Syria's Assad orders new amnesty as huge crowd rallies

Damascus - 21 June 2011: President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday ordered a new general amnesty, a day after an offer of "national dialogue" to end Syria's deadly unrest and as a huge crowd rallied in Damascus in his support.

"President Assad has issued a decree granting a general amnesty for crimes committed before the date of June 20, 2011," state news agency SANA announced without giving details.

The president had already ordered a general amnesty on May 31 for all political prisoners, including Muslim Brotherhood members. Hundreds of detainees were released, according to rights groups.

"I sensed that that amnesty was not satisfactory so we are going to extend it to include others, without endangering the security of the state," Assad said in his televised speech on Monday.

Tens of thousands of people rallied on Tuesday in central Damascus.

Omeyyades Square was turned into a sea of pro-Assad demonstrators, waving Syrian flags and the president's portrait, chanting, "We will sacrifice ourselves for you, Bashar!"

State television said a huge pro-Assad demonstration was also held in Homs, a flashpoint city north of Damascus. "Millions of Syrians" flocked to squares around the country to hail his speech, it said.

In the address, three months into anti-regime protests and a crackdown by security forces that has cost hundreds of lives, Assad said a national dialogue could lead to a new constitution but refused to reform Syria under "chaos."

Pro-democracy activists, however, condemned the speech and vowed the "revolution" - now in its fourth month - would carry on, while the US State Department called for "action, not words."

European foreign ministers, meanwhile, agreed to beef up sanctions on the embattled president over his regime's deadly crackdown on protests, with some calling on him to reform or "step down."

Assad acknowledged in his speech that Syria had reached a "turning point," but said dialogue could lead to a new constitution and end nearly five decades of his Baath party's monopoly on power - a key opposition demand.

"We can say that national dialogue is the slogan of the next stage," the president said. "The national dialogue could lead to amendments of the constitution or to a new constitution."

Reform was "a total commitment in the interest of the nation," he said in his third speech to the nation since anti-regime protests broke out in mid-March.

Assad offered condolences to the families of "martyrs" killed in the unrest rocking the country but stressed there could be "no development without stability, no reform in the face of sabotage and chaos."

Witnesses and opposition activists said Assad's speech was followed by protests in many parts of Syria, including the northern city of Aleppo, the central regions of Homs and Hama, and in Damascus suburbs.

"The protesters condemned the speech which branded them as saboteurs, extremists," the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP by telephone.

Sixty demonstrators were arrested in Aleppo in 24 hours, said Abdel Rahman, whose group says the violence has so far killed 1,310 civilians and 341 security force members.

Opposition activists said Assad's speech failed to specify concrete steps - namely the pullout of troops from besieged cities - and only deepened the crisis.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in Luxembourg: "Some believe that there's still time for him to change his ways and commit to a (reform) process. For my part, I doubt it. I think that the point of no return has been reached."

Western governments have also been circulating a draft UN Security Council resolution that would condemn Assad's crackdown but Russia has warned it would veto any such move.

source: AFP