Syria rights group: Opposition figures, female protester arrested by security forces

Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah says security forces have killed at least 560 civilians since protests started just over six week ago; Syrian security arrested 11 women participating in a silent demonstration on Saturday.

By Reuters

Syrian security forces on Saturday arrested two veteran opposition figures and a group of female protesters as part of a crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners, rights groups said.

The reports came as the Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah said security forces had killed at least 560 civilians since protests started just over six week ago.

Security agents detained Hassan Abdel Azim, 81, in Damascus, and Omar Qashash, 85, in Aleppo, said the Syrian Centre for the Defense of Prisoners of Conscious.

Other rights campaigners said security forces arrested 11 women who marched in a silent all-women demonstration in the Salhyia district of Damascus on Saturday.

The march was in support of residents of the city of Deraa, where President Bashar Assad has sent tanks to crush an uprising against his rule.

The arrests came despite the fact that Syria's newly-appointed Prime Minister Adel Safar said on Saturday that his government would draw up a "complete plan" of political, judicial and economic reforms, the state news agency SANA reported.

SANA quoted Safar as saying he would set up committees to propose new laws and amendments to legislation in those areas.

Syrian troops killed four people while storming a mosque that became a focal point for protesters in the besieged southern city of Daraa on Saturday.

The military raid on the Omari mosque in Daraa came a day after 65 people were killed - most of them in the town on Syria's border with Jordan. Friday was the second deadliest day since the uprising began in mid-March in Daraa.

The unrest in Syria - one of the most repressive and tightly controlled countries in the Middle East - has repercussions far beyond its borders because of its alliances with militant groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah and with Shiite powerhouse Iran.

In another development in the Daraa region, 138 Baath Party members resigned to protest the crackdown. Lists of those who resigned, with their party rank, identity card numbers and signatures, were sent to the AP by activists.

It was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the lists of the low-ranking members. Earlier this week, another 200 mostly low-level Baath members in the same province quit in protest.

In Damascus, the Information Ministry took local journalists on a tour in the old part of the city to show them that life is going on as usual. As they walked near the Ummayad Mosque, about 100 government supporters demonstrated carrying Assad's pictures.

The Obama administration has imposed financial penalties on three top Syrian officials, including Assad's brother, Maher, as well as Syria's intelligence agency and Iran's Revolutionary Guard over the crackdown.


(2011-5-1/haaretz.com)