U.S.: Syria constitution referendum "laughable"

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE - The White House is strongly criticizing an announcement from Syrian President Bashar Assad that he's ordered a referendum on a new constitution as part of promised reforms.

Press secretary Jay Carney calls the move "quite laughable" in light of ongoing brutality by the Syrian military. He says it "makes a mockery" of the Syrian uprising.

Assad ordered a referendum for later this month on a new constitution that would allow political parties other than his ruling Baath Party, the centerpiece of reforms he has promised to ease the crisis, even as the Syrian military on Wednesday besieged rebellious areas.

Carney says Assad has never delivered on any promises of reform since the start of peaceful demonstrations against his regime, and his promises have usually been followed by increased brutality. Carney spoke to reporters on Air Force One as President Barack Obama traveled Wednesday to Milwaukee.

The opposition quickly rejected the move, saying that the regime was stalling and that Syrians in the uprising would accept nothing less than Assad's ouster.

The referendum call also raises the question of how a nationwide vote could be held at a time when many areas see daily battles between Syrian troops and rebel soldiers.

Amendments to the constitution once were a key demand by the opposition at the start of Syria's uprising, when protesters first launched demonstrations calling for change. But after 11 months of a fearsome crackdown on dissent that has left thousands dead and turned some cities into war zones, the opposition says Assad and his regime must go.

"The people in the street today have demands, and one of these demands is the departure of this regime," said Khalaf Dahowd, a member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, an umbrella for several opposition groups in Syria and in exile.