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Bashar Leads Funeral Procession for His Father; Passing of Assad Mourned by Some Who Live in Israeli-Controlled Territory

Aired June 13, 2000 - 6:01 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: The man who's expected to be the next leader of Syria faced his first test on the international stage Tuesday. Thirty-four-year-old Bashar Assad led the funeral procession for his father.

CNN's Mike Hanna reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was an emotional day here in Damascus, and indeed in Syria. A funeral of some 11 hours finally ended when President Al-Assad's body was laid to rest in a mausoleum, in the home village where he was born 69 years ago. He was laid to rest in the village of Qurdaha next to the body of his eldest son Basil, who was killed in a car crash in 1994.

Present throughout the day's proceedings was his second son, Bashar, who Assad hoped would take over for him as president, and who has been nominated as president by the ruling Baath Party.

Earlier in the day, Bashar Assad met several heads of state and foreign dignitaries from around the world as they came to pay their last respects to his father, and also to commiserate with the son. Among those he met were U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She said that he was somber, certainly because of the grief, but poised, and she reminded him that his father has made a strategy of peace to which she says he replied, "I will follow in my father's footsteps."

Earlier in the day, a procession through the streets of Damascus. Tens of thousands of people lined the route to pay their fast farewells to President Assad, the only leader that any of them have ever known.

(on camera): So the at the end of the day, President Al-Assad is finally laid to rest. Power it seems in the weeks to come will pass in the hands of his son, Bashar Assad.

Mike Hanna, CNN, Damascus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHAW: The passing of Hafez Al-Assad is also being marked by some who now live in Israeli-controlled territory.

CNN's Chris Burns has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Golan Heights' largest Arab town, Mash Del Shanz (ph), in mourning, decked out in black flags in honor of Hafez Al-Assad. A town that's ground to a halt, its stores shuttered, as loudspeakers blare Koranic verses and Syrian radio coverage of the funeral.

Townspeople gathered around their TV sets to watch and wonder what impact the change of power will have on their daily lives -- an event so close and yet so far away. They're among more than 17,000 Syrians in the Golan Heights annexed by Israel. Tens of thousands of others fled when the Israelis seized the Golan in the 1967

(on camera): Just outside town, you can see the cease-fire line, watched by U.N. peacekeepers. Golan Syrians can talk to their relatives across the "valley of the shouts." With Assad's death, some locals think Syria proper seems a bit farther away.

(voice-over): Some see Assad taking to his grave their hopes that a peace settlement with the return of the Golan Heights to Syria was in sight. But they also see his son and heir-apparent, Bashar, as a potentially an effective leader who may be able to bargain with the Israelis once he consolidates power.

There's bitterness among those who were unable to attend the funeral. Some political activists, like this man, were blocked by Israel from traveling to Damascus. Townspeople now wait in anticipation of what will happen next in the halls of power in Damascus and in a stalled peace process that's beyond their control.

Chris Burns, CNN, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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