Assad offers new amnesty in Syria

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 16 April 2013 | 16.57

SYRIA'S President Bashar al-Assad has issued a general amnesty for crimes committed in the war-torn country, state news agency SANA reports.

"President Assad has issued decree number 23, granting a general amnesty for crimes committed before April 16, 2013," said the agency on Tuesday.

Under the decree, "the death penalty will be replaced with a life sentence of hard labour", it added.

Assad has issued several amnesty decrees since an uprising against his regime erupted in March 2011.

The latest will not apply to people found guilty of smuggling weapons or drug-related crimes, but those convicted of joining the rebellion would get lighter sentences, said the text of the decree published on SANA.

"Syrians who joined a terrorist organisation will only have to serve a quarter of their sentences," said the decree.

"The decision does not apply to those who avoided conscription," the text added.

Meanwhile Syria's main opposition National Coalition has called on Lebanon to control its frontiers, after rebels said they fired across the border in retaliation against the powerful Shi'ite movement Hezbollah.

"The Syrian Coalition calls on the Lebanese government to exert control over its borders and put an immediate stop to Hezbollah's military operations on Syrian territory," the group said late on Monday.

"We call upon the Lebanese government to take action against Hezbollah's aggressions and do everything within their means to ensure the safety of the innocent civilians on the Syrian-Lebanese border," it said in a statement.

"For weeks now, forces belonging to Hezbollah have targeted villages inside Syria, located on the border of Syria and Lebanon. Hezbollah deployed forces into some border villages and took control of those areas.

"The (rebel) Free Syrian Army was forced to respond to these repeated aggressions," it said.

The statement comes after Lebanon said it would submit to the Arab League a letter of protest condemning the spillover of fire from Syria on to its territory.

The Coalition is recognised by dozens of states and organisations - among them the Arab League - as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

Beirut has adopted a policy of "disassociation" in the conflict in neighbouring Syria, and has been reluctant to publicly blame either rebel or regime forces.

The rebels claimed to have fired shells on Lebanon at the weekend, blaming Hezbollah for firing from Lebanon and positions inside Syria on rebel-held areas in the strife-torn Qusayr area, near the border.

A rebel commander told AFP on Monday they were "giving the Lebanese authorities an opportunity to respond, to take practical steps to put a stop to (Hezbollah's) shelling", while threatening to launch new attacks should the Shi'ite group continue to target rebels in Syria.

In London, the British government said it was "increasingly concerned" about the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, warning "the world is watching".

Speaking in the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary William Hague also said Britain and France would continue to press for a lifting of the EU embargo blocking the delivery of weapons to the Syrian opposition despite one rebel group's pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda.

And leaders of five UN agencies have appealed to the international community to stop the "cruelty and carnage" in Syria, warning they may soon be forced to suspend humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.

"Needs are growing while our capacity to do more is diminishing, due to security and other practical limitations within Syria as well as funding constraints. We are precariously close, perhaps within weeks, to suspending some humanitarian support," the UN agency leaders warned.


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