Syrians Renew Protests Despite Concessions

By Liam Stack and Katherine Zoepf
This article was published in The New York Times on 15/04/2011

Protesters turned out again in large numbers in cities across Syria on Friday to demand reforms, defying a nationwide crackdown in which dozens of demonstrators have been killed by security forces. The marches on Friday were met with tear gas, beatings and reports of gunfire.

Seeking to tamp down the unrest, the government of President Bashar al-Assad had announced several measures on Thursday that were meant to mollify demonstrators.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched into Damascus from its restive suburbs on Friday afternoon, said Razan Zeitouneh, a human rights activist. It was the first time that a protest that large had been seen in the capital, which the government had managed to hold in a tense calm for weeks. The protesters chanted “Freedom! Freedom!” and “The people want to overthrow the regime!” as they moved along. Ms. Zeitouneh estimated that the march began with 20,000 people in Douma, the site of large protests each of the last two weekends, and passed through a string of suburbs including Harasta and Arbeen.

Security forces responded with live ammunition and tear gas, she said, but it was unclear how effective those measures were. At midday, the march was continuing to push toward Abasseyeen Square in the heart of Damascus. By the time it reached the city limits, it had snowballed into a potentially serious challenge for the government of Mr. Assad, whose 11-year rule has been badly shaken by weeks of unrest. The security forces’ seeming inability to keep groups of protesters in different suburbs from joining into a large demonstration was ominous for the government, activists said.

Beyond the capital, there were reports of sizable protests in Homs and other cities and in the besieged southern town of Dara’a, which has been isolated behind a tight security cordon since the early days of unrest in mid-March.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the Syrian authorities to “stop repressing their citizens and start responding to their aspirations.”

“We call upon the Syrian authorities, once again, to refrain from any further violence against their own people,” she said, speaking in Berlin after wrapping up a meeting with NATO officials on Libya.

“The arbitrary arrests, the detentions, the reports of torture of prisoners, must end now. The free flow of information must be permitted once again,” she said. “We have to allow journalists and human rights monitors the opportunity to enter Syria, to be free to report, to independently verify what’s happening on the ground. To this point, the Syrian government has not addressed the legitimate demands of the Syrian people. It’s time for the Syrian government to stop repressing their citizens and start responding to their aspirations.”

In the wave of popular uprisings that began to sweep the Arab world three months ago, Friday has become the focal day for demonstrations, with protesters pouring out of mosques after noon prayers, often to confront security forces.

The latest signs of dissent in Syria, run by one of the most repressive Arab governments, came a day after the government announced an amnesty for some prisoners and other steps to try to placate the growing numbers of demonstrators who have taken to the streets in recent weeks.

The government also withdrew its feared security forces from the coastal city of Baniyas on Thursday, replacing them with regular army troops, who are thought to be better liked by the public.

Mr. Assad also formed a new cabinet on Thursday and met with officials from Dara’a, which has been the epicenter of protests since the detention of a group of students for spray-painting antigovernment graffiti last month.

Even as the conciliatory measures were announced on Thursday, though, human rights activists said that organizers of the protests in Dara’a were being detained. Some activists complained that the new national cabinet — which included some former ministers — was unlikely to push for more democratic policies, and expressed doubts that protesters who want sweeping change in Syria would be appeased.

Friday began with a wave of early-morning detentions in the Druse village of Sweida and in a string of villages around Dara’a. At least 43 people were detained in Sweida, said Wissam Tarif, the executive director of Insan, a Syrian human rights group; by Insan’s count, at least 172 people have been arrested from 11 villages around Dara’a in the last 24 hours.

Demonstrations were reported in towns that had not previously been affected by the unrest, activists said. One of the largest was in Deir al-Zour on the Euphrates River, where security forces used tear gas in the afternoon to try to disperse the crowd. About 2,000 people reportedly demonstrated in the Barzeh neighborhood of Damascus, a rare eruption of unrest within the capital. There, too, security forces used tear gas, Mr. Tarif said and were “brutally beating” protesters who were trying to leave the area. Four protesters in Barzeh were detained, he said.

There were also reports of violence in Latakia, a coastal town where that security forces were said to have fired live ammunition into the air. Injuries were reported, but none from gunshots, Mr. Tarif said. And protests were reported in the towns of Qamishli, Amudah and Darbasiyah in northern Hasaka Province and the coastal town of Jablah.

Security forces also massed in the main square of Homs to preclude demonstrations there, he said. In response, protesters gathered in scattered neighborhood rallies in an attempt to “make the security forces spread out,” Mr. Tarif said. Television images from Homs showed security forces there opening fire on protesters. Shots can be heard booming across a palm-lined square in the images, broadcast on Al Jazeera, as groups of men run shouting towards the source of the sound.

A rights activist in Homs said, “What is happening today is bigger than the last few days.”

In Dara’a, thousands of protesters flooded the streets on Friday, chanting “Freedom! Freedom!” and “With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice for you, O our country!” Images on Al Jazeera showed people leaning over balcony railings to cheer and wave as throngs of protesters wound their way through the streets.

Protests continued in the predominantly Kurdish area of north Syria as well, but eyewitnesses said the security forces there were out in smaller numbers and responding less harshly. Fouad Aleiku, a leading member of the Kurdish Yekiti Party, estimated that about 3,000 people, both Kurds and Arabs, demonstrated in Mounir Habib Square in Qamishli, a town with a large Kurdish population.

“The security is very light, they are not doing anything to anyone,” Mr. Aleiku said. The protesters chanted for “reform” of the government rather than its overthrow, which may signal that the government is making progress in taming down protests through dialogue with local leaders. Mr. Aleiku, who took part in a meeting with the provincial governor last week, said, “If the president engages in true reforms, I think that is most important.”

A businessman from Dara’a who said that a relative of his was among the delegation that met with President Assad on Thursday described the group as consisting of tribal chiefs, social activists and Muslim scholars. He said that the meeting lasted for about three hours and that the group “discussed most issues in an open and free way.”

“During the meeting, the president was very friendly and listened to them with open ears,” said the businessman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety. “The president even said to them: ‘I saw how people from Dara’a destroyed my father’s statues and my posters, but don’t worry. I will forgive that as a father forgives his sons.’ ”

Still, Razan Zeitouneh, a human rights advocate based in Damascus, said that despite the reportedly conciliatory tone of the meeting, witnesses told her organization, the Syrian Human Rights Information Link, that at least 10 organizers of the protest movement in Dara’a had been detained while the city leaders were meeting with the president.

A video sequence broadcast on Al Jazeera on Friday afternoon showed prisoners in the coastal town of Al Beida bound and lying face down in a public square, as black-clad members of the security forces stood over them with automatic weapons and wooden clubs. The security agents were seen beating the prisoners across the shoulders and backs with the clubs and rifle butts, and one man was kicked in the face.

Liam Stack reported from Cairo, Katherine Zoepf from New York. and Steven Lee Myers from Berlin. A reporter contributed from Syria.