Defiant Syria opposition snubs amnesty offer

Syrian opposition vows to continue protests   Syrian opposition groups gathered in Turkey yesterday to plan for the demise of President Bashar al-Asad's regime, denouncing "massacres" by his forces and snubbing an amnesty offer. The three-day gathering-titled "Conference for Change in Syria"-opened with the Syrian national anthem and a minute of silence for "the martyrs" killed in bloody crackdowns on street protests simmering in Syria since March.
The Syrian people are calling for the fall of the regime," said Melhem al-Durubi, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood delegation in Antalya. "He should simply leave," he said, adding that Asad "should be tried for his crimes.
" Yesterday's meeting comes a day after Asad decreed an amnesty for political prisoners following two months of bloodshed.
Speakers said the offer was too little too late.
We demanded this amnesty several years ago," said Abdel Razak Eid, an activist from the Damascus Declaration, a reformist group launched in 2005 to demand democratic change, "but it's late in coming." With about 300 opposition groups gathered-most living in exile-speakers at the conference in the coastal resort of Antalya condemned "massacres" of civilians and urged Asad's departure.
The regime is not legitimate and has no longer a ground to stay on," said Dugmush Dia al-Din, a 25-year-old student who came from Damascus, who has been jailed twice for participating in the revolt. International response to Tuesday's presidential decree was tepid at best.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Asad had still not done enough. "He has not called an end to the violence against his own people, and he has not engaged seriously in any kind of reform efforts," Clinton said.
Former colonial ruler France said Damascus authorities needed to take a much bolder change of direction after more than 1,100 deaths in the crackdown on generally unarmed demonstrators.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe demanded "more ambitious and bolder" action from Syria.
"I fear that it might already be too late," he told France Culture radio. Turkey, while not dismissing the decree outright, also asked for deeper change. "I hope this is the first step of a comprehensive reform," said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a television interview.
"This step is important, like a signal rocket.
Syria's official SANA news agency said the amnesty for political prisoners would extend to the Muslim Brotherhood, membership of which has been punishable by death in Syria since it led a bloody uprising against the rule of the current president's father Hafez al-Asad in the 1980s.
"President Asad has by decree issued an amnesty on all (political) crimes committed before May 31, 2011," SANA reported.
The amnesty applies to all political prisoners as well as to the Muslim Brotherhood." Syria meanwhile denied yesterday that a boy aged 13, whom opposition activists say died under torture, had been abused by security forces, labeling the accusations as lies.
A medical report published by Syrian official media said three bullets killed teenager Hamza Al-Khatib and that other apparent wounds on his body were due to decomposition, not security force brutality.
The report closes the door on the lies and allegations and shows the truth," said the official news agency SANA.
On Saturday, pro-democracy activists dedicated a page on Facebook to the boy, saying he was "tortured and killed" by security forces in the southern region of Daraa, a flashpoint of protest against President Bashar al-Asad.
The activists said the boy had disappeared since taking part in a demonstration on April 29, which he decided to join after police killed his cousin. The US-based Human Rights Watch meanwhile prepared to release a report detailing a raft of abuses in Daraa. HRW said its report showed abuses in the flashpoint region were "not only systematic but implemented as part of a state policy" and likely to "qualify as crimes against humanity." The government insists the unrest is the work of "armed terrorist gangs
backed by Islamists and foreign agitators