HAMA, Syria, July 8 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of Syrians marched in Hama Friday, the day after U.S. ambassador Robert Ford visited. The government denounced his trip to the city.
Organizers called the demonstration a total rejection of the government's "national dialogue" conference planned for Sunday.
The Foreign Ministry said Ford's presence without securing permission "is obvious proof of the implication of the United States in the ongoing events," The Daily Telegraph reported.
His visit demonstrated America's "attempts to increase [tensions], which damage Syria's security and stability," the statement said.
Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier were in Hama Thursday to support protesters but left before Friday's demonstration, officials in Washington and Paris told the BBC.
Ford visited to show "our deep support for the right of the Syrian people to assemble peacefully and to express themselves," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
"Dialogue [with President Bashar Assad's regime] is out of the question as we cannot talk to murderers," Mohammed al-Abdullah of the Local Co-ordination Committees told al-Jazeera. "This is being declared by the rebels in the street."
"No one can predict what is going to happen in the next few days," one Hama resident told the BBC. "Many families have left Hama for the neighboring villages."
Another witness said security forces ringing Hama kept thousands of people from nearby villages from joining the rally.
The city has been a symbol of opposition since the 1982 crackdown on a revolt by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood against President Hafez Assad, father of the present leader, in which 20,000 people died.
After a prayer this week, residents told The New York Times the prayer leader said: "We are not going to retreat. What happened to us in 1982 is not going to be repeated. That is why we are all in the street today, for 1982 not to be repeated."
Protests also were reported Friday in the city of Homs and suburbs of Damascus.
Human rights activists say more than 1,300 civilians and 350 security forces personnel have been killed across the country since March.
