Syrians protest despite Assad concessions

17/04/2011| IslamWeb

Witnesses say about 300 protesters took to the streets in the southern Syrian city of Suweida, but were dispersed and beaten by security forces.

Sunday's demonstration came a day after Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, said the country's decades-long emergency laws would be lifted within a week and also promised a number of other reforms.

Some protesters in Suweida, about 130km south of the capital, Damascus, said they were attacked and badly beaten by government thugs.

There were also reports of demonstrations in Aleppo, Syria's second biggest city.

Rights activist Suhair Atassi said on Twitter that 400-500 people were protesting in the city, chanting slogans for national unity.

Activists had called for protests across Syria on Sunday, which is Syria's Independence Day, commemorating the departure of the last French soldiers 65 years ago and Syria's proclamation of independence.

The Damascus Declaration, an opposition umbrella group, called for peaceful protests in all Syrian cities and abroad to "bolster Syria's popular uprising and ensure its continuity".

In a statement posted on its website, the group said the government was responsible for killing and wounding hundreds of Syrians who have been calling for their legitimate rights in the past month.

"The regime alone stands fully responsible for the blood of martyrs and all that will happen next in the country,'' the statement said.

Other activists also called for protests through social network sites.

Stern warning

Assad promised on Saturday to end the emergency law, but coupled his concession with a stern warning that further unrest will be considered sabotage.

He warned there will no longer be "an excuse" for organizing protests once Syria lifts emergency rule and implements a spate of reforms, which he said will include a new law allowing the formation of political parties.

"After that, we will not tolerate any attempt at sabotage," Assad said in a televised address to his newly appointed cabinet.

George Jabbour, a former member of the Syrian Parliament who was an adviser to President Assad's father, former president Hafez al-Assad, said he thought the proposed reforms should be enough to quell anti-government demonstrations.

"It was greeted with, I suppose, satisfaction, by most people, maybe all. I'm glad he [said in his speech] that the lifting of emergency law will strengthen rather than weaken the security of Syria," he told Al Jazeera.

But within hours of the president's speech, about 2,000 protesters staged a sit-in in the suburb of Douma, demanding the release of relatives arrested on Friday during a major day of nationwide protests, activists said.

The official SANA news agency also reported around 2,000 people demonstrated in the southern protest hub of Daraa late on Saturday, chanting slogans for "freedom" and the lifting of emergency laws.

The laws - in force since 1963 - restricts public gatherings and movement, authorizes the interrogation of any individual and the monitoring of private communications and imposes media censorship.

Assad has said “armed gangs” and a "foreign conspiracy" were behind the unrest, not true reform-seekers.

PHOTO CAPTION

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (C) speaks at his first meeting with the new government in Damascus April 16, 2011 in this handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency SANA.

Al-Jazeera