DAMASCUS — Syrian lawmakers plan to adopt major reforms in
May, including an end to emergency rule, a politician close to the regime said
Wednesday as rights bodies called for a probe into protest deaths.

“There will be an extraordinary (parliament) session
from May 2 to 6 in which social and political laws will be adopted in line with
the reforms desired by the head of state,” the politician said.

“Among them is new legislation that will replace the
current emergency law,” he said, adding that the proposed bill will be
presented to the head of state before the end of the week, well ahead of an
April 25 deadline.

According to the same source, Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad “intends to ask members of civil society for their input and then
the government will adopt the draft law to present it to parliament in early
May.”

The lifting of emergency rule, in place since 1962, has been
a central demand of anti-government protesters who have been calling for
political reform and more freedoms since mid-March.

The politician did not specify whether laws governing the
formation of political parties and media would be reviewed in this
extraordinary session but MP Ahmad Munir confirmed that the session will take
place.

“In general, they (sessions) last only one day but
since this time we have been called in for five days, it is an indicator there
will be draft laws to study and adopt,” he said, adding the reforms would
be published by state media.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch and six Syrian rights monitors
called on the authorities to investigate the fatal shooting of protesters in
Douma, near Damascus, and bring the perpetrators to justice.

New-York based Human Rights Watch called on Syria’s
president to “immediately order Syrian security forces to stop using
unjustified lethal force against anti-government protesters.”

“For three weeks, Syria’s security forces have been
firing on largely peaceful protesters,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s
Middle East director.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in
Paris has said 123 people were killed in anti-government demonstrations up to
Friday April 1, when unrest struck Douma, a suburb north of Damascus.

At least eight people, but perhaps as many as 15, were
killed that Friday in Douma when men in civilian clothes, suspected by
witnesses of being from the security services, opened fire at demonstrators,
HRW said.

Protesters in Douma cited by the HRW said they were chanting
“peaceful, peaceful” when clashes broke out with riot police who
resorted to teargas and beating demonstrators in an effort to snuff the Friday
rally.

After two hours of confrontations, men in civilian clothes,
whom protesters believed to be security service officers because they were
positioned behind riot police, opened fired with Kalashnikovs at stone-throwing
demonstrators.

An unnamed official told the official SANA news agency that
an unknown “armed group” shot at both protesters and security forces
from rooftops but provided no details about injuries to security forces.

“Instead of investigating those responsible for
shootings, Syria’s officials try to deflect responsibility by accusing unknown
armed groups,” Whitson said.

The rights body called on the United Nations Human Rights
Council to “schedule a special session to address rights violations in
Syria, including the unlawful use of force against demonstrators.”

It also called on the Syrian president to set up a committee
to investigate the shootings in Douma, as he did for the killings of protesters
in the cities of Daraa and Latakia, and to hold those responsible to account.

“The government should investigate each shooting, and
hold accountable anyone responsible for the unlawful use of force,” said
the rights group.

Six Syrian rights organizations said Wednesday in a joint
statement they favored forming a neutral investigative committee that includes
human rights activists to identify the perpetrators of violence and bring them
to justice.

In the southern agricultural town of Daraa, where dozens
were killed and wounded in more than two weeks of anti-regime protests, shops
remained closed for a second consecutive day, according to a human rights
activist.

He said that Syrian authorities had distributed financial
compensation of one million Syrian pounds (21,000 dollars, or 14,700 euros) to
the family of “each martyr” fallen during political unrest.

“Some accepted but the majority refused,” he said.

In Damascus, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu voiced
his country’s backing for a Syrian government reform package on Wednesday when
he met President Assad.

At the same time, Assad has closed the country’s only casino
and scrapped a ruling that banned teachers from wearing the niqab — a veil that
hides a woman’s face other than her eyes — in a move seen as an attempt to
reach out to conservatives.

Assad’s decisions on Wednesday were seen as concessions to
religious groups, as his administration seeks to shore up support.

Assad banned the niqab from the classroom in July 2010,
forcing hundreds of women from teaching roles into administrative positions.
The move was ostensibly part of a campaign to mute sectarian differences, but
angered many conservatives.

Teachers will now be allowed to return to their jobs, said
Ali Saad, education minister in Syria’s caretaker government.

In a further concession, Casino Damascus has been shut down,
reported daily newspaper Tishreen. The state-owned paper said the club’s owners
“violated laws and regulations,” without adding details.

Dmitry Medvedev, president of Russia, has meanwhile praised
Assad’s reform plans.

“The Russian president supported the Syrian
leadership’s intention to begin the internal transformations announced by
Bashar al-Assad with the aim of preventing the unfavorable development of the
situation and human casualties, for the sake of preserving civil peace,”
the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We proceed from the assumption that the whole series
of conflicts that are taking place should be resolved in a peaceful way,
without the participation of troops and on the basis of international
mediation,” Medvedev told military officers.

Bashar al Assad, the Syrian president, has issued a decree
granting nationality to thousands of Kurds living in the eastern al-Hasaka
region as part of efforts to ease resentment over nearly five decades of strict
Baathist rule.

It was not immediately clear how many would get nationality,
but the announcment on Thursday is due to affect around 150,000 Kurds currently
registered as foreigners as a result of a 1962 census in the region.

But Kurdish leader Habib Ibrahim said that Kurds would press
their non-violent struggle for civil rights and democracy to replace autocratic
rule despite Assad’s decision.

“Our cause is democracy for the whole of Syria.
Citizenship is the right of every Syrian. It is not a favour. It is not the
right of anyone to grant,” Ibrahim, who heads the Democratic Unity Kurdish
Party, told the Reuters news agency.

Governor sacked

State television also said that Assad had fired the governor
of Homs province, one of the areas affected by recent protests calling for
greater freedoms. Replacing the governor was one of the main demands of
protesters last week.

In another move to appease the ethnic Kurds, Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said 48 Kurds were released on Tuesday, more than
a year after they were arrested in the eastern city of Raqqa.

The Syrian leader also met provincial leaders from the
Kurdish east of the country earlier in the week to listen to their demands, the
official news agency reported.

Assad cracked down on ethnic Kurds, who make up about 10-15
per cent of Syria’s 20 million people, after they launched violent
demonstrations against the state in 2004.

Recent popular protests have shaken mainly Sunni Muslim
Syria for nearly three weeks, with demonstrators demanding an end to emergency
law and one-party rule by the Baath Party.

The pro-democracy protests first erupted in the southern
city of Deraa, where many Sunni Muslim tribes resent the power and wealth
accumulated by the Alawites, an offshoot sect of Shia Islam.

Syria’s ruling hierarchy has not tolerated any dissent and
has used emergency laws to justify arbitrary arrests, including those of other
minorities such as Kurds who say they are discriminated against.

In a move to mollify conservative Muslims, Syria also lifted on
Wednesday a ban on teachers wearing the full face veil and ordered the closure
of the country’s only casino.