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Protesters March Anew in Syria as Slain Demonstrators Are Buried

   VOA News  March 26, 2011
   Syrian  protesters  shout  slogans  outside  the  Omayyad Mosque after
   Friday prayers in Damascus, March 25, 2011

Photo: AP

   Syrian  protesters  shout  slogans  outside  the  Omayyad Mosque after
   Friday prayers in Damascus, March 25, 2011

   Anti-government protesters in southern Syria have torched an office of
   the ruling Baath party and a police station.
   The  incidents  took  place  on  Saturday  in  the  town  of Tafas, as
   thousands  of  protestors took to the streets after funerals were held
   for three anti-government demonstrators killed on Friday.
   Meanwhile,  The  Associated  Press   says security force officers and
   protesters have clashed in the coastal city of Latakia.
   Also,  fresh  anti-government  rallies  erupted  on  Saturday  in  the
   southern  city  of  Daraa, the epicenter of protests against President
   Bashar  al-Assad's  government.  On Friday, witnesses said at least 15
   people  were  killed  in demonstrations in the city, which is near the
   Jordanian border.
   Rallies  took  place  in  at  least  six  cities  and towns on Friday,
   including  the  capital,  Damascus.  Protesters have been calling for
   sweeping  democratic  reforms  that  effectively  would  reverse  many
   policies of President Assad and his Baath Party allies. Â
   On  Friday,  demonstrators  in  Daraa pulled down a statue of the late
   Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, father of the current president and a
   symbol  of the dominant role in Syrian public life held for decades by
   the  minority  Alawite  sect  and  the  Baath party.  Three young men
   climbed  atop  the  fallen statue Saturday and displayed signs calling
   for "the downfall of the regime."
   Anti-government  protesters  have  called  for  an end to the state of
   emergency  that  has  been in effect in Syria for decades.  They also
   want  curbs  on  Syria's pervasive security apparatus, freedom for all
   political prisoners and freedom of expression for the Syrian public.
   Human  rights  groups  reported  Friday  that the Syria government had
   freed  260  prisoners,  in  an  apparent  bid  to  appease  opposition
   activists.   Most of those freed are Islamists who completed at least
   three-quarters of their jail sentences.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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References

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