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By Gao Xiaohui The chief of police in the Syrian city of Banias has been dismissed, a rights group said on Wednesday, after five civilians were killed in a crackdown against protests there last week. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), citing sources in Damascus, named the officer as Amjad Abbas. Security forces had sealed off the city last weekend after demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad and an attack by forces loyal to Assad on people guarding a Sunni mosque. "Under regional democracy pressure and consecutive protests in cities, the government has to make concessions to satisfy protesters so as to control the situation," Pan Guang, deputy president of the Middle East Society of China, told the Global Times. Syria's government approved a bill a day earlier to rescind a decades-long draconian emergency law and agreed to abolish the state security court. Repeal of the emergency law has been a central demand of reformists since protests began March 15. However, Mahmud Issa, an opposition figure in Syria, was taken into custody Tuesday in the city of Homs, hours after the cabinet approved the bill. Calling the arrest "reprehensible," Rami Adelrahman, head of the SOHR, said on Wednesday that "lifting the emergency law is long overdue, but there are a host of other laws that should be scrapped, such as those giving security forces immunity from prosecution, and giving powers to military courts to try civilians." Rights campaigners have said that at least 20 protesters have been shot dead in Homs in the past two days. "Amid turmoil in African nations, the Syria administration feels the pinch of losing control over the country and may be seeking every means to safeguard its ‘bottom lines,' including national stability under the Baath party rule," Chen Shuangqing, a professor of Syrian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times. Meanwhile, the United States called on Syria to cease violence against protesters and to introduce "broader reforms." Although the Britain-trained president, Assad, tried reformist initiatives in the early 2000s, the Syrian society is now still plagued by poverty, unemployment and nepotism, Chen added. "Since it is impossible for Bashar now to follow his father in resorting to force to solve current conflicts, opposition protesters will propose more political requests. And the future development of the situation also involves how exterior forces and religious conflicts develop in Syria," Pan added. Agencies contributed to this story |
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