200 quit Syria’s ruling party

More than 200 members have quit Syria’s ruling Baath party in the southern province at the epicentre of the country’s uprising to protest President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on opponents, a human rights activist said on Thursday.

More than 200 members have quit Syria’s ruling Baath party in the southern province at the epicentre of the country’s uprising to protest President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on opponents, a human rights activist said on Thursday.

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Mustafa Osso said another 30 resigned in Banias.

Even though they are still small in scope the Baath party counts more than a million members in Syria such walkouts were unimaginable before the uprising began.

A resident of Daraa said that most of the resignations came from among Baath members in the town of Inkhil. Syria’s uprising against Assad’s authoritarian regime started in Daraa, the provincial capital, on March 15.

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