E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Syrian security forces attack village
[Al Jazeera] Syrian security forces have fired upon people in the village of Bayda, near the town of Baniyas in the country's northeast, injuring at least one person, witnesses have told Al Jizz.

On Sunday, security forces in Baniyas killed at least four pro-reform protesters and left another 17 maimed, human rights
...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
 groups have said.

"Security forces and gunnies are firing machine guns indiscriminately at [Bayda]," a witness said on Tuesday.

"The gunfire against Bayda is intense like the rain. At least one person was injured," another witness said, describing the violence in the village, which is 10km south of Baniyas.

"What we are hearing from residents [in Bayda] is that there has been a campaign of arrests, those who have been jugged are taken to the main square ... and eyewitnesses say they are being brutally beaten," reported Al Jizz's Rula Amin from Damascus.
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
"In Baniyas ... the city is still sealed, tension is very high ... and [there is a] heavy security presence."


"The goal of the attack is probably the arrest of Anas al-Shukri [one of the leaders of the opposition movement]," a human rights activist, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

Al-Shukri told the AFP news agency that security forces and the army were "continu[ing] to assault Baniyas".

The AP news agency reported that pro-government gunnies were also attacking the village of Beit Jnad, near Baida, on Tuesday.

Haitham al-Maleh, an opposition activist, said attackers were using automatic rifles in the two villages.

A resident from a third village nearby said he could hear the sound of heavy gunfire coming from the two villages.

"Some residents of the two villages took part in the anti-regime protests in Baniyas," the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
 for fear of government reprisals.

Also on Tuesday, Khalil Matouk, a human rights lawyer, told AFP that Ghiyath Oyun al-Sood, secretary-general of the Democratic People's Party (a banned communist party) had been incarcerated while shopping near his home in southern Damascus.

Meanwhile,
...back at the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout, the long-awaited message arrived...
 about 600 Kurds held a one-hour long peaceful protest demonstration in the village of Ain Arab in the northern part of the country, Radif Mustapha, the head of the Rased Kurdish human rights group told AFP. The protesters were calling for reforms and the release of political prisoners.

Meeting with opposition
Al Jizz's Amin reported that an opposition delegation from the city of Daraa, where protests against the government first began several weeks ago, had met with the country's vice-president on Tuesday.

"The people of Daraa had a delegation led by the imam of the Omari mosque [where protests started] ... met with Syria's vice-president Farouk al-Sharra. This is a very significant step.

"The people we spoke to, including this imam, told us that they met the vice-president, they gave him their list of demands, some have to do with Daraa - like pulling out the heavy security that's stationed there, releasing all prisoners - and some demands have to do with all of Syria, like lifting the state of emergency law, giving them more political freedoms and to stop the heavyhandedness of security forces in their daily lives."

The opposition also demanded that the status of those who are still missing after the protests were broken up by security forces be revealed, and that the families of those who were killed during protests in Daraa be provided a monthly salary.

"What the government wants of course is for the protests to stop, and so far, of course, there is no conclusion. But according to the delegation ... preparations are underway to arrange a meeting between a delegation from Daraa and the president himself. Maybe as soon as tomorrow," Amin said.
Posted by: Fred 2011-04-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=320278