Syria: decision already made to lift emergency law

The decision to lift emergency rule in Syria, which has been in place since 1963, has "already been made," a presidential adviser said Sunday as dissent against government developed into a spiral of violence that left scores of people dead since March 15.

"The decision to lift the emergency law has already been made. But I do not know about the time frame," Buthaina Shaaban told AFP in an interview at her office.

Syria's emergency law, put in place when the ruling Baath party rose to power in March 1963, imposes restrictions on public gatherings and movement and authorizes the arrest of "suspects or persons who threaten security."

The law also authorizes interrogation of any individual and the surveillance of personal communication as well as official control of the content of newspapers and other media before publication.

More than 30 people have been confirmed killed in a spiral of violence that has gripped Syria since a wave of protest broke out on March 15, with demonstrators demanding major reforms.

In a previous attempt to appease increasingly angry protesters, authorities freed 260 political detainees on Saturday.

But the reports from Latakia by reformist activists living abroad suggested unrest was still spreading.

Syrian rights activist Ammar Qurabi told Reuters in Cairo: "There have been at least two killed (in Latakia) today after security forces opened fire on protesters trying to torch the Baath party building."

"I have been in touch with people in Syria since last night, using three cell phones and constantly sitting online. Events are moving at an extremely fast pace," he said.

Exiled dissident Maamoun al-Homsi told Reuters by telephone from Canada: "I have the name of four martyrs who have fallen in Latakia yesterday."

Officials have confirmed 27 deaths in clashes between demonstrators and security forces -- 20 of them protesters -- in cities including Homs, Sanamen, Daraa and Latakia since the rallies began on March 15.

Activists have put the death toll at more than 126, with upwards of 100 killed on Wednesday alone in a bloody crackdown on protests in Daraa, the southern tribal town that has become the symbol of the protests.

Events are moving at an extremely fast pace

Syrian rights activist Ammar Qurabi

Police station and HQ torched

In Tafas, south of the capital, angry residents torched a police station and the local headquarters of the Baath party, which has ruled Syria single-handedly for nearly half a century.

In nearby Daraa, at the Jordanian border, some 300 bare-chested young men climbed on the rubble of a statue of the late president Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, shouting anti-regime slogans, witnesses said.

Daraa demonstrators on Friday tore down the statue and burned the home of the governor, who was dismissed after demonstrations against him earlier this month.

Such demonstrations would have been unthinkable a couple of months ago in this most tightly controlled of Arab countries.

"Sectarian strife"

Authorities have clamped down on anti-regime protests in the capital, where President Bashar al-Assad supporters have taken to the streets nightly to voice their support for the 45-year-old president.

Bouthaina Shaaban, a senior adviser to Assad, told the official news agency that Syria was "the target of a project to sow sectarian strife to compromise Syria and (its) unique coexistence model."

Syria's establishment is dominated by members of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, a fact that causes resentment among the Sunni Muslims who make up some three-quarters of the population. Latakia is mostly Sunni Muslim but has significant numbers of Alawites.

The state news agency quoted a government source as saying security forces had not fired at protesters but that an armed group had taken over rooftops and fired on citizens and security forces, killing five people since Friday.

The crackdown in Syria has drawn harsh rebukes from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Saturday that the violent crackdown risked plunging the country into a "downward spiral" of violence.

But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday accused the United States of trying to oust Syria's leader to seize the country's resources..

"The attack on Syria has begun, there have been some supposed peaceful protests and some deaths (...) and they are accusing the president (Bashar al-Assad) of killing his people," Chavez said at a political event.

"And then the Yankees come in to bomb the people in order to save them. What cynicism on the empire's part," Chavez said, using a term Cuba and Venezuela routinely use to criticize U.S. international action.