Syria reacts to UN pressure by imprisoning dissidents
The regime is targeting activists of human rights organizations. The government lashed out at the EU when it called for the release of political prisoners.
Damascus (AsiaNews) The Syrian government is reacting to international pressure by resorting to restrictions and repression within, targeting above all activists of human rights organizations. International pressure has increased with the publication of the latest resolution by the Security Council, 1680, imposing the re-establishment of diplomatic ties with Lebanon, and calling for maximum collaboration with the international Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of the former Lebanese premier Rafic Hariri.
Yesterday, Ammar al-Qorabi, chairman of the national human rights association of Syria announced the release, also yesterday, of three of 12 imprisoned activists: Khaled Khalifa, Abbas Abbas and Kamal Chekho. But at the same time, the wife of another activist, Anwar El-Banny, told AsiaNews about the arrest of her husband on Wednesday last, and she called for the intervention of the Red Cross and other agencies to help Anwar, who is pressing ahead with a hunger strike. Anwar is accused of contacts with Syrian dissidents living in exile.
Khalil Maatouk, the lawyer defending the dissident's cause, told our correspondent about the desire of "more than 200 Syrian lawyers to help these men and women worthy of respect and defence, because they are free citizens". He revealed that last week, three more human rights activists were arrested: Souleiman Tamer, Nidal Darwich and Mouhamad Mahfouz, who are being kept in the "isolated" prison of Adra. The lawyer also criticized the manner in which judges have been carrying out their investigations, causing innocent people who were arrested to live under "psychological and physical pressure".
The charge leveled against the three activists, continued Khalil Maatouk, was of being "the makers of the Beirut-Damascus statement, that called for the deposition of the regime in Syria", an accusation contested by those arrested, although they share the idea of their colleagues. The judges Maher Alwan and Raghid Toutonji, who are handling the case, have so far not managed to prove the co-operation of these activists with dissidents living abroad.
Meanwhile, the journalist Michel Kilo remains in prison. He was arrested last week on the sole charge of publishing an article that backed the Damascus statement, signed by Syrian intellectuals and politicians. And the Communist dissident Fateh Jamous is also still in prison, kept in a cell measuring six metres by two and forced to sleep on the floor.
A protest against the "arbitrary" arrests and a call for the release of political prisoners was made to Syria by Austria, in its capacity as president of the European Union. The Syrian government responded harshly, accusing the EU of hypocrisy in its management of human rights, given that numerous member states are under inquiry for their likely cooperation in running secret American prisons. The Foreign Affairs Minister said: "Countries that gave permission for the creation of secret prisons on their territory and for the use of their air space, do not have the right to pose as defenders of human rights or to interfere in the internal affairs of other states."
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01/02/2008
