JORDAN: Protesters in Amman gather outside the Syrian embassy to call for an end to the regime of Bashar al-Assad

Record ID: 1526078

  • Title: JORDAN: Protesters in Amman gather outside the Syrian embassy to call for an end to the regime of Bashar al-Assad
  • Date: 10th June 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN GIRL, SARA, SAYING: "We all want him to be toppled. I will remain in this protest until the regime of Bashar al-Assad falls and until the ambassador Bahjat Suleiman resigns. I say to President Bashar al-Assad: go. We, old and young, want you to leave, after you killed Hamza, and killed women and children and made them homeless. I say to you: leave because there is no place for you in Syria. None of us want you." GIRLS HOLDING UP BANNERS
  • Embargoed: 25th June 2011 10:43
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jordan, Jordan
  • Country: Jordan
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8DVYG8T7DAEHOZBIUYWGCCFZ7
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Protesters gathered outside the Syrian embassy in Amman on Thursday (June 9) to call for an end to the violence in Syria, which has led do the deaths of more than 1,000 people since March.
    Over the past three months, Syrian security forces have used tanks and bullets to crush a wave of popular unrest as people across the country have taken the streets to demand greater freedom.
    But there has been particular outrage over the death of a 13-year-old boy, Hamza al-Khatib, whom activists say was tortured before his body was given back to his family. The authorities deny he was tortured.
    In the Jordanian capital, around 100 people waved Syrian flags and shouted slogans denouncing the bloodshed.
    "We all want him to be toppled. I will remain in this protest until the regime of Bashar al-Assad falls and until the ambassador Bahjat Suleiman resigns. I say to President Bashar al-Assad: go. We, old and young, want you to leave, after you killed Hamza, and killed women and children and made them homeless. I say to you: leave because there is no place for you in Syria. None of us want you," said one young protester, Sara.
    On Thursday, more than 1,700 Syrians fled to Turkey to escape a feared army crackdown and Turkish officials said the number of Syrian refugees crossing the border this week had reached 1,777, according to the Anatolian news agency.
    The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged Damascus to allow a fact-finding mission into the country to investigate all allegations of violence, including Syrian state television reports that 120 members of the security forces were killed by armed gangs.
    In the meantime, protesters in Amman urged their countrymen to continue their popular revolt until the Syrian regime falls.
    "For the sake of all the martyrs who have died in Syria, from Hama to Homs, to Latakia and Deraa and all the Syrian cities. We stand with them in honour and dignity and we say to them: this regime has to fall, this fascist regime of Bashar al-Assad," said Hazar, one of the protesters.
    The protesters in Amman are part of a large Syrian community of about 200,000 who arrived in the kingdom in search of jobs or for political reasons.
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