Syria opened a “national dialogue” yesterday that it hailed as a step towards multi-party democracy after five decades of Baath party rule, but its credibility was undermined by an opposition boycott.
Some 200 delegates, including independent lawmakers and members of the Baath party, in power since 1963, observed a minute’s silence in memory of the “martyrs” before the playing of the national anthem.
However, opposition figures boycotted the meeting in protest at the government’s continued deadly crackdown on unprecedented protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s rule that erupted in mid-March.
“We are going to hold a comprehensive national dialogue during which we will announce Syria’s transition towards a multi-party democratic state in which everyone will be equal and able to participate in the building of the nation’s future,” Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara said in his opening address.
“This dialogue is beginning at an awkward moment and in a climate of suspicion ... and there are many obstacles, some natural and some manufactured, to a transition toward another point,” Shara said. “This dialogue is not a concession by the government to the people but an obligation for every citizen.”
Shara said that within a week the interior ministry would implement a government decision to “remove all obstacles to any citizen returning to Syria or traveling abroad.
“Circumstances have prevented the full implementation of several laws promulgated recently, including that ending the state of emergency,” in force for five decades, he said.
“We need to recognize, however, that without the sacrifices made by the Syrian people who have shed blood in more than one province, this meeting could not have been held,” he said.
Dissident writer Tayyeb Tizini, who was among the few figures close to the opposition to join the meeting, expressed regret that the government had not halted its crackdown on major protest centers ahead of the dialogue’s launch.
“The bullets are still being fired in Homs and Hama. I would have hoped that that would have stopped before the meeting. That’s what’s necessary,” Tizini told delegates.
He called for the “dismantling of the police state.”
“That’s an absolute prerequisite, because otherwise the police state will sabotage all our efforts to tackle our problems together,” he said.
Assad announced the dialogue in a keynote speech on June 20, only his third intervention since the protests against his rule erupted.
A Facebook call for nationwide demonstrations against taking part in the dialogue brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets on Friday. Nearly half a million protested in the flashpoint central city of Hama alone.
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