Pro-democracy protests in Syria spread for the first time to a university campus and were violently suppressed on Monday, a day after the government of President Bashar al-Assad acknowledged that it was using force against protesters.
Human rights advocates say nearly 200 protesters have been killed since demonstrations began against Mr. Assad’s authoritarian government in mid-March. Until the new statement, the Assad government had insisted that the deaths were caused by foreign infiltrators bent on destabilizing Syria.
“In recent weeks, groups of citizens gathered in demonstrations in several areas in Syria, particularly on Fridays, making a number of demands that were met with immediate response from the leadership,” the statement said.
Certain “spiteful individuals,” the statement continued, nevertheless burned government buildings, killed or wounded state security officers, and tried to sow distrust.
“The Syrian authorities, in order to preserve the security of the country, citizens and the governmental and services establishments, will confront these people and those behind them according to the law,” the statement read. “The Ministry of Interior affirms that there is no more room for leniency or tolerance in enforcing law, preserving security of country and citizens and protecting general order.”
Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian human rights activist who is a visiting scholar at George Washington University, said that the statement was an attempt to further intimidate protesters. Besides the protesters who have died, about 800 have been detained, according to figures compiled by him and other activists.
“I think the main reason behind this statement is to say that we are right now serious and we will not allow for any more protests in the street,” Mr. Ziadeh said in a telephone interview.
The protests began March 15 after a group of schoolboys were arrested for writing antigovernment graffiti. As they have spread to dozens of communities across Syria and become more violent, it has become more difficult for the government to maintain that the deaths of protesters were the work of foreign saboteurs trying to spread terror.
“The Syrian people are sensitive,” Mr. Ziadeh continued. “They don’t believe the conspiracy story anymore.”
Though the Monday protests at Damascus University’s science campus were relatively small, with student demonstrators numbering a few hundred, the fact that the movement has spread to a university campus is highly significant, Mr. Ziadeh said.
“Damascus University has more than 75,000 students, and this could spread quickly,” Mr. Ziadeh said. Witnesses at the university said that one student was killed as the protests were dispelled, but that could not be independently confirmed. “That’s why they have to react very forcefully. They have to send a message.”
Meanwhile, four protesters who were killed on Sunday in demonstrations in the Syrian port town of Baniyas were buried Monday.
George Jabbour, a former Syrian parliamentarian, said that he, like many Syrians, hoped that Mr. Assad’s appointment of a new parliament, expected shortly, would help to calm the protests.
“The government is working towards reform as seriously as it can,” Mr. Jabbour said. “I have no idea who is causing this bloodshed – I have not made up my mind.” He added, “But I hope that the new government will be in harmony of the thinking of the protesters and that things will go more peacefully.”
