General amnesty
January 15, 2012
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday announced a general amnesty for crimes committed during the popular uprising across the country since last March.
"President Assad issued a decree stipulating a general amnesty for crimes committed during the events between March 15, 2011 and January 15, 2012," the official SANA news agency reported without elaborating.
It was not clear whether the amnesty applied just to civilians who had kept up their protests against Assad's authoritarian regime for 10 months, or whether it also included members of the military and police who have killed more than 5,000 people in an ongoing brutal crackdown.
Assad's regime has been rocked by mass protests with no end in sight, despite violent efforts by government forces to quell the uprising and repeated entreaties by the international community to halt the bloodshed.
'Stop the killing,' says UN chief
On a visit to Lebanon on Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon again strongly urged Assad to "stop killing [his] people."
"The path of repression is a dead end," Ban told a conference on democratic transitions in the Arab world in Beirut.
"From the beginning of the revolutions, from Tunisia through Egypt and beyond, I called on leaders to listen to their people," Ban said. "Some did and benefited. Others did not - and today, they are reaping the whirlwind."
Assad has issued several amnesties since the start of protests, but opposition groups say thousands of people remain locked behind bars and have been tortured and abused.
Monitoring without effects
As near as can be estimated with any certainty, at least 69,000 people have been detained since the uprising began and some 32,000 of those have been released.
Freeing detainees is one of the terms of a peace plan proposed by the Arab League, which also calls for end to bloodshed, the withdrawal of troops and tanks from the streets and a political dialogue.
Qatar, which heads the Arab League committee on Syria, has said killings have not stopped despite the presence of Arab monitors sent there last month.
China and Russia have blocked any action against Syria by the UN Security Council. The European Union, the United States and the Arab League have announced economic sanctions, but it's not clear if the Arab measures have been implemented.
The League is due to hear a report from monitors on Thursday and decide how its mission should continue.
Army deserters move to coordinate actions
Meanwhile, the Middle East television station, Al-Arabiya, has reported that high-ranking deserters from the Syrian army are to create a supreme military council to plan operations against the Assad regime.
The council will coordinate with the rebel Syrian Free Army, the broadcaster said, quoting a Syrian opposition leader, Fahd al-Masri.
The council would be announced in Turkey and headed by Brigadier General Mostafa Ahmad al-Sheikh, who recently defected. The Syrian opposition claims some 40,000 Sunni Muslim soldiers have defected from the army so far, which is run by officers from Assad's minority Alawite sect.
Author: Gregg Benzow (AP, dpa, AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Toma Tasovac