Apr 25 2011
Syrian President Sharply Escalates Attacks on Protesters
The Syrian government sharply escalated its violent crackdown on its people this morning in the southern Syrian city of Deraa, killing five people and wounding and arresting dozens more. The government of Bashar Al Assad sent “tanks, snipers and knife-wielding security forces” (AP) into the town following several days of similar bloodshed. It was the first time the army joined security forces, and the first time that a crackdown was not prompted by a demonstration. On Saturday, thousands of people gathered near Damascus mourning a protester who was killed on Friday. Friday’s clashes resulted in at least 30 people confirmed dead after security forces fired on protesters during mass demonstrations across Syria. After two weeks of widespread unrest throughout the country, thousands of Syrians flooded the streets chanting for the downfall of the military regime. Riot police fired pellets, tear gas and lethal ammunition into the crowd, and in the Damascus suburb of Douma, witnesses reported seeing snipers targeting people in the crowd. President Bashar al-Assad was expected to ease restrictions on the media and lift Syria’s state of emergency imposed 48 years ago. The emergency law, imposed by Al-Assad’s father, Hafiz al-Assad, have allowed government officials to crackdown on dissenters and free speech. However, in his latest address to the Syrian parliament, Al Assad instead blamed “conspirators” and the foreign press for pushing an “Israeli agenda.” While the president conceded that some of the protesters’ deaths had been “mistakes” made by security forces, he neither recognized the deaths of other protesters nor offered a time frame for economic reform or changes in governance. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Obama Administration was drafting sanctions against the Syrian regime. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillai, also called on Syria to immediately halt the violence.
GUESTS: Radwan Ziada, the Director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies, Joshua Stacher, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Kent State University, where he teaches and researches Middle East politics
Find out more about the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies at www.dchrs.org.
2 Responses to “Syrian President Sharply Escalates Attacks on Protesters”
The U.S. and other countries have to do something to stop this destruction and killing in Syria otherwise the Syrian forces will so many people who fight against them so the Syrian government leaders should be punished.
European Union take this decision a little bit latter but took right decision Syrian forces killing day by day so many people now we have to stop these killings immediately and arrest those leaders who are against the Syrian people and killing them with their forces i don’t know the Syrian leaders what they are doing will they win the war which they have been continuing with their people? no they never with the war which against their people.