Syria braced for more protests yesterday, a day after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a conciliatory move by signing a decree to lift almost five decades of draconian emergency rule.
Human rights groups said the demonstrations yesterday would prove a test case for Assad and his reforms.
Assad, in power since replacing his father Hafez as president in 2000, issued the order to scrap the state of emergency and decrees to abolish the state security court and allow citizens to hold peaceful demonstrations.
The announcements were flashed in quick succession on state television.
The moves are aimed at placating more than a month of unprecedented protests across the country, ruled by one of the Middle East’s most autocratic regimes since the Baath Party seized power 48 years ago.
Two prominent rights activists welcomed Assad’s action, but called for more changes, while a key cyber activist insisted the -people now want regime change.
“Lifting the emergency rule and the abolition of the state security court are positive steps, but over the next few days we will monitor closely the security forces to see if they violate the law,” said Rami Abdul Rahman of the -London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Now we expect the release of thousands of people who have been sentenced” by the state security court, he added.
Human rights lawyer Haitham Maleh renewed calls to scrap an -article in the Syrian Constitution referring to the Baath as sole leader of Syria’s state and society, and said Law 49, under which Muslim Brotherhood members can be condemned to death, must also be abolished.
Meanwhile, Beirut-based -Syrian cyber activist Malath Omran, a key player behind the protests, said ending emergency rule will “change nothing” in Syria, where the people now wanted a change of regime.
“From the first day people took to the streets with one goal in mind, the fall of the regime,” Omran said over the telephone in Nicosia, Italy.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed Assad’s lifting of the state of emergency as “a first step in the right direction,” but cautioned that it should be accompanied by rapid political reforms and an end to violence.
US Department of State spokesman Mark Toner concurred, stating that Assad must “do more, or allow others to do more” if he is going to satisfy the reform demands of the Syrian people.
A page on social networking Web site Facebook called for Good Friday protests, ahead of the Christian holiday of Easter Sunday tomorrow.
Amnesty International urged Syrian authorities not to suppress yesterday’s protests.
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