Syrian rebels call for mass protest

Renewed bloodshed in Syria on Thursday killed at least four people, putting to the test a hard-won ceasefire plan that was supposed to take effect at dawn. The opposition said regime forces killed three civilians and arrested dozens more in defiance of its undertaking to peace envoy Kofi Annan to halt all military operations and withdraw troops from towns and cities. The exile opposition, calling the truce “only partially observed” due to a failure to withdraw troops, urged a renewal of mass protests on Friday. But it warned those taking to the streets, after months when once weekly rallies have been subdued by fear, that they could expect government forces to open fire. The Syrian interior ministry urged rebels to surrender, promising to free those who had not killed, and broadcast an appeal to the thousands who fled battered cities like Homs and Hama to return from the havens they found in Turkey, Lebanon and within Syria. It also said on Thursday that people wanting to stage demonstrations should request permits, in an apparent anticipation of protests after a UN-backed ceasefire entered into force. “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. The regime also on Thursday urged tens of thousands of displaced people who took refuge inside or outside the country due to violence to return home, as the ceasefire took effect. “The interior ministry calls on brother citizens, who were forced to flee their homes, whether to areas within the country or to neighbouring states, to return home, and ignore propaganda and misleading news,” it said in a statement carried by state television. State television said that “armed terrorists” — its usual term for rebel fighters — killed one loyalist soldier and wounded 24, and accused the opposition of deliberately setting out to wreck the truce. The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) said the epicentre of Thursday’s bloodshed was the flashpoint central region of Hama, long a focus of dissent to the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. “We have visual proofs, videos and photos that heavy weapons are still in populated areas, sometimes they just have been relocated,” said the council’s foreign affairs chief, Basma Qoudmani, demanding that regime forces not only ceasefire but withdraw from protest centres. Qoudmani called for peaceful demonstrations across Syria to test the government’s readiness to accept public shows of dissent. “The real test will be if there is shooting or not when people demonstrate,” she said. State media charged that it was the opposition who were jeopardising the long-awaited truce, accusing rebel fighters of bombing a bus ferrying troops to their base in Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo. Among Syria’s allies, China welcomed the regime’s decision to uphold a “comprehensive ceasefire” describing it as a step towards a political solution. Russia called for more time. Just hours before the deadline expired, the military unleashed a lethal offensive against protest centres, killing 25 civilians on Wednesday, including 10 in the rebel stronghold of Rastan, Britain-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said. Annan’s plan calls for the withdrawal of forces from urban areas, a halt to fighting, a daily two-hour humanitarian truce, the release of arbitrarily detained people, freedom of movement for journalists and the right to demonstrate. Western powers, though hesitant to intervene militarily, are lobbying Russia, to drop its veto on other UN measures to pressure Syria to end violence. The United States appeared set to urge Russia to ensure Damascus adheres to Thursday’s precarious ceasefire as Group of Eight foreign ministers resume their talks. The top diplomats from the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan then resumed their plenary talks at Blair House, across from the White House, US officials said.