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The Syrian regime, trying to walk a fine line between staying in power and avoiding the ire of the international community, abruptly announced a general amnesty for “crimes” committed during the uprising, which began last March. The fact that this is the fourth such amnesty issued by Bashar al-Assad during the uprising probably blunts the impact.
The decree, reported by the state-run news agency, SANA, came as the Arab League said it would meet next Sunday to discuss the findings of its mission to Syria, and as the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, called the repression in Syria “a dead end.” [...]
SANA reported that the amnesty would cover army deserters and people who possessed illegal arms or violated the law on peaceful protests, according to The Associated Press. It appeared to be the broadest amnesty yet, though further details were lacking in the news agency’s report. Some critics were skeptical that most prisoners would be freed, especially those held without charges at secret sites.
Indeed, opposition activists dismissed the announcement, regarding it as “ridiculous” and designed only to relieve international pressure on Syria. Nothing has stopped the mass killings of protesters and agitators, not even the entrance of 165 Arab League monitors into the country to observe the situation. Arrests, beatings, torture and shootings have not stalled out, and over 5,000 are dead, with as many as 35,000 incarcerated. Previous calls for amnesty from the government did not lead to a significant number of releases, either.
This Thursday, the head of the monitoring group plans to deliver a report to the Arab League about the mission, and this call for amnesty looks like a late entry to influence that report, so Syria does not receive a failing grade. The entry of more foreign journalists into Syria can be seen as a means to tamp down criticism in the report as well.
The reaction to the report could determine future events from the Arab League, and the international community has generally followed the lead of Arab leaders, particularly Saudi Arabia, in dealing with the uprising. So Syria knows it has to fend off any calls for intervention, which the emir of Qatar actually made over the weekend. So far, Western European nations like France and Britain dismissed the Qatari emir’s suggestion. But there may come a time when the pressure to act gets too great.
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About FDL News Desk
Over the weekend, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “Today, I say again to President Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your own people. The path of repression is a dead end. The lessons of the past year are eloquent and clear. The winds of change will not cease to blow. The flame ignited in Tunisia will not be dimmed”
Meanwhile, over in Iraq, US withdrawl is leading to some interesting actions:
“Iraqi authorities have detained a few hundred foreign contractors in recent weeks, industry officials say, including many Americans who work for the United States Embassy, in one of the first major signs of the Iraqi government’s asserting its sovereignty after the American troop withdrawal last month.” LINK.
So it is “ratings sweeps week”, in the Middle East?
Whoop!
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Strange how the rating agencies are guilty of the same or worse. As a matter of fact, Obama just signed the NDAA. Would somebody rate him on his show please?
Yep, yep. I hope David writes up a big one for that.
Wonder if that will lead to desertions of other mercenaries. Or at least not renewing when their contracts are up. Death of 1000 cuts.
I’m getting this mental image of helicopters evacuating remaining occupants from the roof of the largest embassy evah. Wonder where that came from.
It does bring back a memory or 2. Sorry you got slammed the other night. It was uncalled for and rude.
Thanks.
As much as I knew it had little to do with me, it still hurt.
I was a bit perturbed by that whole thing. Human will limits that which is vast and unalienable. Or to put in the words of Robert Hunter ” The wickedness of pride has lost the light to understand how little grace is earned and how much given”
I still work on building electric trikes an bikes. Because it’s the right thing to do.
It was jarring. It was greeted by an embarrassed silence, i.e. a notable pause in comments while no one could think of what to type.
That was me-Icould not say anything in short order but to confuse.
I have never been limited by the physical.
I would normally just get off the site but was not yet ready to call it a night. Went onto next thread, and it came up, but was not resolved. At that point I called it quits.