Reports during Monday 28 March 2011
March 28, 2011 by sks
Filed under News, Syrian Revolution
BBC: 28 March 2011 Last updated at 15:09 Syrian troops have deployed in force in the northern city of Latakia, where at least 12 people have died in a wave of unrest that has shaken the regime.
Officials blamed foreign forces for the violence, but residents said pro-government gangs started the clashes.
Officials said on Sunday they would end decades of emergency rule after Friday saw protests erupt in six cities.
On Monday, police reportedly fired tear gas to disperse crowds marching against the laws in the southern town of Deraa.
Officials say more than 30 people have died since the unrest began, but activists put the toll at more than 100.
“(Security forces) are pointing their machine guns at any gatherings of people in the area near the mosque,” one local trader told Reuters, referring to the Omari Mosque which has been a focal point of the town’s demonstrations.
Eyewitnesses said the protesters – numbering in their hundreds – were calling for more political freedom, and that gunfire was heard, a claim denied by the authorities.
Sources say he is likely to announce on Tuesday that he is lifting the state of emergency after nearly 50 years and taking steps to annul other restrictions on civil liberties and political freedoms.
Syrian troops are now in control of Latakia, 350km (220 miles) north-west of the capital Damascus, our correspondent says.
The streets of Latakia, home to 450,000 people, were completely deserted on Sunday and all shops remained closed.
An Associated Press photographer said two police cars had been smashed in the main Sheikh Daher square.
The offices of SyriaTel, the mobile phone company owned in large part by a cousin of President Assad, had been burned, he said.
At one of the city’s two hospitals, officials said they had treated 90 wounded people on Friday. Many had gunshot wounds to the hands or feet, while others were in a critical condition, he added.
Promises of reform
The government has tried to calm the situation by promising concessions.
Analysts say there are divergent views within the Syrian leadership on handing the crisis – one group favours a crackdown on the dissent while the other prefers dialogue.
Jihad Makdissi, the spokesman for the Syrian embassy in London, told the BBC World Service that an inquiry was under way into the violence and deaths during recent anti-government protests.
In London, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released a list of 41 names of people reportedly detained on Friday in and around Damascus, Homs, Deir al-Zor and other cities.
Amnesty International has issued a list of 93 people it says have been detained.
Are you in Syria? Are you involved in the protests? Send us your comments and experiences using the form in the BBC page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12879097
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Reuters BEIRUT | Mon Mar 28, 2011 3:49pm BST
Two Reuters journalists were released by Syrian authorities on Monday, two days after they were detained in Damascus.
Television producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji returned to their home base in Lebanon and said they were well.
“Reuters is concerned that its journalists were detained and held incommunicado for so long. We are delighted by their release and look forward to welcoming Ayat and Ezzat back,” Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler said.
“We would like to thank everyone who helped us resolve the issue.”
Basma and Baltaji, both Beirut-based Lebanese nationals, travelled to neighbouring Syria on Thursday. Mass protests there over the last two weeks have posed the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year rule.
A Syrian official said the journalists were detained and questioned because they did not have a permit to work in Syria and had filmed “in an area where filming is not permitted.”
They had last contacted colleagues on Saturday evening and their whereabouts had been unclear until shortly before they were released on Monday.
Basma, who has also reported from Tunisia, Egypt and Iraq, has been with Reuters since February 2007. Baltaji has worked for the company since April 2008.
On Friday Syrian authorities withdrew the accreditation of a Reuters foreign correspondent based in Damascus, saying he filed “unprofessional and false” coverage of events in Syria.
Reuters said it stood by its coverage.
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Reuters DAMASCUS | Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:40pm BST
Syrian forces opened fire to disperse hundreds of protesters in Deraa calling for an end to emergency laws on Monday, but demonstrators regrouped despite a heavy troop deployment, a witness said.
The demonstrators in Deraa converged on a main square chanting: “We want dignity and freedom” and “No to emergency laws,” the witness said. He said security forces fired in the air for several minutes, but protesters returned when they stopped.
Security forces have reduced their presence in recent days in the poor, mostly Sunni city, but residents said on Monday they had returned in strength.
“(Security forces) are pointing their machine guns at any gatherings of people in the area near the mosque,” said a trader, referring to the Omari Mosque which has been a focal point of demonstrations in the city.
Abu Tamam, a Deraa resident whose house overlooks the mosque, said soldiers and central security forces occupied almost every metre outside the mosque. Another resident said snipers had repositioned on many key buildings.
“No one dares to move,” he said, speaking before Monday’s demonstration began.
Assad has been criticised by the West and even close ally Turkey, Syria’s northern neighbour, for using violence against peaceful protesters.
At home he is facing growing demands to scrap emergency law, which was imposed by the Baath Party when it took power in a 1963 coup, to release thousands of political prisoners, allow freedom of speech and assembly and curb the free reign the security apparatus has in the country of 22 million.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/28/uk-syria-idUKTRE72N2RZ20110328
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White House urges Syria respect rights of demonstrators
The United States expects the Syrian government to respect the rights of Syrians to demonstrate peacefully, Denis McDonough, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said on Monday.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Editing by Sandra Maler)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/28/uk-syria-usa-idUKTRE72R4GS20110328
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10:42 Syrian authorities are using gas, which is banned under international law, against protesters in Syria [F.N.N.]
11:54 Thousands of security forces deploy heavily in front of the Al-Omari Mosque in Daraa, and close down all entrances that lead to the mosque. (S.N.N.)
12:36 forty-eight citizens have been arrested, many are dead and wounded and the fate of others is still unknown. The security forces refuse to release the arrested citizens and to deliver the dead bodies to their families. (The Syrian Revolution 2011)
13:25 Happening now: Pro-Syrian regime protesters hold fresh demonstrations in Hamra today.
13:43 Deployment of Syrian army tanks and forces along the border of Daraa; security forces dressed as civilians deployed in the city. (S.N.N.)
13:52 Security forces are firing bullets at protesters on the Eastern bridge of Daraa. (S.N.N.)
14:17 Security forces dressed as civilians arrive in Daraa in 12 buses; attempt to disperse protestors. Protestors, however, organized themselves in groups to distract the security forces who are firing at the young men. The demonstrators are responding by throwing rocks. (S.N.N.)
14:20 Twitter user @wassimtarif says the regime is trying to spread fear in the Alawites sect. The security acting as thugs in #Latakia #Syria
15:04 Demonstrators in Daraa protest Syrian emergency law, Al-Arabiya reports
15:05 Security forces open fire on protestors in Daraa. (F.N.N.)
15:10 Clashes between protestors, security forces in Daraa continue as the latter fire in the air and the protestors respond by throwing rocks. (F.N.N.)
15:15 Residents of Daraa enraged after Syrian security forces allegedly raped a woman, identified as Diana Jawabra, while she was being arrested. (F.N.N)
15:20 Eye witnesses report that Youssef Abu Roumieh and Ahmad al-Moqdad, both members of the Syrian Parliament, and Abed al-Latif al-Moqdad, a member of the Baath Party general secretariat, resigned in protest against the massacres in Houran Province. (F.N.N.)
15:26 Syrian army reportedly deployed in the streets of Latakia, Daraa and other cities due to the lack of security forces and their inability to control the protestors. (Youth Syria for Freedom)
15:30 Anti-regime protestors in Daraa set bus belonging to security forces on fire. The protestors also reportedly captured one of the security forces’ snipers in the city. (S.N.N)
15:38 Security forces enter Syrian town of Al-Harak near Daraa to end protests, tanks block city’s entrances. (F.N.N.)
15:50 Syrian security forces opened fire on hundreds of protestors gathered in Daraa, Reuters reported.
16:54 Syria released the two Reuters journalists who went missing on Saturday evening after interrogating them, NOW Lebanon’s correspondent reported.
17:36 CNN correspondent Hala Gorani (@HalaGorani) tweets: “Eyewitness in Latakia tell CNN there are hundreds of army troops in city, surrounding all govt buildings.”
17:37 CNN correspondent Hala Gorani (@HalaGorani) tweets that eyewitnesses told CNN there is an “extraordinary number of security forces in Daraa preventing people from gathering in the city center,” adding that hundreds of troops in the city are guarding government buildings.
17:48 Hundreds of anti-regime protestors are still gathered in the Tahrir Square of Daraa. Calm reportedly prevails in the areas after the withdrawal of security forces. (S.N.N)
18:26 Twitter user @SyrianWoman tweets that people in the Latakia neighborhood of Slaibeh are holding a peaceful protest.
16:36 Twitter user @dhamvch tweets that the Baath Party is asking school principals to prepare students to attend pro-regime demonstrations on Tuesday.
18:38 Twitter user @edwardedark tweets that Aleppo is “eerily quiet,” adding that “streets [are] mostly empty” as some people are not going to work and the “old souk trading district [is] almost deserted.”
19:47 CNN reported that Syrian security forces clashed with protestors earlier in the day in Daraa and that Latakia residents are fearful after “mysterious armed men” knocked on doors and wandered the streets of the city. However the station could not independently confirm the accounts of the eyewitnesses it quoted.
20:07 Twitter user @MalathAumran tweets that over 500 protestors are now demonstrating in the Saliba neighborhood of Latakia.
20:31 Twitter user @SyrianNewsWipe tweets that Latakia residents held a sit in at Adidas Square in the Saliba neighborhood, adding that the governor of the city came to the protestors and “promised the release of detainees before 8 p.m. tonight.” The user also tweeted that the protestors held signs against sectarianism, corruption and security authority for an hour.
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=253828
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