The deputy foreign minister of Russia, Gennady Gatilov said on Monday that Syrian president Assad, did not "necessarily" need to remain in power "at the end of the political process".

See here for article by The Times.

Gatilov said,

“We have never said or insisted that Assad necessarily had to remain in power at the end of the political process,”

“It would be good to . . . see a political will from both sides that would allow us to move toward a settlement,” he said. “And in that case, it would probably be appropriate to talk about the Yemeni model.”

Meanwhile however, talks on Monday, between Russia's President Putin, and the EU President, Herman Van Rompuy, ended with no agreement beyond the Annan peace plan.

The Syrian government barred 17 Western diplomats from the country, reports Reuters. 

The ban includes ambassadors from the US, Canada, Turkey and several European countries, and has been seen as a response to Syrian diplomats being expelled last week.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, defended the country’s human rights record and claimed that Russia has no political prisoners, the Associated Press reported from St. Petersburg on Monday.

The statements come in light of a controversial bill which is expected to be voted into law on Tuesday which would increase fines for unsanctioned rallies 200-fold. Putin while talking to a reporter at an EU summit in St Petersburg called the bill “democratic” and similar to European legislation. However critics are accusing United Russia, the ruling party, of destroying democratic freedoms.

Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of Yabloko – a liberal opposition party – said while being arrested at a protest against the bill, “A direct signal is being made by those in power: sit down and keep quiet!”

“United Russia is attacking the last of our more or less functioning democratic rights,” said Vadim Solovyov, Communist Party lawmaker.

Putin has also denied knowledge of anyone that could be described as political prisoners, despite the circulation of a list of names described as such by Opposition leaders. At least a hundred people on this list are believed to be persecuted for their political views.

The Russian leader has also come under criticism for refusing to condemn President Assad’s crackdown in Syria, which has impeded the UN from taking significant action in the region.

Chinese authorities deleted numerous blog posts, closed down individual blog accounts, and blocked a whole cohort of words and phrases, such as "that year", "massacre", "recall", "candle", "suppress", "mourn" "square" and "today", from the Chinese equivalent of Twitter - Sina Weibo, as many commemorated the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.

See here.

In an inexplicable coincidence, the Shangai equivelent of the FTSE 100 - Shanghai Composite Index of shares - closed 64.89 points lower by the end of Monday's session. According to reports, as the infamous string of digits 6, 4, 89 appeared, many began to tweet the phrase "even the Shanghai stock market weeps at the memory".

The Chinese authorities responded by adding "Shanghai Composite Index" and "Shanghai stock market" to the list of taboo words.

The newly elected president of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic, has sparked controversy after claiming that "there was no genocide in Srebrenica."

See here and here.

Speaking on Montenegrin television, Nikolic said,

"There was no genocide in Srebrenica. In Srebrenica, grave war crimes were committed by some Serbs who should be found, prosecuted and punished."

"It is very difficult to indict someone and prove before a court that an event qualifies as genocide."

His remarks come as the trial of Ratko Mladic gets underway.

The spokesperson for the European Union's foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement:

"[We] would like to remind everyone that Srebrenica has been confirmed as genocide by both the ICTY and the ICJ. Srebrenica was the largest massacre in Europe since world war two, a crime against all of humankind. We should never forget and it should never be allowed to happen again."

Nikolic worked as Serbia's deputy prime minister in coalition with Slobodan Milosevic during 1998-1999 when Serbian forces invaded Kosovo.

As Syrian diplomats are expelled around the world, reports emerge of Syrian diaspora opposition activists being subject to threats and intimidation by Syrian officials.
 
According to a story by Paul Daley in the Sydney Morning Herald, a Syrian business owner living in Australia, recounted the intimidation he faced.

See here.

Speaking anonymously, the diaspora activist described how he had received a call from the Syrian embassy while he was organising an international conference of young peaceful Syrian dissidents in Tunisia, and an embassy representative told him that “he could not guarantee [his] safety in Syria.”

The activist said, 

"This was October last year. He said I should not go, and that foreigners should stay out of Syria's internal problems. I told him that I had no plans to go to Syria. He responded … that 'we know you do'. He told me that I would be putting the young Syrians who would attend the conference 'in danger' and that they should be 'very careful'. I do not know how he found out about the conference.”
 
"I was told that 'people like you represent the problem in Syria'. I was told that the government 'will shut your fraud of a business down'.

"A week later, the premises of my business [in Syria] was trashed by thugs. Nearing the conference, the calls got more frequent and more aggressive."

"Gradually these calls came less from the embassy but also from Syrian government officials in Damascus, directly to my mobile. A mix of Arabic and English was used.”
 
"While a good deal of the Syrian diaspora in Australia supported Assad until very recently, there was a vocal minority of Syrians working with a number of peaceful opposition groups. I know they have been threatened - worse yet, they have had their families back in Syria threatened."

In October last year, following reports of similar diaspora intimidation in the UK, the British Foreign Secretary, William Hague summoned the Syrian ambassador and warned that Britain will not allow the intimidation of Syrian dissidents in the UK.

The recent coordinated decision by Canada, Australia and some members of the EU to expel diplomats of the Assad regime comes as a reaction to the killing of at least 108 people, including women and children, in Houla.
 

Over 2500 anti-government protesters disrupted Thailand's parliament on Friday, as they surrounded the building and blocked cars from entering the premises.

Dressed in yellow, protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), forced the speaker to postpone a debate on a reconciliation bill that could allow theformer Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra to return.

Shinawatra was ousted from power by a military coup in 2006, and is currently in self-imposed exile.

Protesters assert that the proposed reconciliation bill would grant Shinawatra effective amnesty from a conviction for corruption.

The parliamentary speaker, Somsak Kiatsuranont, said,

"I have ordered the meeting to be postponed indefinitely to preserve the atmosphere and peace in the country,"

"We'll have to analyse the situation before determining when the meeting will be held again."

"It sends a powerful message to Egypt's future leaders that they are not above the law."

"Justice was not served. This is a sham."

"Certainly it's something that we've repeatedly encouraged them (SCAF) to do and it's certainly in keeping with the timeline that the SCAF has set out for this democratic transition. So it would be another step in that direction."

"Tomorrow will be the first day in my life emergency law free,"

“It’s a law that symbolized the extraordinary powers given to the police, which created an environment in which forced disappearances and torture happened regularly.”

"Unfortunately, this will not end most serious abuses that we saw over the last year and a half, because those were committed by the military and legitimised by military courts."

Chinese authorities have detained hundreds of people in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, as a young woman died setting herself alight protesting Chinese rule.

The crackdown follows two men self immolating in the capital earlier this week, marking the first time such an act of protest has occurred in the city.

Radio Free Asia reported that almost 600 people had been arrested so far, with those from outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region having been expelled.

The arrests come as a woman, identified as a 33-year old mother of three, died after she set herself alight in front of a monastery in Sichuan, western China. At least 35 Tibetans have now self-immolated since March 2011.

Free Tibet spokeswoman Harriet Beaumont spoke out against the arrests stating,

“We have reports of arbitrary detentions in the vast majority of places where there have been protests and self-immolations, and in many places there have been disappearances.”

Stephanie Brigden, director of Free Tibet, commented on the latest immolation, saying,

"Barma Township is like many other places in Tibet: people from all walks of life are rejecting Chinese rule and going to extraordinary lengths to make their calls for freedom heard."

John Powers, a professor of Asian studies at Australian National University, also added,

"The Chinese state has upped the level of oppression so much that now it's really only possible to stage individual protests, and that's one of the reasons why these very public, very dramatic self-immolations are taking place - because the Tibetans really have no other options." 

"We do not want investment to mean more possibilities for corruption. We do not want investment to mean greater inequality. And we do not want investment to mean greater privileges for those already privileged."

“These days I am coming across what I call reckless optimism.”

 “A little bit of healthy scepticism I think is in order.”

"Investors in Burma, please be warned – even the best investment law would be of no use whatsoever if there is no court clean enough and independent enough to be able to administer these laws justly."

"Good laws already exist in Burma but we do not have a clean and independent judicial system. Unless we have such a system it is no use having the best laws in the world."