AMMAN: A pro-democracy demonstration erupted in the restive Syrian city of Banias on Tuesday, rights campaigners said just after the government passed bills to lift an emergency law while requiring permission for protests.
“Not Salafist, not Muslim Brotherhood. We are freedom seekers,” hundreds of people chanted.
The chants were a reference to accusations by the authorities that armed radical groups were operating out of Banias and “spreading terror” in Syria.
Syria’s official news agency SANA said the Cabinet also approved abolishing the state security court, which handled the trials of political prisoners, and approved a new law allowing the right to peaceful protests. The changes need Parliament’s approval, but no objections are expected at its next session planned for May 2.
Earlier, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Shaar told people “to refrain from taking part in all marches, demonstrations or sit-ins under any banner whatsoever,” state news agency SANA reported. He warned that if demonstrations were held, “the laws in force in Syria will be applied in the interest of the safety of the people and the stability of the country.”
The mixed messages by the regime leave ample doubt about whether authorities will ease their increasingly harsh blows against the month-old protests.
The announcement came hours after activists said Syrian forces opened fire before dawn to disperse protesters in Homs, where 17 people were killed on Sunday night.
Rights activists said at least three more protesters were shot dead in the latest shooting early on Tuesday. SANA reported that four people, two policemen and two gunmen, were killed in clashes in the city. An activist reached by telephone said that the Homs “sit-in was dispersed with force. There was heavy gunfire.” He said that very early on Tuesday the security forces swarmed into Al-Saa Square, where some 20,000 people were staging a sit-in, and scattered protesters who had vowed not to leave until Assad stepped down.
Security forces including Assad’s irregular “shabbiha” militia “chased people in the streets of Homs until 6 a.m. (0300 GMT),” one activist in the city said. “The streets are empty.” Another said that 25 wounded people were in hospital.
Dozens of medical students demonstrated at Damascus University’s college of medicine on Tuesday chanting “Stop the massacres. Syria is free. Syria is dignity,” two rights campaigners in contact with the students said. They said security forces beat up the students to break up the protest.
In Deraa, which has seen most bloodshed, residents said on Tuesday that security forces who stayed off the streets in recent days were being reinforced, possibly ahead of a move to reassert full control over the restive town.
The authorities said three army officers and three children were killed around the city of Homs.
“Armed criminal gangs who block roads and spread fear in the area, came upon Gen. Abdo Khodr Al-Tellawi, his two children and his nephew, and killed them in cold blood” and “mutilated” the bodies, state news agency SANA reported.
No independent media is allowed into Homs or other cities witnessing unprecedented pro-democracy demonstrations. Several international journalists have been expelled or arrested. Western countries have condemned the violence but shown no sign of taking action against Assad, a central player in Middle East politics.
