Syrian opposition groups have held their first public meeting inside Syria, announcing a seven-point roadmap away from "catastrophic scenarios", reports Bassel Oudat from Damascus While the ongoing Syrian uprising started as a revolt from below without any single leadership or particular ideology, as the demonstrations against the regime have continued popular movements have started to play an important role in mapping the path of the protests by forming Local Coordination Committees of the Syrian Revolution (LCCSR). As the protests have escalated and demonstrations grown in size, the demonstrators' demands have also become more emboldened. At the beginning of the uprising, the slogan was "the Syrian people will not be humiliated". Today, the slogan is "the people demand the fall of the regime". However, the often young leaders of the protests generally do not have the experience to become national political leaders, leading many Syrians to turn to the country's established opposition instead, including veteran activists with the political experience and skills to manage the coming transitional phase. Such figures have been pooling their skills in order to produce a roadmap, or political strategy, for the uprising to succeed in deposing the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and the ruling Syrian Baath Party. Given the importance of working alongside the young people leading the protests, opposition figures have worked hard to convince the country's opposition parties to unite under one umbrella in demanding a transition to a democratic regime and the rotation of power. The National Coordination Association of the Forces of National Democratic Change in Syria has been formed as a result, and although this at first played little role in the protests on the streets it has now joined the protesters. On Saturday, the association held its first conference in a suburb of Damascus, being unable to meet in the capital itself, with 300 delegates, including 120 from the LCCSR, meeting to discuss the way forward. The association, the largest opposition coalition in Syria, includes 15 Arab and Kurdish opposition parties, such as the Democratic National bloc, the leftist Marxist bloc, and the National Kurdish Movement parties, as well as representatives of other democratic and nationalist forces. The conference focused on what it called the "three nos:" no to violence, no to military interference, and no to sectarianism. Agreement was reached on a national charter, and a final communiqué indicated that the demands of the opposition parties were identical to those of the protesters. Delegates also elected a council of 80 representatives, 40 per cent from the 15 parties, 30 per cent from the LCCSR, and 30 per cent from independents. Participants described the gathering as having been very successful, and the regime did not interfere in proceedings. Since the first weeks of the Syrian uprising, and with the deaths of thousands of demonstrators at the hands of the regime, the country's opposition parties have refused to engage in individual dialogue with the regime and have insisted instead that dialogue should take place with all the country's recognised political entities and forces. The regime had refused these demands, preferring to rely on the security and military measures that have left so many protesters dead to end the crisis. The Coordination Association conference, the first opposition meeting to be held inside Syria, drew up a seven-point roadmap that it said the regime should adopt if it wanted to avoid "catastrophic outcomes" to the ongoing crisis. The seven points included the regime's recognition of the popular opposition movement and the legitimacy of its goals and the right of the Syrian people to a pluralist and democratic regime. A second point was the need to halt the present violence and withdraw the army and security forces from Syrian cities and hand over security matters to civilian security agencies. The third point was a demand for the release of all political detainees, honouring those who have been killed during the ongoing protests, and the fourth the prosecution of those responsible for the killing and torturing of protesters during the protests. The fifth point was a demand for the recognition by the regime of the right to peaceful demonstration and the sixth the suspension of Article 8 of the Syrian constitution, which says that the Syrian Baath Party is the "leader of state and society," until a new constitution has been drawn up. The seventh point was that the regime should announce a transitional phase led by a national unity government empowered to lead the country towards a democratic regime and undertake political, economic, legal and cultural reforms. The association said that if the seven-point roadmap was rejected it would call for an escalation of the protests in the country, including a general strike and civil disobedience. The conference was the first such gathering to take place inside Syria itself for the majority of the country's opposition parties, and it was the first time that activists in the LCCSR have participated in a conference inside the country. It was eagerly anticipated by many young activists in the field, who have been eager to take part in democratic national action at the side of veteran opposition figures. The Syrian opposition has previously announced the creation of a National Transitional Council, most recently in Istanbul, that would coordinate demands for the overthrow of the regime. However, these initiatives, always taking place abroad, have faced the challenge of being removed from the situation inside the country and have been dominated by exiled opposition figures sometimes not linked to the domestic political scene. As a result, the National Transitional Council announced in Istanbul was not warmly received by demonstrators, although most did not object to the figures included in it. According to one leading member of the Coordination Association, consultations are now underway between the Association and other members of the opposition, especially the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change, the Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood and independent Islamist movements, and representatives of national councils created abroad, to form a coalition dedicated to overthrowing the regime. Nasser Al-Ghazali, director of the Damascus Centre for Theoretical and Civic Rights, an NGO, told Al-Ahram Weekly that there was a need to unite the Syrian opposition and activists in the field under the umbrella of a council that would represent everyone equally. For the time being, the established opposition groups, revolutionary youth coordination committees and independent opposition figures all emphasise that the leadership of the Syrian opposition should be inside the country and not in exile. The opposition inside Syria should also have the power of final decision, they say, while consulting with opposition figures abroad. As the Syrian uprising starts its seventh month, the protests against the regime have not subsided and instead are expanding to new regions and increasing demands for the fall of the regime. Activists and demonstrators say that they will continue their protests until they achieve this goal, while the regime continues its military and security operations with ever more brutality in response.
