The Syria Monitor

Reform Party Calls for Elections Boycott

The US-based Reform Party of Syria called on Syrians not to participate in the parliamentary elections this Sunday by not entering voting booths. (Arabic. AKI, 4/20/07).

The RPS's statement dubbed the booths, "the booths of humiliation," and called the elections a "mockery" and "another way for the Syrian regime to express its despotism and its cancellation of the people's opinion and their right to rule themselves in freedom and transparency."

The RPS said that the new parliament will be a mere clone of the current one which it dubbed "a puppet," adding that no real independents will make it into parliament except if they were "cronies of the Assad mafia."

Former MP Homsi slams Syria elections

Dissident former MP Ma'moun Homsi, who fled Syria earlier this year, called on Syrians Friday to boycott this weekend's parliamentary elections, which he dubbed illegitimate. (Middle East Times, 4/20/07).

Homsi said in a statement, "the security services are leading the elections, fielding whichever candidates they want, and excluding those they do not want using various means. ...  Where is freedom when jails are growing and are filled with intellectuals and politicians and lawyers who were thrown there for no other crime than expressing their views. ... I add my voice to that of my brothers in the opposition, and call upon [Syrians] not to participate in these elections in order to prove to the world that they are illegitimate, and merely preparing for illegitimate presidential elections. They are unconstitutional and don't abide by international standards or the ambitions and right of the people to choose its leaders." (Arabic. AFP, UPI, via al-Mustaqbal, 4/21/07).

Homsi added, "as for the oversight role of Parliament, this regime has torpedoed this right when it threw two independent MPs from Damascus [Homsi and Riad Seif] in jail for five years. This incident became a lesson to all MPs and to anyone who tries to criticize the regime."

Homsi was jailed for five years for seeking to "illegally change the constitution" and was eventually released January 18 this year with four other dissidents.

He left Syria following the detention of another fellow dissident - Michel Kilo. 

RPS Activity in the US (11/6)

The Reform Party of Syria declared that it has intensified its contacts with the US administration the last couple of weeks. (Arabic. Elaph, 11/1/06). A statement by the Party said the purpose of the contacts was to stress the plight of the Syrian people and the hopes for democratization especially in light of the current chatter about possible shifts in US policy in the Middle East.

The statement expressed its concern regarding  coordination with the Iranian and Syrian regimes, as they are both enemies of democracy and freedom and "will not allow the success of any democratic experiment either in Iraq or Lebanon." It added that any democratic leadership that believes that a deal is viable with such regimes is deluding itself, as such a deal would only empower these regimes to fight freedom in the region.

The statement described any such policy as against the interests of the US and the people of the Middle East.

News Round-Up (9/2-9)

9/2 - The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHR) said it was denied an operating permit by the social affairs ministry and blasted the move as a failure by the authorities to respect the law. A statement by the group said it operated "within the framework of the law" and vowed to continue its work in defense of "human rights and political detainees." (Arabic. Elaph, 9/2/06). The group comprises around 60 people, mostly lawyers and engineers, and includes representatives of various religions and ethnic groups in Syria. Its president, Ammar al-Qurabi, was arrested in mid-March at Damascus airport and detained for three days following a trip to the United States and France.

9/3 - A statement by the Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) said that a Syrian Kurdish activist Naime Abdo was arrested and brutally tortured, which necessitated her transfer to the military hospital in Aleppo on August 30. (Arabic. SHRC, 9/3/06).

9/4 - Dissident and former MP Riad Seif issued a statement detailing his constant harrassment by the Syrian security apparatus  since his release from jail in January 2006. (Arabic. ME Transparent, 9/4/06). Seif said that the Syrian security services ordered him to desist from political activity and told him not to give interviews to the media, and threatened that if he did not obey these orders, the Syrian regime would be forced to arrest or kill him. (MEMRI, 9/19/06). The statement offers a snapshot of the regime's tactics in dealing with the opposition.

9/5 - A statement from the Paris office of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria (PDK-S/Al-Party) said that the authorities continue to detain Kurdish national figure Abdul Rahman Wello, and have refused all pleas to release him. Wello is 70 years old and was arrested on June 19 but has not yet been charged. (Arabic. Via "Free Syria," 9/5/06). The statement added that according to information received by the PDK-S/Al-Party, is currently being held in a Damascus jail where he is being maltreated despite his old age and despite his fragile health which continues to deteriorate.

9/5 - On September 5, the authorities released one of the detained signatories of the Beirut-Damascus Declaration (BDD). (Arabic. Levant News, 9/5/06). Muhammad Mahfoud was released on bail to await trial, making him the fifth BDD detainee to be released at the time. The other four were released in mid-July. Although the lawyers of the remaining five detainees had appealed for the release of their clients, which include Michel Kilo and Anwar Bunni, their request was rejected. The BDD had asked the Syrian regime to recognize and respect Lebanon's sovereignty and independence, and to demarcate the common borders and exchange embassies.

9/9 - The Committees for the Defence of Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Syria (CDF) issued a statement denouncing the maltreatment of prisoner of opinion Habib Saleh, noting that he is being deprived the most basic rights afforded to prisoners. (Arabic. Elaph, 9/9/06). The statement said that Saleh is deprived of vists, except from his wife and daughter. He is not allowed to see his lawyer, or to read the papers or watch TV or listen to the radio. He is also deprived from daily recreation and is under a "prison siege" whereby inmates are forbidden from talking to him. His physical and emotional states are said to be deteriorating (he suffers from several chronic illnesses).

Saleh is a former Damascus Spring detainee who was jailed for three years on 9/12/01. He was again arrested by military intelligence on 5/30/05 and charged with spreading false and exaggerated news. He had been publishing scathing articles on the web, criticizing the Syrian president and his family and some of the symbols of the regime. On August 15 he was given the maximum sentence of three years in prison.

News Round-Up (8/29-9/1)

[Ed.'s Note: Due to the recent crisis in Lebanon, The Syria Monitor took a temporary back seat. Posting will now resume starting with quick round-ups from the last few weeks. Regular posting will then follow.]

8/29 - The Syrian authorities refused to allow dissident Michel Kilo to attend his mother's funeral (Arabic. AKI, 8/29/06). Kilo's lawyer told the press that the practice of allowing prisoners to attend their parents' funerals has been established for decades in Syria, but the authorities did not recognize it for Kilo. Kilo was arrested in May in the wave of arrests that targeted signatories of Beirut-Damascus Declaration, a document initially signed by 274 Syrian and Lebanese activists and intellectuals calling on the Syrian regime to correct its relations with Lebanon, by recognizing its sovereignty and independence and abiding by international resolutions. Kilo is facing charges of "weakening nationalist sentiment," "inciting sectarian and ethnic strife," "disseminating false or exaggerated news that undermine the state," and "defaming the head of state or the judiciary." (Arabic. Elaph, 8/29/06).

8/31 - Kurdish activist Abdel Hakim Bashar, member of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria's politburo (PDK-S/Al-Parti), was forbidden from traveling to Iraqi Kurdistan. (Arabic. Elaph, 8/31/06). This comes in a series of recent travel bans against activists in an attempt to isolate them from the outside world.

9/1 - Three Kurdish parties (Yekiti, Azadi, and the Kurdish Future Current), called for a sit-in on 9/7 in front of the Military Court in Damascus. The sit-in is to protest the prosecution at the Military Court of 49 Kurdish youth arrested last year for their participation in a rally demanding the truth behind the murder of Kurdish cleric, Sheikh Maashouq al-Khaznawi. (Arabic. AKI, 9/1/06). Khaznawi disappeared on May 10, 2005 and was found dead on June 1, 2005. His death is suspected of being the work of the Syrian intelligence services, as Khaznawi was making overtures to the Arab opposition and the Muslim Brotherhood.

9/1 - The Syrian opposition strongly criticized the speech given by Bashar Assad on August 15, where he attacked the ruling Lebanese Parliamentary and cabinet majority, the Lebanese independence movement, moderate Arab leaders, the US and Israel, and expressed support for Hezbollah. A statement by the Damacus Declaration groups criticized Assad's as inciting violence and inflammatory against moderate Arab and international parties. (Arabic. Elaph, 9/1/06).  It also called on the regime to cease interfering in Lebanese affairs. Furthermore, it noted the need for radical democratic change in public life in Syria, moving it from authoritarianism and repression to a law-based democratic system with equality, freedom and justice.

Similarly, the leading members of the National Salvation Front, Abdel Halim Khaddam (Arabic. AKI, 8/28/06) and Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni (Arabic. AKI, 9/1/06), both criticized Assad's speech and his reckless policies in back to back appearences on Lebanon's Future TV. Khaddam noted that it was the Assad regime's policy to bleed Israel through proxy war in Lebanon. Bayanouni meanwhile said that the intent to re-dominate Lebanon was "a priority for the regime." Both Khaddam and Bayanouni also expressed certainty that Assad was behind the murder of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Bayanouni also sent messages to Syria's minority Alawites in an attempt to assuage their fears of democratic change in Syria. He said that it was unfair to call the regime "Alawite" as it a family regime, and the Alawites have had their share of injustice and repression like all Syrians. Both Khaddam and Bayanouni stressed their conviction that no civil war would erupt in Syria should the regime be toppled. 

News Round-Up (8/8-16)

[Ed.'s Note: Due to the recent crisis in Lebanon, The Syria Monitor took a temporary back seat. Posting will now resume starting with quick round-ups from the last few weeks. Regular posting will then follow.]

8/9 - Exiled dissident and former reformist MP Ma'moun Homsi addressed the Lebanese people in a statement expressing solidarity with them. (Arabic. "Free Syria," 8/9/06). He said "the only thing more brutal than the war being waged against Lebanon is the dictatorial, authoritarian family regime in Syria," which is "seeking to take advantage of the carnage in Lebanon to prolong its rule after its behavior and abuse of its people and neighbors have been exposed to the world." He accused the regime of trying to sow divisions and civil strife in Lebanon and said that "the world's turning a blind eye to this regime is a danger to all because [the regime] spreads hatred and systematically supports terrorism according to its interests and in order to stay in power."

8/10 - The Damascus Declaration (DD) groups have formed a national council for the Syrian opposition. (Arabic. Elaph, 8/10/06). Sources inside the DD told Elaph that the DD groups have agreed on an organizational structure and have formed the national council from which emerged follow-up and coordination committees. Hasan Abdel Azim told Elaph that the committees have met and have estabished offices. He added that detained dissident Aref Dalilah was named an honorary member of the follow-up committee.

8/11 - The Committees for the Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria reported in a press release that on 8/11, security agents and unknown armed men surrounded the house of the Committees' spokesman, lawyer Aktham Naisse where a meeting was supposed to be held between various Arab and Kurdish parties and groups. (Arabic. SHRC, 8/11/06). The attendants were searched individually and their documents seized. Their names were then taken down and they were removed by force. Naisse remained in his house, under siege.

The Committees had declared that on 8/7, Naisse and his wife were called in for questioning at the state security branch in Lattakia as a result of an informant's report. (Arabic. SHRC, 8/8/06). The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) noted that it has recorded the existence of hundreds of thousands of informants who are either rewarded or coerced and blackmailed into writing reports about their families, friends and colleagues.

8/12 - Elaph reported that the Syrian authorities have put a new list of activists under travel bans. (Arabic. 8/12/06). The report said it found out that among of the banned were human rights lawyer Khalil Maatouq, lawyer Mahmoud Mer'i of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, who was recently released after being detained for signing the Beirut-Damascus Declaration. The Syrian authorities had recently expanded the list of travel bans to include such activists as Riad Seif, former Damascus Spring detainee Ali Khalife, Suheir Atassi, Fawwaz Tello, and Samar Labwani, wife of political prisoner Kamal Labwani.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee had also reported on 8/9 that activist Ussama Naisse was also put under a travel ban, and various other liberal activists were being summoned for interrogation. (Arabic. SHRC, 8/9/06).

8/14 - The trial of writer and dissident Ali Abdallah and his son was postponed.  (Arabic. Elaph, 8/14/06). Their lawyers presented a plea for their release but the judge turned it down. The Abdallahs denied all the charges against them. Ali is accused of spreading false news, undermining the state, and defaming the President, while his son Muhammad is charged with disseminating false news, defaming the chief judge of the State Security Court, and starting riots.

8/15 - The military tribunal in Homs -- an extraordinary tribunal -- sentenced Syrian writer and activist Habib Saleh to the maximum sentence of three years in prison for "disseminating false news." (Arabic. AKI, 8/16/06). Saleh is a former Damascus Spring detainee who was jailed for three years on 9/12/01, when Bashar Assad cracked down on dissidents and activists soon after assuming power. (Arabic. Levant News, 8/15/06). Saleh was released on 9/9/04 and was again arrested by military intelligence on 5/30/05 and charged with spreading false and exaggerated news. He had been publishing scathing articles on the web, attacking the Syrian president and his family and some of the symbols of the regime. The articles were in the form of open letters addressed to the Baath Party Congress, which took place in June 2005 and failed to introduce any reforms.

8/15 - The head of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, said in a talk to Radio Sawa that the war in Lebanon has temporarily frozen activities against the regime, but that they would soon resume. (Arabic. Levant News, 8/15/06). He added that the Syrian regime was isolating itself more and more and that the Lebanese have realized that the regime's role in the war was to employ its "cards" and to manage a proxy war outside its own borders, at the expense of the Lebanese people. Bayanouni noted that the war in Lebanon had exposed the Syrian regime and increased its isolation with Arab and Western governments. He said that there was consensus among the Syrian opposition groups that the alternative to the regime would be democratic, pluralistic, and diverse, adding that the National Salvation Front is preparing a transitional government in consultation with all other groups.

8/16 - Activist Ali Said Shehabi, who was formerly detained between 1982 and 1991 for his involvement in the Communist Labor party at the time, was summoned on 8/10 for interrogation at the state security branch and never returned home. His wife inquired about him at the security branch and was told that he was detained there, but did not allow her to see him and was not told why he was being detained. (Arabic. "Free Syria," 8/16/06).

Two Groups Join Syrian Democratic Coalition (7/10)

A statement released today by the Syrian Democratic Coalition (SDC), a coalition of seven Syrian opposition groups, announced that two new groups have joined the coalition: "The Syrian Democratic National Gathering (SDNG), a political organization that was formed in 1986 in Syria and that is led by Marwan Hammoud, and the Solidarity Council, a Kurdish organization with its leadership inside Syria."

The statement added, "[t]he announcement came from both groups while the seven parties, representing the Syrian Democratic Coalition, were meeting in Berlin to discuss the upcoming SDC conference that will be held in the Fall of 2006 in Washington DC."

The Vienna-based Hammoud had initially joined the National Salvation Front (NSF) but withdrew shortly after the NSF's conference in London last month.

The reason for the withdrawal seems to be related to disagreements over how members of the NSF's Central Committee were elected.

Khaddam Open Letter to Baathists in Syria (7/9)

Former VP Abdel Halim Khaddam addressed "civilan and military" members of the Baath party in Syria in an open letter urging them to do their patriotic duty and "shift to the side of the people and contribute in the uprooting of a regime whose continuation poses a grave danger for the future of the country, its national unity, and its security and stability." (Arabic. "Free Syria," 7/5/06).

In the letter, his second since his defection, Khaddam told the Baathists they had two choices, "the choice of the homeland and the people, and another choice which places you on the side of tyranny and corruption." He attacked the ruling Assad family regime holding it responsible for the "paralysis in the state institutions," and for the "regime's repression of citizens," and for the "break up of national unity."

Khaddam warned the Baathists not to be "fooled by those who have a hold on power who tell you that the [Baath] party is the leader of society and the state, when you know full well that it is the ruling family and its security apparatuses who rule the state, and that the role of the party's institutions is merely to cover up for errors and deviances." He asked the Baathists, "are you responsible for the impulsive and adventurist political decisions which have brought great damage to the country? Are they the work of party leadership or the work of an heir who does not realize the danger his actions pose to the country?"

He further accused the regime of a series of political assassinations of Syrian and Lebanese figures, and claimed that former Syrian interior minister Ghazi Kanaan was murdered "because he knew the truths behind the assassination of Rafik Hariri, and he knew who killed the former Lebanese Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, and Kalam Jumblatt" and others, and because he knew "the secrets of the [Lebanese] al-Madina Bank scandal." He added that "the day of reckoning" for the regime is near, and called on the Baathists to help "in saving the country and liberating the people from the prison in which the regime has put them."

The National Salvation Front had included a call to Baath party members, civilian and military, in the concluding statement of its inaugural conference, inviting them to "join the ranks of the people in order to rid Syria of a corrupt and tyrannical regime."

More Travel Bans, Crackdown Continues (7/6)

The Syrian regime continues to restrict the movement of dissidents with travel bans. The latest victim is Suheir Atassi. (Arabic. ME Transparent, 6/28/06). Atassi is the head of The Atassi Forum for Democratic Dialogue, which was shut down by the Syrian regime last year and Atassi herself was arrested and questioned for a week after a letter from the exiled leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, was read in one of the Forum's meetings in May 2005.

The security services also raided the work place of political activist Bassam Badra in Tartous, and arrested him without providing any legal warrant or any explanation for the arrest. (Arabic. Elaph, 7/4/06). Lawyer and human rights activist Khalil Maatouq told Elaph that the arrest "means the continuation of the campaign by the security services to silence any voice or any dissenting view."

The campaign against intellectuals and writers also continues, and it was reported that writer and political activist Firas Saad was summoned on Monday (7/3) for questioning by the military intelligence unit. (Arabic. "Free Syria," 7/6/06). The summons came after a manifesto was put out by the National Initiative to End Corruption in Syria, which was founded by Saad in 2004. According to the report, Saad was held for questioning from 1PM until midnight.

Also, a press release by the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) said that five college students and an employee, all from the Raqqa district, were arrested in Aleppo on June 11. (Arabic. "Free Syria," 7/1/06).

Regime Seeking to Dismantle the Damascus Declaration (6/28)

Syrian dissidents and activists told AKI that the Syrian regime is working on several fronts "in order to dismantle the Damascus Declaration gathering" through "attempts at splitting its ranks and co-opting certain parties" who are part of the Declaration. (Arabic. 6/28/06).

Nevertheless, the AKI report notes that all the activists said that the parties who are signatories to the Damascus Declaration (DD) were "aware of the aims of this attempt and are working to make sure it does not succeed," adding, "the parties are committed to all the principles of the Declaration and will not enter into compromises to abandon them."

The Syrian regime had dispatched the recently appointed Vice President for cultural affairs to hold talks with some Kurdish parties, reportedly regarding the matter of the 120,000 Kurds who have been stripped of their citizenship.  According to activists, the Syrian regime promised the leaders of certain Kurdish parties to look into the citizenship problem in return for their mass withdrawal from the Damascus Declaration, which would lead in their view to the dismantling of the Declaration.

Citing reliable information it received, the AKI report says that all the Kurdish parties under the DD have rejected the compromise, and have asserted their position in the last general meeting of the DD groups, which was kept low key, and stated that they would not abandon their support for the  Declaration for any reason whatsoever and that they would remain within the ranks of the united opposition.

The report further quotes sources as saying that there was an attempt by some intellectuals, under the sponsorship of the Syrian regime, to issue a counter-declaration to the Beirut-Damascus Declaration (BDD), in which they would criticize the BDD but would also call for the release of the signatories of the BDD who are still in jail. The sources said this attempt failed, but did not clarify the reason for its failure.

It is worth recalling that last month there were rumors of a written proposal, allegedly co-drafted by the security services, that was presented to the BDD detainees, perhaps as a potential compromise formula for their release, but the detainees rejected it.

A statement by the Committees for the Revival of Civil Society in Syria also argued that the prosecutor general was delaying their trials in order to keep them detained for as long as possible, and it was using this time "to stir up conflicts between the detainees and attempt to blackmail them ... in order to push them to retract their support for the Beirut-Damascus Declaration." (Arabic. ME Transparent, 6/28/06). "The detainees," the statement went on to say, have nevertheless "expressed their continued committment to and unity around [the BDD]."

Finally, the Committee for the Support and Activation of the Damascus Declaration recently met in Paris and agreed, among several things, to start a fund to support democratic activism in Syria and those affected by the regime's repression, including the families of prisoners of conscience. (Arabic. Via The Atassi Forum, 6/24/06).