Syria: Government lifts ruling

AFTER nearly 50 years of living under a state of emergency, Syria is set to lift the ruling as the government seeks to meet a key demand of protestors.

However, the government has warned demonstrators to call off their challenges to president Bashar Assad’s hardline rule.

The mixed messages — just hours after security forces stormed an occupied square in Syria’s third-largest city — leave little doubt about whether authorities will ease their increasingly harsh blows against the month-old protests. Assad’s regime has labelled protests as an “armed insurrection” that could give them the cover to continue the crackdown.

Assad last week told his cabinet to remove the state of emergency — in place since his Baath Party took power in March 1963 — but added it would give protesters no more reason to take to the streets and could allow him to move against any further marches or rallies.

Syria’s official news agency said the cabinet also approved abolishing the state security court, which handles trials of political prisoners.

Most of Syria’s people were born or grew up under the strict control of the state of emergency that, among other things, puts strict controls on the media, allows eavesdropping on telecommunications and permits arrests without warrants from judicial authorities.