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29 March 2024

Assad allows Syria opposition parties

Published
By AFP

Syria's embattled president on Thursday decreed a law allowing opposition political parties, state media said after the UN Security Council condemned his regime's deadly crackdown on democracy protests.

In the latest bloodshed, witnesses and activists said security forces killed at least 37 people on Wednesday, 30 of them as tanks shelled the flashpoint protest hub of Hama.

A Hama resident, who managed to escape the city, told AFP in Nicosia that "the bodies of 30 people who were killed during shelling by the army have been buried in several public parks."

The witness, who declined to be identified for security reasons, said scores of people were being treated in hospitals for injuries and that fires broke out in several buildings.

"Tanks are deployed throughout the city, particularly in Assi Square and outside the citadel," he said about landmarks in the city centre of Hama.

The witness said the army on Wednesday used "bombs that break up into fragments when they explode," in a likely reference to cluster bombs, and said Thursday Hama echoed with the intermittent sound of machine gun fire.

"Conditions are very difficult in the city. Communications, electricity and water are cut and there are food shortages," he said, adding that snipers were positioned on the roofs of private hospitals.

President Bashar al-Assad authorised the "Parties Law, which was earlier adopted as a draft law by the government following a series of thorough discussions by lawmakers, intellectuals and Syrian citizens," said state news agency SANA.

The new law allows political parties to be set up alongside Assad's Baath party, in power since 1963 with the constitutional status of "the leader of state and society."

Political pluralism has been at the forefront of demands by pro-reform dissidents who since March 15 have been taking to the streets across Syria almost daily to call for greater freedoms.

"Citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic have the right to establish political parties and join them in accordance with this law," SANA said, and stressed parties would have to commit "to the constitution, principles of democracy and the rule of law."

Assad's regime has used brutal force to crush the movement, killing more than 1,600 civilians and arresting thousands, according to human rights activists.

Demonstrators have vowed to protest every night of Ramadan following evening prayers despite the assault on Hama and the killing of some 120 people across the country on the eve of the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Besides Hama, seven other people were killed on Wednesday, including three in Nawa near Daraa in the south, where protests erupted in mid-March.

The law on political parties is the latest attempt by Assad's regime to appease protesters.

In April, Assad issued orders lifting five decades of draconian emergency rule and abolishing the feared state security courts.

In a televised speech on June 20, he said talks could lead to a new constitution and even end his Baath party's monopoly on power, but refused to reform Syria under "chaos".

But activists say the deadly unrest and wave of arrests have not abated.

The latest concession came only hours after the UN Security Council condemned the deadly crackdown and said those responsible should be held accountable.

Unable to agree on a formal resolution, the council settled on a non-binding statement condemning "the widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities."

"Those responsible for the violence should be held accountable," it said, in its first pronouncement on the Syrian crisis since the protests began.

Meanwhile, 1,000 families have streamed out of Hama following the massive tank-backed assault that killed at least 95 people there on Sunday, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

On Wednesday tanks had taken up positions across the town and shelling could still be heard in several neighborhoods, another activist told AFP, saying it sounded like "open warfare."

The Local Coordination Committees, which represent the protesters, said plumes of smoke could be seen over the city of 800,000 residents.

Tens of thousands of people also staged protests Wednesday in various parts of Syria, including 50,000 who rallied in the eastern oil hub city of Deir Ezzor which is besieged by troops, activists said.

Western powers had hoped for stronger action at the Security Council but were rebuffed by veto-wielding members Russia and China, who feared doing so would pave the way for another military intervention like the one in Libya.

The White House meanwhile hardened its line on Assad -- saying it had no interest in seeing the Syrian president remain in power just to preserve regional "stability" -- but again stopped short of asking him to step down.