Syria squeezes opposition

BEIRUT – Syrian authorities have intensified a campaign to detain the same opposition activists with whom they recently vowed to begin a “dialogue,” as the nation braced for another potentially bloody weekend of violence against those opposed to the autocratic rule of longtime President Bashar Assad.

Meanwhile, security forces loyal to Assad and his ruling minority Allawite Muslim regime continued to beseige the restive city of Hama on Thursday. A witness said that water and electricity have been cut in large parts of the city and that armored vehicles had surrounded the entry points, allowing only women and children to flee what appears to be an impending military assault. At least 20 people were injured when security forces opened fire at protesters on a bridge, activists said.

Assad’s deputies had promised to begin on Sunday a much touted dialogue with critics and opponents of the regime, but it was unclear whom they would speak with. Activists said the government is now systematically rounding up many of the young grassroots activists leading the demonstrations that have rocked the country, leaving only a few elderly members of long-tolerated opposition groups.

But even among those largely ineffectual intellectuals, many have been arrested, including Mohammad Saeed, one of the signatories to the Damascus Declaration, a call for reform by opposition figures in 2005, and a resident of Hama.

Hozan Ibrahim, a Europe-based Syrian activist affiliated with the grassroots Local Coordination Committees, estimated that more than a hundred people have been arrested in the Damascus suburb of Domeir alone since Monday, perhaps as many as 300 people after demonstrations during the weekend.

Among those arrested were relatives of known activists, including the 14-year-old son of a protest leader.

“They’re taking everyone and they’re doing house raids and committed arbitrary arrests,” he said. “People under 18 have also been arrested, 14- and 15-year olds.”