Syria: Authorities bid to ease protesters' anger with release of political prisoners

Published on Saturday 26 March 2011 13:09

POLICE and soldiers pulled back from the southern city of Deraa yesterday and hundreds of political prisoners were set free in an attempt to quell rising anger in the wake of a government crackdown which left dozens dead.

There has been international condemnation of President Bashar Assad's regime after troops opened fire on peaceful pro-democracy protesters across the country on Friday, further inflaming feeling among those opposed to a dynasty which has held power for four decades.

The unrest continued yesterday, with thousands of mourners at an activist's funeral in the village of Tafas burning a building used by the ruling Ba'ath party as well as a police station.

Mosques across Deraa announced the names of "martyrs" whose funerals would be held, with hundreds gathering in the main square chanting for freedom. Three bare-chested young men climbed on to the rubble of a statue of late President Hafez al-Assad, which protesters pulled down on Friday.

A video posted on the main Facebook page used by Syrian pro-democracy activists showed the statue being toppled earlier in the week, before security forces appear to fire on the crowd.

It shows a crowd of young men climbing on to the base of the structure trying to shake it loose, then rushing toward a nearby building, some throwing what appear to be stones.

Suddenly, automatic weapons fire breaks out and the video ends. Residents reported seeing two bodies and many wounded people brought to Deraa's main hospital after the shooting.

In the city's al-Omari mosque, the epicentre of the protests, more than 1,000 people were holding a silent sit-in.

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However, the government continued to attack demonstrators elsewhere, with security forces storming a protest sit-in in the town of Douma near the capital.

Activists said around 4,000 people were involved in the protest when they came under attack around midnight yesterday.

Electricity was cut off and around 200 people were arrested, witnesses claimed.

Dozens of people have been killed over the past week around Deraa, with Amnesty International suggesting a death toll of at least 55.The clashes came to a head after police detained more than a dozen schoolchildren for writing graffiti inspired by slogans used by other pro-democracy demonstrators in the Middle East.

The US and the UN condemned the Assad regime in the aftermath of reports that troops, some of them in plainclothes, had opened fire on peaceful protesters in Deraa and the southern town of Sanamein.

The move to release prisoners yesterday appeared to be an attempt to placate demonstrators and ease pressure on Assad.

Around 260 political detainees were set free from Saydnaya prison in Damascus in the biggest overture yet to protesters demanding reform in the country

Abdul Karim Rihawi, president of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights, said: "Syrian authorities have freed 260 detainees from Saydnaya prison, mainly Islamists but also including 14 Kurds, in a move that comes as part of the promises authorities made recently to boost freedom in Syria."

Activists called online yesterday for a popular peaceful uprising in all Syrian provinces. It urged people to take part in funerals "and not return home."

The Syrian government said on Thursday it would consider political reforms, including the possible ending of emergency laws introduced in 1963.

It also said it would put on trial those suspected of killing several protesters in Deraa.