Lebanon, April 22: A Syrian protester flashes the victory sign during a protest calling for President Bashar Assad to step down in front of Syrian embassy in Amman, Jordan, Sunday, April 17, 2011. The demonstrations come despite promises by Assad to end the widely despised state of emergency rule by next week at the latest, and implement other reforms following more than a month of unprecedented, and growing, demonstrations.
Ahead of what could turn out to be a decisive day for Syria, protesters took credit Thursday for forcing President Bashar Assad to lift the country’s 50-year state of emergency and brushed off his attempts to placate the monthlong uprising against his authoritarian regime.
Activists said they were planning the biggest protests to date Friday against Assad, who inherited power from his late father 11 years ago but has failed to deliver on early promises of sweeping reform. The uprising has posed the biggest challenge to the 40-year ruling dynasty of the Assad family.
The president has been trying to defuse the protests by launching a bloody crackdown along with a series of concessions, most recently lifting emergency laws that gave authorities almost boundless powers of surveillance and arrest.
He also has fulfilled a decades-old demand by granting citizenship to thousands among Syria’s long-ostracized Kurdish minority, fired local officials, released detainees and formed a new government.
But many protesters said Assad does not deserve the credit.
“The state of emergency was brought down, not lifted,” prominent Syrian activist Suhair Atassi, who was arrested several times in the past, wrote on her Twitter page. “It is a victory as a result of demonstrations, protests and the blood of martyrs who called for Syria’s freedom.”
Assad ratified the end of emergency rule on Thursday, a formality after his government abolished it two days ago. Although it is a significant overture, critics say many laws that justify imprisonment still exist.
New protests were expected after Muslim prayers Friday, which has become the main day of the week for protests across the Arab world. The movement has crossed a significant threshold in recent days, with increasing numbers now seeking nothing less than the downfall of the regime.
Amnesty International urged the Syrian authorities to show restraint Friday, saying the government’s response to the protests will test its sincerity in undertaking reforms.
“If government security forces resort to the same extremely violent tactics they have used over the past month, the consequences could be exceedingly grave,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Syria stands in the middle of the most volatile conflicts in region because of its alliances with militant groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and with Shiite powerhouse Iran. That has given Damascus a pivotal role in most of the flashpoint issues of the region, from the Arab-Israeli peace process to Iran’s widening influence.
If the regime in Syria wobbles, it also throws into disarray the U.S. push for engagement with Damascus, part of Washington’s plan to peel the country away from its allegiance to Hamas, Hezbollah and Tehran.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner declined to give his verdict on Assad’s future, but said the situation has made it “pretty clear he needs either to do more or allow others to do more.”
“He’s certainly facing a serious challenge, he and his government, from the Syrian people,” Toner told reporters in Washington. “They’ve expressed their aspirations. They want to see change. So far it appears he has not met those aspirations.”
At the United Nations in New York, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States is “deeply concerned by … the government’s brutal crackdown on political protests” and its reported targeting of medical personnel attempting to help the injured.
“We urge the Syrian government to allow foreign media, diplomats, and human rights organizations to independently verify humanitarian conditions throughout all of Syria,” Rice told an open meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Mideast issues.
Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari responded by calling Assad a reforming leader and calling the current events “an issue of domestic politics” which all countries must respect.
–Agencies