Beirut - Syria deployed police, soldiers and military vehicles yesterday in two of the three largest cities of the country in advance of nationwide protests expected today which will test receiving popular reforms decreed by President Bashar al-Assad and the dynamics that the organizers have sought to uplift of five weeks.
Residents described a mobilization in the capital, Damascus, and more pronounced fashion, in the city of Homs restive, where repression by the Government this week dispersed one of the largest gatherings since the beginning of the protests last month. For days, organisers have sought to present as a potential demonstration of strength for a movement that has not yet have a critical mass reached in Egypt and Tunisia.
"Together towards freedom," read a Facebook page that served a Chair of the revolt, the words are the symbols of Christianity and Islam. ".One heart, one hand, a goal. ?
The objective of the two parties is the same: to prove that they have the upper hand in the biggest challenge yet to rule 40 of the Assad family. While the organizers have been reluctant to call today a decisive moment, they recognized that it would be signal of their degree of support in a country which remains divided, with the Government ceased to claim bastions of support among minoritiesthe loyalists of the party Baaset of the richer segments of the population.
"People are still hesitant," said Wissam tariff, the General Director of Insan, a group of human rights. ". But he added, "" if it is not this Friday, it will be the Friday entry.""
Residents of Damascus said police were seen in the position of a Headquarters on the outskirts of Zabadane towards the capital, where military security officers had reportedly been revealed more large number.
The security presence is more pronounced in Homs, residents, said, as dozens of military vehicles loaded with soldiers and equipment were observed on the road to Damascus. Plainclothes policemen gathered instead of the new clock, where thousands of demonstrators had tried to mount a sit-in of Egyptian style Monday night.
Cell phones have been difficult to reach, and some land lines had been cut.
In Homs, an organizer, Abu Kamel al-Dimashki, said the city was "as a ghost and US city are still mourning our martyrs, if everything is closed." " He said, "things are a little frightening". "
The Government has maintained that the uprising is led by the Islamists, and organizers recognize that religious forces organized as Muslim brothers prohibited vigorously took part. The Government has also accused of supporting protests from foreign countries. And, indeed, some of the most significant took place in cities close to the borders of the Syria: Dara, a poor town near Jordan and Homs, an industrial center near conservative North of the Lebanon.
But so far, the Government has sought to hew to a policy of repression with compromise. Yesterday, Al-Assad signed a decree which repealed severe laws of emergency in place since 1963, abolishes draconian and granted the citizens security courts the right to demonstrate peacefully, although they still need government permission to collect.
Egypt - year Cairo Egyptian Court yesterday ordered the name of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his wife, Suzanne, withdrawn of all public facilities and institutions, the most recent step dismantling of the legacy of the former leader of 29 years in power.
At the beginning of his reign, Mubarak said that of modesty, he did not want his name on public buildings, but there are now hundreds, perhaps even thousands of schools, streets, places, and libraries that carry the name of the former leader or his wife - as a major metro station in central Cairo.
Mubarak, who turns 83 next month, still in detention in custody in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Yemen Cairo - The Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council six nations travelled in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, to provide Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an agreement aimed at resolving the political crisis of the Yemen yesterday. A Yemeni Government statement promised a response within 24 hours.
The arrangement calls for the President to immediately deliver power and resign within 30 days, and it puts in place of the presidential elections 60 days later, a Yemeni official said on condition of anonymity. It also calls for an immediate end to protests.
The plan follows in part a project supported by the United States and the European Union, which also provides immunity against prosecution for Saleh and his family.
New York Times
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