Syria yesterday imposed a total ban on all demonstrations after warning of a crackdown on an “armed revolt” by Islamist radicals and security forces fired on protesters in the city of Homs, killing at least four.
Syrian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar told people “to refrain from taking part in all marches, demonstrations or sit-ins under any banner whatsoever,” state news agency SANA reported.
He warned that if demonstrations were held, “the laws in force in Syria will be applied in the interest of the safety of the people and the stability of the country.”
Photo: Reuters
Shaar was understood to be alluding to the emergency law in place since 1963. Its repeal has been a central demand of reformists and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad promised at the weekend to rescind it within a week.
The law restricts civil liberties, imposes restrictions on public gatherings, freedom of movement and allows the “arrest of anyone suspected of posing a threat to security.”
LOOPHOLE
When the protests first began, the authorities relaxed its enforcement to permit peaceful gatherings, but Shaar’s announcement would appear to close that loophole.
The announcement came hours after authorities vowed to suppress what they called an “armed revolt” in the country by Salafists, Muslims who espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices common in the early days of the faith.
The authorities said three army officers and three children were killed by “armed criminal gangs” around the city of Homs.
“Armed criminal gangs who block roads and spread fear in the area came upon General Abdo Khodr al-Tellawi, his two children and his nephew, and killed them in cold blood,” the official news agency SANA reported. The victims’ bodies were “mutilated,” SANA said.
Two other officers “fell as martyrs to armed criminal gangs’ bullets in Homs,” the agency said.
“The sit-in was dispersed with force. There was heavy gunfire,” an activist said.
He said that very early yesterday the security forces swarmed into al-Saa Square, where some 20,000 people were staging a sit-in, scattering protesters.
Another said four people were killed, but gave no details.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Just hours before the attack on al-Saa Square, the government vowed to suppress “armed revolt” it said was undermining national security.
“The latest incidents have shown that ... armed Salafist groups, particularly in the cities of Homs and Banias, have openly called for armed revolt,” said an interior ministry statement carried by SANA.
It accused such groups of killing soldiers, policemen and civilians, and of attacking public and private property, and warned that “their terrorist activities will not be tolerated.”
The authorities “will act with determination to impose security and stability in the country” and will “pursue the terrorists wherever they are in order to bring them to justice and end the armed revolt,” it said.
The authorities “will act with determination to impose security and stability in the country” and will “pursue the terrorists wherever they are in order to bring them to justice and end the armed revolt,” it said.
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