The Assad Crime Family is definitely on its last legs. The Chinless Ophthalmologist is trying to appease the mob by tossing out government ministers and freeing some prisoners but it is not working. His father would have given the protesters the Hama treatment of 1982 (see Hama Rules by Thomas Friedman) by now. Dorktator Assad is no reformer (contrary to our idiot Secretary of State’s claim) , he is a puppet of his Iranian masters.
AMMAN – Thousands of protesters took to the streets across Syria on Friday despite concessions offered by Syrian President Bashar Assad in an attempt to placate a month-long wave of unrest challenging his 11-year rule.
Shouting “God, Syria, Freedom,” protesters repeated the same demand for democratic reform and freedoms across many cities.
On Thursday Assad unveiled a new government, which has little power in the one-party ruled country, and ordered the release of detainees, a move one human rights lawyer said represented a “drop in the ocean” compared to the thousands of political prisoners still held.
But the concessions did not appear to satisfy protesters, who gathered in even larger numbers on the Muslim day of prayer.
Rights activists reported protests in the city of Deir al-Zor near the Iraqi border, the restive coastal city of Banias and in the southern city of Deraa, where protesters first demonstrated against the detention of teenagers who had scrawled graffiti inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
“Demonstrations came out from every mosque in the city, including the Omari mosque… The number of people is above 10,000 protesters so far,” an activist said by phone from Deraa.
The protest movement against Assad’s repressive rule has steadily gained momentum since it began four weeks ago.
Rights groups say at least 200 people have been killed since the protests started. Authorities blame “armed groups” for stirring up unrest at the bidding of outside players, including Lebanon and Islamist groups.
Syrian state television reported what it said were several peaceful demonstrations, including at Deraa and Deir al-Zor, where it reported two small processions of less than 50 people.
About 250 people called for freedom in the capital Damascus’ Barzeh district in front of the Salam mosque, an activist said. Emergency law in force since the Baath Party swept to power in a coup in 1963 bans public gatherings of more than five people.
[…]
‘This is not Hama’
There are sectarian overtones to the tensions arising from the protests. Rights campaigners said Alawite irregulars, loyal to Assad and known as “al-shabbiha”, killed four people in the coastal city of Banias and also quelled protests elsewhere.
Assad has said his country — which is at the heart of the Middle East conflict — was the target of a foreign conspiracy to sow sectarian strife.
His father used similar language when he crushed a leftist and Islamist challenge to his iron rule in the 1980s.
“This is not 1982 Hama. The uprising is not confined to a single area,” a leading opposition figure said, referring to an attack by Hafez Assad’s forces to crush an armed revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama that killed up to 30,000 people.
[…]
Read the rest: Protest’s erupt throughout Syria despite Assad’s gestures
Tags: Bashar Assad
