(Updates with deployment of security forces from first paragraph.) See the EXTRA and puts more Middle East turmoil).
April 22 (Bloomberg) - Syrian security deployed across the country today to protests which could be the first test of lifting of President Bashar al-Assad yesterday of a State of emergency 48 years.The city of Latakia, site of violent protests last week, has been blocked with sand bags, Arabiya television reported, while army units encircling the town of the newspaper Al Watan third, Syria, Homs, which is close to the Governmentreported.Assad has issued the Decree yesterday ending rule of emergency, which has suspended most of the constitutional guarantees, prohibited gatherings, restricts the freedom of the media and of arbitrary detention. He abolished the Supreme Court of State security and approved a measure allowing demonstrations, which require concessions more activists planned to challenge today. "" What they try to do is to test that the lifting of the emergency law means in reality, Chris Phillips, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, said by telephone late yesterday. "" " "A big question will be be how many people out to Aleppo and Damascus, remarkable for having been relatively calm in the city centres, the previous Friday and if they can get large scale demonstrations to go there."Torture, activists said KillingsSome that orders are yesterday of what is necessary to put an end to protests that spread throughout the country there are almost six weeks. A crackdown on dissent has caused the death, dozens of demonstrators while the Government has blamed the violence on criminals and terrorists who seek to weaken the State.At least 130 people were killed in the unrest, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch. Syrian forces have tortured demonstrators and it is impossible to verify how many remain in detention, said Human Rights Watch. Activists say the number of fatalities exceeds 200. "There are tensions well enough in all cities and presence of heavy security in preparation for the Friday prayer,"Abdul - Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian human rights League, said yesterday in a telephone interview. "I do not think there is no tolerance for even so peaceful demonstrations" Greatest ChallengeThe protests mark the biggest challenge of rule Assad since he inherited power from his father 11 years ago.Ammar Qurabi, head of the national organization of the Syria for the human rights, said in an interview on the phone that the concessions have been won with blood. "What happened is good, but it is not enough, he said Assad moves yesterday. "The question is not a law, but a dominant environment that characterized the State and its security apparatus, the cancellation"Yassin Al - Haj Saleh, a Syrian writer and activist politics, said in a telephone interview yesterday."moreJosh Landis, a specialist in the Syria, who heads the Centre for studies of the Middle East at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, said that he expected Assad to stifle protests despite the announcement yesterday. "It will crack down hard, as it cannot allow this movement to snowball effect,"said Landis. "He made concessions, but he would not look low."At least 18 demonstrators had been killed in clashes since an address anti-government gatherings April 16 by Assad, Qurabi said this week.Assad accused the conspirators from abroad to take advantage of the unrest to undermine the Syria, mainly because of his anti-Israel groups support. Party Baath of Assad has been in power since 1963.Syria is an ally of the Iran and a power broker in neighbouring countries to the Lebanon, where it supports Hezbollah, a Muslim armed group of Shiites in war against Israel in 2006.-Editors: Karl Maier, Jeffrey Donovan.
To contact the reporters on this story: Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul to bharvey11@bloomberg.net; Tamara Walid Dubai at twalid@bloomberg.net; Massoud a. Derhally to Beirut to mderhally@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew j. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.
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