Thousands stage pro-Assad rally in Syria

State media claim one million attended, but opposition figures dismiss the rally as carefully stage-managed.

Thousands of Syrians wave national flags during a pro-government rally at Saba Bahrat Square in Damascus yesterday. They gathered to show loyalty to the regime of the president, Bashar Al Assad, and express appreciation to Russia and China for their support.Show less

DAMASCUS // Tens of thousands of Syrians demonstrated in favour of the president yesterday - showing that Bashar Al Assad's regime still commands significant support as it seeks to end a seven-month uprising.

State-run media claimed one million people attended the rally in Damascus, with video taken from a helicopter showing a vast crowd filling the streets and squares in the heart of the capital.

Many schools, government offices and businesses closed, with the day taken as an unofficial holiday.

Opposition figures were quick to dismiss the rally as carefully stage-managed, saying that state employees and soldiers dressed as civilians were all but required to attend to boost numbers.

But Mr Al Assad still enjoys high levels of support in Syria, of the kind usually reserved for film stars or musicians in the West, rather than leaders of state.

"I love Bashar," said a young teenage girl on Tuesday night, as she and her middle-class family prepared for yesterday's rally.

Residents of Sahnaiya, a suburb south of Damascus, she and her four siblings were excited about the prospect of attending the event, treating it as an outing and a chance to show support for the president.

None of them were officially required to attend and their mother - fastidious in ensuring they are all well educated and do not shirk classes - had given permission for them to miss school for the occasion. She and her husband, a doctor, are strong Assad supporters.

"We have taken part in a previous rally," the mother said. "We were even on television."

That kind of loyalty continues to baffle some opposition figures and exemplifies the polarisation that has taken place in Syrian society since the uprising began in March.

Sahnaiya, a neighbourhood of Sunnis, Christians, Druze and Alawites, has not seen any opposition protests and has been largely untouched by the uprising. Nearby districts, including Daraya, Moadamiya and Kisweh, have all had persistent anti-regime rallies, with human rights activists reporting deaths at the hands of security forces.

In the absence of independent measures of public opinion, it has been impossible to quantify how much popular support Mr Al Assad has or the strength of his opponents.

Both sides claim to represent the majority of Syrians but both have been unable to overwhelm the other.

After seven months of unrest, Mr Al Assad remains in control of a powerful and loyal security apparatus and military that has managed to suffocate protests in many areas.

It has prevented any Syrian territory from falling permanently into rebel hands, despite facing increasingly organised armed opposition.

That tenacity has surprised some in the protest movement, particularly younger activists who expected the regime to have cracked by now. It has also given way to a growing confidence among loyalists.

People with access to regime officials said they appeared much more relaxed now than two or three months ago, when the uprising was building momentum and hundreds of thousands of protesters regularly took to the streets.

"The officials I see who used to be nervous and who seemed not to be sleeping are now looking well rested and comfortable again," said an independent analyst in Damascus.

"They think they have passed the worst and can see the way out they are sure they will win."

Yesterday's demonstration came as rumours swirled among Damascus's political classes of an impending reform announcement.

"We expect to hear something significant and positive before Saturday, a political development," said a former regime official with close contacts among the ruling elite, who has pressed for democratic reforms.

This week, a senior Baath party official said a committee would soon be established to draw up a new constitution before the end of the year, something Mr Al Assad had suggested would happen, including a revocation of Article 8, which gave the Baathists an automatic right to run Syria.

"Changing the constitution will be an important step we hope the committee to oversee it includes some credible opposition figures," said Mohammad Habbash, a former MP now involved in a "third way" initiative to end the crisis.

He had drawn criticism from pro-regime and anti-regime figures for his middle-of-the-road approach.

"The regime will change the constitution, it will launch a multiparty law and it does now seem to have an idea that it must hurry," he said. "Russian and Chinese pressure to speed up the reforms are important and can help us make those changes."

Moscow and Beijing have given diplomatic support to Mr Al Assad, using their vetoes to block a resolution at the UN Security Council that would have condemned him over the use of force in suppressing the uprising.

That support won them a tribute at yesterday's rally, with a Syrian helicopter flying Chinese and Russian flags over the crowd.

But both nations have made it clear they expect to see the Syrian leader deliver on promises of democratic reforms and to do so with more haste than has been shown so far.

Protesters, including the opposition Syrian National Council, have brushed aside official pledges of reform and are demanding nothing short of Mr Al Assad's overthrow.