Video and editing by Laura Galea
Some 200 Syrians gathered at Ta’ Qali on Sunday to celebrate the fall of the Baath regime after 50 years in power.
Early on Sunday morning, Syrian rebels declared that they had ousted President Bashar al-Assad after seizing control of Damascus, forcing him to flee and end 50 years of the Assad regime. His whereabouts are still not known. It is unclear which country will eventually receive him.
A coalition of opposition groups, headed by al Qaeda breakaway Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and different Turkish-backed militias called the Syrian National Army, mounted a stunning offensive against the Assad regime by first overtaking Aleppo and Hama, and closing in Homs and Damascus.
Syrian prime minister Mohammed Ghazi Al-Jalali has remained in Syria and said the government was ready to “extend its hand to the opposition” and hand over its functions to a transitional government.
In a video broadcast on his Facebook account, Al-Jalil said “This country can be a normal country that builds good relations with its neighbours and the world … but this issue is up to any leadership chosen by the Syrian people.”
Earlier on Sunday morning, members of the Syrian community had took to the streets in Ħamrun, but were reportedly stopped over the lack of police permit to hold the celebrations.
Newsbook Malta was in Ta’ Qali and met with members of the Syrian community celebrating. The group was made up mainly of men and some children. When asked about women, this newsroom was told that they were celebrating together at their homes elsewhere.
Ahmed from Homs has been in Malta for the past 14 years and told this newsroom that today is Syria’s independence day.
“From today we dream of living in a democratic country where we are free to vote and choose our president,” Ahmed said, adding that he looks forward to rebuilding a country which is independent from Assad’s brutal rule.
“This was one of the world’s worst dictatorships. There was no freedom of speech, you could not work, and to do something you would have to bribe them. If you speak ill of the government or criticise it, you either end up in prison or dead,” Ahmed said recalling Assad’s rule.
Another man expressed his joy at the news that Assad’s regime has fallen.
“All there was not a government, but there was Assad’s mafia that led a government by tyranny, together with Russians, Shiites from Iran and Iraq,” the man said. He added that he was overjoyed that they finally rid us of the Assad regime. He also referred to the people who were freed from prison by the rebels noting that some children had been imprisoned at the age of 16.
“It is a great joy for every Syrian, Arab, and perfect Muslim,” the man said, as he thanked the rebels an Malta.
The man, who has been in Malta for the past 26 years, had been to Syria in 2011 to bring his children over when the civil war broke out.
“I hope all turns out well. I hope we choose our president,” he said.
“Thank you Malta for hosting all these people. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want freedom for everyone,” he concluded.
Shadi from Homs has left Syria 13 years ago, expressed his wish to return to Syria as soon as possible.
The man explained that his father and his wife, and two brothers had been jailed by Assad’s regime. One of his brothers was jailed at 13 or 14 years old, eight years later Shadi does not know anything about their whereabouts or why they had been jailed in the first place.
Another man observed that out of 23 million Syrians, around 13 million had to leave the country and were either refugees elsewhere or living in poverty in refugee camps. He hailed the fall of the Assad regime as an end to poverty, and said he hopes to go back to his country and his family.
He also thanked the European Union and Malta for welcoming Syrians over the years.
Hammadi from Homs described the fall of the regime as a dream come true, underlining that no one could believe what had just happened.
“We’ve been waiting for this to happen for the past 14 years,” Anas from Damascus told Newsbook Malta.
“He is a dictator that killed a lot of people,” Anas underlined.
A relative of the man had been jailed for 23 years after government forces entered his home and found some books.
“We could not read everything,” Anas explained, adding that others had been jailed after there was a report that they had gone to pray in the morning.
“Hopefully it will be better, there’s nothing more beautiful than Syria,” Anas concluded.
The opposition fighters have opened regime prisons as they advanced towards Damascus, setting free the prisoners of conscience held inside.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham announced that its fighters had stormed the jail on the outskirts of Damascus, declaring an “end of the tyranny in the prison of Sednaya”, a military prison which was nicknamed the “human slaughterhouse”.
Civilian detainees and anti-government rebels as well as political prisoners were jailed at the notorious facility. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished inside the facility from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the beginning of the civil war. According to figures cited by Amnesty International, between 5,000 and 13,000 people are estimated to have been extrajudicially executed at Sednaya between September 2011 and December 2015.
The celebrations continued in a carcade as it began to rain.
