Syria's Cabinet Endorses End of 48-Year-Old Emergency Law
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Syria's Cabinet endorsed a draft decree to lift a 48-year-old emergency law, the main demand of protesters challenging President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
The Council of Ministers also approved draft bills to dissolve the Supreme State Security Court and regulate the right to protest, Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud said yesterday in a televised speech after the Cabinet session. The measures need the approval of the president or parliament to become law, former lawmaker George Jabbour said in a telephone interview.
"This will reinforce security and will protect the dignity of the citizens," Mahmoud said. The draft law on the right to protest "is similar to those in place in most countries of the world, particularly in European countries and the United States," he said.
Syria is the latest Middle Eastern country to be hit by the wave of uprisings that ousted long-time rulers in Egypt and Tunisia, and sparked an armed conflict in Libya. Assad's regime is an ally of Iran and a power broker in neighboring Lebanon, where it supports Hezbollah, an armed Shiite Muslim group.
"The number of deaths and injuries suffered by protesters at the hands of the security forces in the past month has angered and galvanized the opposition to demand much more than the modest reforms they initially wanted, some even calling for regime change," Chris Phillips, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, said yesterday by e-mail. "Now, the formal ending of emergency law is unlikely to satisfy protesters unless it is accompanied by a marked change in the behavior of the security services."
Protesters Killed
Protests broke out in mid-March, prompting a government crackdown that led to scores of deaths across the country. Assad ordered his ministers to prepare the legal framework for lifting the state of emergency in a speech on April 16, without referring to other protest demands, including the release of political prisoners.
At least 17 protesters died April 17 during anti-government demonstrations in the central city of Homs, home to one of the country's two oil refineries, and Latakia, said Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organization for Human Rights, by phone from Cairo. He said security forces broke up a sit-in Homs yesterday, causing at least one death. Agence France-Presse put the death toll yesterday in Homs at four.
Officers Die
The Interior Ministry accused "criminal gangs" of killing a general and three of his relatives, as well as a colonel and a soldier in two separate attacks in Homs, according to the state- run Syrian Arab News Agency..
Assad must do more to meet the demands of the Syrian people for greater freedom and democracy, U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said after the Syrian cabinet approved the draft decree on lifting the emergency law.
The move "is a step forward, there's no doubt about that," Hague said in an interview with Sky News television yesterday. Assad "still has much more to do to meet the legitimate aspirations of the people of his country."
Assad's Baath party regime, which has been in power since 1963, has blamed the violence on terrorists. The Interior Ministry announced yesterday a ban on street protests.
"The ministry said it will not be lenient with such terrorist acts and it will work strictly to enhance security and stability all over Syria and pursue terrorists everywhere to bring them to justice," according to SANA.
Nothing Enacted
"Banning protests is unconstitutional," former Judge Haitham al-Maleh, 80, a human-rights activist who was recently released from prison as part of an amnesty, told Al Arabiya television. "No decrees or laws have so far been enacted, so this is all talk for now."
The cabinet yesterday also studied a series of draft decrees to introduce further reforms, including a new media law to enforce freedoms, Mahmoud said. The cabinet also looked into draft laws for political parties and local administrations, SANA said.
"These strategic draft decrees come within the framework of political reform that will help build democracy and increase the participation of citizens," SANA said. The government studied a draft law that would employ 10,000 degree-holders in public institutions every year, it said.
Government concessions don't seem to satisfy protesters who always "want a bit more," Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said yesterday in a phone interview.
Allegations of Torture
At least 130 people have been killed in the unrest that started in mid-March, according to Human Rights Watch. The New York-based organization has said that Syrian forces have tortured protesters and that it is impossible to verify how many remain in detention. Activists say the number killed exceeds 200.
The turmoil has posed the most serious challenge to Assad, who inherited power from his father 11 years ago. He has accused foreign-led conspirators of taking advantage of the unrest to undermine Syria, mostly due to its support for anti-Israel groups.
Assad issued a decree on April 14 approving a new government under former Agriculture Minister Adel Safar, after the protests intensified.
To contact the reporters on this story: Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut at mderhally@bloomberg.net Nayla Razzouk in Amman at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net Inal Ersan in Dubai at iersan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
Find out more about Bloomberg for iPhone: http://m.bloomberg.com/iphone/Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
No comments:
Post a Comment