New violence in Syria
dozens of deaths in Rastan

SYRIA – The budget of the clashes in Rastan is worsening, a city in central Syria besieged for five days by the regime’s tanks. Yesterday, according to a human rights activist lawyer, Razan Zaitouna, government forces, during a military operation to crush pro-democracy demonstrations, killed 41 people, including a four-year-old girl. Today, the monitoring site Rassd reports, the same fate would have been left to 15 other civilians.

According to the sources, the snipers and the Syrian artillery that bombed the town of Rastan would have been the cause of the massacre. “The security forces completely block access to the city – explains Ammar Qurabi, head of the Syrian human rights organization – Agents in the army uniform carry out searches. They break everything they see, from refrigerators, to televisions, to the machines “. The same sources also state that Rastan, Talbisse and Tayr Maale continue to be isolated from the rest of the country and lacking in water and electricity.

On the diplomatic front, almost three months after the protests began, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad issued a decree for the formation of a “national dialogue” body, composed of nine people between regime members and other “independent” however close to the government. Moreover from Damascus humanitarian organizations have reported the release of hundreds of political prisoners , amnestied yesterday under a decree of the same Assad. An initiative deemed “insufficient” by the US State Department. “All political prisoners must be released – US spokesman Mark Toner said – We must see a significant shift towards a reform. The act of freeing a hundred political prisoners does not take very far.”

(02 June 2011)