Activists called for protests across Syria yesterday to mark Independence Day and to bolster the popular uprising against the country’s authoritarian regime.
The plans come despite promises by Syrian President Bashar Assad to end nearly 50 years of emergency rule and implement other reforms following more than a month of unprecedented — and growing — demonstrations.
More than 200 people have been killed as security forces tried to crush the protests using live ammunition, tear gas and batons.
Syria’s leading pro-democracy group, the Damascus Declaration, urged Syrians to stage peaceful -protests in all Syrian cities and abroad to “bolster Syria’s popular uprising and ensure its continuity.”
In a strongly worded statement posted on the group’s Web site, the Damascus Declaration said the regime was responsible for killing and wounding hundreds of Syrians who have been calling for their legitimate rights in the past month.
“The regime alone stands fully responsible for the blood of martyrs and all that will happen next in the country,” the statement said.
Other activists also called for protests through social network sites.
Bowing to pressure from the uprising now in its second month, Assad promised on Saturday to end the widely despised emergency law, but coupled his concession with a stern warning that further unrest will be considered sabotage.
He said there would no longer be “an excuse” for organizing protests once Syria lifts emergency rule and implements a spate of reforms, which he said would include a new law allowing the formation of political parties.
“After that, we will not tolerate any attempt at sabotage,” Assad said in a televised meeting with his Cabinet.
Assad said armed gangs and a “foreign conspiracy” were behind the unrest, not true reform-seekers.
Syria’s state-run news agency SANA yesterday said security forces seized a large quantity of weapons hidden in a truck coming from Iraq.
SANA reported that the weapons were confiscated at the Tanaf crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border, adding the shipment included machine-guns, automatic rifles, night vision goggles and grenade launchers.
Syria said a similar shipment was confiscated on March 11.
The protest movement has been steadily growing during the past four weeks, posing a serious challenge to the 40-year ruling dynasty of Assad and his father before him.
A British-trained eye doctor, who inherited power 11 years ago, Assad acknowledged on Saturday that Syrians have legitimate grievances.
However, “we do not want to be hasty,” Assad said. “Any reforms have to be based on maintaining internal stability.”
Thousands of protesters took to the streets before and after Assad’s speech in a sign that his promises were unlikely to appease a movement that has grown bolder in demanding sweeping changes.
Syria’s widely despised emergency laws have been in place since the ruling Baath party came to power in 1963, giving the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge and extending state authority into virtually every aspect of life.
The regime says Syria is under a state of emergency because Damascus is technically at war with Israel.
However, many say that is only a pretext to give the president unlimited powers to ban demonstrations, control the media and allow eavesdropping.
Critics said Assad should simply have lifted the emergency law himself on Saturday — something that is well within his authority in a country where the real power is concentrated around Assad and a tight coterie of family and advisers.
Instead, he put the onus on the new Cabinet, urging them to take swift action. Assad spoke at the swearing-in of the Cabinet, which replaces the government dissolved late last month in an attempt to placate protesters.
“The people simply want to see Assad go now,” said one protester from the southern city of Daraa, where thousands of people took part in a protest on Saturday, many of them calling for regime change.
He asked that his name not be used for fear of government reprisals.
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