Syrian Rebels Set Up Ruling Councils

Fierce fighting continues between the regime of President Bashar al Assad and rebel fighters in the country.

But in the midst of the conflict, there is an experiment at self-governance happening in some rebel-held areas.

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Borzou Daragahi, Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times, about rebel efforts to establish self-rule.

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Lisa Mullins: In Syria, opposition activists say a regime airstrike hit a gas station in the north of the country today. The explosion that followed killed several people. Fierce fighting continues between the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and rebel fighters in the country. Human rights groups estimate that more than 23,000 Syrians have died in this conflict. Borzou Daragahi has been reporting from northern Syria. He is the Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times. Borzou, you’ve been to a region of Syria where you witnessed something interesting — the embryonic stage of a new government or at least new local governments. Describe what you saw.

Borzou Daragahi: Yeah, indeed, in one town I went to they were holding a meeting of the local council there, a sort of self appointed local government. They were holding it outside right in the street and they were bringing together some plastic chairs and a table, pouring some tea, beginning discussions. Just as people were gathering around one of Bashar al Assad’s Russian fighter jets started flying above. And word came that one of those jets had hit a nearby town, causing a dozen injuries. And so people just scampered away, and it was sort of emblematic of what’s going on there, this attempt at a democracy and transparency was quickly scuttled as people ran away and hid in shelters.

Mullins: So what’s the larger picture here? Does it look as if there are local leaders, perhaps already those who are council leaders, who are trying to coalesce and form some kind of government? And if so, based on what model?

Daragahi: Very much so. It seems that people are trying to govern themselves, they are trying to come up with some kind of way of showing to themselves as well as to the world that they can take over once Bashar al Assad leaves power. But they are hampered. There’s a number of difficulties. One of them is that there’s a lot of divisions. This is a problem that has bedeviled the Syrian opposition since the beginning of this conflict. There’s not a lot of unity, even from one town to another town there’s tensions and mistrust and so on. And another point of contention is what will be the dominating kind of law of the land. Right now they talk about Sharia, they talk about Islamic law as the law of the land. But it’s clear that they don’t really understand what they are talking about when they talk about Sharia, and what they really need is just some sort of alternative to the corrupt, and brutal and arbitrary Baath Party system that has dominated the country for many decades.

Mullins: Can you explain what you just said there Borzou, we’re talking about people who we would assume would be used to the term Sharia law at least, and you say that they don’t really have a handle on what they’re talking about. Can you explain that?

Daragahi: Yeah, I mean they referred many times to you know, we’re going to you know, apply Sharia law, that we’re all under the principle of Sharia here, and I would ask them what they meant–do you mean that you know, men can take four or five wives or something, do you mean that punishment for crime is that the guy’s hand gets cut off? And they were like no, no, no, no, that’s not what we mean at all. All we mean is that Sharia means justice, Sharia means fairness and transparency. So it was clear that they were not very well versed in Islamic scripture, so to speak. They were just using Sharia as a catchall to contrast the previous regime.

Mullins: Do you know if similar attempts at local lawmaking or governing are happening in other places?

Daragahi: It seems that every single part of Syria that’s under rebel control has some sort of local administrative structure in place to varying degrees of authority over the area, as well as to the armed fighters that are you know, at the forefront of the battle against Bashar al Assad. And it also seems that even in areas, and this I know from talking to Syrian activists, in areas that are under the control of the regime, there are these shadow structures, secret committees of people meeting to plan for the day when Bashar al Assad will leave their area.

Mullins: Thank you, Borzou Daragahi, Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times. He is now in Cairo after having just left Syria. Thanks a lot, Borzou.

Daragahi: It’s my pleasure.

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