Syria's al-Assad leaves state of emergency in place
By the CNN Wire Staff
March 30, 2011 -- Updated 0505 GMT (1305 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* NEW: At least one person is killed in clashes after the president's speech
* A woman is restrained after approaching president's car
* The president finishes a speech without delivering on a widely expected
concession
* Bashar al-Assad acknowledges that Syrians want reform and the government
has not met their needs
(CNN) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad defied expectations and dashed
widespread hopes Wednesday when he made no mention of lifting a state of
emergency during a widely anticipated nationally televised speech.
He acknowledged that Syrians want reform and that the government has not met
their needs in his rambling 45-minute speech to the National Assembly.
But he made few concrete promises after weeks of anti-government demonstrations
that have left 73 people dead, according to Human Rights Watch.
At least one person was killed after the speech in clashes in the city of
Latakia, which has been a center of unrest, human rights activists told CNN.
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Protesters went out into the street in anger after the speech but went home in
the face of security forces' gunfire "like rain falling" that left many injured
and dead, a witness in the city told CNN, asking not to be named for security
reasons.
One expert anticipated the violence soon after the speech ended.
"My initial instinct is that this is not going to go down very well," said
Stephen Walt, of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, from Syria. "We may
see more violence."
Al-Assad spoke a day after the Syrian cabinet resigned amid an unusual wave of
unrest across the nation. Simmering tensions heightened after the speech in
Damascus when a woman approached the president's car and waved her hand at its
occupants.
Several people walking alongside the car -- apparently security officers --
took hold of and restrained the woman as others in the crowd surged forward.
An image of the confrontation aired on state-run Syrian TV, but the screen
faded to black within seconds. The woman's intentions were not immediately
clear.
Syria is the latest in a string of Arabic-speaking nations beset with
discontent over economic and human rights issues. Syria's protests are centered
in Daraa, a southern city in the impoverished country's agricultural region,
where security forces and anti-government protesters have sporadically clashed
for nearly two weeks.
In his speech, al-Assad said Syria's government will not fall like a domino in
a string of Arab revolutions, saying that instead Syria had kicked the dominoes
of the "conspirators" and that they had fallen instead.
Al-Assad also blamed unrest in his country on "enemies... working daily and
scientifically to undermine the stability of Syria." He said they were "stupid
in choosing to target Syria."
He referred obliquely to the anti-government demonstrations, calling them "a
test of our unity."
But al-Assad said, "we can't say that everybody who went out was part of the
conspiracy. That wouldn't be accurate."
Legislators in the People's Assembly cheered the president when he arrived to
begin the speech.
The state-run SANA news agency had reported that al-Assad's speech would
"tackle the internal affairs and the latest events in Syria," and "reassure the
Syrian people."
Al-Assad did make a passing reference to the emergency law, in place for 50
years.
"Sometimes we can postpone a certain suffering that may be caused by the
emergency law or any other law or necessary measures that the citizen endures,
but we cannot postpone the suffering of a child whose father cannot treat him
because he doesn't have the money for his medication or when the state does not
have this drug or this treatment," he said.
Reem Haddad, a spokeswoman for the Syrian Information Ministry, has told CNN
that the emergency law "will be lifted," but she could not say when.
The law allows the government to make preventive arrests and override
constitutional and penal code statutes. In effect since 1963, it also bars
detainees who haven't been charged from filing court complaints or from having
a lawyer present during interrogations.
Ihssan Zouabi, a protester in Daraa, called the president's speech a
disappointment because he didn't address demands, including lifting the
emergency law.
"We were hopeful prior to the speech but after, everyone was shocked, we were
expecting much, much more," he said.
Syrian rights activist Malath Aumran, who uses this alias for security reasons,
said he and other Syrians are disappointed. He said people are dying for
freedom but the "martyrs" weren't mentioned.
"For me now, at this time... actually he said nothing, he did nothing for us,
all of what he said was that we are traitors, that we are working for foreign
conspiracies against our country.... That the United States is behind this,
what is going on in Syria."
He said more protests are planned for Friday.
"People were saying no fear any more, Syrian people have been in fear for 48
years. Now we are saying we cannot live in fear any more, we need to live in
liberty, in dignity.... People who live in fear do not live in dignity."
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators poured onto the
streets of Damascus. State media reported a much higher national turnout.
"Millions of people around Syria rallied in the cities' main squares to express
loyalty to homeland and underline its national unity," SANA reported. "Syrian
people gathered on Tuesday to stress the importance of maintaining security and
stability and to support the massive reform program led by President Bashar
al-Assad."
Tuesday's pro-government rally followed violent clashes between protesters and
security forces in the cities of Daraa and Latakia in recent days.
Many demonstrators at the pro-government rally in Damascus held posters of the
president. Others waved Syrian flags, while some painted their faces and chests
in national colors.
Crowds filled the square in front of the Central Bank and jammed all roads
leading to it, aerial pictures on state TV showed.
There were also pro-government rallies in the cities of Aleppo, Hama and
Hasaka, the broadcaster said.
CNN's Yousuf Basil, Katy Byron, and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report
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