Inside Syria: A rare look into the uprising
For more than 40 years, the Assad dictatorship has controlled virtually every aspect of life inside Syria, and who on the outside gets to see it. But now, a revolution is under way to force Bashar Assad out. CBS News has managed to get in to witness it.
Since the spring, thousands of Syrians have been marching in the streets, demanding their freedom. Assad responded to the challenge, as his father before him always did, with violence - thousands of civilians have been killed out of public view. Just today, activists reported more than 60 deaths in the city of Homs.
For months, most of what we’ve seen of the revolution in Syria has come from cell phone video of demonstrations met with bullets from security forces. Carrying only a small camera, CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward entered Syria as a tourist, without government supervision, to meet the people holding those cell phones.
Opposition activist Razan Zaytouni insists on using her real name. The Syrian regime already knows who she is - she’s in hiding to avoid arrest.
“Are you scared,” Ward asked.
“Who is not,” she replied. “But we have to continue. We decided to start our revolution, this is what we have been dreaming of long time ago.”