
:07:21. > :07:27.effort. Although such pictures cannot always be verified, for much
:07:27. > :07:31.of the uprising they are all the outside world has been able to see.
:07:31. > :07:41.Protesters armed only with smart phones at this stage of the
:07:41. > :07:45.
:07:45. > :07:49.conflict, recorded the increasing violence. As it spread from the
:07:49. > :07:59.South it was about to engulf most of the country. The outside world
:07:59. > :08:02.
:08:02. > :08:07.may have been watching but what was it doing? In August, the Arab
:08:07. > :08:11.League met and condemned the crackdown in Syria. After talks
:08:11. > :08:21.with President Assad, the spokesman claimed he had agreed to end the
:08:21. > :08:31.
:08:31. > :08:36.violence. Any optimism fuelled by the statement was to be short-lived.
:08:36. > :08:41.With news of the resistance breeding, I decided to sneak back
:08:41. > :08:51.into Syria, this time to Homs which had become the epicentre of the
:08:51. > :08:51.
:08:52. > :08:55.revolution. A local resistance co- ordinator gave me a tour of but I
:08:55. > :09:00.armour, the part of the city that was bearing the brunt of the attack
:09:00. > :09:10.by government forces. He pointed out with indignation the
:09:10. > :09:18.
:09:18. > :09:24.uncollected rubbish and bullet- There was also a carnival
:09:24. > :09:34.atmosphere. People rejoicing in the freedom to express themselves after
:09:34. > :09:56.
:09:56. > :09:59.After my exchange with this demonstrator, the army opened fire.
:10:00. > :10:04.Nonetheless, opposition leaders told me they were trying to keep
:10:04. > :10:14.their protest peaceful and to hold a demonstration which included all
:10:14. > :10:17.
:10:18. > :10:23.This man is a local businessman. After joining the revolutionary
:10:23. > :10:28.council in Homs he had to leave his home and go into hiding. The way
:10:29. > :10:37.team is trying to push us to be involved in the civil war. It will
:10:37. > :10:40.not succeed. We are aware of the risk. And you can see the
:10:40. > :10:49.Christians and Sunni marching together and shouting for freedom
:10:49. > :10:56.for all people. Our real enemy is the regime itself. But the face of
:10:56. > :11:01.non-violent demonstration was coming to an end. -- phase. Here in
:11:01. > :11:10.Homs, army snipers targeted civilians as they tried to leave
:11:10. > :11:17.Friday prayers. To attend what by now had become weekly
:11:17. > :11:21.demonstrations. Little wonder that peaceful protest gave way to
:11:22. > :11:27.fighting. According to this man who speaks to me from his current
:11:27. > :11:30.hiding place in Homs. When I spoke to you and Homs a year ago, you
:11:30. > :11:36.said you were committed to a political, peaceful solution and
:11:36. > :11:42.you did not want the situation to get out of control. We tried our
:11:42. > :11:49.best to stay committed to peaceful movement against this dictatorial
:11:49. > :11:53.regime. As a result of the mass destruction of our city, tens of
:11:53. > :12:00.thousands of peaceful unarmed civilians, who were killed we are
:12:00. > :12:10.obliged to carry arms to defend ourselves. It was not our choice.
:12:10. > :12:17.
:12:17. > :12:24.Former businessmen, lawyers and students picked up arms. There have
:12:24. > :12:31.been allegations of atrocities on both sides. With so many
:12:31. > :12:40.restrictions in place these reports are hard to confirm. The increasing
:12:40. > :12:45.and indiscriminate bombing of urban areas is not. 200 civilian deaths
:12:45. > :12:50.were reported in Homs in one day. The Sunday Times reporter and a
:12:50. > :13:00.French journalist were killed by Syrian government troops. It
:13:00. > :13:03.
:13:03. > :13:07.prompted another international outcry. In March the United Nations
:13:08. > :13:17.called an emergency meeting. Russia and China's refusal to attend and
:13:17. > :13:20.there could be no resolution, only a statement. The Security Council
:13:20. > :13:25.announces its gravest concern at the deteriorating situation which
:13:25. > :13:35.has resulted in a serious human rights crisis and a deplorable
:13:35. > :13:44.
:13:44. > :13:48.humanitarian situation. Strong President Assad had to do something.
:13:48. > :13:58.He visited the suburb in homes which had been attacked more than
:13:58. > :14:11.
:14:11. > :14:18.any other. This was an opportunity -- ammends. I ask whether they have
:14:18. > :14:25.seen any signs of rebuilding. TRANSLATION: Is a big lie. He
:14:25. > :14:35.destroyed the city. He is not serious about rebuilding it. He
:14:35. > :14:36.
:14:36. > :14:46.also destroyed many villages in other areas. He made his decision
:14:46. > :14:52.
:14:52. > :14:58.to defeat the peace for opposition. The barbarity reached new extremes
:14:58. > :15:07.with a massacre. UN monitors concerned the killing of more than
:15:07. > :15:13.100 people, mainly women and children, by government fiat --
:15:13. > :15:23.thugs. Occasional monitoring is all the government can do. Without the
:15:23. > :15:28.
:15:28. > :15:33.backing of a Security Council resolution the UN is impotent.
:15:33. > :15:40.Again, will the leaders met to talk. As a gathering of friends of Syria
:15:40. > :15:45.group in Paris. They stood in memory of the victims of violence.
:15:45. > :15:50.They agreed that there would be no military intervention to help the
:15:50. > :15:55.rebels, only a call for tougher sanctions. We have to deny the
:15:55. > :16:02.Syrian regime the sources of finance which they are using to
:16:02. > :16:04.fund their killing machine. Just like all the lame interventions by
:16:04. > :16:09.the international community, President Assad has ignored them.
:16:09. > :16:13.In a scarcely believable statement he denied what his army had done.
:16:13. > :16:23.He has warned that the war he has declared against his people will
:16:23. > :16:23.
:16:23. > :17:06.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds
:17:06. > :17:14.My request to the Syrian government to explain their attacks on
:17:14. > :17:20.civilians have been ignored. Everyone I have met on my trip to
:17:20. > :17:23.Syria has been imprisoned or fled the country. In Damascus,
:17:23. > :17:33.demonstrators are calling for the release of a media co-ordinator who
:17:33. > :17:33.
:17:33. > :17:38.was arrested in February. His whereabouts are unknown. My other
:17:38. > :17:48.film-maker has been arrested and released. He can slip over the
:17:48. > :17:50.
:17:50. > :17:56.border to meet me. She describes what it is like for people like her
:17:56. > :18:00.living in Damascus today. TRANSLATION: Too many helicopters
:18:00. > :18:06.going around, sniper's over so many buildings are shooting everything
:18:06. > :18:11.that moved. I did not notice when the shot actually came in, the
:18:11. > :18:19.window was open. There was no wrote in class. A work of the next
:18:19. > :18:26.morning and realised there was a hole in the wall above the bed.
:18:26. > :18:36.got back into it with some of those I met in Homs last year. A year ago
:18:36. > :18:36.
:18:36. > :19:37.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds
:19:37. > :19:42.you to go before a tour around the Activists in Homs had Sander's
:19:42. > :19:49.pictures to illustrate daily life. We verified them as far as possible
:19:49. > :19:57.with refugees from the city now living in London. Everything, they
:19:57. > :20:01.say, is in short supply. Food, gas, fresh water. All are now rationed.
:20:01. > :20:11.Young children who lose their homes and families in the bombardment are
:20:11. > :20:40.
:20:40. > :20:50.Parents say they cannot allow children to leave the confines of
:20:50. > :20:54.
:20:54. > :20:58.what remains of their homes. There Doctors are being imprisoned for
:20:58. > :21:08.helping the opposition. There is a shortage of medical equipment and
:21:08. > :21:08.
:21:08. > :21:12.drugs. Hundreds are dying who could be saved. This man is a local
:21:12. > :21:17.businessman who joined the revolution in Homs. He has been
:21:18. > :21:24.imprisoned, tortured and release. He and his colleagues say they will
:21:25. > :21:29.fight until the end. He warned, so will President Assad. We thought in
:21:29. > :21:37.the beginning that we would get effective support from the
:21:38. > :21:41.governments of the West. We got nothing. When we reach democracy,
:21:41. > :21:51.President Assad and his relatives will all be sent to the Criminal