PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Syrian authorities break up rare protest. U.S. diplomat, journalists briefly detained
by Mark Dameli Tuesday, Mar. 09, 2004 at 9:15 AM

DAMASCUS, Syria -- In a capital awash with Syrian flags, banners of support for President Bashar Assad and pamphlets declaring his party's achievements on its 41st anniversary, the paper banner raised by about 20 human rights activists urging freedom for political prisoners did not fit in.

Syrian authorities quickly tore it up, broke up the demonstration and arrested the small group of activists, who knew arrest was the most likely outcome of their call for change. A U.S. diplomat was also briefly detained.
The activists were released later Monday after a few hours of interrogation, but their detentions highlighted tensions between the Syrian government and pro-democracy reformists.
"Breaking up a peaceful protest and arresting people for expressing their opinion is a mistake that the authorities bear responsibility for," said Hassan Abdul-Azim, who heads the independent Syrian National Democratic Gathering, a pro-democracy group.
The protest outside Parliament, organized by the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria, would have been highly unusual in a country where political activity is tightly controlled.
The head of the group, Aktham Naisse, told The Associated Press a day earlier that he had been pressured by authorities to cancel the sit-in. Protests without arrests or harsh police action have been almost unknown in Syria, a country long criticized in the West for its human rights record.
Last month, 10 students were arrested at their college in Aleppo for protesting new employment laws for engineering graduates. Kurds, a minority in Syria, are routinely rounded up while demonstrating for their rights.

There have been few exceptions.
In December, more than 150 activists staged a sit-in calling for freedom and the abolition of emergency laws. But those protesters said they had prior permission.
Syrian riot police and plainclothes security agents ordered the 20 activists who arrived for Monday's protest to disperse.

Instead, one activist raised a paper banner that read: "Freedom for Prisoners of Opinion and Conscience." The banner was quickly torn up by agents, who also snatched journalists' notebooks.

At one point, Naisse, a lawyer from the northern town of Latakia, told the activists to raise their hands in the air, which they did. "We're going to prison, we are not afraid," he told them.

Naisse and other activists were freed following a few hours of interrogation. Shortly after he was free, Naisse told the AP that some 104 people were arrested and that all had been released.

A U.S. diplomat and several news photographers and reporters covering the event were among those briefly detained.

A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus said the diplomat attached to the embassy was taken to a police detention facility where he was held for about an hour before being released.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher expressed concern about the Syrian actions against peaceful demonstrators. He said that the Syria had apologized for detaining the American diplomat, who was observing the demonstration.

"Our embassy in Damascus has protested this incident in the strongest terms. The detention of diplomats, no matter how brief, is a clear violation of Vienna Conventions," Boucher said. "It is not acceptable."

He said a protest has been lodged with the Syrian government over the incident.

Boucher said that 25 Syrians were arrested in addition to the U.S. diplomat.

HRAS member Anwar al-Buni said he was heading to Parliament but turned back when he heard there was friction with the police.

"This is regrettable and should not have happened. These people were peacefully expressing their views," he said.

Naisse, who was imprisoned for seven years for his political activities, told the AP on Sunday that he had been repeatedly warned by security officials to call off the sit in because it was unnecessary and "served American interests at this time."

Since the U.S.-led war on Iraq, Syria has been under pressure from the U.S. administration to reform and President Bashar Assad, who took office when his father died in 2000, has taken limited steps to loosen Syria from the totalitarian system set up by his father. He released hundreds of political detainees and, initially, allowed political discussion groups to hold small gatherings indoors.

But in 2001 Assad began to clamp down on pro-democracy activists, raiding their meetings and jailing two lawmakers and other activists. They were convicted on a charge of trying illegally to change the constitution.

Naisse's group has circulated a petition calling for the abrogation of emergency laws, the release of political detainees and return of all exiles. It will be presented to Syrian authorities on March 17, the anniversary of a 1992 campaign of mass arrests under President Hafez Assad, Naisse said.

Syria on Monday marked the 1963 March Revolution, when a coup brought the Baath Arab Socialist Party to power. In Damascus, Syrian flags and large banners proclaiming support for President Bashar Assad filled the streets. Military helicopters flew over the capital, dropping pamphlets listing the achievements of the March Revolution.

2la.org/syria/index.php

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