SYRIA’S PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad has promised to display captured foreign “mercenaries” who have been fighting his regime and he denounced western governments for failing to protest at the violence perpetrated by his enemies.
In his first interview in many months, Mr Assad told Russian state TV that the Syrian opposition had shown itself to be insignificant by calling for a boycott of the recent parliamentary elections – dismissed as a sham by critics in Syria and abroad.
“How can you boycott the people of whom you consider yourself the representative?” he asked. “I don’t think that they have any kind of weight or significance within Syria.”
Opposition activists reported 30 dead across the country yesterday. The Local Co-ordination Committees group said 21 had been killed in Homs, four in Daraa, two each in Damascus and Idlib and one in Deir Ezzor. In all, an estimated 10,000 people have been killed by the Assad regime over the last 15 months.
Mr Assad also issued a veiled warning to unnamed countries he said were interfering in Syria – an apparent swipe at Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have called for arming the rebels.
“For the leaders of these countries, it’s becoming clear that this is not ‘spring’ but chaos. If you sow chaos in Syria you may be infected by it yourself, and they understand this perfectly well.”
Syria claimed from the start of the uprising it was facing armed terrorists rather than a popular and at least initially largely peaceful uprising. But the opposition has become more militarised and violent in recent months.
Mr Assad also mentioned religious extremists and al-Qaeda members from abroad.
“There are foreign mercenaries, some of them still alive,” he told Rossiya-24 TV. “They are being detained and we are preparing to show them to the world.”
Syria has previously mentioned a list of 12 foreign terrorists killed in Syria, including one French citizen, one British and one Belgian.
The US and other western governments say they have detected a jihadi or al-Qaeda presence there.
The al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged all good Muslims to fight Mr Assad’s “pernicious, cancerous regime”.
Several Tunisians were recently killed in Syria and Islamist fighters from Libya are known to have made their way to the Idlib area via Turkey. Others have entered the country from neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq, but in small numbers and on an ad-hoc basis.
Analysts of the May 7th elections say a vote for Mr Assad’s reforms was undermined by the participation of renamed pro-government parties, safe seats being given to loyalists and regime cronies who were described as independents. They mention widespread irregularities and an exaggerated reported turnout of 51 per cent. – (The Guardian)