DAMASCUS - On Wednesday, 12 Syrian dissidents were sentenced to two-and-a-half
years each by the National Security Court in Damascus. The 12 were held behind
a cage in a court room packed with family members and well-wishers. After the
sentences were read out, several of the detained shouted cries of defiance and
locked hands together.
The trial, which lasted several months, has been charged by international
human-rights groups of being a violation of "the activists' right to freedom of
movement and an undue interference with their rights to freedom of expression
and association". About a dozen diplomats from various embassies, including
Canadian and Dutch representatives, attended the proceedings on
Wednesday, as they have done for all previous hearings related to the case.
The 11 men and a woman were arrested following a meeting of 163 activists and
interested observers on December 1 last year when the National Council for the
Damascus Declaration was formed. They wanted to revive a movement calling for
freedom of expression and a new constitution in Syria, which has been ruled by
the Ba'ath party for four decades.
Syrian law requires permits to be sought for meetings and gathering in excess
of six people. However, most of the arrested were previously well known to
authorities for their civil society efforts.
Riad Seif, Michel Kilo and Anwar al-Bunni - whose wife picked up a human-rights
award on his behalf from the president of Ireland on May 1 this year - now face
a term in custody.
US President George W Bush had called for Seif's release in July. The sentences
are likely to further strain Syrian-US ties, which took a big hit at the
weekend when US forces staged a raid into Syria on the border with Iraq,
allegedly in pursuit of al-Qaeda members.
Syria's international image has improved somewhat in recent months. In July,
President Bashar al-Assad visited Paris to take part in French national day
military celebrations on the Champs Elysees, along with 40 national leaders and
representatives. Negotiations with Israel have successfully passed several
rounds and relations with Lebanon have improved markedly. However, behind
closed doors the government's grip on national political dissidence has
tightened.
The emergence of the "Damascus Spring", a constellation of opposition groups
hoping to take advantage of the accession of Assad in 2000, saw themselves as
creating a basis for democratic change and individual freedom. The new
president was young, educated in England and, as such, opposition elements -
for long sidelined and brutalized - quivered with expectancy.
However, any optimism was dashed when during his inaugural speech in July 2000
Assad stressed how "we cannot apply the democracy of others to ourselves" and
how, above all else, Syrian society needed stability. The Damascus Spring,
after a period of about six months when groups and forums were tolerated, was
swiftly followed by what is know as a continuing "winter" period.
When the opposition publicly criticized the government's Lebanon policy in May
2006, a "red line" (a term used by opposition members) had been crossed and the
Syrian authorities made a series of arrests. Today, the opposition consists of
a loose coalition of groups and splinter-offshoots and suffers from internal
difficulties as much as from government interference.
The government has put to good use its 40 years of experience in suppressing
political opposition. In 1982, the central Syrian city of Hama saw between
10,000 and 15,000 opposition members and others killed when the government
cracked down violently on the Muslim Brotherhood, its chief existential threat
at the time. One-quarter of the city was destroyed.
In recent months, all foreigners staying at private homes have been obliged to
produce copies of their passport details to their landlord, who in turn passes
the information on to the mukhabarat, Syria's secret police.
Several Internet cafes dotted around Damascus have recently seen new
regulations posted whereby every computer user must provide an identity card
(passport for non-Syrians) before being assigned a computer. The computer
number and time spent on the Internet is then recorded. Similar measures are
used for people traveling around the country. It is understood that Syrian
journalists working for state organs can no longer be employed by private media
outlets, something that is common as people take on extra work to supplement
their small government wage.
Against this background, the opposition is far from coherent. Differences going
back decades among those wishing to free Islam from the state's grip, Kurdish
elements fighting for equal rights in Syria's northeast and others concerned
with pursuing national democracy, mean security elements have strangled
potential trouble without much difficulty.
Even from the outset in 2000 differences between leading opposition figures
over whether to pursue outright regime change or to attempt to incorporate the
existing authorities into the reform movement were common. "If I want to see
some other activists I have to travel to meet them personally. In the past,
when we have attempted to organize meetings over the phone the police are
actually at the place before any of us. On one occasion they called me in to
show me my own e-mails on their computer," Ammar Quarabi, chairman of the
National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS), said with an
exasperated smile.
Several opposition members interviewed for this article said they would welcome
international support in any form. Others believed that to do so would work
against them. The government has exploited dealings by the opposition with
American elements through an existing revulsion within Syrian society, a result
of what has taken place in Iraq and Washington's support for Israel. "Civil
society is not mature in Syria so it is easy to draw simplistic divisions based
on this idea here," added Quarabi.
To be eligible for financial assistance, opposition groups must be licensed by
the state. Quarabi states how the European Union (EU) has attempted to
financially assist the Syrian opposition, but new laws in Brussels, a result of
the "war on terror", mean they must register and be licensed in their home
country.
"Frank Hesske, the head of the EU delegation to Syria when he was in Syria in
2006, offered us 500,000 euros [US$638,000] in sponsorship for support of civil
society in Syria. We couldn't take any of it because we are not licensed. All
the funds went to Ba'athist-aligned organs."
In recent months, the government's efforts have been successful in stifling a
competent defense for the accused. "Four Egyptian human-rights lawyers came to
hear the Kilo session. The government then canceled the session that morning
but NOHRS had to pay the expenses for bringing them here from Egypt for
absolutely no end result. It is these small, continual incursions that prevent
us from gaining any foothold," Quarabi said. He also stated that EU delegates
based in Damascus attended meetings and sessions of the recent trial as
observers.
Pressure on Syria from the international community in its treatment of
political prisoners and dissidents has wavered over the past few years. When
former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in February 2005,
fingers were pointed squarely at Damascus. As a host of countries withdrew
diplomatic personnel from Syria in the aftermath of the killing, the
authorities released many prisoners held under crass charges as attention
mounted.
A human-rights activist who has been banned from leaving the country for the
past six years said "it doesn't matter what happens to Syria and the
international community, it has no real effect. Maybe they will release six or
seven, but next week or next month when the world has looked away more people
will be arrested. Why should it matter in any case? Egypt has far better
relations with the West than Syria, and look what they are doing to the
opposition there."
The authorities have argued (though never publicly) that maintaining state
stability should be the country's number one concern. In a region where state
authority has been undermined, breached and outright dissolved by foreign
forces, Damascus is fearful or another Yugoslavia or Iraq and many from the
upper echelons of power genuinely believe the coercion of unruly civil society
groups is necessary.
The government is also afraid of a rising trend of religiosity. Militant
fundamentalist activity in Lebanon and Damascus in recent weeks has come to be
regarded as a genuine threat to the state's authority. It is thought Islamist
elements are using democracy as a means to gaining power. The authorities
believe that an increase in freedom of speech, as past experience has attested,
will lead to wind behind an Islamist revolt.
Faisal Baddar, a Kurdish human-rights lawyer and member of the defending team
of the 12 convicted on Wednesday, epitomizes the Syrian opposition as he wolfs
down a strawberry smoothie in a city center cafe. Unshaved and beady-eyed, he
says, "We know there is no independent judiciary, but we have put together this
defense chiefly for symbolic reasons." He then answers a question of how the
Syrian security has affected his life personally by spitting out, "Well
firstly, I'd need to have a car or a house to have it bugged. I don't own
either."
Stephen Starr is a freelance journalist in Damascus where he serves as
deputy editor of the Syria Times.
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