ONE PERSON was reported shot dead during a demonstration in the central Syrian city of Homs yesterday although president Bashar al-Assad had ordered troops not to fire on protesters.
In other locations troops shot in the air and used tear gas to disperse crowds.
Protests also took place in Hama and the Damascus suburb of Daraya in spite of a heavy army presence and in remote towns and villages where troops were not deployed.
Political activist Louay Hussein said presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban had told him “definitive presidential orders have been issued not to shoot demonstrators and whoever violates this [command] bears full responsibility”.
Mr Hussein was one of four veteran activists who met Dr Shaaban recently to discuss protesters’ demands. Further meetings are expected next week. In anticipation of protests following weekly communal Muslim prayers, the army had sealed off Hama and Homs and maintained the siege on Deraa, where demonstrations began eight weeks ago.
In the coastal town of Baniyas, security forces carried out house-to-house searches and arrests. Checkpoints prevented protesters from moving from quarter to quarter and blocked marchers from the capital’s suburbs from reaching the city centre.
UN High Commission for Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville said activists’ estimates of 700-850 deaths are realistic.
Human rights organisations say 8,000-10,000 have been detained. More than 2,000 have been released after signing an undertaking not to demonstrate.
The blanket security presence seems to have contained protests in Homs and Hama and reduced the number of demonstrators elsewhere. This week, Dr Shaaban said that Syria had “passed the most dangerous moment”. But analyst Joshua Landis argued that neither the regime nor the opposition are prepared to accept defeat.
In Cairo thousands converged on Tahrir Square to demonstrate for national unity and solidarity with Palestinians commemorating al-Naqba, the catastrophe they have suffered since Israel’s creation. Protesters focused on last Saturday’s Muslim-Christian clashes that left 15 dead and 240 wounded in the working-class Cairo district of Imbaba. Many carried placards signifying unity between Muslims and Christians.
