BURIALS TOOK place yesterday for protesters reported slain on Saturday in the central Syrian city of Homs during funeral processions for those killed during Friday’s demonstrations.

The opposition put the Friday death toll at 44 and Saturday’s fatalities at 11, while the government said the figures were 17 and three. These fatalities could boost the overall figure to 875-900 over nine weeks of unrest if estimates given by human rights groups are correct.

The high number of reported weekend deaths prompted expert Joshua Landis, writing in Syrian Comment, to dismiss as “premature” official claims that the crack-down had defeated the protests.

In his view, US president Barack Obama’s address on Thursday “gave courage to the demonstrators . . . it seems clear that the culture of revolution that has spread among the young generation . . . will not be uprooted or destroyed by fear or firepower.”

Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged president Bashar al-Assad to announce major reforms before it is too late.

“Time is running out. If they stick to the method of using the security forces to suppress the protests without introducing concrete reforms . . . there could be really negative consequences that would sadden us all.”

Lebanese Communist Party spokeswoman Marie Nassif-Debs told The Irish Times dialogue is the only solution. Without dialogue, Syria could “explode into civil war between Sunnis and Alawites”, the small heterodox Shia community to which Dr Assad and other key regime figures belong.

She pointed out that the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, the main Sunni opposition organisation, has adopted the slogan: “Christians to Lebanon, Alawites in the tomb.”

Dialogue is essential to avert the sectarian divisions that emerged in Iraq following the US occupation, she said.

“We support the young reformers [and] we are pressing the Syrian Communist Party [which partners the Baath in the ruling front] to take part in reforms . . . It is not possible to continue,” with the current system. The law that gives the Baath predominance “must be changed” to permit participation by more parties, she said.

Other commentators argued that Dr Assad, seen as a reformer, is too weak to restrain his brother Maher, who commands the presidential guard and the fourth mechanised brigade, and other hardliners who are determined to impose a security solution.

The authorities blame unrest on “armed gangs”, the Muslim Brotherhood and external “saboteurs” who seek to oust the government and divide Syria into sectarian statelets to destroy Arab resistance to Israel’s occupation of Arab land.