TIMELINE-Crackdown on protests in Syria
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:55 GMT
March 12 (Reuters) - Following is a timeline of events in Syria since protests began.
March 16, 2011 - Security forces break up gathering in Damascus of 150 protesters holding pictures of imprisoned relatives.
March 18 - Security forces kill three protesters in Deraa, in the most violent response to anti-government protests.
April 19 - Government passes bill lifting 48 years of emergency rule.
April 22 - Security forces and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad kill at least 100 protesters, rights group says.
May 23 - European Union imposes sanctions on Assad and nine other senior government officials.
July 31 - Syrian tanks storm Hama after a month-long siege, killing at least 80 people, residents say.
Sept. 2 - EU imposes ban on purchases of Syrian oil.
Nov. 12 - Arab League suspends Syria.
Nov. 27 - Arab states vote to impose economic sanctions.
Nov. 30 - Turkey says it has suspended all financial credit dealings with Syria and frozen Syrian government assets.
Dec. 7 - Assad denies ordering his troops to kill peaceful demonstrators, telling U.S. television channel ABC that only a "crazy" leader kills his own people.
Dec. 19 - Syria signs Arab League peace plan, agrees to let monitors into the country.
Dec. 27 - Monitors say they saw "nothing frightening" during initial visit to Homs, as 20,000 people stage a protest there.
Jan. 10, 2012 - Assad says he will not stand down.
Jan. 22 - Arab League urges Assad to step down and hand over power to a deputy, a call Syria rejects a day later.
-- Saudi Arabia quits monitoring mission, saying Syria has done nothing to implement Arab peace plan.
Jan. 24 - The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council says it is withdrawing its 55 monitors from the 165-strong monitoring mission. Syria agrees to extend mission for a month.
Jan. 28 - Arab League suspends its monitoring mission in worsening violence, Damascus criticizes this as an attempt to encourage foreign intervention.
Jan. 31 - Government forces reassert control over capital's eastern suburbs after Free Syrian Army withdraws, capping three days of fighting that activists say killed at least 100 people.
Feb. 4 - Russia and China veto resolution in U.N. Security Council, backed by Arab League, calling for Assad to step down.
Feb. 7 - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits Damascus, says Assad assured him he is committed to seeking an end to violence by all sides.
Feb. 12 - Arab League calls for a U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force and opening of "communication channels with the Syrian opposition".
Feb. 16 - The U.N. General Assembly approves a resolution endorsing the Arab League plan calling for Assad to step aside.
Feb. 22 - More than 80 people are killed in Homs including two foreign journalists. Hundreds of people have now been killed in daily bombardments of the city by Assad's besieging forces.
Feb. 23 - Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria.
Feb. 24 - Foreign ministers from more than 50 countries meet in Tunis for the inaugural "Friends of Syria" meeting. Russia and China, allies of Syria, decide not to attend.
Feb 28 - Assad decrees that a new constitution is in force after officials say nearly 90 percent of voters endorsed it in a Feb. 26 referendum. Opponents and the West dismiss the reforms and the referendum as a sham.
-- The United Nations says "well over 7,500 people" have been killed in Syria.
March 1 - Russia and China join other U.N. Security Council members in expressing "deep disappointment" at Syria's failure to allow U.N. humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos to visit.
-- Syrian rebels pull out of the besieged Baba Amr district of Homs after more than three weeks of bombardment.
March 4 - China warns other powers not to use humanitarian aid for Syria to "interfere" in Syria, while urging unity in the Security Council after a split with Western powers.
March 6 - The five permanent Security Council members and Morocco meet to discuss a U.S.-drafted resolution urging an end to the crackdown. Some Western envoys say the text is too weak.
March 7 - Syrian Deputy Oil Minister Abdo Hussameldin announces his defection on YouTube, becoming the first high-ranking civilian official to abandon Assad.
March 9 - Amos, addressing a news conference a day after her visit to Homs, speaks of her shock at what she had seen in the Baba Amr neighborhood, and said the government agreed to a limited assessment exercise by U.N. agencies.
-- She says she had demanded unhindered access for humanitarian aid, but Assad's government had not yet given it.
March 11 - U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan ends talks with Assad and leaves Syria with little sign of progress on halting the violence. Assad told Annan opposition "terrorists" were blocking any political solution.
March 12 - The U.N. Security Council is to hold a special meeting on Arab revolts and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. (Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
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