10/03/2011, 00.00
SYRIA
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An almost united opposition: the birth of the Syrian National Council

by JPG
Policy statement issued yesterday from Istanbul, also reported on Syrian television. The NSC rejects any foreign military intervention, but asks for help to "protect the Syrian people." Attacks on roads and trains.
Damascus (AsiaNews) - The "Syrian National Council" (NSC), which groups the main opposition movements inside and outside the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, has formed in Istanbul. So far, the state news agency Sana has kept silent on the fact, but the Syrian news last night surprised viewers with a lengthy report on the establishment of the NSC. Despite critical tones, the television broadcast Professor Bourhan Ghalioun, eastern scholar at the "Nouvelle Sorbonne" University in Paris, as he read the NSC policy statement. The Turkish government has also offered the NSC a registered office in Istanbul.

After intense negotiations which started in August, the NSC finally announced the membership of the Local Coordination Committees (organizers of the demonstrations that have swept across Syria since March) of the "Damascus Declaration" (founded in 2005, liberal and secular), the Muslim Brotherhood, the Supreme Council of the Revolution, tribal organizations and groups of Kurds and Assyrians.

In the statement yesterday, the NSC defined itself as "the embodiment of the sovereignty of the Syrian people in their struggle for freedom," reaffirmed the rejection of foreign (military) intervention, but it has requested the help of the international community to "protect the Syrian population" against "dictatorship and repression. "

However, there is still no unanimity within the opposition, especially in the inner circle. In fact, the press conference in Istanbul was delayed an hour because a hundred tribal representatives and opponents of "the street" stormed into the hotel where the NSC was meeting in protest because they did not consider themselves well represented in the NSC. The Turkish police had to intervene to calm the situation.

Yesterday saw the usual military intervention against protesters, arrests and deaths in different parts of the country. Among the main events the resumption of the army’s control of Rastan, in the central province of Homs. All this came after five days of clashes that caused many victims. Dozens of military "deserters" had gathered Rastan in the night between September 30 and October 1, retreating to a secret location.

Another remarkable fact is that, without saying so, the state media echo the increase in armed interventions, and therefore repression. In yesterday's news the funerals of 25 soldiers and police officers killed in defence of the regime were reported.

Among the victims of the struggle, is the son of the Grand Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Ahmad Hassoun Badreddin, killed along with a professor at the University of Aleppo, while travelling by car from Aleppo to Idleb. According to Sana, the authors are "terrorists". In the same area, there was an attack (with explosives) against a freight train. This is the second attack on the railway, after that of July 23 on a Damascus-Aleppo train line. By now, people are afraid to take the train or a car to travel between Damascus and Aleppo. The only safe way - they say - is by plane.

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