Jumblat Slams Syria Vote as 'Theatricals Held over Human Remains'
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has slammed the referendum held in Syria on a new constitution for the revolt-hit country, noting that a Yemen-style solution was the best to resolve the crisis.
“Wretched are those days when constitutional theatricals are being held over the remains of bodies and amid the roar of cannons and the sound of bullets,” Jumblat said in a weekly column in his party’s al-Anbaa newspaper to be published Tuesday.
Syrians voted Sunday on a new constitution amid opposition calls for a boycott and new violence. Almost 90 percent of voters approved the new constitution, with a turnout of 57.4 percent of eligible voters, the interior minister announced on Monday.
Drawn up by a committee of 29 people appointed by President Bashar al-Assad, the new charter dropped the highly controversial Article 8 in the old charter, which stated that the ruling Baath Party was "the head of state and society," but left huge powers in Assad's hands.
“Wretched are those days when a citizen heads to so-called polling stations, although results are predetermined, while another citizen heads to death for demanding basic rights such as freedom, democracy and pluralism, and the daily toll of martyrs nears 100!” Jumblat added.
He noted that “the regime’s refusal of a Yemen-style political transition will complicate things further,” stressing “the importance of a precise implementation of the terms of the Arab initiative, which resembles the Gulf initiative on Yemen and allows a far-reaching change in Syria.”
Jumblat also criticized the “Friends of Syria” international conference held on Sunday in Tunisia, which discussed several ways to help the opponents of the Assad regime but put off a decision on sending a joint Arab League-U.N. peacekeeping force.
“It did not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people and the Syrian opposition,” Jumblat said, calling on all the factions of the opposition to “unite their efforts.”
Commenting on the remarkable shift in Hamas’ stance on the Syrian regime, Jumblat hailed “Hamas Movement’s historic stance,” noting that “its support for the Syrian people proves that it understands the meaning of sacrificing for the sake of freedom.”
Gaza’s Hamas premier Ismail Haniya on Friday hailed the "heroic" Syrian struggle for democracy during a rally in Cairo, in the first expression of support of the uprising by a Hamas leader.
"I salute all the people of the Arab Spring, or rather the Islamic Winter," Haniya told thousands of cheering people during the demonstration of support for Palestinians and Syrians at Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque.
"I salute the heroic Syrian people, who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform," he added.
Source: Naharnet
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