Onrust in Syrië #6 - Waar vrijheid als muziek in de oren klinkt.

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Op dinsdag 21 juni 2011 14:11 schreef abdalfawaz het volgende:
De regering laat het Rode Kruis ook toe in het land..

"De onderhandelingen met de regering waren eerlijk en zakelijk" aldus nos.nl

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http://nos.nl/artikel/249(...)uis-toegang-toe.html
De Syrische regering geeft het Rode Kruis meer toegang tot burgers die zijn getroffen door het geweld in het land. Dat heeft de president van het Rode Kruis gezegd na twee dagen van overleg met het regime. Er wordt nog gesproken over het bezoeken van gevangenen.

Volgens directeur Kellenberger van het Rode Kruis verliep het overleg met de Syriërs eerlijk en zakelijk. Hij zegt er scherp op toe te zullen zien dat Syrië zich houdt aan de afspraken.

Volgens de VN zijn enkele dorpen in het noorden vrijwel verlaten. Er melden zich dagelijks duizend nieuwe vluchtelingen aan de grens met Turkije, zegt de VN.

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1.33pm: 1.33pm: Pro-regime supporters have clashed with anti-government protesters in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, and the central city of Hama, according to activists.

An email from the opposition group the Local Coordination Committee of Syria said the pro-regime supporters started the violence.

In Hama it claimed:

Pro-Assad demonstrators were brought from Hama suburbs to Al-Assi Sq. to attack pro-freedom protesters, then a clash happened and security forces opened fire casing many casualties among protesters.

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Doden bij botsingen tussen pro- en anti-Assad betogers in Syrië

Bij confrontaties tussen pro- en anti-regeringsdemonstranten in twee Syrische steden zijn vanmiddag vier doden gevallen. Niet eerder kwamen voor- en tegenstanders van president Al-Assad zo hevig met elkaar in aanvaring.

Sinds vanochtend zijn in verschillende Syrische steden tienduizenden aanhangers van de president op straat om hem hun steun te betuigen. Activisten vertelden persbureau AP dat het veelal om georkestreerde betogingen ging. In de centrale stad Homs zouden in een aantal wijken vuurgevechten zijn uitgebroken tussen pro- en anti-regeringsbetogers. Twee mensen kwamen daarbij volgens ooggetuigen om en nog eens zes raakten er gewond. Syrische ordetroepen zouden een aantal van de gewonde anti-regeringsbetogers hebben gearresteerd.

Naast Homs vielen ook in de oostelijke stad Deir el Zour twee dodelijke slachtoffers als gevolg van botsingen tussen tegenstanders en sympathisanten van president Al-Assad. De staatstelevisie liet vanochtend ook beelden zien van pro-regeringsdemonstraties in hoofdstad Damascus, de tweede stad Aleppo en de zuidelijke stad Deraa, waar halverwege maart de volksprotesten begonnen. Tijdens de betogingen droegen de demonstranten Syrische vlaggen en foto’s van de president met zich mee.

De Franse premier Fillon stelde vandaag dat de VN-Veiligheidsraad niet langer kan zwijgen over het geweld in Syrië en dat voor alle landen de tijd is gekomen om hun verantwoordelijkheid. Fillon deed zijn uitspraken tijdens een persconferentie met premier Poetin van Rusland, een land dat tegen bemoeienis met de situatie in Syrië is. Poetin noemde ingrijpen in Syrië geen begaanbare weg.

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Op dinsdag 21 juni 2011 19:53 schreef abdalfawaz het volgende:
Dat maakt de situatie inderdaad zo gecompliceerd. Mijn idee is dat er nog een zeer aanzienlijk deel van de bevolking Assad liever ziet blijven. Bij hem weet je wel wat je krijgt, wat te doen als hij en zijn regime wegvalt? Ik vrees een enorme chaos..

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Op dinsdag 21 juni 2011 19:59 schreef abdalfawaz het volgende:

[..]

Ik denk dat de machtsbasis van Assad groter is. Ik denk dat hij meer sympathie heeft en veel steviger in het zadel zit dan Mubarak zat.

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Arab League chief admits second thoughts about Libya air strikes

Amr Moussa, who played central role in securing Arab support for Nato strikes, calls for ceasefire and 'political solution'
[...]

Nonetheless, he added, "we are outraged by all that has happened in Tunisia, in Syria, in Libya, in Yemen … We are really worried about the situation. The vast majority [in the Arab League] is not comfortable with what is going on in Syria."

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, faced a dilemma and could be losing the initiative, Moussa said. "[His] chance is eroding. It is a race. You have to change as fast as you can. It is a race between reform or revolution."

[...]

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Op dinsdag 21 juni 2011 20:15 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:

[..]

Volgens bepaalde Fokkers allemaal agenten van de geheime dienst.

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Op woensdag 22 juni 2011 09:54 schreef anabolefreak het volgende:

[..]

Assad hoeft niet eens met chaos te dreigen.
De mensen hoeven alleen maar naar Irak,Lebanon en Egypte te kijken...

[..]

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Opgelost? met aanvallen op de koptische christenen?? je bent een beetje naief....

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Op woensdag 22 juni 2011 11:00 schreef anabolefreak het volgende:
dat zeg ik niet, maar het is er zeker niet beter op geworden....

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Er zijn meerdere aanvallen geweest, plus datgene wat je niet in het nieuws hoort.

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Afijn, in Egypte zal de tijd het leren....
Syrie is toch net ff een verhaal apart.
Ik heb in egypte geen grote pro Mubarak demonstraties gezien

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Op dinsdag 21 juni 2011 14:45 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
The Guardian:

[..]

Flashback:

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Syrië wordt 'ongekend voorbeeld van democratie'

De Syrische minister van buitenlandse zaken Walid Moallem heeft vandaag gezworen binnen drie maanden een 'ongekend voorbeeld van democratie' in Syrië te presenteren. Het is een vergaande belofte in het door onrust geplaagde land.

'Wij zullen een toonbeeld van democratie bieden', zei Moallem in zijn toespraak. 'Er zal sociale gerechtigheid zijn, gelijkheid voor de wet en aansprakelijkheid.' De beloftes van Moallem gingen een stuk verder dan de onduidelijke toezeggingen die de Syrische president Bashar Assad maandag deed.

De minister riep tegenstanders van het regime op terug te keren naar hun vaderland om de politieke dialoog aan te gaan. Hij beloofde dat 'zelfs de grootste tegenstander' van de regering niet wordt gearresteerd.

Moallem ging ook in op de beschuldigingen van de Verenigde Staten dat Iraanse troepen Syrië helpen de opstand in het land neer te slaan. 'Er is politieke steun van Iran en Hezbollah. Ze willen allebei dat de rust in Syrië weerkeert en ze steunen de hervormingen die door president Assad zijn aangekondigd', zei Moallem. 'Maar er is geen sprake van militaire steun.'

Charmeoffensief
Moallem haalde ook uit naar de Europese sancties tegen het Syrische regime. Hij zei dat 'we zullen vergeten dat Europa op de kaart staat'.
Assad ligt in binnen- en buitenland steeds meer onder druk. Demonstranten eisen zijn vertrek en lijken allerminst bereid met het regime te onderhandelen, met name omdat eerdere onderhandelingen geen enkel resultaat boekten. In dit licht kan de toespraak van Moallam dan ook worden gezien als een soort charmeoffensief, bedoeld om naar buiten toe vertrouwen uit te stralen.

Het geweld in Syrië heeft de afgelopen maanden naar schatting 1400 levens geëist. Tienduizend mensen zijn door het regime opgepakt en achter de tralies verdwenen.

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Syrian embassy accused of threatening protesters in UK


UK activists say Assad agents have visited and intimidated them at home as campaigners fear for their Syrian families' safety

Claims that Syrians involved in anti-government protests in the UK have been threatened and intimidated by agents of the Assad regime have prompted discussions between Scotland Yard and Foreign Office officials.

Syrians who have protested in London say they have received phone calls and visits to their homes, while members of their families in Syria have been threatened.

One man described how the country's secret police had visited his parents' home warning them to stop him taking part in any further demonstrations after he was photographed outside the embassy in London. Another said he had been warned not to mix with the demonstrators by a Syrian official after a protest this month.

The demonstrators say that although the embassy does not have the power to arrest expatriates, the regime can attempt to control their behaviour by intimidating and detaining their relatives, or threatening to arrest them if they return to Syria.

The Foreign Office said it had been made aware of claims that Syria's embassy has photographed protesters, and that those images have been shown to their families in Syria in an attempt to harass them.

"We are looking into these reports and discussing them with the police. We urge anyone who's been the subject of any intimidation to report it to the police," said a Foreign Office spokesman.

The Syrian embassy denied the claims, insisting it served the entire Syrian community, irrespective of an individual's political beliefs or actions. But a friend of three people whose families have been persecuted said that they were "extremely frightened" and were deciding whether to press ahead with their claims against the Syrian regime.

"It has to be understood that this is extremely serious for these people and their families," said the London-based activist, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals. "They are worried about what has happened and the publicity around them and what that could mean for their families. They are considering carefully what to do next."

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said it had no knowledge of any complaint being made against the Syrian embassy, but added it was aware of the allegations. The Foreign Office urged any of those who felt they had been intimidated or threatened to come forward.

"Any such action [by the Syrian embassy] would be wholly wrong and unacceptable," said a spokesman. "We've taken action in the past against diplomats whose activities were inappropriate and contrary to the interests of the UK, and we would do so again."

Since the start of the Arab spring a number of regimes have been accused of intimidating their UK-based citizens. In April the Foreign Office condemned the Bahrain government when students on scholarships in Britain had their funding withdrawn after attending anti-government protests. The students said the regime had put intense pressure on their families after they were photographed attending a peaceful protest in Manchester in solidarity with the country's pro-democracy movement.They said they feared their relatives could suffer beatings and torture as a result of the Bahrain government's crackdown and that they were likely to be arrested upon their return.

In May the UK expelled two Libyan diplomats over allegations they were operating against UK-based demonstrators opposed to Muammar Gaddafi. The Foreign Office refused to comment on the behaviour which led to the expulsion of the diplomats and their dependants, but it was widely reported that they are suspected of seeking to intimidate pro-opposition Libyans .

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Syria accuses EU of meddling as it imposes sanctions

Syria calls measures the equivalent to 'war' while promising to turn country into model democracy

Syria has lashed out at international "meddling" in its internal affairs and lambasted new EU sanctions that also target the commander of the al-Quds force of Iran's revolutionary guards, accused by the west of helping crush the unprecedented unrest.

Walid al-Moallem, Syria's foreign minister, called the sanctions the equivalent to "war", while promising to turn the country into a model democracy.

He accused EU states of trying to "plant strife and chaos" after they agreed to extend punitive measures against Bashar al-Assad's regime in response to the repression of protests that has cost 1,400 lives in three months.

The Guardian has learned that the sanctions target General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite al-Quds, who is already subject to US sanctions. Moallem denied that Tehran or Syria's Lebanese protege Hezbollah had been involved.

He singled out France for harbouring ambitions derived from its history as Syria's colonial ruler and urged Turkey to "reconsider" its increasinglyown hostile stance. Moallem blamed al-Qaida for killings of security personnel. Around 300 soldiers and other members of the security forces have been killed, alongside civilian casualties, in this bloody chapter of the Arab spring.

The minister's comments showed the Syrian regime flexing its muscles amid the overwhelmingly negative reaction to reform proposals Assad made in his speech on Monday. The US called for "action, not words" in response to that address – only Assad's third since the crisis began.

"We will forget that Europe is on the map and we will look east, south and towards every hand that is extended to us," Moallem said in a televised speech. Russia and China are continuing to block western attempts to pass a UN security council resolution condemning Syria.

British officials dismissed his remarks. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "It is the regime's own brutal repression of peaceful protest that is harming the Syrian people and the Syrian economy. We will continue to increase the pressure on President Assad and those around him until they recognise that the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people must be met with reform not repression."

The new EU sanctions target individuals and companies in Syria's business community to increase economic pressure on the regime, as well as on Soleimani and two other Iranians accused of "providing military equipment and support".

Syria is no stranger to international isolation. During the 2003 Iraq war many in Washington regarded it as an easy target for criticism. Tensions were heightened in 2005 when Lebanon's ex-prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri was assassinated – though Damascus always denied responsibility.

"Most Syrians would be horrified at the thought of reliving the isolation endured by Syria in the 80s and part of the 90s," said Rime Allaf, a Syrian analyst at the Chatham House thinktank in London. "While the idea of foreign intervention is overwhelmingly rejected by regime fans and critics alike, diplomatic pressure is to be expected from Europe."

But analysts believe the regime still thinks it can contain this crisis through a mixture of repression and reform.

Moallem promised reforms that would allow Syria to "give lessons for others in democracy". A draft law to regulate new political parties, potentially ending Ba'athist dominance, has been published. After Assad's speech, state media announced a presidential decree granting amnesty to prisoners, excluding political detainees.

But domestic opposition, which appears to be slowly growing, rejected the pledges as insincere and too little, too late. "The parties law is not bad," said one opposition analyst who asked for anonymity. "But no one really believes that the regime will allow true power-sharing because it will ultimately lead to its downfall."

It is equally unclear who will take part in a national dialogue. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), a group of grassroots opposition activists, rejected calls for dialogue as a way to "gain more time" for the regime. Veteran opposition figures who had been meeting the government, including Louay Hussein and Michel Kilo, have refused to continue.

Meanwhile, the LCC said security forces had raided Damascus University dormitories on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning making arrests, smashing computers and leaving one student dead.

The raid came after at least people were shot dead by pro-government forces in Homs, Hama and Deir Ezzor on Tuesday amid rising tensions as pro-regime rallies and anti-regime demonstrations poured onto the streets.

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Syriërs ontvluchten geweld grensgebied met Turkije

Honderden Syriërs zijn de grens met Turkije overgestoken om een aan een aanval van het Syrische leger te ontkomen. De escalerende militaire campagne is gericht op de tegenstand tegen president Bashar Al-Assad. Dit meldt persbureau Reuters.

Een van de vluchtelingen, een boer uit Jisr al-Shugour, zegt dat men in paniek is. Volgens ooggetuigen stromen de vluchtelingen Turkije binnen bij Guvecci. De meesten komen uit de regio Khirbet al-Joz.

Nu al zijn duizenden Syriërs het buurland ingevlucht na aanvallen op dorpen en steden verder in het zuiden. Het zou gaan om meer dan tienduizend mensen in de laatste twee weken. In Turkije zijn vier officiële kampen geopend voor de vluchtelingen.

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Turkey tells Bashar al-Assad to cease Syria repression

Recep Tayyip Erdogan asks president to sack brother and military mastermind as more refugees cross the border

Tension between Turkey and Syria is worsening as thousands of refugees from repression by president Bashar al-Assad flee across the border

Officials in Ankara were watching closely as Syrian forces deployed in a village close to the border, Khirbet al-Jouz, after Turkey had flatly rejected an appeal from Damascus to moderate its increasingly angry public comments about the crisis.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has attacked the repression as "savagery" and urged Assad to sack its military mastermind, his brother Maher, and implement genuine reforms in the spirit of the "Arab spring".

But Erdogan has so far failed to demand that the Syrian president stand down – as he did with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Still, officials, diplomats and analysts say that a bilateral relationship that has flourished politically and economically in recent years is now badly, perhaps irreparably, damaged.

"The rapprochement between Erdogan and Assad has pretty much broken down," said Fadi Hakura of the Chatham House thinktank in London. "Turkey is becoming ever more strident and direct, and this is causing deep unease in Damascus."

On Wednesday the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, publicly urged Turkey to reconsider its hostile stand, but the Turkish ambassador immediately dismissed the call.

"The relationship has become very frosty," said Hugh Pope, Istanbul director for the International Crisis Group. Erdogan had been urging Assad to make domestic changes since before the uprising began in March.

Ahead of Assad's speech on Monday, Ersat Hurmuzlu, an adviser to president Abdullah Gul, said Assad had a week in which to act – but Turkish officials were left disappointed by Assad's lacklustre performance.

"We had high expectations that the Syrian president would deliver," said a senior Turkish official. "But we were disappointed."

The Turkish-Syrian honeymoon began when Erdogan came to power in 2003, and cooled Turkey's once close relations with Israel while making overtures to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Following his re-election this month he vowed to reach out to the Middle East and beyond to promote "justice, the rule of law ... freedom and democracy", distancing himself from the traditional stabile friendships with Arab dictators.

"When Turkey has to make a choice between regimes and people," the senior offiical said, "it will always be on the side of the people."

British officials describe a "meeting of minds" when David Cameron spoke to Erdogan last week. The US and Britain say that they hope a policy rethink in Ankara will also include a distancing from Iran and its alleged nuclear ambitions.

"The Turks are increasingly unhappy with what is happening in Syria," said a western diplomat. Another consequence has been a renewed warming of relations with Israel after the row over the Gaza aid flotilla last year, when a Turkish ship was boarded on the open seas by Israeli commandos and nine activists killed.

Syria was furious last month when Turkey hosted a high-profile conference of Syrian opposition activists in Antalya.

Turkish officials deny any plan to create a "security zone" on the border – a sensitive step given memories of Ottoman days (and the Turkish border province of Hatay, which Syria continues to claim as unjustly ceded in a plebiscite), and especially without an international mandate.

Turks recognise the change that has taken place. "Turkey's close rapport with the US regarding ... Syrian politics shows Turkey has completely parted company with Assad," commented Nihat Ali Özcan in the Hurriyet daily.

"Erdogan doesn't want another diplomatic crisis in the context of Syria, like the one instigated by the nuclear issue with Iran. We can say that he is ideologically much closer to the Muslim Brotherhood than Assad."

The US has praised Turkey for its "big heart" in helping refugees. "But clearly, Turkish patience appears to be wearing thin, and we share all of their humanitarian and political concerns," said a US state department spokesman.

"Erdogan is in a very challenging position," Hakura added. "He is trying to react to facts on the ground in Syria, but at the same time he hasn't called on Assad to step down. The more violence escalates, the more difficult his position will be."

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Aleppo: Syria's sleeping giant stirs

As the uprising enters its fourth month, Syria's second city is becoming increasingly unsettled.

On the surface, all seems calm in Syria's second city.

Traffic and tourists might not be bustling along Aleppo's ancient thoroughfares in the abundance they once did, but to a casual observer there appears little sign that the turmoil of Syria's four-month old uprising has made much of an impact on its largest city.

But talk to shopkeepers, hotel managers and traders in Aleppo's famous covered souk and one soon finds grumblings of dissent.

For in the Syrian capital of commerce, no one is making money anymore, threatening to undermine the key pillar of a long established pact between Aleppo's Sunni merchant class and the imposed stability of the Alawite-led regime.

"Where are you, Halab?" chanted thousands of protestors, using the city's Arabic name, exasperated by Aleppo's conspicuous quiet while streets in towns and cities across the country filled with demonstrators every Friday since mid-March.

The answer is an interlocking mix of political, religious and economic interests which the regime has been largely successful in co-opting and which have kept Aleppo quiet, but which appear, as the uprising enters its fourth month, to be coming increasingly unstuck, threatening what analysts describe as the regime's Achilles heel.

"If Aleppo were to rise up, it would mean that one of the metrics by which the West is charting the fall of the Assad regime would have been met," said Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

A student at Aleppo University was beaten to death by security forces during a pro-democracy demonstration on June 17, activists said - the first death of a protester there since the uprising began and a grim example of the length the regime will go to impose its stability on the country's largest city.

Mohammed el-Ektaa was among a small group of students who held protests on the university campus before being attacked by secret police and pro-Assad thugs, known as shabiha, said a member of the Syrian
Revolution Co-ordinators' Union (SRCU), an activist network in the city.

Mohammed's body was returned to his family by secret police shortly after the attack. Another student was also beaten and arrested during the protests, said the SRCU, while secret police broke into student dormitories making arbitrary arrests. The SRCU member said he had seen one student jump from his third floor room to avoid being arrested.

Students have been at the vanguard of attempts to bring Syria's nationwide protests against the Assad family's 41-year-dictatorship to Aleppo, a city of some four million, one of the largest in the Levant.

'Security touring the mosques'

Though predominantly Sunni Muslim, increasingly religiously conservative and - during the bloodiest days of Iraq’s civil war - a producer of the murky jihadist preacher known as Abu Qaqa, who called for the slaughter of Americans in Iraq, Aleppo's mosques have long been controlled by the secret police of the Alawite-led regime, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Since its military crushed an armed rebellion in Aleppo led by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1980, the regime uses the state-run ministry of religious endowments to appoint Aleppo's preachers, ensuring worshippers at Friday prayers never again hear the call to turn against their own rulers.

Though an advocate of violent jihad in the name of Islam, Abu Qaqa, a Kurd, was allowed to preach in his Aleppo mosque unhindered by the secret police, until he was gunned down in September 2007 after reports surfaced he had delivered a list of Sunni extremists to state intelligence.

Today, however, the murky relationship between the regime and Aleppo's preachers is being challenged by a message less easily drowned out in violence.

"The people are becoming angrier every week and the government is not giving much, just some promises. Every Friday I feel some worshippers want to demonstrate but I call on them to be quiet," said a prominent Muslim scholar who preaches at one of Aleppo's largest mosques, asking to remain anonymous fearing regime reprisals.

"To see hundreds of students demonstrating, even if they are small demonstrations, is symbolic: They are the young and educated. Some sheikhs [preachers] told me they cannot control their people any more and security men are touring around the mosques every Friday. It's only a matter of weeks and Aleppo will see big demonstrations."

A second, even more significant pillar of the regime's control over Aleppo now also appears to be beginning to crumble as well: the economy.

Sitting at the end of the Silk Road, the ancient trading route between Asia and the Mediterranean, Aleppo is one of the oldest centres of commerce in the world.

Specialising in textiles and industry, modern Aleppo's economy is largely shaped by its access to, and competition with, the vast market of Turkey, just 50km north.

Flood of Turkish imports

For decades Aleppo's original Sunnis merchant families did very well trading with their co-religionists in Turkey while maintaining stability in the city as part of a deal with the Alawite-led regime of Damascus.

But from 2004, Aleppo's industries have been hit hard by a flood of imports from Turkey following a free-trade agreement between the two nations, built on Bashar al-Assad's personal friendship with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister.

Today, however, Erdogan accuses President Assad's regime of "savagery" against its own people, leading regional calls for the regime to end its brutal crackdown.

"The regime has bribed a lot of Sunni business interests, leaving them to do business while being protected by the security apparatus," said Imad Salamey, assistant professor of political science at the Lebanese American University (LAU) and an expert on Syrian affairs.

"But eventually the bourgeois will come to feel the regime can no longer provide them with economic stability and that business as usual is no longer viable. They will no longer feel committed to the existing system. I think it’s a matter of time."

In a speech at Damascus University on June 20, Assad acknowledged that the greatest challenge facing his regime as it attempts to crush the uprising "is the weakness or collapse of the Syrian economy."

"Aleppo was one of the areas that suffered extensively from the regime's bloody crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, so the fear factor still remains," Tabler, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said.

"When added to the interests of the city's merchants and traders, it's not surprising protestors have not come out in force. But as the protests have moved into Aleppo's hinterland, this will put the fear factor to the test."

As well as protests in Aleppo University, June 17 also saw pro-democracy protests in the Aleppo neighbourhoods of Salahedeen and Seif al-Dawali. It was the second Friday of protests in Seif al-Dawali.
"Although it is slowly, it is very important to see Aleppo joining the uprising," an opposition leader in the city said.

In the villages north of Aleppo, a witness estimated around 5,000 protesters had turned out across Tal Rifaat, Hreitan, Mareaa and Aazaz. In Hreitan protesters called on local residents to join them in the streets, chanting: "The one who not participate has no conscience."

A week before, on June 10, the first protests had spread from Hreitan, 10km north of Aleppo, to Akhtareen, 13km northeast of the city, where several thousand gathered to call for freedom and support Jisr al-Shughour, which is less than 100km west of Aleppo.

Massive layoffs imminent

Sitting behind his desk in a lavishly decorated office, a photograph of President Assad hanging on the wall, a 45-year-old Sunni businessman from Aleppo's Old City cautioned that the economic consequences of the crisis in Syria could soon fuel further protests.

"Today I am losing money as no one wants to buy garments and textile. Syrians are buying bread and food stuffs as they are worried about the future. I am seriously considering having to sack or give unpaid vacation to a third of my workforce," he said.

Late last month Assad had met a delegation of Aleppo business leaders, said the textile factory owner. The businessmen had urged Assad to end the crisis in Syria swiftly to avoid massive layoffs.

"The government promised to decrease fuel and electricity prices, but this is not enough for us," said the textile factory owner.

"The government looks to us as their partners who should help them in this crisis. But if the situation continues, Aleppo will feel the economic consequences and we will see demonstrations in the city."

In April, the International Monetary Fund lowered Syria's economic growth rate this year from 5.5 per cent to three per cent. The International Institute of Finance, an association of major global banks, paints an even bleaker picture, projecting Syria's GDP could contract by as much as three per cent in fiscal 2011.

Finally, the political pact that kept Aleppo, and much of Syria's population, bound to the regime for decades appears also to be coming unstuck in the demands and protests of the students who have led the opposition in the city.

Abdul Qader, 22, a student at Aleppo University's Faculty of Arts is one of those.

"During the last four decades, the Baathists were telling us that the government gives us, the citizens, everything for free or with a subsidised price and for that reason we should be silent," he said. "But now we get no free services and no bread so we want freedom."

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Weer doden bij massaal protest in Syrië

Bij massaal protest tegen het bewind in Syrië zijn vandaag zeker 15 doden en tientallen gewonden gevallen. Dit is van mensenrechtenactivisten in het Arabische land vernomen. Na het vrijdaggebed zijn opnieuw tienduizenden mensen in diverse steden de straat opgegaan om het aftreden te eisen van president Bashar al-Assad.

Oppositiebewegingen hadden via sociale media zoals de Facebookgroep Syrische Revolutie 2011 opgeroepen tot nieuwe protesten. Veiligheidstroepen openden het vuur en doodden demonstranten in de hoofdstad Damascus en in de steden Kiswah en Homs.

Gewapende mannen
Veelal jonge Syriërs komen al ruim 3 maanden in opstand tegen Assads alleenheerschappij. Keihard optreden tegen de betogers door leger en politie heeft in die periode volgens uiteenlopende schattingen al 1100 tot meer dan 1600 levens geëist. De Syrische staatstelevisie stelde vrijdag opnieuw dat de burgerdoden het gevolg zijn van 'gewapende mannen' die op leger en politie schieten.

Assad probeerde deze week opnieuw met vage beloftes de gemoederen te sussen. Hij zou een dialoog willen en bereid zijn tot hervormingen die de macht van zijn eigen Baathpartij inperken. Maar ondertussen zetten zijn troepen aan de grens met Turkije de aanval in op duizenden mensen die op de vlucht waren geslagen voor het geweld.

Toevlucht
De Turkse autoriteiten meldden vrijdag dat al bijna 12.000 Syriërs hun toevlucht hebben gezocht in de Turkse grensprovincie Hatay. Vrijdag zijn naar schatting opnieuw 1500 mensen de grens overgestoken. Syrische troepen kwamen donderdag in actie in de grensstreek.

Langs de grens met Turkije bivakkeren ook duizenden mensen die het geweld in Syrië zijn ontvlucht, maar die de stap nog niet hebben willen nemen om de grens over steken. Ze worden enigszins bevoorraad vanaf Turks grondgebied. Onder de 12.000 vluchtelingen waren vijftig mensen dusdanig gewond geraakt dat ze na aankomst in Turkije in ziekenhuizen zijn opgenomen.

De leiders van de EU toonden zich vrijdag tijdens hun top in Brussel zeer bezorgd over de situatie in Syrië. Ze veroordelen 'in de sterkst mogelijke termen de voortdurende onderdrukking en het onaanvaardbare en schokkende geweld' van het Syrische regime tegen zijn burgers. Het regime roept daardoor twijfels op over zijn legitimiteit. De EU besloot donderdag al tot uitbreiding van zijn sancties tegen Syrië. De lijst van personen en bedrijven die gestraft worden met het blokkeren van Europese tegoeden en het opleggen van reisverboden wordt uitgebreid.

Rondreis
De Chinese premier Wen Jiabao is vrijdag aangekomen in Hongarije, tot volgende week de voorzitter van de Europese Unie. Wen zal tijdens zijn rondreis langs diverse EU-landen vermoedelijk ook spreken over de toestand in Syrië. Zijn gastheren Duitsland en Groot-Brittannië werken aan een VN-resolutie die het optreden van het bewind tegen de volksopstand daar veroordeelt. China is gekant tegen de resolutie en kan, als permanent lid van de Veiligheidsraad, de tekst blokkeren.