Friday, 03 June 2011
Protesters call for the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. (Illustration by Amarjit Sidhu)
Syrian security forces killed 67 protesters in the city of Hama where tens of thousands unarmed citizens demonstrated against the autocratic regime of President Bashar Al Assad on Friday, the Syrian opposition told Al Arabiya.
“There are also scores of wounded and the death toll may rise,” Rami Abdul Rahman from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.
The rights group had earlier said that 20 people had been killed.
It was the largest demonstration in Hama since the mid-March outbreak of an uprising against President Assad, Mr. Abdul Rahman said.
“There are also scores of wounded and the death toll may rise,” Rami Abdul Rahman from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.
The rights group had earlier said that 20 people had been killed.
It was the largest demonstration in Hama since the mid-March outbreak of an uprising against President Assad, Mr. Abdul Rahman said.
The official SANA news agency, however, reported, “hundreds of people gathered after Friday prayers in Hama chanting diverse slogans” but that security forces and police had stayed away.
In 1982, Hama was the scene of a brutal crackdown that left an estimated 20,000 people dead when the Muslim Brotherhood rose up against the late President Hafez Al Assad, father of current 46-year-old president.
Thousands of demonstrators on Friday also rallied in and around Damascus, which so far has been largely spared the protests rocking Syria for more than 10 weeks, another rights activist told Agence-France Presse.
About 2,000 people marched in Rukn al-Din suburb and police armed with batons beat demonstrators in the southern Damascus district of Midan in a bid to break up a rally, said Abdul Karim Rihawi of the Syrian League for Human Rights.
Thousands more joined rallies calling for the end of Mr. Assad’s regime across Damascus province, including in Jdaidet Artuz, Daraya and Zamalka.
“All the measures taken by the authorities to calm the street have failed,” Mr. Rihawi said in apparent reference to Mr. Assad’s decision on Wednesday to launch a “national dialogue” and decree an amnesty for hundreds of political prisoners.
Near the southern protest hub of Deraa, security forces opened fire to disperse a crowd in Jassem, a rights activist told AFP, as protesters also gathered in nearby Dal and in Kurdish towns of northern Syria.
Overnight, in several cities including Aleppo in the north and Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria residents took to rooftops to chant “God is Greatest,” a slogan taken up by the opposition, said Abdul Rahman.
A government crackdown, which focused earlier this week on the flashpoint Homs region, left at least 75 civilians and military personnel dead since Sunday, according to the rights group chief.
Syrian state television on Friday broadcast the accounts of three suspected members of an “an armed criminal group” who said they had “killed demonstrators and security agents” in Homs.
Al Baath newspaper, viewed as the mouthpiece of the Baath party which has ruled Syria since 1963, quoted the men as saying they had “cut roads” and “burnt public buildings” in exchange for money and guns.
Residents, meanwhile, said Internet lines were cut in Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia on Friday, in a repeat of a suspension of services at the start of April.
Syrian activists called the latest protests over the dozens of children killed in anti-government protests such as 13-year-old Hamza Al Khatib whom activists say was tortured to death, a charge denied by the authorities.
“The people want the fall of the regime. Tomorrow, it’s ‘Children’s Friday’ of rising up against injustice, like the adults,” the activists announced on their Facebook page Syrian Revolution 2011, an engine of the uprising.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF says at least 30 children have been shot dead in the revolt against Mr. Assad’s autocratic rule that erupted in mid-March.
The revolt in Syria was sparked by the arrest and torture of 15 children and adolescents accused of painting anti-regime graffiti in Deraa, which became a flashpoint of the deadly protests.
More than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in a brutal crackdown on almost daily anti-regime demonstrations in Syria since March 15, human rights organizations say.
The government insists the unrest in the 23-million-people country is the work of “armed terrorist gangs” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.
Snubbing government concessions that included the release of some political prisoners and a call for a national dialogue, opposition groups at a meeting in Turkey demanded late Thursday for Mr. Assad’s “immediate resignation.”
(Abeer Tayel, an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at abeer.tayel@mbc.net. Dina Al Shibeeb, also an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: dina.ibrahim@mbc.net)
In 1982, Hama was the scene of a brutal crackdown that left an estimated 20,000 people dead when the Muslim Brotherhood rose up against the late President Hafez Al Assad, father of current 46-year-old president.
Thousands of demonstrators on Friday also rallied in and around Damascus, which so far has been largely spared the protests rocking Syria for more than 10 weeks, another rights activist told Agence-France Presse.
About 2,000 people marched in Rukn al-Din suburb and police armed with batons beat demonstrators in the southern Damascus district of Midan in a bid to break up a rally, said Abdul Karim Rihawi of the Syrian League for Human Rights.
Thousands more joined rallies calling for the end of Mr. Assad’s regime across Damascus province, including in Jdaidet Artuz, Daraya and Zamalka.
“All the measures taken by the authorities to calm the street have failed,” Mr. Rihawi said in apparent reference to Mr. Assad’s decision on Wednesday to launch a “national dialogue” and decree an amnesty for hundreds of political prisoners.
Near the southern protest hub of Deraa, security forces opened fire to disperse a crowd in Jassem, a rights activist told AFP, as protesters also gathered in nearby Dal and in Kurdish towns of northern Syria.
Overnight, in several cities including Aleppo in the north and Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria residents took to rooftops to chant “God is Greatest,” a slogan taken up by the opposition, said Abdul Rahman.
A government crackdown, which focused earlier this week on the flashpoint Homs region, left at least 75 civilians and military personnel dead since Sunday, according to the rights group chief.
Syrian state television on Friday broadcast the accounts of three suspected members of an “an armed criminal group” who said they had “killed demonstrators and security agents” in Homs.
Al Baath newspaper, viewed as the mouthpiece of the Baath party which has ruled Syria since 1963, quoted the men as saying they had “cut roads” and “burnt public buildings” in exchange for money and guns.
Residents, meanwhile, said Internet lines were cut in Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia on Friday, in a repeat of a suspension of services at the start of April.
Syrian activists called the latest protests over the dozens of children killed in anti-government protests such as 13-year-old Hamza Al Khatib whom activists say was tortured to death, a charge denied by the authorities.
“The people want the fall of the regime. Tomorrow, it’s ‘Children’s Friday’ of rising up against injustice, like the adults,” the activists announced on their Facebook page Syrian Revolution 2011, an engine of the uprising.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF says at least 30 children have been shot dead in the revolt against Mr. Assad’s autocratic rule that erupted in mid-March.
The revolt in Syria was sparked by the arrest and torture of 15 children and adolescents accused of painting anti-regime graffiti in Deraa, which became a flashpoint of the deadly protests.
More than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in a brutal crackdown on almost daily anti-regime demonstrations in Syria since March 15, human rights organizations say.
The government insists the unrest in the 23-million-people country is the work of “armed terrorist gangs” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.
Snubbing government concessions that included the release of some political prisoners and a call for a national dialogue, opposition groups at a meeting in Turkey demanded late Thursday for Mr. Assad’s “immediate resignation.”
(Abeer Tayel, an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at abeer.tayel@mbc.net. Dina Al Shibeeb, also an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: dina.ibrahim@mbc.net)
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