Syrian mourners call for revolt

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Syrian mourners call for revolt

Thousands attending funeral for slain pro-democracy protesters call for "freedom" as police fire tear gas.



Police in Syria have sealed the southern city of Daraa and fired tear gas at crowds of people gathered to mourn the deaths of two men killed by security forces, according to witnesses.

Thousands of mourners gathered in the centre of the city on Saturday, marching behind the coffins of Wissam Ayyash and Mahmoud al-Jawabra, who were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters a day earlier.

Mazen Darwish, a prominent Syrian rights activist, said police had sealed the city with people being allowed out but unable to enter.

He cited residents who did not want their names published for fear of reprisals.

Inspired by the revolts sweeping through the Arab world, protesters on Friday had called for political freedoms and an end to corruption in Syria, which has been ruled under emergency laws by the Baath Party for nearly half a century.

Three to four thousand people leaving the city's Omari mosque after midday prayers chanted "God, Syria, Freedom" and slogans accusing the president's family of corruption, residents said.

But in the most violent response in years to protests against Syria's ruling elite, five people were killed when security forces opened fire on the protest.



Crushing dissent

Smaller protests also took place in the central city of Homs and the coastal town of Banias, home to one of Syria's two oil refineries, activists said.

A crowd briefly chanted slogans for freedom inside the Umayyad Mosque in Old Damascus before security forces closed in.


the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus

The Syrian security forces, which stepped up arrests of dissidents since the Arab uprisings began in January, have a history of crushing dissent.

In 1982, Hafez al-Assad, the father of current President Bashar al-Assad, sent troops to put down a rebellion in the city of Hama, killing thousands.

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based rights group, has said Syria's authorities were among the worst violators of human rights in 2010, jailing lawyers, torturing opponents and using violence to repress ethnic Kurds.

In 2004, Kurds in eastern Syria, many of whom are not allowed Syrian citizenship, mounted violent demonstrations that spread in Kurdish regions across Syria, resulting in 30 deaths.

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5 protesters killed in Syria, activist says

BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press, ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press
Updated 05:44 p.m., Friday, March 18, 2011


Carrying pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a group of Syrians, some supporters of Assad, right, and some opposed to his regime, left, stage a protest outside the Syrian embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, March 15, 2011. Syrians on social networking site Facebook have called for pro-democracy protests inside Syria on Tuesday. (STR / AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian security forces launched a harsh crackdown Friday on protesters calling for political freedoms, killing at least five people and marking the gravest unrest in years in one of the most repressive states in the Mideast, according to accounts from activists and social media.

Mazen Darwish, a prominent Syrian activist in Damascus, said at least five people were shot and killed when security forces tried to disperse hundreds of protesters in the southern town of Daraa, near the Jordanian border. He cited eyewitnesses and hospital officials at the scene.


Syrian riot police fires teargas

Friday's violence happened during one of several demonstrations across the country in Homs, Banyas and the capital, Damascus. But only the Daraa protest turned deadly, Darwish said.

Serious disturbances in Syria would be a major expansion of the wave of unrest tearing through the Arab world for more than a month in the wake of pro-democracy uprisings that overthrew the autocratic leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. Syria, a predominantly Sunni country ruled by minority Alawites, has a history of brutally crushing dissent — including a notorious massacre in which President Hafez Assad crushed a Muslim fundamentalist uprising in the city of Hama in 1982, killing 25,000 thousand people.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about the reported deaths in Daraa and said the use of lethal force against peaceful demonstrators was unacceptable.

"The Secretary-General believes that, as elsewhere, it is the responsibility of the government in Syria to listen to the legitimate aspirations of the people and address them through inclusive political dialogue and genuine reforms, not repression," said his spokesman, Martin Nesirky.

On Friday, Syrian forces used water cannons, batons and gunfire to beat up protesters in Daraa. The violence began when a large group of people emerged from the Al-Omari mosque, marching and shouting slogans against corruption and calling for more political freedoms.

A human rights activist told The Associated Press that security forces cordoned the main hospital in Daraa where some of the wounded were being treated, preventing families from visiting the victims. He cited hospital workers, but spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

The government's TV channel and news agency said "infiltrators" in Daraa caused "chaos and riots" and smashed cars and public and private property before they attacked riot police. It said a similar demonstration in the coastal town of Banyas dispersed without incident.

Amateur video footage posted on YouTube and Twitter showed large groups of protesters in several cities, but the authenticity of the footage could not be independently confirmed.

A YouTube video claiming to be shot in Banyas showed several thousand demonstrators gathering around an old stone building with a Syrian flag fluttering from its roof. A cluster of men stood on its balcony with a loudspeaker. Amid chants of "Freedom!" and "There is only one God!," one man shouted out a list of protesters demands ranging from freedom of expression to allowing Muslim women with face veils to attend school.

In the capital, plainclothes security officers forcefully dispersed about a dozen protesters calling for more freedoms in the country, human rights activists said earlier in the day.

The activists said the protest occurred in the yard of Damascus' famous Ummayad Mosque shortly after Friday prayers. At least two protesters were detained, they said.

The protest was the third small rally broken up in Damascus this week.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, a 45-year-old British-trained eye doctor, inherited power from his father in 2000 after three decades of authoritarian rule. He has since moved slowly to lift Soviet-style economic restrictions, letting in foreign banks, throwing the doors open to imports and empowering the private sector.

The early years of his rule raised hopes of a freer society; salons where political and economic issues were openly debated sprang up across the country.

But the "Damascus Spring" as it came to be known was short-lived. In 2001, secret police began raiding the salons, jailing two lawmakers and scores of other activists in the years that followed.

In 2004, bloody clashes that began in the northeastern city of Qamishli between Syrian Kurds and security forces left at least 25 people dead and some 100 injured.

Although Assad keeps a tight lid on any form of political dissent, he is seen by many Arabs as one of the few leaders in the region willing to stand up to Israel.

Assad told The Wall Street Journal in February that Syria is insulated from the upheaval in the Arab world because he understands his people's needs and has united them in common cause against Israel.

Also Friday, eight Syrian human rights groups said a prosecutor had questioned and charged dozens of demonstrators with hurting the state's image.

The groups said the 32 activists denied the charges. They included four relatives of political prisoner Kamal Labawani, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence.

The activists were detained Wednesday when plainclothes security officers armed with batons dispersed a protest near the Interior Ministry demanding the release of political prisoners.

___

Karam reported from Cairo. Diaa Hadid in Cairo contributed to this report.

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A journalist and an activist for press freedom, Mazen Darwish is not easily deterred. Only just released from Adra prison, he talks with candor about the many shortcomings of the Syrian media. And yet he refuses to admit defeat: 'Defending press freedom is a duty for each of us, and I believe a whole new generation is holding on to the values of journalism.'

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Syrian Revolution Protests in Banyas - Tartous on 18th March 2011

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Syrian Revolution Damascus 15 March 2011

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Syrian police fires tear gas at mourners in Deraa



BEIRUT/ Deraa, SYRIA (Agencies)

Syrian security forces fired teargas on Saturday at hundreds of mourners who took part in a funeral for two protesters as they tried to gather in the centre of the southern city of Deraa, a Reuters witness said.

Thousands of mourners called on Saturday for "revolution" at the funeral of protesters killed by Syrian security forces, the boldest challenge to Syria's rulers since uprisings began sweeping the Arab world.

At least ten thousand people demonstrated on Saturday in Deraa, a tribal region south of the capital, at the funeral of two protesters of at least four were killed on Friday.

"Revolution, revolution. Rise up Hauran," chanted the mourners in Deraa, administrative capital of the strategic Hauran plateau, as they marched behind simple wood coffins of Wissam Ayyash and Mahmoud al-Jawabra.

"God, Syria, Freedom. Whoever kills his own people is a traitor," they said.

The two were killed when security forces opened fire on Friday on civilians taking part in a peaceful protest demanding political freedoms and an end to corruption in Syria, which has been ruled under emergency laws by President Bashar al-Assad's Baath Party for nearly half a century.

A third man who was killed on Friday, Ayhem al-Hariri, was buried in a village near Deraa earlier on Saturday. A fourth protester, Adnan Akrad, died on Saturday from his wounds.

Secret police at the main funeral in Deraa arrested at least one mourner, activists said. Security was heavy in the city, especially around police stations.

Children arrests fuel resentment

Protests against Syria's ruling elite, inspired by revolts in the Arab world, have gathered momentum this week after a silent protest in Damascus by 150 people demanding the release of thousands of political prisoners.

At least one activist from Deraa, Diana al-Jawabra, took part in the protest. She was arrested and is facing charges of weakening national morale, along with 32 protesters in jail, a lawyer said.

Jawabra was campaigning for the release of 15 schoolchildren in who were arrested in Deraa this month after writing slogans on walls inspired by revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia that swept their autocratic leaders from power.

Residents say the children's arrests in the tribal region deepened feelings of repression and helped fuel the protests in Deraa, the biggest threat yet to the authority of Assad.

Assad said in an interview in January that Syria's leadership was "very closely linked to the beliefs of the people" and there was no mass discontent.

"The leadership have given a clear signal that they are not in any hurry to embark on fundamental political reform," one diplomat in the Syrian capital said.

Deraa is home to thousands of displaced people from eastern Syria, where up to 1 million people have left their homes because of a water crisis over the past six years. Experts say state mismanagement of resources has worsened the crisis.

The Hauran region, once a Middle East bread basket, has also been affected by diminishing water levels, with yields per hectare falling by a quarter in Deraa last year.

A prominent Syrian rights activist says police have sealed Deraa where security forces killed five protesters.

Mazen Darwish says people are being allowed out of Daraa but they cannot come in. He cited residents who did not want their names published for fear of reprisals.

Sealing the city appeared to be a way to isolate any further unrest in Daraa.

Syrian women protest

A group of 10 women activists detained by Syrian authorities in a protest earlier this week have launched a hunger strike, rights groups said Saturday.

"All women jailed after the peaceful protest Wednesday outside the interior ministry have begun an open-ended hunger strike in the Duma detention centre for women," said the Syrian League for Human Rights, an umbrella group of several rights monitors.

The statement named the women as Suheir Atassi, Sirine Khoury, Ruba and Laila Labwani, Dana Jawabreh, Nisrine Hassan, Wafaa Lahham, Nahed Badawiyya, Siba Hassan and Hervine Awssi.


Suheir Atassi

It said Awssi's relatives reported she had also been refusing water.

Small protests have erupted since March 15 in the Old City of Damascus, demanding the release of political prisoners and reforms in the country, amid a wave of popular uprisings across the Middle East.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said authorities on Thursday charged 32 activists detained during Wednesday's rally with attacking the reputation of the state. Human Rights Watch confirmed the detention of 18 activists in Wednesday's rally.

Facebook group The Syrian Revolution 2011, one of the motors behind an unprecedented string of protests in Syria, called for Saturday protests in Homs, revealing the protest's venue despite the tight control kept by the country's security services.

The fresh call for protests came a day after rights groups reported that security forces killed four people and wounded hundreds in a rally in the southern city of Daraa.

Demonstrations on Friday marking a "Day of Dignity" were also reported in the coastal town of Banias and in Homs.

In Damascus, AFP reporters saw plain-clothes police dragging away at least two activists who had apparently begun to chant "freedom" after prayer at the main mosque.

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Syria: Peaceful Demonstration Violently Dispersed



(New York) - Syria should immediately release all those detained on March 16, 2011, when security services violently dispersed a peaceful protest calling for the release of political activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should respect the right of Syrians to assemble peacefully and release all prisoners detained for peaceful political activity or for exercising their right to free expression, Human Rights Watch said.
A group of about 150 people, most of them human rights activists and relatives of political detainees, gathered outside the Interior Ministry in Damascus at about noon to present a petition calling for the release of Syria's political prisoners. When the families started raising pictures of their detained relatives, security officers dressed in civilian clothes attacked with batons, dispersing the demonstrators, three participants told Human Rights Watch. Security services detained at least 34 people, according to a list prepared by demonstrators. Human Rights Watch was able to verify independently the detention of 18 people.
"President Bashar al-Asad's recent calls for reform ring hollow when his security services still beat and detain anyone who actually dares to call for reform," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead of beating families of Syria's political prisoners, President al-Asad should be reuniting them with their loved ones."
A human rights activist who was at the demonstration described what happened:
When we got to the ministry, we could see that there were a lot of security services around. I saw five buses full of security members parked 300 meters from us. At first, an employee from the Ministry of Interior came out and told us that the families of the detainees would be allowed to present the petition to the minister. We asked for five minutes, as some families were still arriving. When a few families raised photos of detained relatives, the security services suddenly attacked us and beat us with black batons.
The daughter of a prominent political detainee told Human Rights Watch:
We had barely taken my father's picture out when men ran toward us and started beating us. They beat my mother on her head and arm with a baton. They pulled my sister's hair and beat her as well until my uncle managed to get her away. We started running away, but they followed us.
One of the people detained during the demonstration, who spoke with Human Rights Watch following his release, said that security services detained him with five others and transported them to the Mantaqa branch of Military Security. The six were: Mazen Darwish, a human rights activist and head of the Syrian Center for Media Freedom of Expression in Syria; Suheir al-Atassi, a prominent political activist; Naheda Badawi; Bader Shalah; Naret Abdel Kareem; and a boy in his early teens whose name was not known. Security services hit Shalah with a baton over his eye, causing bleeding.
At the Mantaqa branch, the detainee who spoke with Human Rights Watch saw four other detainees from the protest: Kamal Sheikho, Usama Nasr, Nedal Shuraybi, and Muhammad Dia' Aldeen Daghmash. The detainee said that security services interrogated each person separately and asked him for the password to his Facebook account. The person who spoke with Human Rights Watch said that as far as he knew, he was the only one released from the group detained at the protest.
In addition to the confirmed 10 detainees at Military Security, Human Rights Watch spoke with a relative of Kamal al-Labwani, a political activist serving a 12-year jail term, who provided details on the detention of seven members of their family: Omar al-Labwani, 19; Yassin al-Labwani, 20; Hussein al-Labwani, 45; Ammar al-Labwani, 24; Ruba al-Labwani, 23; Layla al-Labwani, 56; and Heba Hassan, 22. Their whereabouts are unknown.
One of the demonstrators told Human Rights Watch that she saw security services detain a young man from the al-Bunni family as he was trying to get into his car. The young man's first name is unknown.
"If President al-Assad is serious about reform, he should hold his security services to account," Whitson said. "Syrians deserve no less than the Egyptians and Tunisians who finally succeeded in forcing their political leadership to disband the feared state security services."

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Syria



Updated: March 17, 2011

During the three decade reign of Hafez al-Assad, Syria was a harsh and stagnant dictatorship, reviled in the West for its support of terrorist groups and generally isolated even from more moderate Arab countries. Mr. Assad's son, Basher al-Assad, who became president after his father's death in 2000, has from time to time made gestures toward a more open and mild regime. But it has remained a dictatorship, with the tiny Allawite minority from which the Assad's come firmly in control of the military and the government.


Hafez al-Assad


Basher al-Assad


Syria's First Lady Asma al Assad

One sign of the strength of the government's grip came as turmoil was erupting across the Arab world. In the months since a revolution toppled Tunisia's dictator, Syria has seen scarcely any protests. When demonstrators gather, they tend to be outnumbered by the police, who quickly beat and disperse them.

The last serious stirrings of public discontent came in 1982, when increasingly violent skirmishes with the Muslim Brotherhood prompted Hafez al-Assad to move against them, sending troops to kill at least 25,000 people and smashing the old city of Hama. Hundreds of fundamentalist leaders were jailed, many never seen alive again.

The potential for protest is complicated by Syria’s ethnic and religious composition. The country is run by members of the Alawite religious minority, though the majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslims. There is also a restive Kurdish minority centered in the north. Syrians largely support the government’s foreign policy, including its refusal to sign a peace treaty with Israel and its support of the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. But the lack of basic freedoms — a key grievance of protesters in other countries — is as bad in Syria as in Egypt, or worse, many activists and human rights groups say.


Hamas


Hezbollah

Under the administration of President George W. Bush, Syria was once again vilified as a dangerous pariah. It was linked to the 2005 killing of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. In 2007, Israeli jets destroyed buildings in Syria that intelligence officials said might have been the first stage in a nuclear weapons program. And the United States and its Arab allies mounted a vigorous campaign to isolate Damascus, which they accused of sowing chaos and violence throughout the middle east through its support for militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.




The damage the car bomb made that killed Rafik Hariri on 14 Feb 2005

President Obama came into office pledging to engage with Syria, arguing that the Bush administration’s efforts to isolate Syria had done nothing to wean it from Iran or encourage Middle East peace efforts. So far, however, the engagement has been limited. American diplomats have visited Damascus, but have reiterated the same priorities as the Bush administration: protesting Syria’s military support to Hezbollah and Hamas, and its strong ties with Iran.

Secret State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to several news organizations show that arms transactions involving Syria and Hezbollah continue to greatly concern the Obama administration. Hezbollah’s arsenal now includes up to 50,000 rockets and missiles, including some 40 to 50 Fateh-110 missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv and most of Israel, and 10 Scud-D missiles.

“Syria’s determined support of Hizballah’s military build-up, particularly the steady supply of longer-range rockets and the introduction of guided missiles could change the military balance and produce a scenario significantly more destructive than the July-August 2006 war,” said a November 2009 cable from the American chargé d’affaires in Damascus.

According to cables, Syrian leaders appeared to believe that the weapons shipments increased their political leverage with the Israelis. But they made Lebanon even more of a tinderbox and increased the prospect that a future conflict might include Syria.

Also looming is potential new trouble in Lebanon, where a United Nations-backed international tribunal is expected to indict members of Hezbollah in the death of Mr. Hariri. Hezbollah and its allies — including high-ranking Syrian officials — have warned that an indictment could set off civil conflict.

The United States withdrew its ambassador in 2005 after Mr. Hariri was killed in a car bombing in Beirut along with 22 others. Syria was widely accused of having orchestrated the killing, though it has vehemently denied involvement. The Bush administration imposed economic sanctions on Syria, as part of a broader effort to isolate the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The current chill is a significant change from the situation a few years ago, when Mr. al-Assad showed signs of wanting warmer relations with the West than his father, Hafez al-Assad, had ever pursued. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France led the way with a visit in September 2008. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was said to be furious at the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, welcomed him warmly in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in March 2009. And Prime Minster Ehud Olmert of Israel hinted at a revival of talks on the Golan Heights -- a prospect that faded when Mr. Olmert was succeeded by the more conservative Benjamin Netanyahu.


President Nicolas Sarkozy visits Hafez al-Assad in Damascus in 2009


Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz speaks with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad upon his arrival in Riyadh. January 15, 2010


The conservative Israeli prime-minister Benjamin Netanyahu

This is an article of the New York Times

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Second day of Syrian Protests in Dar'aa 19th March 2011

These clips shows moments from the Syrian protests in the town of Dar'aa (Dar3aa) for the second day running on 19th March 2011. The protests started during the funerals of the young martyrs that were killed by government forced the day before. It is reported that government forces sealed the town in order to supress the protests and re-gain control.

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Syrian forces 'shoot at protesters'

Reports from Syria say security forces have killed six people after storming a mosque in the southern city of Deraa.

Locals say heavy gunfire and tear gas was used shortly after midnight, but the government says that its security forces only moved in to prevent an "armed gang" from attacking.

It's the worst violence in a week of anti-government protests in the city, and represents the strongest challenge yet to President Bashar al-Assad's rule.