document: Syrian president appoints ex-minister to form government Syrian President Bashar Assad appointed a former agriculture minister Sunday to form a new government , part of a series of overtures toward reform as the country faces a wave of anti-government protests . Hundreds of people were marching in Douma , a suburb of the capital Damascus , for funerals to mourn those killed in the latest round of protests , which started two weeks ago . At least 80 people have died in clashes with security forces . Assad appointed Adel Safar , the former agriculture minister , to form the new Cabinet , Syria 's state-run television said . Safar is seen as a respectable figure in a government that many had criticized for corruption . Assad sacked his government last week in answer to growing cries for reform in Syria , one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Middle East . On Thursday , he set up committees to look into the deaths of civilians during two weeks of unrest and replacing decades-old state of emergency laws . Safar , 58 , holds a doctorate in agricultural sciences from the French polytechnic center in France and was the dean of Damascus University 's agricultural faculty from 1997-2000 . He also heads the Arab Center for Dry and Arid Areas . The extraordinary wave of protests has proved the most serious challenge yet to the Assad family 's 40-year dynasty . The protests were touched off by the arrest of several teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on walls in Daraa , a drought-parched and impoverished city in the south near the border with Jordan . Assad has blamed a '' `` foreign conspiracy '' '' for the unrest and offered gestures of reform that protesters say do not go far enough to satisfy their demands for real change . Human rights groups and eyewitnesses said a campaign of arrests was continuing Sunday as Assad tries to cut off the demonstrations . Ammar Qurabi , who heads Syria 's National Organization for Human Rights , said at least 500 people were under arrest since protests began on March 18 .
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