Death toll in Syria rises as officials round up activists

THREE PROTESTERS were shot dead yesterday in the coastal area of Jabla as Syrian officers raided homes and detained dozens of activists following bloodletting that has left 96 dead and scores wounded since Friday.

Two lawmakers and a senior religious figure from the southern city of Deraa resigned on Saturday, after 14 mourners were killed while attending funerals for some of the 82 slain during countrywide protests on Friday.

Legislators Nasser al-Hariri and Khalil Rifai took the dramatic step of renouncing their seats on the al-Jazeera satellite channel.

Mr Hariri said he could not remain in parliament while he was powerless to protect constituents from the bullets of the security forces. Mr Rifai observed: “Security solutions do not work.”

The mufti of Deraa Rezq Abdulrahman Abazeid announced he could not accept to issue religious rulings (fatwas) while protesters were being shot.

In Syria, as in most Muslim countries, clerics are closely controlled by the state.

While not high level, these resignations are unprecedented.

The ruling establishment decides who sits in parliament and who fills key religious posts.

The three men were the first figures of importance to defect. A member of the Deraa provincial council, Bassem al-Zamel, followed suit, asserting: “It is our duty to protest.”

Omar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights, said the arrests were illegal because no formal warrants had been issued.

He expected detainees to be charged for demonstrating without permits. According to new procedures that replaced the 48-year old emergency law, lifted last week, prior interior ministry approval is required for demonstrations.

The resignations are likely to increase pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to rein in the security forces and hasten to meet urgent demands for the release of political prisoners and investigations into the killings.

Since demonstrations erupted in Deraa, the epicentre of the protests on March 18th, more than 300 have been killed. The authorities declared that 286 members of the security forces have been injured.

As protests have escalated, popular confidence has waned in Dr Assad’s ability or will to initiate serious reform. While he has ended emergency rule, dissolved state security courts, appointed a new government and pledged further measures, Syria remains a tightly controlled security state.

Some analysts argue he is a sincere reformer who has been obstructed by family, party and establishment members who have major political and financial interests in the status quo.

Others claim he is fully committed to the system of governance established by his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron hand from 1970 to 2000.

Syrians are divided into three camps: activists who demand the ousting of the regime, moderates who want reform without revolution, and those who support the regime.

For Dr Assad to survive, he needs to pacify the first and court the second by initiating reforms while maintaining the backing of the third.

The latest violence prompted the International Commission of Jurists to call for the Syrian authorities to be hauled before the International Criminal Court.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the deaths as “appalling and intolerable.” She said: “the Syrian authorities must immediately stop their violent response and fully respect the citizens’ right to peaceful demonstrations.”

She urged the government to “carry out profound political reforms, starting with respect for basic rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.

“That process can only be made possible by putting an immediate end to repressive violence.”

Due to the unrest, the British government has urged its citizens to leave Syria unless they have a “pressing need to remain” and while the airports still remain open to commercial traffic.