DAMASCUS - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Sunday urged Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to stop killing his own people, saying the path of repression was a “dead end,” as Damascus announced a general amnesty for crimes committed during the unrest.
“Today, I say again to President Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people. The path of repression is a dead end,” Ban said in a keynote address at a conference in Beirut on democracy in the Arab world. “The winds of change will not cease to blow. The flame ignited in Tunisia will not be dimmed,” he added.
Ban’s comments came as the Syrian president announced a general amnesty for crimes committed during the popular unrest that on Sunday entered its eleventh month. “President Assad issued a decree stipulating a general amnesty for crimes committed during the events between March 15, 2011 and January 15, 2012,” the official SANA news agency reported.
But it qualified the announcement by saying the amnesty covered infringements of the law on peaceful demonstrations, the possession of unlawful weapons and army desertion.
The opposition Muslim Brotherhood dismissed the amnesty, describing it - the third of its kind since the uprising began - as “neither serious nor credible.”
“The regime is trying to make its unrealistic plans for reconciliation and national dialogue credible, and it is in this context that it is making such announcements, for propaganda purposes,” the group added.
On the political front, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe decried the “silence” of the UN Security Council on Syria’s deadly crackdown. “The massacre continues, the silence of the Security Council too. This situation is becoming intolerable,” he said on Sunday, during a visit to Myanmar. “The repression has not ceased. The violence is still at work. The Arab League has given itself until January 19 to assess the situation. I strongly hope that it will make a report that is as objective as possible that it can communicate to the Security Council,” Juppe said.
The state SANA news agency said that a roadside blast in Idlib killed six workers and injured 16, blaming the attack on an “armed terrorist group.” The Britain-based Observatory also said three civilians were killed by gunfire at a checkpoint in Homs.