{"id":214,"date":"2011-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=214","title":{"rendered":"Syrian authorities urged not to suppress &#8216;Great Friday&#8217; protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<strong>Syrian authorities urged not to suppress -Great Friday-<br \/>\nprotests<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n21 April 2011\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\nThe Syrian authorities must not respond with violence to<br \/>\nmass demonstrations planned across the country tomorrow, Amnesty International<br \/>\nurged on the eve of a Facebook-promoted &quot;Great Friday&quot; protest.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n&quot;It is imperative that these demonstrations are policed<br \/>\nsensibly, sensitively and in accordance with international law to avoid further<br \/>\nbloodshed on Syria&rsquo;s streets,&quot; said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International&rsquo;s<br \/>\ndirector for the Middle East and North Africa.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n&quot;These &lsquo;Great Friday&rsquo; protests could be the largest<br \/>\nyet. If government security forces resort to the same extremely violent tactics<br \/>\nthey have used over the past month, the consequences could be exceedingly<br \/>\ngrave.&quot;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\nPeaceful protests calling for freedom are expected to take<br \/>\nplace in cities and towns across the country including Damascus, Dera&#8217;a, Homs<br \/>\nand Banias, in all of which demonstrators have been killed by security forces<br \/>\nin recent weeks.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\nThe death toll has already exceeded 228 as a result of the<br \/>\ncrackdown on the protests, which began on 15 March and have since mushroomed as<br \/>\npeople have taken to the streets to express their grievances.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\nOn Tuesday, eight protesters were shot dead by the security<br \/>\nforces while staging a peaceful sit-in protest in the city of Homs..\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\nSyrian President Bashar al-Assad has just signed a<br \/>\nlegislative decree to finally end the country&#8217;s repressive 48-year-old national<br \/>\nstate of emergency, in force continuously since 1963.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n&quot;The lifting of the emergency, so long a symbol of<br \/>\nrepression and violations of human rights, is a welcome if long overdue step,&rdquo;<br \/>\nsaid Malcolm Smart.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n&ldquo;But tomorrow will be a real test of the government&rsquo;s<br \/>\nsincerity in undertaking reforms. We must not see more people being shot down<br \/>\nin the streets simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and<br \/>\nassembly.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/news-and-updates\/syrian-authorities-urged-not-suppress-great-friday-protests-2011-04-21\">http:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/news-and-updates\/syrian-authorities-urged-not-suppress-great-friday-protests-2011-04-21<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\\\"MsoNormal\\\">\n<strong>Syrian authorities urged not to suppress &#8216;Great Friday&#8217;<br \/>\nprotests<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\\\"MsoNormal\\\">\n21 April 2011\n<\/p>\n<p class=\\\"MsoNormal\\\">\nThe Syrian authorities must not respond with violence to<br \/>\nmass demonstrations planned across the country tomorrow, Amnesty International<br \/>\nurged on the eve of a Facebook-promoted -Great Friday- protest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}