As part of the intimidation campaign carried out by the Assad regime against the Syrian people, regime forces are forcing shopkeepers regime-held areas to hang posters of Assad on the facades of their shops along with some pro-regime slogans. Shopkeepers say that they fear the reprisals of regime forces if we decline to carry out the orders. Activists said that regime forces arrested or fined a number of shopkeepers in the district of Qaboun in Damascus because they refused to paint the regime’s flag on the facades of their shops or to hang posters of Assad. Anas Abda, member of the political committee, mocked Syria’s upcoming presidential elections, describing them as “worthless and despicable when compared to war crimes perpetrated by the Assad regime. True elections will be held on another day, when the Syrian people reassert their allegiance to freedom and their determination to topple the Assad regime.” Abda holds the international community a large part of the responsibility for emboldening Bashar al Assad to announce his running for re-election. “This electoral farce is the result of the world’s silence towards Assad’s daily massacres using chemical weapons and barrel bombs that claimed the lives of hundreds of children and women.” Moreover, Bader Jamous, Secretary General of the Syrian Coalition, said that the Assad regime’s intention to hold presidential elections “proves his absolute detachment from reality. These elections are also a new device designed to suppress the aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom, justice and democracy.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)
