70 Syrian Protesters Shot Dead by Security Forces, 38 in Hamah, Protests Continue All Over the Country    

Syria forces kill 70 in anti-Assad protests

Khaleej Times, (Reuters) 4 June 2011, 5:06 PM

Syrian forces killed at least 70 protesters on Friday, activists said, in one of the bloodiest days since the start of an 11-week revolt against the authoritarian rule of Assad.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Friday in defiance of security forces determined to crush the uprising, and some activists said the death toll could hit 100.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 60 people were killed in Hama, where Assad's father Hafez crushed an armed revolt 29 years ago by killing up to 30,000 people and razing parts of the city.

A political activist in Hama said tens of thousands of people were attending the funerals of dead protesters on Saturday, and that more protests were planned later in the day.

"Anger is very high in the city, people will never be silent or scared. The whole city is shut today and people are calling for a three day strike," the activist, who gave his name as Omar, told Reuters by phone from the city.

"We expect protests after the evening prayers."

Residents and activists said that security forces and snipers fired at demonstrators who thronged Hama on Friday.

On top of the casualties there, Syrian human rights group Sawasiah said one person was killed in Damascus and two in the northwestern province of Idlib. Seven people were also killed in the town of Rastan in central Syria, which has been under military assault and besieged by tanks since Sunday.

Rights groups say security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians so far, provoking international outrage at Assad's ruthless handling of the demonstrators.

Assad has tried brute force and political concessions, often simultaneously, to quell protests. The tactic has so far failed to stop the revolt against 41 years of rule by the Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect in mainly Sunni Syria.

In Deraa, birthplace of the revolt, hundreds defied a military curfew and held protests on Friday, chanting "no dialogue with killers", two residents in the city told Reuters.

Syrian forces also opened fire on demonstrations in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor and in Damascus' Barzeh district.

Activists and residents said thousands of people marched in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Kurdish northeast, several Damascus suburbs, the city of Homs and the towns of Madaya and Zabadani in the west.

"It is worth noting that Hama and Idlib, where the biggest demonstrations occurred, used to be the stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood," said one activist who declined to be named.

"The numbers of people who took to the streets could be a message from the (Muslim) Brotherhood to the regime that: "now we are taking part in the revolution in full weight"."

ACTIVIST FREED

Syrian authorities released on Saturday a prominent activist in jail since 2008, Abdulrahman said.

Ali Abdallah, in his 50s, had criticised Syria's ally Iran. He was a member of the Damascus Declaration, a rights movement named after a document calling for a democratic constitution and an end of the Baath Party's five-decade monopoly on power.

Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed groups backed by Islamists and foreign powers, and say the groups have fired on civilians and security forces alike. Authorities have prevented most international media from operating in Syria, making it impossible to verify accounts of the violence.

Activists say there have been some instances of citizens resisting security forces with personal weapons, and of security police shooting soldiers who refused to fire at protesters.

The activist who declined to be named said that before the shooting started, protesters burned the Baath Party office in Hama and said it was not clear how the violence broke out.

Assad has sent in tanks to crush demonstrations in some flashpoints but has also offered some reforms, such as an amnesty for political prisoners and a national dialogue.

Opposition figures have dismissed these measures as too little too late as the towns of Deraa, Tel Kelakh, Banias and Rastan have undergone intense crackdowns by the military.

Western powers have condemned Assad as the unrest spreads and the death toll rises.

The United States, the European Union and Australia have imposed sanctions on Syria, but perhaps because of reluctance to get entangled in another confrontation after Libya, their reactions have been less vehement than some activists had hoped.

Syrian forces 'shot dead 34 protesters in Hama'

Published yesterday (updated) 03/06/2011 21:49

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) --

Syrian security forces shot dead at least 34 people while dispersing tens of thousands of demonstrators in the central city of Hama on Friday, activists said, as anti-regime protests spread to Damascus.

Activists in the city told AFP by telephone in Nicosia that dozens of other people were wounded.

Security forces unleashed "intense gunfire" against a crowd of more than 50,000 people in Hamah, according to Rami Abdul Rahman who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It was the largest demonstration in Hama since the mid-March outbreak of an uprising against the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, he 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, Hamah was the scene of a brutal crackdown that left an estimated 20,000 people dead when the Muslim Brotherhood rose up against the late Hafez Al-Assad, father of current President Bashar Al-Assad.

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 said.

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 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," Rihawi said in apparent reference to 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 Daraa, 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 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 Daraa, 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 Syria 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 late Thursday demanded Assad's "immediate resignation."

Dozens feared dead as Syrians continue protests

At least 63 people were shot dead after Friday prayers in the southern city of Hama when security forces fired on demonstrators in the city centre, a Syrian human rights organisation has said.

By News Wires (text)
France 24, 03/06/2011

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.