Al Jazeera People & Power

Syria: Songs of Defiance (2012x21)

: 15, 2012

An undercover Al Jazeera correspondent takes us inside the lives of Syria's anti-government demonstrators. "I can't tell you my name. I've spent many months secretly in Syria for Al Jazeera." So begins this intriguing episode of People & Power, which gives an unusual but compelling first-person account of a country in turmoil and a revolution in progress. The words are those of an Al Jazeera journalist who cannot be identified for fear of compromising the security of the many Syrians with whom he came into contact. For weeks with their help, he travelled the length and breadth of the county, gathering testimony about the year-long uprising against the al-Assad regime. With Al Jazeera cameras banned inside Syria, it was too difficult and dangerous to openly use a video camera, but he was able to use his mobile phone. With its tiny camera, filming secretly on street corners, through car windows and behind closed doors, he was able to gather images that reveal ordinary people showing extraordinary courage. "I followed them on protests, I saw them demonstrate and fight and die, and I even heard their songs of freedom," he says. "This is their story." His journey took him from the back streets of Damascus, Homs and Idlib to remote mountain villages. His arrival in the city of Sanamein early one evening was typical. "It was about 5pm when we got there. It was already dark because it's winter. And the electricity was shut off, so we had to walk in complete blackness. It's very eerie there in this urban environment, and you can't see anything except the occasional light from a cell phone or a cigarette. They [the regime] block all communications - especially on Thursday nights and Friday mornings, because people get ready for the big demonstration on Friday. "Sanamein was one of the sights of an early massacre committed by Syrian security, who just opened fire directly in the crowd of demonstrators. Now there are constant raids at night, searching