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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- About 100 activists
trying to stage a sit-in demanding greater freedoms
were chased from a downtown square Thursday by
hundreds of pro-government demonstrators carrying
large pictures of the Syrian president, a human
rights committee said.
Some of the activists were also beaten, according to
the statement of the newly formed National
Coordination Committee for Basic Freedom and Human
Rights.
The committee, which was established earlier this
year, denounced the actions as ``repressive and
uncivilized behavior which threatens civil peace.''
Syria's official news agency, SANA, said the
pro-government university students ran into ``a
group of citizens who were staging a sit-in
expressing some demands.'' It said police intervened
to ``prevent any clashes.''
The incident comes a day after hundreds of thousands
marched in support of President Bashar Assad in the
face of intense international pressure on him to
withdraw his military and intelligence units from
Lebanon.
Thursday's sit-in was organized to mark the 42nd
anniversary of the declaration of emergency laws in
Syria and also coincided with the first anniversary
of Kurdish riots in northeastern Syria in which 25
people were killed and more than 100 injured.
Shortly after the activists began their sit-in, at
least 500 pro-government demonstrators arrived,
waving Syrian flags and pictures of Assad and
shouting, ``We sacrifice our souls and blood for
you, oh Bashar!''
The demonstrators overtook the activists,
threatening them with the sticks holding their flags
and forcing them to move to a nearby square, where
they were also overwhelmed and chased away.
The sit-in ``was met with a flood of security agents
and surrounded by marchers armed with sticks and
clubs in a provocative attempt ... aimed at
preventing the opposition from peacefully expressing
its calls for democracy, human rights and respect of
basic liberties,'' the statement said.
It called on the government to abolish emergency
laws and release all political prisoners as well as
``unleash general, basic freedoms without any
slowdown.''
The statement also demanded the government find ``a
democratic and just solution for the Kurdish
question and return citizenship to the Kurdish
citizens who were stripped of it.''
Hassan Abdul Azeem, an official with the committee,
told reporters at his office in downtown Damascus
that the Syrian government ``still insists on its
totalitarian course and on its continuous attempts
to cancel and suppress the other's opinion.''
Syrian Kurds have long complained they lack basic
rights, and that the areas of northern Syria where
they live are neglected by the government. There are
around 1.5 million Kurds in Syria, a country of 18.5
million. About 160,000 Kurds are denied Syrian
citizenship.
Last March, clashes broke out between Kurds and
authorities over a soccer match between a mainly
Arab and a predominantly Kurdish team. At least 25
people died and more than 100 were wounded in riots
that began in the northeastern city of Qamishli and
spread to other Syrian cities.
According to Amnesty International, more than 2,000
people, almost all of them Kurds, were arrested in
the past year.
AP
Syria: Bashar el-Assad, Predator of press freedom
Reporters without borders
Bashar el-Assad announced a liberalization of the
regime when he succeeded his father in July 2000 but
no "Damascus spring" ever arrived. The war in
neighbouring Iraq in 2003 showed that the
authorities continued to keep complete control of
the news. The authorities kept foreign journalists
under surveillance and censored the Internet. Two
Internet users were imprisoned. Privately-owned TV
stations are banned, and the privately-owned radio
stations are only allowed to broadcast music or
entertainment programmes.
http://www.rsf.org
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