One of the Daraa Children Who Sparked Syria Revolt Recounts to Asharq Al-Awsat His Journey of the Past 10 Years

Mouawiya Syasneh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Mouawiya Syasneh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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One of the Daraa Children Who Sparked Syria Revolt Recounts to Asharq Al-Awsat His Journey of the Past 10 Years

Mouawiya Syasneh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Mouawiya Syasneh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

“I have no regrets and I am ready to do it again,” declared Mouawiya Syasneh, one of the children whose anti-regime graffiti in Daraa ten years ago sparked popular protests against Damascus’ iron-fisted rule.

Daraa is now known as the cradle of the revolution that has evolved into a brutal conflict pitting the opposition against the regime.

“I would do it again twice and thrice if it means not living under a regime that has not spared a single means of killing and destruction against our people,” Mouawiya told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Mouawiya was forced to quit Daraa, but his departure paved the way for a new phase of struggle against the regime. He was among the second batch of people who were displaced from Daraa through a Russia-sponsored agreement on Daraa al-Balad. He has found a new home in Aleppo.

Beginnings
With the eruption of the so-called Arab Spring revolts across the Arab world a decade ago, people were pinned to the television screens to watch the rapid developments.

In early 2011, protests swept Daraa when regime forces arrested 20 children, who were no older than 15, for spray-painting anti-regime graffiti on a local school wall.

Mouawiya was among the detainees.

“We were just children back then. The most we dreamed of was playing and staying up late,” he recalled. “We avidly watched the developments in the Arab world. Our parents doubted whether such revolts could be taken up by the Syrians against a regime that controls the country through its security agencies and military.”

He recalled how he and several of his friends impulsively wrote the graffiti on the school wall at around 3:00 am in mid-February. “Your turn is up, doctor,” read one, in reference to president Bashar al-Assad. Another read “freedom” and “down with the regime”.

“We quickly fled the scene,” he added. “The next day people, including the school principal, were dumbstruck by what they saw. It was incredible.”

Soon after, security agency and police vehicles descended on the school to investigate. “Eventually, informants pointed the fingers at us and the security agencies soon raided our homes.” Mouawiya said six of his friends were detained, while he remained in hiding for three days.

Once he believed that the situation was calm, he ventured home at around 4 am to find political security agents waiting for him. He was beaten and verbally abused. He was taken to the police station where he was severely tortured and beaten.

Terror and torture
Mouawiya recalled the “hellish and terrorizing” conditions of his arrest and torture. “I was held by the political security agency for around a week in Daraa. I was tortured for four hours a day during which I was investigated through intimidation and threats.”

Their questions focused on the sides that had encouraged the children to write the graffiti. Soon after, Mouawiya was transferred to the political security branch in Sweida and then the Palestine branch in Damascus. There, he said he encountered several children from Daraa who were also accused of writing anti-regime graffiti on the walls of other school and government buildings.

More torture was in store. “After 20 days, we felt that we would die at the underground facility. Then, one day, the security forces eased their torture and changed the way they treated us,” said Mouawiya. The children were informed that Assad had issued an amnesty for them.

“This is a generous gesture from him and you must respect and appreciate it by cooperating with us later and inform the security agency of any person who tries to undermine the state security or encourage protests,” the children were informed by a senior official at the station.

“In other words, they wanted us to work as informants,” continued Mouawiya.

He and the other children were released after some 40 days in detention. Back in Daraa, they were forced to sign a pledge that they would no longer engage in anti-regime acts.

“We were back, but were surprised to witness the heavy military and security deployment at the entrances of the city,” he added. “We were also surprised to see our families gathered at the Omari square as they waited our arrival. It turned out that a major revolutionary movement was underway in the city and its countryside in wake of our arrest.”

Taking up arms
“I was a child at the time and was not aware of the rapid developments related to the revolt that were taking place in Daraa and the province as a whole,” remarked Mouawiya.

The regime soon started to bring in reinforcements and militias to contain the situation. It attempted to storm and strike Daraa al-Balad. It failed in controlling an inch of the city.

In September 2013, military developments were rapidly taking place and the revolutionaries were liberating several military positions from the regime. They managed to liberate areas close to Jordan and the regime started to retaliate with heavy shelling and rocket fire.

“My father was killed in such an attack as he was heading out for dawn prayers,” recalled Mouawiya. “I was 18 at the time and decided to take up arms and join the Free Syrian Army.” He would consequently take part in several battles against the regime and its militias.

In 2018, Daraa came under a total siege by the regime and Russian forces and Iranian militias in an attempt to recapture the city and neighboring villages. Negotiations between local committees and the warring parties led to a ceasefire and an agreement that Daraa city would not be stormed.

The situation would hold until July of this year when the regime again attempted to capture Daraa. Negotiations have again started between the concerned parties, with Russia acting as mediator. The regime is insisting that the remaining revolutionaries quit the regime.

“I opted for the difficult choice of displacement to opposition areas in the north to avert violence against my loved ones,” Mouawiya said.

“I will continue my revolutionary journey here in the north in the hopes of one day going home that we were forced to quit victoriously,” he added. “I am proud to be one of the youths who were a main spark of the Syrian revolt against the regime that has not spared any method to kill our loved ones.”

“A decade later, I am now 26 years old. I will teach my children how to resist the regime until it collapses and until freedom and dignity prevail.”



Trump's Week of Tariff Turmoil Rings Recession Alarm

An electronic board shows Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indices as people walk on a pedestrian bridge at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China April 11, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura  REFILE - QUALITY REPEAT
An electronic board shows Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indices as people walk on a pedestrian bridge at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China April 11, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura REFILE - QUALITY REPEAT
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Trump's Week of Tariff Turmoil Rings Recession Alarm

An electronic board shows Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indices as people walk on a pedestrian bridge at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China April 11, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura  REFILE - QUALITY REPEAT
An electronic board shows Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indices as people walk on a pedestrian bridge at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China April 11, 2025. REUTERS/Go Nakamura REFILE - QUALITY REPEAT

A week of turbulence unleashed by US President Donald Trump's tariffs showed little sign of easing on Friday, with financial markets again whipsawing and foreign leaders grappling with how to respond to a dismantling of the world trade order.

A brief reprieve for battered stocks seen after Trump decided to pause duties for dozens of countries for 90 days quickly dissipated, as attention returned to his escalating trade war with China that has fueled global recession fears.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to assuage sceptics by telling a cabinet meeting on Thursday that more than 75 countries wanted to start trade negotiations. Trump himself expressed hope of a deal with China, the world's No.2 economy.

But the uncertainty in the meantime extended some of the most volatile trading since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The S&P 500 index ended 3.5% lower on Thursday and is now down about 15% from its all-time peak in February.

Asian indices mostly followed Wall Street lower on Friday with Japan's Nikkei down 4%, though markets in Taiwan and Hong Kong turned positive and European stocks were set to open slightly firmer.

A sell-off in government bonds - which caught Trump's attention before Wednesday's pause - picked up pace on Friday with US long-term borrowing costs set for their biggest weekly increase since 1982. Gold, a safe haven for investors in times of crisis, scaled a record high.

"Recession risk is much, much higher now than it was a couple weeks ago," said Adam Hetts, global head of multi-asset at investment fund Janus Henderson.

Bessent on Thursday shrugged off the renewed market turmoil and said striking deals with other countries would bring certainty.

The US and Vietnam have agreed to begin formal trade talks, the White House said. The Southeast Asian manufacturing hub is prepared to crack down on Chinese goods being shipped to the United States via its territory in the hope of avoiding tariffs, Reuters exclusively reported on Friday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, meanwhile, has set up a trade task force that hopes to visit Washington next week. Taiwan said it also expects to be included in the first batch of trading partners to hold talks with Washington.

CHINA DEAL?

As Trump suddenly paused his 'reciprocal' tariffs on other countries hours after they came into effect earlier this week, he ratcheted up duties on Chinese imports as punishment for Beijing's initial move to retaliate.

Trump has now imposed new tariffs on Chinese goods of 145% since taking office, a White House official said.

Chinese officials have been canvassing other trading partners about how to deal with the US tariffs, most recently talking to counterparts in Spain, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Trump told reporters at the White House he thought the United States could make a deal with China, but he reiterated his argument that Beijing had "really taken advantage" of the US for a long time.

"I'm sure that we'll be able to get along very well," Trump said, adding that he respected Chinese President Xi Jinping. "In a true sense he's been a friend of mine for a long period of time, and I think that we'll end up working out something that's very good for both countries."

China, which has rejected what it called threats and blackmail from Washington, restricted imports of Hollywood films, targeting one of the most high-profile American exports.

The US tariff pause also does not apply to duties paid by Canada and Mexico, whose goods are still subject to 25% fentanyl-related tariffs unless they comply with the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement's rules of origin.

With trade hostilities persisting among the top three US trade partners, Goldman Sachs estimates the probability of a recession at 45%.

Even with the rollback, the overall average import duty rate imposed by the US is the highest in more than a century, according to Yale University researchers.

The pause also did little to soothe business leaders' worries about the fallout from Trump's trade war and its chaotic implementation: soaring costs, falling orders and snarled supply chains.

One reprieve came, however, when the European Union said on Thursday it would pause its first counter-tariffs.

The EU had been due to launch counter-tariffs on about 21 billion euros ($23 billion) of US imports next Tuesday in response to Trump's 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium. It is still assessing how to respond to US car tariffs and the broader 10% levies that remain in place.

Finance ministers from the 27-country bloc will brainstorm on Friday how to use the pause to get a trade deal with Washington and how to coordinate their efforts to handle tariffs if they do not.

European authorities estimate the impact of the US tariffs its economy would total 0.5% to 1.0% of GDP. Given the EU economy as a whole is forecast to grow 0.9% this year, according to the European Central Bank, the US tariffs could tip the EU into recession.