Syrian Official in Hama Resigns to Protest Bloodshed
By NADA BAKRI
NYT
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The attorney general of the central Syrian province of Hama has announced his resignation to protest the killings and arrests of demonstrators and the accusations of torture against President Bashar al-Assad’s government. The attorney general, Mohammed Adnan al-Bakkour, is the highest-level official to quit over the brutal crackdown during the five months of protests.
In a video released late Wednesday night, Mr. Bakkour listed a number of reasons for his decision, saying, among other things, that hundreds of demonstrators had been killed while in jail and buried in mass graves and that the army had leveled houses while people were still inside.
He announced his resignation as Syrian security forces continued to carry out house-to-house raids in Hama on Thursday in search of people involved in the uprising against Mr. Assad, according to activists and residents. Dozens of people were arrested in similar raids on Wednesday, residents said.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists who help to organize and document the uprising, said that four people were killed Thursday when security forces opened fire on demonstrations. One person was killed in the central city of Homs, one in the northern province of Idlib and two, including a child, in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, the group said.
(More here.)
NYT
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The attorney general of the central Syrian province of Hama has announced his resignation to protest the killings and arrests of demonstrators and the accusations of torture against President Bashar al-Assad’s government. The attorney general, Mohammed Adnan al-Bakkour, is the highest-level official to quit over the brutal crackdown during the five months of protests.
In a video released late Wednesday night, Mr. Bakkour listed a number of reasons for his decision, saying, among other things, that hundreds of demonstrators had been killed while in jail and buried in mass graves and that the army had leveled houses while people were still inside.
He announced his resignation as Syrian security forces continued to carry out house-to-house raids in Hama on Thursday in search of people involved in the uprising against Mr. Assad, according to activists and residents. Dozens of people were arrested in similar raids on Wednesday, residents said.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists who help to organize and document the uprising, said that four people were killed Thursday when security forces opened fire on demonstrations. One person was killed in the central city of Homs, one in the northern province of Idlib and two, including a child, in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, the group said.
(More here.)
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