President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneck
al-Assad'sOne of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
long-awaited announcement came on Saturday, on the eve of Independence Day, after a month of bloody protests and a global outcry for change in the autocratic country.
But protesters erupted into the streets within hours of his speech, which was followed by calls for more demonstrations on Sunday posted on social networking website Facebook, a motor of the pro-reform movement.
"The day of independence is the day of liberty across Syria," the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page said of the 65th anniversary of the end of French rule.
"The juridical commission on the emergency law has prepared a series of proposals for new legislation, and these proposals will be submitted to the government, which will issue a new law within a week at the most," he said.
In a televised address Saturday to a new cabinet tasked with launching reforms, Assad also expressed his sorrow over the deaths of an estimated 200 people in a month of protests demanding greater freedoms.
Assad also addressed the broad spectrum of complaints that have sparked countrywide protests for more than a month, including joblessness, corruption and a crisis in agriculture.
"Corruption is a threat to morality and to the country's potential for development," he said.
The president also called for a national dialogue, saying there was a deep divide between the people and the institutions of the state.
"Citizens need security and services, but also dignity. We want to engage in dialogue with everyone... the unions and national organisations," he said.
Top human rights
...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
lawyer Haytham Maleh told AFP on Sunday that Assad's pledge to end emergency law was "not enough."
"It must be accompanied by reform of the judicial system which is corrupted," said Maleh, who was released from jail on March 8, benefiting from a presidential pardon.