THE SYRIAN government yesterday continued its carrot and stick policy with the aim of stemming the tide of revolt that rose in the southern town of Deraa in mid-March.
Troops reportedly shelled the besieged central town of Rastan, killing 15, as political prisoners continued to be freed under an amnesty proclaimed by president Bashar al-Assad.
He has called for national dialogue and said all political prisoners would be released, including members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood which tried to overthrow the secular regime in 1982.
The US and France said these gestures did not go far enough and demanded a halt to attacks on opponents. Paris called for a “bolder” change in the direction of Syrian policy.
North of the border in the Turkish city of Antalya, 300 members of the exiled opposition wound up their first gathering with a call to oust Dr Assad.
Long-standing regime opponents, including the Muslim Brotherhood and Kurds, formed a committee to provide logistical support to activists in Syria but did not form a government-in-exile.
Participants vowed that demonstrations should be peaceful, rejected foreign military intervention and refused dialogue with the authorities until all of the estimated 10,000 detainees are released.
Images of the brutally beaten and tortured body of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib displayed at the conference have transformed the teenager into an icon of the protest movement and reinvigorated the opposition.
He is seen as the Syrian equivalent of Muhammad Bouazizi, a vegetable vendor whose self-immolation launched the Tunisian uprising, and Khaled Said, a businessman whose battering to death by policemen inspired the activists to launch the Egyptian uprising.
The boy’s death has prompted the UN children’s agency, Unicef, to demand that Damascus investigate “horrific acts” of violence against children. Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd has urged the UN Security Council to refer Dr Assad to the International Criminal Court for prosecution for crimes against humanity.
After recording 50 interviews with victims and witnesses of abuse, Human Rights Watch reported that Syrian security forces are involved in “systematic killings, beatings, torture using electroshock devices, and detention of people seeking medical care.”
The organisation argued the scale and nature of such abuses “strongly suggest that [they] qualify as crimes against humanity”.
Regional director, Sarah Leah Whitson said these abuses “need to stop and if they don’t, it is the . . . council’s responsibility to make sure that the people responsible face justice”.
Syrian human rights bodies say 1,100 people have died during the revolt.
The council was set to pass a resolution condemning violence and calling on Damascus to permit human rights monitors to investigate the situation. Russia, which strongly opposes external intervention, was expected to abstain rather than cast a veto.
Meanwhile, Baghdad has pledged to curb weapons smuggling into Syria. Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said security forces would clamp down on the trafficking of weapons.
