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Syrian president grants general amnesty
[Arab News] Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck  al-AssadOne of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... issued a general amnesty on Tuesday, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? said, after ten weeks of protests against his 11-year rule and a military crackdown which has drawn international condemnation. The amnesty covers "all members of political movements, including the Moslem Brüderbund," it said. Membership of the Brotherhood, which led an armed uprising against Assad's father in 1982, is punishable by death in Syria. Assad's move was the latest in a series of reforms -- including lifting a 48-year state of emergency and granting citizenship to stateless Kurds in eastern Syria -- aimed at addressing grievances of protesters. But those steps have been accompanied by a ruthless military crackdown in which rights campaigners say 1,000 civilians have been killed and more than 10,000 people nabbed. Activists said at least five people were killed on Tuesday when tanks shelled the central town of Rastan and security forces stormed Hirak, a town in the southern Hauran Plain where the uprising first broke out in mid-March. Syria blames the violence on gangs, miltants and foreign agitators, saying more than 120 police and soldiers have been killed in the unrest nationwide. The official SANA news agency said two soldiers were killed in an operation to arrest "armed terrorist groups" in Rastan. It quoted a military source saying army and security forces seized weapons and ammunition in Rastan and killed or injured "a number of armed terrorists." The United States, which has called Assad's repression of protests "barbaric, and the European Union, have announced sanctions against the president and senior Syrian officials. Posted by: Fred 2011-06-01 |
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