Syrians in Malta yesterday joined their fellow nationals across the globe calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down from office or face the fate of Muammar Gaddafi.

“Gaddafi is gone, your turn is coming,” they chanted along Republic Street, Valletta as placards in English and Arabic bobbed above their heads.

Col Gaddafi’s demise has brought new hope to Syrians. “It was only yesterday that I started to believe that (President) al-Assad could be really overthrown,” a young man who fled his country in the hope of settling in a place that recognised “basic human rights”, said.

“(President) al-Assad is Syria’s cancer. Once he’s removed, all Syria will be healed. Syrians, just like Libyans, are deprived of their country’s wealth by their own President. Most of us are not allowed education or a dignified job and we therefore sink into ignorance and poverty,” he said, as he joined his compatriots in their chanting.

“Zenga zenga, dar dar, Gaddafi tar,” (alley to alley, house to house and Gaddafi’s gone) they sung, referring to a haunting threat by Col Gaddafi to hunt down protesters door-to-door but which was completely turned on its head with his death at the hands of the rebel soldiers in his former hometown.

“People are so hurt and frustrated they want to hang you (President) al-Assad,” they shouted in Arabic.

Those present said that, unlike the uprising in Libya, which took place on Malta’s doorstep, the island was far away from Syria. However, Malta was also part of a larger power: the European Union, which they urged to understand the urgency to stop the Syrians’ suffering.

The revolution taking place was also different from that in Libya in terms of the means by which citizens were voicing their concerns. While Libyan residents were loaded with firearms, Syrians would rather protest peacefully even though their government was shooting at its people, a Syrian national living in Malta said.

Carrying a placard which read “Russia we came out for freedom, not to be killed”, he said the Syrian uprising had gained momentum in the past months. However, it seemed to come to a standstill as the government kept “hounding its own people”. The UN estimated more than 3,000 killings over the past seven months.

Syrian nationals, who did not wish to be identified for fear of reprisals, said their families back home were terrorised. Children were being killed and used by the government as “proof that the Syrian mafia was going crazy”. Soldiers, who do not follow their superiors’ orders to shoot at fellow Syrians, were facing a similar fate.