Syria President Assad Denies Blame for Killings
In a rare interview, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied ordering the deaths of thousands of protesters, saying “only a crazy person” would target his own people.
With global pressure mounting on his regime after the Arab Spring, Mr Assad chose a prime-time chat with US television journalist Barbara Walters as the platform for his defence after months of near-silence on reports of mass killings and mass torture.
Mr Assad said he was not responsible for the nine months of bloodshed and drew a distinction between himself and the military - an assertion that the United States called “ludicrous”.
Mr Assad: “They’re not my forces”.
“We don’t kill our people,” Mr Assad told ABC News veteran Walters. “No government in the world kills its people, unless it’s led by a crazy person.”
“There was no command to kill or be brutal.”
Mr Assad said security forces belonged to “the government”, not him personally.
“I don’t own them. I’m president. I don’t own the country. So they are not my forces,” he said.
Mr Assad’s family has ruled Syria with an iron fist for four decades. Mr Assad’s brother, Lieutenant Colonel Maher al-Assad, heads the army’s Fourth Division, which oversees the capital as well as the elite Republican Guard.