WarSclerotic

Protests erupted Sunday in several Syrian cities, including Suweida and Aleppo, with thousands of demonstrators calling for greater freedom a day after President Bashar Assad promised to lift the decades-old emergency laws.

Thousands of protesters in the southern town of Suweida participated in a rally to mark Evacuation Day, commemorating the departure of the last French soldiers 65 years ago and Syria’s proclamation of independence. Supporters of Assad were present alongside protesters, declaring loyalty to the president.

	Syrian anti-government protesters march in the northeastern town of Qamishli on April 1, 2011
	Photo by: AFP

Several hundred people chanted “the people want freedom” at the grave of independence leader Ibrahim Hananu in Syria’s second city Aleppo on Sunday, a rights campaigner in contact with the protesters said.

Aleppo, a large trading and industrial hub, has been mostly free of protests since mass pro-democracy demonstrations challenging President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian rule erupted more than a month ago in southern Syria and spread to large parts in the country of 20 million people.

Assad said on Saturday that the emergency laws, in place for almost 50 years, would be lifted by next week. But he did not address protesters’ demands to curb Syria’s pervasive security apparatus and dismantle its authoritarian system.

“God, Syria, freedom, that’s all,” chanted several hundred protesters in the South Syria town of Suweida. They also shouted “no fear” and slogans in support of the city of Deraa, where protests first broke out a month ago and has suffered the heaviest bloodshed.

Human rights groups say more than 200 people have been killed since demonstrations erupted in Deraa on March 18 in protest against the arrest of youths who had scrawled graffiti inspired by the Arab uprisings in North Africa.

The unprecedented unrest has spread across the tightly controlled state, posing the sternest challenge yet to the 45-year-old Assad, who assumed the presidency in 2000 when his father, Hafez Assad, died after 30 years in power.

Authorities have pledged to replace the repressive emergency law with anti-terrorism legislation, but opposition figures said this was likely to preserve tough restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly in Syria, which has been under Baath Party rule since 1963.

“When the lifting of the emergency law package is issued, it should be firmly enforced. The Syrian people are civilized. They love order and they do not accept chaos and mob rule,” Assad told a new cabinet which he named last week.

“We will not be lenient toward sabotage,” Assad said in the comments broadcast by state television. Syrian authorities have blamed “infiltrators” for stirring up unrest at the behest of outside players, including Lebanon and Islamist groups.

State news agency SANA said on Sunday a “large quantity” of weapons had been seized at the Tanaf border crossing with Iraq, including rifles, night vision goggles, explosives and pistols.

It said officials also had recently seized arms shipments at crossings with Turkey and Lebanon.

Emergency law bans public gatherings of more than five people and has stifled public dissent until Syrians took to the streets in March, emboldened by the popular uprisings that ousted autocratic leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.

In his speech to the cabinet, Assad said corruption was a problem and a commission to address it should be set up. He did not, however, announce any measures to end his own family’s dominance over the Syrian economy.

Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon, has expanded his businesses during Assad’s rule and he has been widely cited by protesters in their calls for an end to public corruption.

The West, which had been trying to coax Syria away from its anti-Israeli alliance with Iran and support for militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, has urged Assad to refrain from violent crackdowns on disaffected Syrians.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed what he said was Assad’s “acknowledgement…that reform in Syria is necessary and urgent”.

“We call on the Syrian government to lift the state of emergency next week as proposed by President Assad and to ensure that those responsible for the deaths of civilians are held to account,” Hague said.