Akashma Online News

Maya Nasser killed by sniper fire
covering events in Damascus,Syria
September 26, 2012

Little bit after midnight, me looking out from the window of my bedroom inside  Damascus city, watching a full sky moon and listening to the sounds of the army shelling rebels sites in outskirts, asking myself; is this real? Is this fire I can barely see is someone’s house burning, or maybe neighborhood store? Is this my country on fire?Then for a moment I convince myself, I am just dreaming and my day is going to be busy one, I better go sleep, I ought to wake up in few hours to go my work, multiple meetings are waiting ahead, then a lunch with my beloved girlfriend, afterward I have gathering with my best friend to discuss his wedding details. Basically; in few hours I have to get up to have another hard day of life? Who said life should be easy anyway!!!Then I snap out of this sweet dream, just to remember, I lost my job! That friend of mine had been killed few weeks ago; his body was sent to his fiancé in a black bag! We didn’t know why he was slaughtered; we didn’t understand what his fault was! He was a doctor serving patients, never been into politics, but sure never been pro Assad, amid all this, the reality hit me, he was minority and the years his father spent at prison for being opposition for the current system didn’t grant my friend any mercy, his ethnic roots were stronger to be noticed than his family position of this system! And yes this is my country, and this fire is at someone’s place, someone I might never know but that doesn’t mean he never existed!!!

Killings and counter killings became a regular day of our lives in Syria; some believes they have the right to kill because their god ordered them to do so! Some others believe its okay because they are trying to create better Syria so why not generate total chaos and begin from there. Most of them don’t care, they kill because they want to topple a president, blaming him in person for all the problems the state is going through, so why not killing his sect members, his army soldiers, his government officials, all their families – if possible – and everyone opposes their opinion!

In return those who believes Syria was in better state before the Arab Spring hits it, think themselves as a target, not only their opinions rather than their entity and their existence, nevertheless this might be true. Why not? Bombs and bullets aren’t smart enough to distinguish the right from the wrong, can’t determine whether this man deserves killing or not, and defiantly  not interested if this person is pro Assad or against, as long as this piece of kill will initiate retaliation, and create a chaos.
Bottom line is; my people are dying and I am still in the line waiting my turn.