Shunning responsibility

In a rare interview broadcast on Wednesday with America's ABC News, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad refuted claims he had ordered the killings of thousands of anti-government protesters.

"We don't kill our people," the he told ABC's veteran journalist Barbara Walters. "No government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person."

The United Nations has estimated that more than 4,000 people have died since the pro-democracy uprising began nine-months ago. Assad refuted the UN death toll, asserting that most of the dead were supporters of the government. Over 1,100 soldiers and police had been killed during the unrest, he said, in what was believed to have been his first one-on-one interview since March.

Assad did concede that some members of his armed forces had gone too far, but said any violence was the fault of an individual and not a government policy.

"There was no command to kill or be brutal," al-Assad said. "There is a difference between having a policy to crack down and between having some mistakes committed by some officials."

No guilt

Asked if regretted the violence, Assad said he had done his best to "protect the people."

"I cannot feel guilty when you do your best. You feel sorry for the lives that have been lost. But you don't feel guilty when you don't kill people. So it's not about being guilty," he said.

Syria has faced growing international condemnation as well Arab League efforts to impose sanctions to end the government crackdown and encourage democratic reforms. Yet Assad seemed unconcerned by the mounting threats.

"We've been under sanctions for the last 30, 35 years. It's not something new," Assad said.

He asserted that reforms were being introduced, but they could not be rushed. "We never said we are a democratic country...we are moving forward in reforms, especially in the last nine months ... It takes a long time, it takes a lot of maturity to be a full fledged democracy," he said.

Author: Charlotte Chelsom-Pill (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Editor: Andreas Illmer