Syrian forces shot dead three demonstrators on Friday, as tens of thousands marched across the country heeding calls by the opposition to take advantage of a hard-won UN-backed ceasefire. Security forces opened fire at a group of men as they joined a demonstration in Assi square, killing one, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Another demonstrator was shot dead in the village of Nawa, in the southern province of Daraa, as he walked out of a mosque to join a demonstration, the Observatory said.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad also shot dead a man in the town of Salqin, in the northwestern province of Idlib, the centre added.
The head of the Britain-based watchdog, Rami Abdel Rahman, said tens of thousands demonstrated in several provinces, a day after a UN-backed ceasefire entered into force.
Protesters held rallies in the Qadam and Assali districts of Damascus, while other demonstrations took place in the towns of Irbin, and Bibla, outside the capital, according to videos posted by activists on the Internet.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said demonstrations were organised in towns and villages in the northern province of Aleppo, while protesters took to the streets after the the main weekly Muslim prayers in several neighbourhoods of Deir Ezzor, in the east.
The Britain-based watchdog said demonstrators hurled stones at security forces in the Tariq al-Sadd district of Daraa, south of Damascus, cradle of the protest movement that erupted in March last year.
Sporadic clashes broke out between troops and rebel fighters at Khirbet al-Joz, on the northern border with Turkey, the Observatory said.
Violence on Thursday killed at least 10 people, including seven civilians, and wounded dozens more. Among the dead were two soldiers killed by rebels after forces loyal to Assad attempted to break up a demonstration in the central province of Hama.
Even so, the toll is markedly lower than it has been in recent weeks, when there have often been scores of people killed. After the ceasefire came into force at dawn Thursday, Annan declared he was “encouraged by reports that the situation in Syria is relatively calm and that the cessation of hostilities appears to be holding.”
But as Assad’s government and the rebels traded accusations of trying to wreck the ceasefire, Annan insisted “all parties have obligations to implement fully the six-point plan.”
The UN mediator’s plan calls for the withdrawal of forces from urban areas, the release of arbitrarily detained people, freedom of movement for journalists and the right to demonstrate.
Despite the regime’s commitment to pull back, the spokeswoman for the opposition Syrian National Council, Basma Qoudmani, said “we have concrete proof that heavy weapons are still in population centres.” The SNC, the most widely recognised opposition group in exile, and Internet-based activists called for peaceful demonstrations across Syria to test the government’s readiness to accept public shows of dissent.
“We call on the people to demonstrate and express themselves… The right to demonstrate is a principal point of the plan,” Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council, told AFP.
Qoudmani said: “The real test (of the ceasefire) will be if there is shooting or not when people demonstrate.”
The Syrian Revolution 2011 activist group also called on its Facebook page for protests on Friday — the Muslim day of rest when the demonstrations have been the largest after noon prayers — under the rallying cry: “A revolution for all Syrians.” But Syria’s interior ministry insisted people wanting to demonstrate must have permits.
“The right to demonstrate peacefully is guaranteed by law. We call on citizens to apply the law by requesting a permit before demonstrating,” said a statement carried by the official SANA news agency.
On Friday, the UN Security Council could vote on a resolution authorising the deployment of observers to monitor both sides in a conflict, which the Observatory says has cost more than 10,000 lives since March last year.
An advanced mission of 20-30 observers could be in place early next week, diplomats said. The full mission would be at least 200 monitors.
