Friday, April 01, 2011

WASHINGTON/DAMASCUS: The United States urged Americans Thursday to avoid travel to Syria and advised those already there to consider leaving the country, hours after President Bashar Assad took steps toward addressing popular grievances, including lifting emergency law and granting disenfranchised Kurds rights.

Assad’s moves appear to be a carefully designed attempt by Assad to head off massive protests planned for Friday while showing he will not be pressured to implement reform – instead, he will make changes at his own pace.
“We urge U.S. citizens to defer non-essential travel to Syria at this time. U.S. citizens currently in Syria should consider departing,” the State Department said in a statement.
“U.S. citizens currently in Syria are advised against all travel to the coastal city of Latakia as well as the southern city of Daraa and the surrounding towns and villages,” it said.

“Demonstrations in those areas have been violently suppressed by Syrian security forces and there are reports of curtailed telecommunications, ongoing disturbances and live gunfire in various neighborhoods in the region.”
Protests in other cities like Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Hama “have degenerated on several occasions into violent clashes between security forces and protesters, resulting in deaths, injuries, and property damage,” it said.
“We remind U.S. citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence,” the statement said.

Assad is facing unprecedented pressure for his 11-year rule as protesters demand greater freedoms and test his family’s four-decade grip on power.
He dashed expectations Wednesday that he would announce sweeping changes, instead blaming two weeks of popular fury on a foreign conspiracy during his first comments since the protests began.

It was not immediately clear whether Thursday’s overtures would succeed in pacifying a growing protest movement in the country.
Activists have called for demonstrations across Syrian provinces Friday, dubbing it “Martyrs Day,” in what could prove to be a turning point in the country’s future.

Syrian TV said the ruling Baath Party’s regional command formed a committee made up of legal experts to study legislation that would “guarantee the country’s security and dignity of Syrians and combat terrorism.”
“This would pave the way for lifting the state of emergency laws,” it said. The widely despised, decades-old emergency laws give the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge.

The state-run news agency said the committee would complete its study by April 25.

Syrian TV also said Assad has set up a judicial committee to urgently investigate the circumstances that led to the death of Syrian civilians and security forces in the southern city of Daraa and Mediterranean city of Latakia.
Assad also formed a panel to “solve the problem of the 1962 census” in the eastern region of Al-Hasaka. The census resulted in 150,000 Kurds who now live in Syria being denied nationality.
It “must complete its work before April 15 and President Assad will then issue an appropriate decree to resolve this problem,” SANA said.

Kurds, who make up 10-15 percent of Syria’s population of 20 million, have long complained of persecution by Syrian authorities. In 2004, 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.

Kurds had so far stayed out of the protests, but Thursday’s decision reflects concern they would join in.
Assad fired his 32-member Cabinet Tuesday in a move designed to mollify the protesters, but the overture was largely symbolic. Assad holds the lion’s share of power in the regime, and there are no real opposition figures or alternatives to the current leadership.

The protests were touched off by the arrest of several teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on walls in Daraa. They spread to other parts of the country last week, and human rights groups say more than 60 people have been killed since March 18 as security forces cracked down on the demonstrations.

An anti-government protester in Daraa said Thursday that security forces arrested up to 17 people in the city overnight. He said a sit-in by a few hundred protesters near Al-Omari mosque, the epicenter of protests, ended Thursday.
But he said protesters were regrouping for more demonstrations in Daraa and nearby areas Friday. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

In Assad’s speech before Parliament Wednesday – his first public comments since the protests began – he said Syria is being subjected to a “major conspiracy.” He made only a passing reference to the protesters’ calls for change, saying he was in favor of reform, but acknowledged there have been delays.
Social networking sites immediately exploded with activists calling on Syrians to take to the streets. – Agencies