DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria announced an amnesty Thursday for scores of prisoners detained since a wave of protests erupted on March 15 as it unveiled a new cabinet to replace the one that quit last month.
The promised release of prisoners came amid a growing international outcry over the authorities' crackdown on the demonstrations that have now spread from the provinces to the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo."The president has decided to free all those held against the backdrop of recent events, except those who committed criminal acts against the homeland and its citizens," state television said, without giving numbers.
Human rights activists say scores of people have been rounded up since the demonstrations started, particularly in the protest centres of Daraa, south of the capital, and Latakia and Banias on the Mediterranean coast. Recently appointed Prime Minister Adel Safar formed a new government, which was promulgated in a decree by President Bashar al-Assad, state television said.
Mohammed Naji Otri, who had been in office since 2003, resigned on March 29 and Safar, the then agricultural minister, was named on April 3 to replace him. A day after a deal was struck for the army to restore order in the flashpoint city of Banias, snipers shot dead a soldier and wounded another, state news agency SANA said. The killing came amid claims that several people freed after detention in the city charged they had been tortured.
"A group of snipers opened fire on soldiers as they were on patrol in Banias," SANA said. "One soldier was killed and another wounded by this criminal gang," it added, without identifying the attackers.
The EU warned Thursday that a long-planned signing of a deal to deepen economic and political ties with Syria was "not on the table" any more, as the army intervenes after a month of deadly protests. "The situation in Syria is a cause for extreme concern," said European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Butler. "At this very moment, the most urgent priority is for Syrian security forces to stop using force against peaceful demonstrators and for Syria to commit seriously to reforms. "Obviously, in the current circumstances, the signature of the Agreement is not on the table," she underlined.
Ministers from the 27 European Union states said as far back as October 2009 that they were ready to ink the so-called Association Agreement.
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