Student protest in Syrian capital turns violent

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A rare demonstration by hundreds of Syrian university students turned violent Monday when security forces beat up and arrested several protesters who were shouting for freedom and unity as the country’s three-week uprising gathered strength despite a government crackdown, witnesses said.

Video footage posted online showed what appears to be plainclothes security forces beating protesters and forcefully pulling others away as they marched inside the campus of Damascus University. An activist in touch with students who witnessed the demonstration corroborated the footage, but he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

“The Syrian people are one!” the students shouted in the video.

Protests erupted in Syria more than three weeks ago and have been growing steadily every week, with tens of thousands of people calling for sweeping reforms to President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime.

More than 170 people have been killed, according to human rights groups.

Most of the demonstrations so far have happened outside the capital. The fact that students were gathering in Damascus on Monday suggested that the protesters were becoming emboldened as their unprecedented movement enters its fourth week.

The activist said most of the students taking part in Monday’s protest were from Daraa — the southern city that has become the epicenter of the violence — and the port city of Banias, where four protesters were killed Sunday.

Some 2,000 mourners chanting “Death is better than humiliation!” turned out in Banias on Monday for a funeral for the four after Muslim noon prayers, an eyewitness said.

The military rolled into the city early Monday, taking up positions around key buildings and intersections. But the army pulled out after several hours and kept up their positions on the outskirts. The witness, speaking on the phone from Banias, said schools and shops were… closed because people feared more clashes.

He said the army’s arrival was met mostly with relief.

“We are happy it’s the army and not security forces who are like regime-hired gangs,” he told The Associated Press. Like most eyewitnesses who spoke to the AP, he requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from the government.

In Banias, no soldiers were present at the funeral. Participants dispersed peacefully.

“The troops just came into the city to say they are with the people, not against them,” the resident said.

In Daraa, a resident contacted by telephone said Syrian employees evacuated a government compound in the city. He said road blocks were erected and at least one tank stood at the city’s northern entrance on Monday. Overnight, Syrian forces set up dirt mounds on main city roads and on Daraa’s exit roads.

The move to evacuate the government compound raised fears among residents that a military operation was being planned.

The government blames the violence on armed gangs rather than reform-seekers and has vowed to crush further unrest. On Sunday, state television reported that thugs killed nine soldiers in an ambush near Banias, which is 185 miles (300 kilometres) northwest of the capital, Damascus.

The report said gunmen hiding among trees along a road shot at the soldiers, and it broadcast images later of ambulance and other civilian vehicles coming under fire along the same road.

The accounts could not be independently confirmed. The government has placed severe restrictions on news coverage and many journalists — including from The Associated Press — have been ordered to leave the country.

Assad has made a series of overtures to try and appease the growing outrage, including sacking local officials and granting Syrian nationality to thousands of Kurds, a long-ostracized minority. But the gestures have failed to satisfy protesters who are demanding political freedoms and an end to the decades-old despised emergency laws.

On Sunday, Assad ordered the release of 191 detainees who were arrested in the past few weeks during protests in the Damascus suburb of Douma, where 12 people were shot dead during last Friday

metronews

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4 responses to “Student protest in Syrian capital turns violent”

  1. antar2011 Avatar
    antar2011

    assad is playing it smart..

    he is showing the international community that he is making changes so they will not complain and say ‘listen to the needs of the people’ and so turn a blind eye to the random shooting by his thugs…

    but these changes are not substantial enough for the syrian people..they do not give freedom nor do they guarrantee a non return to the torturing and unjust ways of the regime.

    but hey…who cares about freedom really…as long as the international community is happy.

    liers..all liers.. cruel world we live in.

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    assad is playing it smart..

    he is showing the international community that he is making changes so they will not complain and say ‘listen to the needs of the people’ and so turn a blind eye to the random shooting by his thugs…

    but these changes are not substantial enough for the syrian people..they do not give freedom nor do they guarrantee a non return to the torturing and unjust ways of the regime.

    but hey…who cares about freedom really…as long as the international community is happy.

    liers..all liers.. cruel world we live in.

  3. The Assad Family are finally tasting the blood of the thousands, upon thousands of Lebanese they killed during the civil war in Lebanon, plus what they did to Hariri, and also to the 20 thousand of their own people, his father killed, in Hama, in 1982, like it was nothing. Back then, there was no Internet, no YouTube, no Skype, no Facebook, no camera cell phones, however, today dear Dr. Bashar, you cannot simpy turn the lights out, like your father did, back then. The world sees what you are doing, and either you are deaf, dumb, and blind (with all due respect to the deaf, dumb and blind), or you are outright very, very stupid, and cannot see your days, and the days of your psychotic brother, Maher and your corrupt cousin, Rami, are fast coming to an end. Freedom, for the good people of Syria, is just around the corner. Next up, Iran, Hizbollah, and Hamas….the world is changing, ya Bashar, and you and your clowns are missing the boat…..

  4. The Assad Family are finally tasting the blood of the thousands, upon thousands of Lebanese they killed during the civil war in Lebanon, plus what they did to Hariri, and also to the 20 thousand of their own people, his father killed, in Hama, in 1982, like it was nothing. Back then, there was no Internet, no YouTube, no Skype, no Facebook, no camera cell phones, however, today dear Dr. Bashar, you cannot simpy turn the lights out, like your father did, back then. The world sees what you are doing, and either you are deaf, dumb, and blind (with all due respect to the deaf, dumb and blind), or you are outright very, very stupid, and cannot see your days, and the days of your psychotic brother, Maher and your corrupt cousin, Rami, are fast coming to an end. Freedom, for the good people of Syria, is just around the corner. Next up, Iran, Hizbollah, and Hamas….the world is changing, ya Bashar, and you and your clowns are missing the boat…..

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