Syria Live Blog - April 20

Syria Live Blog - April 20

• Timestamp: 

  11:00pm

  Hugh Macleod and a reporter in Syria wrote about the Emergency law. Read the full article here.

  "Syrian authorities may have decided to lift the dreaded emergency laws in force in the country since the ruling Baath Party took power in 1963, but experts and analysts say the move will do little to improve human rights.

  According to them, many of the draconian charges on which opponents of the regime are routinely imprisoned exist either within the Penal Code itself or as special laws or articles in the constitution, and courtesy them, Syria would continue to be run as a virtual police state."
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  10:30pm

  Visit our Syria special spotlight for more in-depth coverage of the protests.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  10:00pm

  This video was posted on YouTube showing student protesters in Daraa.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  9:50pm

  Inside Story looked at Syria's state of emergency, you can watch the full program here.
  
  
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  9:48pm

  Suhair Atassi, a well-known activist in Damascus, emailed this update: Security forces have started using live ammunition against the protesters in the city of Dariya.

• Timestamp: 

  9:47pm

  AFP news agency has reported that Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has strongly condemned "ongoing violence" by the Syrian government against demonstrators, saying Damascus needed to launch a "serious political process" to end deadly unrest.

• Timestamp: 

  8:19pm

  Anti-government protesters have vowed to resume protests calling for freedom on next Friday, code-named “Geat Friday” for rallies to be staged after the new Syrian government approved draft bills lifting martial laws, cancelling state security supreme court and organizing peaceful protesting.
  
  Protest rallies broke out in several Syrian towns immediately after emergency law was lifted, while demonstrators chanted slogans supporting freedom and dignity to the Syrian people.
  
  Meanwhile, the Syrian observatory for human rights has quoted Syrian authorities as saying they had sacked head of political security section in Baniyas town.

• Timestamp: 

  6:39pm

  There are reports of a student protest in Aleppo University, the protest was broken up by security and terrified students fled. There are reports of up to 16 people arrested.
  
  This YouTube video shows inside the University soon after security stormed in.
  

• Timestamp: 

  5:49pm

  Suhair Atassi, a well-known activist in Damascus, emailed this update: there has been student arrest in the capital Damascus by security forces. Ammar Huweid and Abdelrahim Shahadat were arrested while they were trying to prepare for a protest. She also added that protests were prevented from taken place in the university campus in the capital due to the heavy security forces presence there.

• Timestamp: 

  5:48pm

  Seleucid a Syrian Student wrote using the micro blogging site Twitter: "There are people with gunshot wounds on Homs being treated at home. Going to the hospital equals disappearing. via @kinaniyat"

• Timestamp: 

  5:40pm

  Chris Phillips, a Syria analyst from the Economist intelligence unit, talks about what lifting the emergency law mean to the people.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  5:25pm

  According to activists a demonstration is taking place in Homs, about 3000 people , and a body of one of the protesters had been dropped at the entrance to his home.

• Timestamp: 

  5:00pm

  Al Jazeera's Rula Amin reports on the situation in Syria after the emergency law has been lifted - you can watch his update here.
  
  

• Timestamp: 

  4:56pm

  The video below has been circulated on the internet, allegedly showing the wife of Fida Eldin Issa, the 'spokesman' for a number of Facebook pages calling for a Syrian 'revolution'. The woman in the video, wearing a face veil, is calling on Syrians to join the protests. But Issa says the video is fake and used to give the impression that the uprising is orchestrated by 'Islamists'.

  The video is produced by the security services. My wife is not covering her hair and she's not as thin as the woman in the video. They've put up several pages as part of a campaign against me. They've taken old pictures of me and doctored them in Photoshop, put my face on nude pictures.
  
  "We have no political group behind us, no religious ideology. Some of us live in Syria and some abroad.
  
  "The regime is playing the ethnic card, saying that if they go, there will be sectarian violence. But this is not true.
  
  "First the regime said we were Israelis, then Lebanese, Muslim Brotherhood, now Salafists. They have to decide which one we are."

• Timestamp: 

  4:49pm

  This YouTube video was sent to Al Jazeera and it shows hundreds of Alawites and Sunnis launch a rare joint demonstration in the town of Jableh, calling for the fall of the Syrian regime. The demonstrations took place yesterday.

• Timestamp: 

  4:30pm

  The Guardian.co.uk writes about Syria arrests opposition figure despite lifting of emergency rule. Read the full article here.

  Syrian authorities arrested a leftist opposition figure at his home during an overnight raid, hours after the government announced an end to nearly 50 years of emergency rule, human rights activists said on Wednesday.
  
  The head of the Syrian Human Rights League, Abdul-Karim Rihawi, said security agents picked up Mahmoud Issa from his home in the central city of Homs after an interview he gave to al-Jazeera late on Tuesday.

• Timestamp: 

  3:58pm

  The Foreign & Commonwealth Office has issued this amended travel advice to its citizens in Syria.

  In light of the deterioration in the security situation in Syria we have amended our Travel Advice to inform British Nationals that they should consider leaving Syria by commercial means. The safety of British Nationals is always our primary concern. At present there is relative freedom of movement with all major roads and airports remaining open and with commercial airlines still running scheduled services with capacity available: it should therefore be possible for British Nationals to leave if they choose to do so.

• Timestamp: 

  2:11pm

  According to the Reuters news agency, security police head in Syria's restive Banias city has been removed from his post, Syrian observatory for Human Rights says, citing sources.

• Timestamp: 

  2:01pm

  The head of the security services in Baniyas has been removed from his post, the Syrian Observatory for Human rights say, according to Reuters.

• Timestamp: 

  1:54pm

  Suhair Atassi, a well-known activist in Damascus, emailed this update: 

  Dozens of students from Aleppo University went out to the street in a demonstration demanding freedom. 

  "The protesters gathered in front of the university’s central library on Wednesday morning and wanted to move in front of  the Baath party’s division but security forces quickly cordoned it off, violently dispersed it and then turned it into a pro-government march.

   "Security forces were greater in number than the students.

  "Many of the students were arrested."

• Timestamp: 

  1:56pm

  So after forty-eight years, Syria's state of emergency looks set to be lifted. But what does it mean for protesters on the ground?
  
  - If President Assad fulfills his promises, it would mean an end to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment without trial.
  
  - He has also pledged to release hundreds of prisoners detained during opposition protests.
  
  - Protesters are also seeking political repesentation - with the creation of new parties.
  
  But already there has been disappointment...
  
  On Tuesday the country's interior minister came out with a stern warning for protesters to back down or face the consequences.
  
  And a replacement for the emergency law is being discussed, with new anti-terrorism legislation expected to be drafted in the coming weeks.

• Timestamp: 

  1:43pm

  Anti-government demonstrations captured on video by citizens across the country - click here to watch these

  http://aje.me/hw9ouf

• Timestamp: 

  1:41pm

  The story of the ancient town of Daraa is the story of the Syrian uprising: State brutality, funerals and growing fury. You can read it here http://aje.me/ijp72j

• Timestamp: 

  1:16pm

  Malik al-Abdeh, the editor-in-chief of Syrian opposition Barada TV, based in London, says the end of emergency law will not be enough to appease protesters.

  After several hundred people were killed and over 1,000 arrested, this is no longer the demand of the people. It's been quite clear over the last few days, that protesters are now demanding the end of the regime.

  "The regime has been exposed for what it is. A lot of people see now that the civilian facade of the regime, the government, the Baath party, the media, these facades are not the real decision makers.

  "The ones who decide policy  are the security forces, headed of course by Bashar al-Assad, and this is what people are rebelling against ... The problem is primarily the issue of the immunity of prosecution the security forces enjoy and the overwhelming powers they have over all aspects of public life."

• Timestamp: 

  12:54pm

  There have been reports of violence in Latakia in recent days and sources tell Al Jazeera that eleven protesters were killed on Sunday.

  This video uploaded yesterday is said to show an incident from Sunday. The man and woman heard talking discuss how large the protest is and how the army are blocking the road. When the shooting starts she screams and tries to pull in the man filming inside. "He's not moving, he's dead," says the man about one body lying in the road.

• Timestamp: 

  10:54am

  Al Jazeera's Cal Perry reports on the situation in Syria after the emergency law has been lifted - you can watch his update here.

• Timestamp: 

  10:41am

  Protests continue in Syria, despite the end of the emergency law.

  Al Jazeera's Cal Perry reports from Damascus, "They (the protesters) want to see the release of detainees, they want the right to protest peacefully."

• Timestamp: 

  7:34am

  The government has announced an end to emergency laws in place for 48 years.

  But activists say it doesn't mean an end to repression. Al Jazeera's Cal Perry reports from Damascus.

• Timestamp: 

  3:25am

  The state-controlled SANA news agency on the lifting of the emergency rule: Cabinet Passes Billson Legislative Decrees to End State of Emergency, Abolishing Higher State Security Court, Regulating Peaceful Protest

• Timestamp: 

  12:00pm

  For older updates, you can read yesterday's blog.