At least 24 reported killed in and around volatile Syrian town
By the CNN Wire Staff
March 25, 2011 -- Updated 1731 GMT (0131 HKT)
Click to play
Syrian protests small but spreading
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* NEW: Activist says 9 were killed in Daraa's main square
* NEW: A child is killed in Latakia, official says
* Witnesses say 15 trying to march to Daraa were killed
(CNN) -- Violent protests erupted in Syria on Friday, with at least 24 people
killed in and near the restive Syrian city of Daraa and a boy slain in the
coastal town of Latakia, reports said.
Fifteen people who tried to march to Daraa have been killed, sources said, and
nine people died when security forces fired on demonstrators in Daraa's main
square, said Wissam Tarif, a human rights activist.
There were many casualties in Daraa, said Abdullah, who asked that his full
name not be reported due to security concerns. He said he was an eyewitness to
Friday's events in the city, which has been engulfed by deadly clashes in
recent days between security forces and protesters.
"Thousands gathered and moved to the governor's building in Daraa, and there
they burned a large picture of Bashar al-Assad, and then they toppled a statue
of Hafez al-Assad in the center of the square," Abdullah said, referring to the
current president and his late father, the former president.
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"After that, armed men came out from the roof of the officers' club in front of
the governor's office and started firing at the crowd," he said.
Aman al Aswad, an opposition activist, also told CNN about ongoing clashes with
security forces in the central square. He said it appears that dozens of people
have been killed or injured, but couldn't be precise on the totals.
CNN was unable to independently confirm the accounts as the Syrian government
has yet to grant access to the network.
Earlier, anti-government rhetoric rang out across the town in an outpouring
that drew more than 100,000 people, according to Kamal Aswad, a political
activist in Daraa.
People decried recent government pronouncements for reforms and an assertion by
government spokeswoman and adviser Bouthaina Shabaan that the country's
president ordered "no live bullets" would be used against demonstrators.
One witness said the people chanted "Bouthaina we do not want your bread, we
want dignity." He said an "overwhelming number" of protesters came out in
support of "martyrs" in Daraa, people who were killed in recent clashes.
"The whole of the city was out in the street to bury the dead and demand that
those responsible be tried for their crimes against the people of Daraa," the
witness said. "We broke the barrier of fear today and the security forces could
not touch us."
The witness said the security forces had withdrawn from the center of the city
and didn't interfere with the demonstrations, which are stoked by a range of
political and economic grievances.
The international community is concerned about the situation in Syria. The
United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke by phone with President
Assad.
Human Rights Watch, among other groups, said Thursday that around three dozen
people were killed in clashes in a 48-hour period.
"Syria's security forces are showing the same cruel disregard for protesters'
lives as their counterparts in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain," said
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"President Bashar al-Assad's talk about reforms doesn't mean anything when his
security forces are mowing down people who want to talk about them."
The government announced a number of measures that apparently addressed
protesters' demands. Among them are decrees to cut taxes and raise government
workers' salaries by 1,500 Syrian pounds ($32.60 US) a month and pledges to
provide more press freedoms, increased job opportunities and curbs on
government corruption.
The government said it will form a committee "to contact and listen to citizens
in Daraa."
It also said it would study lifting the country's emergency law and adopting
new legislation that would license political parties.
Syria's emergency law has been in effect since 1963. It allows the government
to make preventive arrests and override constitutional and penal code statutes.
It also bars detainees who haven't been charged from filing court complaints or
from having a lawyer present during interrogations.
There were pockets of smaller turnouts in Syria on Friday.
State TV showed what it said was pro-government demonstrations in Aleppo and
Damascus. Video emerged of protests in Hama, where the government violently
suppressed an uprising in 1982
Haytham Manna, a Syrian rights activist who lives in France and originally
hails from Daraa, reported demonstrations in the cities of Raqqa, where there
were reports of arrests and injuries, Latakia, and Homs.
Tarif said a 13-year old boy was killed in Latakia after he was beaten by
security forces when they tried to break up a demonstration. The teen was from
the neighboring village of Jabla.
Haitham Maleh, a Syrian human rights lawyer in Damascus, said demonstrators
turned out in Deir Al-Zour and were roughed up in Damascus.
"Syria today is like a barrel of gunpowder, and may explode at any moment,"
Maleh said. "What is happening in Syria cannot be tolerated anymore. We have
been subjected to oppression, domination and suppression by the security
authorities and we have unemployment exceeding 30%, while 60% of us live below
the poverty line."
Maleh's son, Iyas, said a legal group asked the International Criminal Court to
investigate possible crimes against humanity committed by Syrian forces. The
group is the Haitham Maleh Foundation for the Defense of Syrian Human Rights
Defenders.
The court told CNN that because Syria is not a "state party to the Rome
statute" that established the international body, it can't take action on
allegations of crimes in Syria. There are two exceptions however. One would be
if the Syrian authorities accepted the jurisdiction of the court, and the other
would be if the U.N. Security Council referred the situation to the court.
But Iyas Maleh is hoping that the Security Council will take action.
"If not, then I guess we will have to wait until there is a recognized Syrian
transitional government who can sign the Rome statute."
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, Saad Abedine, Mustafa Al-Arab, Christine Theodorou, and
Joe Sterling contributed to this report
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