Security forces in Syria on Wednesday arrested more than 25 protesters in the capital, Damascus, on a second day of rare protests that are banned under emergency laws in place since 1963.
Despite the ban, about 200 people took to the streets of Old Damascus on Tuesday, calling for liberty and political freedoms, and on Wednesday dozens of relatives of political prisoners demonstrated to demand their release.
“Free the prisoners,” the protesters chanted in Marjeh Square near the interior ministry in central Damascus as several human rights activists joined them, witnesses said.
Photo: Reuters
Large numbers of police and security agents in civilian clothes ringed the protesters, and four young demonstrators were arrested and whisked away by car, the sources said.
Amnesty International said plain-clothed security agents beat up some protesters and arrested at least 30 people, including a man snatched from hospital where he was “being treated for a serious head wound.”
“At the protest today, children, the elderly and women were among those beaten,” Amnesty said, quoting witnesses. “Demonstrators who tried to flee the assault were reportedly chased down and arrested.”
Washington called on Damascus to exercise restraint.
“We call on the Syrian government to live up to its obligations under the universal declaration on human rights,” US Department of State spokesman Mark Toner said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said “more than 25 people” were arrested, including Kurdish blogger Kamal Hussein Sheikho, who was released from prison on Sunday, although he is still on trial for allegedly publishing material harmful to the country.
Author Tayeb Tizini, rights activists Mazen Darweesh, Nahed Badawiya and Suhair Atassi were also detained, along with five relatives of prominent opposition figure Kamal Labwani, who is serving a 12-year jail term, including his son Omar, the SOHR said.
On Tuesday, Atassi hailed “the Syrian people who took the initiative ahead of the opposition,” recalling the popular uprisings that shook Tunisia and Egypt.
“It’s the first time a demonstration calling for freedom has taken place in Syria,” she told al-Jazeera TV.
Philip Luther, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, described the protests on Tuesday and Wednesday as “real acts of bravery in a country known for its intolerance of dissent.”
“The Syrian authorities must immediately release all those arrested in the last two days for merely attending peaceful protests, and stop these attacks on freedom of expression and assembly,” Luther said.
A Facebook page titled “The Syrian revolution against Bashar al-Assad 2011,” which has amassed about 42,000 fans, had been promoting demonstrations “in all Syrian cities” on Tuesday.
Dozens of Syrians marched in the landmark al-Hamidiyeh souk and nearby Hariqa souk of Old Damascus, chanting: “God, Syria, liberty” and “Syrians, where are you?”
The families of 21 jailed human rights activists announced in an online statement on Saturday their plans to lobby Syrian Interior Minister Saeed Sammur for the release of their relatives.
“We have decided to give the interior minister next Wednesday at noon a letter outlining our complaints and suffering,” they said a statement posted on the SOHR Web site.
The detainees, some of whom have spent several years behind bars, include human rights lawyers Anwar Bunni and Muhannad al-Hassani, as well as engineers, doctors and writers.
The protesters were unable to deliver the letter, said the head of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights, Abdel Karim Rihawi. Officials told them they must first submit a request to see the minister, he added.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was