29/01/2012 Reporters

Afghanistan and President Karzai's decision to have talks with the

Taliban. But now it is time for Welcome to this Reporters special,

Inside Syria. I'm Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East editor.

Kalashnikovs against tanks. The defiance of anti-government

protesters, ready to lay down their lives to overthrow President Assad.

But he has supporters who will die for him. His supporters rallying

for Damascus call the uprising a terrorist plot. It is not a war yet

but it is starting to look like one. Security forces are taking

casualties as well. The Foreign Minister rejects the Arab League's

peace plan. And no way back. We meet the defectors from the Syrian

army now fighting for the right to We have had a lot more freedom to

report here in Damascus than ever. We come to this place where a

funeral is happening without any kind of government officials.

Otherwise we would not have made it through the Free Syrian Army checks

points. I thought this place would be like Tripoli under Colonel

Gaddafi where sometimes we were locked up. That has not happened.

We have found a city near Damascus where President Assad's does not

necessarily have control. We have been to other places. We have been

to a town called Zabadani. There is a ceasefire in Zabadani. After ten

months of trauma for local people. The army has outposts that they're

not shooting. The regime was forced into a truce because their men came

into conflict with others. Zabadani is a half-hour's drive from

Damascus. I saw pockets of damage from the fighting. An activist said

that he would be in more danger if his face was shown. What are you

going to do next week or the week after that? We will still protest.

Protest every day. Until the regime comes down. We will defend

Zabadani's main square is now dominated by what Syrians call the

Independence Square. Protesters want revive national symbols. These

people are effectively in control of their town and able to walk in

the main square unmolested by security forces is a sign that the

regime is feeling the strain of the uprising. This movement may not

last long. President Assad's forces are still camped on the outskirts.

These are the local heroes, fighters from the Free Syrian Army.

Defectors from the regular forces and men who have taken up arms.

They are celebrating a victory but some worry that the men have only

pulled back because of pressure from the Arab League. The fighters

say they will be ready. They have heavy weapons, you have

Kalashnikovs, how can you win this? God willing, we will win. He says

we are ready to die for the women The chant was, God salute the Free

Army. It is acknowledgement that the rebel fighters are changing the

balance of power. The fireworks were to tell people it was time to

protest. Zabadani is not the only town near Damascus seeding

rebellion. It is the only one where the President has ceded power to

the protesters. It is enough for me to have these two days of freedom.

It does not matter if I die tomorrow. It is enough that I live

The regime's forces are overstretched. But they are still

powerful. This could be a pause, not a new beginning. This activity

should not give the impression that he has lost control of his capital

city. The fact is that the regime still has many strengths and some

genuine support. Especially from the group that President Assad

comes from. We went to District 86, one of their heartlands. Minutes

after we arrived in District 86 in Damascus we were surrounded by

support for President Bashar al- Assad. They were expecting us and

had their banners ready. There is no reason to suppose this is not

genuine. These people are from a religious sect that makes up 10% of

the Syrian population. All they want support from the Arab League

in what they call his fight against We love our president. We love

Bashar al-Assad. He loves us. love Bashar al-Assad. I love Bashar

al-Assad. Everyone loves Bashar al- This is the bedrock of his support.

People from his own community. They are 100% behind what he is doing.

They believe that this uprising District 86 is named after a

military unit. Many of the men who work live here work for the

security forces. These boys say their older brother was killed this

He says he just signed up with He might find himself in a suburb

of Damascus. These videos seemed to confirm reports that a unit was

attacked. -- a funeral. Four people, protesters say, were killed by the

military. The dead laid out in a mosque. The army was outside. Later

it was claimed they were driven out. The Free Syrian Army say they did

it and threatened to attack the presidential palace and hang five

prisoners if the regime's forces came back. They Arab League warns

of the risk of civil war. So far it has not found a way to stop the

slide towards it. Pressure was coming from abroad. Syria's Foreign

Minister delivered Syria's response. He accused the Arab League of

ignoring a report from its own monitors and dismissed a peace plan

that would have meant President Bashar al-Assad standing down.

came up with a draft resolution, a political one, so we would not

accept it. It is a blatant resolution that attacks Syria's

sovereignty. It is an interference in Syria's internal affairs. This

means that they have not discussed the report in detail, despite their

work on the ground for one month and their fact-finding mission on

We have been able to get out of Damascus. We went on a trip to Homs,

the town in northern Syria that is one of the centres of the uprising.

We were not able to get to the equivalent of this place, the place

where the uprising is going on. We were on the government's side. What

I found there was something that was starting to feel like a war. In

northern Homs the regime was burying its dead. Three soldiers

who officials say died in an ambush that killed them. -- 11. In almost

a year of rebellion and the regime says that 2,000 of its people have

been killed. President Assad claimed that he faced a land

uprising. 2012 feels very different. On the edge of Damascus, more

funerals, of 11 anti-Assad demonstrators. The UN says more

than 5,000 protesters have been killed by the regime. Many more

have been wounded. Back in Homs, the regime's casualties were coming

to the hospital. Three dead soldiers as well. The damage is

being inflicted by these men's former comrades, defectors from the

regime's forces. They were killed an hour ago, says the ambulance

driver. It is not a war in Syria. But in parts of Homs, it is looking

like one. A lot of shooting here. Yes. What you think about President

Assad? I want to finish my life with my family. Do not ask me about

the President. Do not ask me about him. Homs feels exhausted and

despairing. The violence that is now part of the uprising,

protesters say it is a backlash against so many civilian deaths.

There is a terrible example just a few hours' drive from here about

what can go wrong. The country was torn apart by a civil war. The big

fear in Syria is that something like that could happen here. The

challenge now is to find a way to stop the slide into a future that

no-one wants. The Free Syrian Army are increasingly active in Damascus.

One of the suburbs, today at any rate, the regime's route does not

run. A few nights ago, I went to a place not too far from here, Duma.

We had to do it under the cover of darkness. Look at central Damascus

and you may think the city is calm. There when night falls, head for

the suburb of Duma, only 15 minutes' drive away. Getting into

Duma is not easy. But at the end of a muddy lane there is a checkpoint

controlled by the Free Syrian Army. A loose alliance of mainly army

defectors across the country who are fighting President Assad's men.

Locals say they keep the President's men out most of the

time. Their light weapons, shotguns and pistols, cannot stop an assault,

but could make it costly for the regime's forces to stay too long.

The President says they are an armed gang directed by foreign

conspiracies. They say they are protecting the people. Pass this on

to the world, our revolution is peaceful, we did not attack the

regime, they attacked us. We are in control here, Duma is ours, Syria

is ours, and we will win. The army and security forces keep trying to

get into here, but we defeat them. Duma is forbidding and dark, with

power cuts and fuel shortages. The nights are very cold. So what has

changed around here that means we are able to move in? I saw the Free

Syrian Army. The army and the security are on the outskirts.

you mean these are defectors who are fighting for you now? Yes.

Slowly people emerge from the evening prayer. Too often for them,

the nights have belonged to the President's arrest squads. They

head for the mosque where numbers make them feel strong. We are not

identifying interviewees at their request. What do you think should

happen to him? We want to kill him. He has to be killed. You want him

dead? Of course. He killed our families and our people. He has to

be killed. The young men were full of bravado. The older ones also

talked about victory but are more conscious of the regime's strength.

Do you want foreign intervention? We are going to win whether there

is intervention from outside or not. But intervention will accelerate

the step down of Bashar al-Assad. Their enemy, the President, also

has strong supporters who will fight for him. But for protesters

across the country, there is no turning back. This is all bad news

for the President. An important part of his capital city in the

hands of the people and defended by men who had defected from his armed

forces. It depends on how much firepower the President has at his

disposal and whether he chooses to use it to regain control of the

streets. They said it was getting dangerous and hustled us out. A few

hours later, the security forces were back, arresting more people.

This is an area of Damascus that the President has lost control of.

We have heard that the police are coming. This has been a remarkable

morning. To find out the strength of the opposition, drive into the

suburbs of Damascus. It is only in the last five days that locals said

that the Free Syrian Army has been openly on the streets. There are

many defectors from the State Army. They say they are protecting the

people who are about to hold a funeral. One of them showed off his

old army identity card. They look well established, with sandbags in

position. Everyone was on edge. For ten months, the regime's forces

have been cracking down hard on Friday's protests. He said he had

been a general in the Syrian government forces. A man

interrupted to praise the Free Army. Then something no-one wanted to

hear. Security coming? Do not be afraid, the general said. Our

resistance is strong. Some of them got ready to fight. Stay with me,

he said, do not be afraid. Sentries were sending information by

telephone. They all seemed to know what their jobs were. They moved

deeper into the suburbs. It felt as if every man in the suburb was

there. A big send-off for a man who had been killed by the city forces.

Across Syria, funerals are a focus for the opposition. They chanted,

oh God, you are all we have. Oh God, we are your men. This is another

section of the suburbs of Damascus that has slipped out of the control

of President Assad. The only way he can comport his authority is by

sending in his men and using their guns and their bullets. And for a

moment, that is what they thought was about to happen. It shows the

tension, even with the Free Syrian Army close by. But it was time for

us to go. We were warned about snipers ahead. Getting out was not

easy. They control a surprisingly big area but it was surrounded. All

this does not mean the President is about to fall. He has his own

strong support and heavy weapons. But the regime's forces cannot be

everywhere at once, and the power of the opposition is growing.

President Assad has sustained some serious blows, the Free Syrian Army

is stronger than it has been. But the regime is still strong as well,

and he is determined to fight it out, to hang on, and he believes

that time is on his side, and he believes he has enough foreign