Despite promises of reform, the Syrian security forces arrested Mahmoud Issa, a prominent opposition figure and former political prisoner, the hours Tuesday after the cabinet approved a Bill to cancel the State of emergency.
"The city is still mourning its dead", said the activist policy who gave his name as Abu Haydar, speaking by telephone from Homs. "There are security everywhere, never corner of the city and it is not known what will happen, but we are preparing for demonstrations Friday."
On Tuesday, the Government attempted to calm the demonstrators to statements of sweeping reform while also issuing harsh threats of retaliation if demonstrations were not in the end, as one of the most repressive countries in the Arab world has difficulty to dampen the most serious challenge to the rule 40 of the Assad family.
The mixture of concession and coercion came hours after the armed police of Earth and the other forces of an authoritarian State are marshaled to crush one of the largest gatherings yet by demonstrators bent on the staging of an Egyptian style sit-in in the third largest city of the SyriaHoms. At least two people died, said demonstrators, the Government has authorized the place.
Events punctuated by turbulent day in a month uprising which, as the Egypt, has the potential to rework the arithmetic of a Middle East rocked with dissent. While the Syria does not have the Egyptian population or wealth of the Libya, his influence has long been strong in the region, held its location, its alliance with the Iran and its status as a maker of Kings in the Lebanon.
The complexity of its prestige means that the Government of President Bashar al-Assad is defenders in the most divergent places - the Hezbollah Shiite Muslim movement in the Lebanon in some neighbourhoods in Israel.
The reforms have been promised Saturday by Mr. Assad, but had not yet be articulated until Tuesday, when the Government announced the repeal of emergency legislation in place since the party Baath seized power in 1963. The repeal must still be approved by the Parliament or Mr. Assad, but which is equivalent to a formality. So its real impact: the Government has yet to show any real sign of ease its relentless grip.
Since the beginning of the revolt, the Government has vacillated between repression and suggestions of compromise, a formula which proved disastrous for the strong men in Tunisia and Egypt. But the combination Tuesday was more remarkable for divided how it was.
Even though the demonstrators buried those killed in Homs, the long-promised reforms ostensibly granted civil liberties, decrease, the power of the police and abolishes draconian courts. They legalized "peaceful demonstrations" - coded language for those approved by the Government - as the Ministry of the Interior has warned in a statement made by the official news agency, would take advantage of the total width of the Act against any other form.
Echoing the Egypt and the Tunisia, reforms, on paper at least, contributed much to meet the original demands of the demonstrators, who have only grown in depth and scope as the bloodshed has worsened.
"The street is a world and the President and the regime are in another, said Wissam tariff, Executive Director of Insan, a group of rights of Syrian man, reached by telephone."
Ads follow one another the Government crackdown on protests, this time in Homs, an industrial town near the Lebanese border and the location of a famous Crusader Castle.
For days, the Syria organizers have sought to reproduce the experience of the Tahrir square in Cairo, where hundreds of thousands gathered to demand the end of the rule of the three-decade of President Hosni Mubarak. The place has become a symbol and an instrument of demonstrations that finally forced to resign in February.
Organizers envisioned as its equivalent Abbassiyeen Square, a critical artery in the capital, Damascus, but were thwarted by security forces. Some organizers said they turn instead to Homs, where the funeral Monday for 14 demonstrators killed a day earlier drew thousands.
Some demonstrators said the security forces seem taken taken aback by the crowd, which grew throughout the day number and angry. Some shouted "A sit-in, a dining room, until the Government fell!". "". "please go", a banner implored Mr. Assad. Mr. tariff cited witnesses who said protesters had served tea and sandwiches as a cold night fell, and organizers said mattresses and tents were carted so protesters could be used in travel.
Security forces made several attempts to disperse the crowds, but surrenders until after midnight. Then, demonstrators said, a mixture of soldiers, police officers and security forces surrounded the place and attacked the demonstrators with tear gas, and real bullets after the crowd was reduced to about 2,000.
Nada Bakri and Hwaida Saad has contributed reporting from Beirut, Katherine Zoepf in New York and the employees of The New York Times in Damascus, Syria.
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