Syrian Human Rights Defenders Brave Jail: Repression Met with Waves of Resistance
Dr. Radwan Ziadeh is a Senior Fellow at the US Institute
of Peace and Director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights
Studies.
Full Article:
When he became president in 2000, Bashar al-Assad spoke of his desire to modernize the state. Ever since, human rights groups in Syria have challenged Assad to live up to these words. Despite unremitting repression, human rights groups have organized several surges of human rights activity.
The regime uses the need for "security" as a pretext to silence dissent. The state of emergency imposed in 1963 remains in force, allegedly to insure political stability and national security. Freedom of association, expression, and assembly continue to be strictly limited. The authorities still treat Kurds, Syria's largest non-Arab minority, as second-class citizens subject to systematic discrimination.
Independent media workers and correspondents, including bloggers, face arrest and harassment, while the regime continues to monopolize all forms of large scale media and restrict access to the internet. The regime also uses the pretext of national security in an attempt to justify its stranglehold on the judicial system. Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners is carried out with total impunity.
Waves of Opposition
In September 2000, when the "Damascus Spring" began, intellectuals, civic figures, and opposition leaders called for political reform in Syria, an end to the state of emergency, and a return to the rule of law. The Syrian government cracked down on these dissidents, censoring, jailing, and torturing those who dared to speak out.
For example, Aref Dalilah, a prominent academic and pro-democracy advocate, is still serving a ten-year prison sentence imposed in 2001 for criticizing the government. In 2006, Aref Dalilah suffered a severe stroke and was reportedly denied proper medical care by the prison authorities. Due to the harsh conditions of detention, Aref Dalilah's health has gone from bad to worse and, as of May 2008, his health is deteriorating even more rapidly.
In response, a wide coalition of political reform activists publicly issued the "Damascus Declaration for Democratic and National Change," on October 16, 2005, calling for the establishment of a democratic system that respects citizens' rights, ensures freedom of speech and association, and ends discrimination based on religious or political beliefs.
In May 2006, a petition was signed by more than 300 intellectuals and activists from Syria and Lebanon, calling for an improvement in the relationship between the two countries. Lebanon is a sensitive subject for Syria, which claims historic title to the Mediterranean nation and has long played an active role in Lebanon's internecine political struggles. Complicating matters further is a UN tribunal convened to investigate Syria's suspected involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The government responded with the worst crackdown on civil society since its attempts to suppress the "Damascus Spring" in 2001.
Among those arrested by security and intelligence forces after they had signed the Beirut-Damascus declaration were: Anwar Al-Bunni, the Head of the Damascus Centre for Legal Studies and the President of the Committees for the Defense of Political Prisoners; Michel Kilo, President of the Organization for the Defense of Freedom of Speech and Press; and Mahmoud Eissa, a human rights activist. They were convicted of "spreading false or exaggerated news that weakens the spirit of the nation" and "weakening the national ethic."
The Damascus Declaration for Democratic and National Change Initiative gathered 163 political reform activists and human rights defenders in Damascus on December 1, 2007. They proclaimed the creation of the National Council of the Damascus Declaration, a collective movement of opposition and pro-democracy groups in Syria, gathering political activists as well as human rights defenders.
The Syrian State Security Services initiated a series of arrests on December 9, 2007, rounding up more than 40 Declaration activists in various cities across Syria. These arrests are a direct violation of the activists' rights to freedom of expression and association.
The arrests targeted many participants, but those that had been elected to the Council of the Damascus Declaration were kept in detention and later charged. The arrestees were transferred to Adra central prison and Ms. al-Hurani, the democracy activist elected to Chair the new group, was sent to Duma women's prison.
Jailed Activists Continue Work
Most of those arrested in December had prior experiences in prisons, including:
-- Riad Saif, former member of the Syrian parliament and "Damascus Spring" figurehead, spent five years in jail as a political prisoner before his release in 2006. He is suffering from prostate cancer and the Syrian authorities have banned him from traveling to seek treatment. Adequate treatment is unavailable in Syria.
-- Political activist and writer Ali Abdullah, a member of the Committee for the Revitalization of Civil Society in Syria, has been jailed three times in the past 13 years. He was beaten so badly that he now has a hole in his windpipe. One of his sons is serving a five-year sentence for his involvement in a pro-democracy youth group. The other chose exile, having already spent six months in jail.
-- Akram al -- Bunni, a member and founder of the Committee for the Revitalization of Civil Society in Syria, was held as a political prisoner from 1985 until 2001.
Human rights activists are banned from traveling outside Syria and the government has prevented dissidents from attending regional and international workshops and even human rights award ceremonies -- even when they are the recipients of the award.
That Syrian dissidents continue to brave these repressive conditions, despite little international outcry, testifies to the strength of their determination, the power of their solidarity, and their unquenchable thirst for freedom.
