AFP - Thousands of people accompanied the remains of Sunday killed eight demonstrators Friday Duma, near Damascus, when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appointed the outgoing Minister of Agriculture Adel Safar to lead the new government.
The protesters have announced new protests this week when the Internet was cut more than six hours and that the mobile communications were very difficult because, officially, a "congestion" of the network.
"Eight dead were buried Duma today.There are three other protesters were killed but neighboring villages and Sbinah Arbin, "said Mazen Darwish, head of the National Centre for Information and free expression, closed since 2009, who attended the funeral.
He said "tens of thousands of people attended the funeral. They chanted slogans in homage to the martyrs, and demanded the freedom to have attacked the official press."
"Where are the gangs," proclaimed the banners to make a mockery of the official version blaming "armed bands to have opened fire Friday from rooftops.
Some calls to the "fall of the regime" were suffocated by the crowd.The funeral is part of the Great Mosque of Duma to the cemetery through the streets of the city. There was no visible presence of security forces.
For his part, al-Atrash Muntaha, spokesman of the Syrian Organisation for Human Rights "Sawasiyah", who also attended the funeral, assured that "the protests will continue. The people do not keep silent over because the barrier of fear has fallen. "
On Friday, eight protesters were killed during demonstrations after a presidential speech was disappointingly low.
One resident said 90 people arrested by security forces have been released but there are 15 whose whereabouts are unknown.
The appointment of Safar, "a gesture"
Moreover, Assad "has issued a decree instructing Adel Safar to form the government," according the official news agency Sana.
Baath Party member, Mr. Safar, 58, is an expert on agricultural especially in arid regions."It's a gesture toward this population particularly affected in recent years by a terrible drought," he told AFP an economist.
The government led by Mohammad Naji Otri, in place since 2003, has not survived the challenge and submitted his resignation Tuesday.
But this appointment did not satisfy the protesters.They call for a "week of martyrs" with a day of protest on Tuesday to "boycott" on Wednesday that mobile phones have offered a free hour to the public for supporting the regime, and rallies on Thursday at the headquarters of the Baath Party to mark the anniversary of the founding of the party in 1947.
They also asked their supporters to march on Friday in all Syria to show "The dissatisfaction of the people."This will be the fourth Friday in which the Syrians are expected to take to the streets to show their displeasure with the lack of liberalization.
"The challenge is limited in scale but rooted," he told AFP a Syrian businessman who wished to remain anonymous.
And if the number of protesters remained limited, the challenge has expanded geographically. Friday demonstrations were held together for the first time in the northern, predominantly Kurdish.
In total, about 80 protesters were arrested since Friday in Damascus, Homs, Duma Deraa and Deir Ezzor (450 km northeast of Damascus).
