Syrian Elector

Bush bid to isolate Mideast hardliners backfires: analysts

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Bush administration's campaign to isolate Iran and Syria has backfired as the two Middle East hardliners ended up this week sidelining the United States, analysts said.

Supported by Iran and Syria, Hezbollah bolstered recent military gains in a deal with Lebanon's pro-western government while Syria emerged from the shadows with the announcement of indirect talks with Israel, they contend.

For Brookings Institution analyst Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian scholar and dissident, both events flow from a broader plan orchestrated by "puppet master" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.

"You end up realizing there is a strategy being worked out between Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, and they have actually managed to make quite strong headway in the last few days," Abdulhamid told AFP.

"The Iranians are running the show right now," he added.

Though President George W. Bush's administration may disagree with that, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice late last month mentioned Iran as a threat to Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Iraq and even in Afghanistan.

Few would dispute that Iran's regional influence has risen since 2003 when US-led forces invaded Iraq, overthrew Sunni leader Saddam Hussein and empowered once downtrodden Shiite Muslims close to Iran.

Some analysts disagreed with Abdulhamid and argued that Iran might ultimately find itself isolated over Syria's talks with Israel, but they all insisted that President George W. Bush's policies have backfired.

Syrian blogger sentenced to three years in jail

DAMASCUS, Syria: A human rights group says a 24-year-old Syrian blogger has been convicted and sentenced to three years in prison on charges of undermining the prestige of the state and weakening national morale.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Wednesday, The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria condemned the verdict issued the day before as "outrageous" and called for Tarek Bayassi's immediate release.

The rights group says Bayassi's sentence was commuted to three years after an original sentence of six years. Bayassi was arrested last May in northwest Syria for surfing sites of Syrian opposition groups and posting comments online.

The Syrian government frequently arrests activists for posting comments critical of the government online.

Trading places

A former political prisoner, 70-year old Ghassan Najjar, has offered to take the place of Fidaa Akram al-Hourani, the head of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic National Change who was arrested in December. 
By OMAR ABDULLATIF

HOMS, May 5, 2008 (MENASSAT) – Ghassan Najjar made his unusual proposal in an article which has been published by many opposition and independent websites and newspapers in Syria.

"An educated militant lady such as Dr. Fidaa al-Hourani has been suffering from sickness and imprisonment for more than three months. Her Palestinian husband, Dr. Gazi al-Alyan, has been deported. No one is hearing her suffering, her retching or even her roaring. So I'm offering myself to the security services on the condition that this fine woman, the head of the Damascus Declaration, is released. I do this so that history wouldn't say that the proud Syrian people no longer has any gentlemen and doesn't respond to the voices of our women."

Najjar assured MENASSAT that he is serious about his proposal, saying, "I am ready to take al-Hourani's place in jail. This is an honor to me. As an Arab society, we don't accept a woman staying in jail without getting any help."

The Syrian authorities so far haven't reacted to Najjar's proposal. But Najjar points out that even if al-Hourani's case has already been referred to the court system, it is perfectly possible for President Bashar Assad to order her release on humanitarian grounds alone. Al-Hourani is suffering from kidney disease and has had to be hospitalized once already since her imprisonment.

Executions Could Strain Syrian-Saudi Relations

01-May-08 _ The recent executions of three Syrians convicted of drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia may mark a downturn in the already frosty relationship between the two countries.

Syrian national Ibrahim al-Jarkh was beheaded on April 25, eight days after the execution of two other men, Feras al-Aghbar and Feras al-Maktabi. All three were executed in Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

Dozens of people with relatives detained in Saudi Arabia staged protests in Damascus following the executions. At protests outside the Saudi embassy and Syrian interior ministry, participants held signs aloft calling on President Bashar al-Assad to "save our families and brothers from Saudi Arabia's unpredictable verdicts."

State-run television reported the demonstration in some detail, and other media gave broad coverage to news of the executions.

As a local human rights activist pointed out, "It's well known that no demonstrations are allowed in Syria unless they have a green light from the authorities. This appears to be a move against the Saudi government."

Jailed Syrian rights activist wins award from Ireland

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 1, 2:25 PM ET

One of Syria's most prominent pro-democracy activists won an Irish award Thursday for his work trying to promote human rights for prisoners, political parties and journalists in his homeland.

But Anwar al-Bunni has yet to hear of the accolade. The 49-year-old lawyer has been imprisoned since May 2006 after Syrian President Bashar Assad launched a crackdown against opposition voices demanding greater freedoms.

Irish President Mary McAleese presented the annual Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk to al-Bunni's wife, Ragheda Issa Refki, at a Dublin City Hall ceremony attended by politicians and ambassadors. Refki received two standing ovations, as well as a hug from the Irish head of state.

McAleese said promoting human rights in a one-party state like Syria was "a very, very lonely place. It takes a very, very special person like Anwar al-Bunni to confront the extraordinary range of forces arrayed against him."

She expressed hope that the award would "send a message to his oppressors."

US condemns demands Syria release political prisoners

The United States said Wednesday that Syria's treatment of political prisoner Kamal Labwani flouts international standards of human rights and the rule of law.

Labwani is among six government critics and human rights campaigners arrested since May and given long prison sentences by a Damascus court. Labwani's was the longest, 12 years; US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack condemned Syria on Wednesday for having a military court add three years to Labwani's sentence for insulting President Bashar Assad.

"This decision, coupled with the Syrian High Court's verdict to uphold Mr. Labwani's earlier 12-year sentence for calling for political reform, demonstrates the Syrian regime's contempt for human rights, freedom of expression and the rule of law," McCormack said.

His statement also demanded the immediate release of Labwani and all other political prisoners.

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Associated Press

Syria: Attack against human rights defender Karam Ibrahim Yousef

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that human rights defender and writer Karam Ibrahim Yousef was shot in the head on 20 March 2008. Karam Ibrahim Yousef has written extensively in defence of the human rights of the Kurdish community in Syria.

Further Information

Posted 17/04/2008 On 20 March 2008, Karam Ibrahim Yousef was reportedly shot in the head by Syrian Security Forces whilst photographing the national Kurdish celebrations for their traditional new year, Nawrooz, in the city of Qamishli. He was hospitalised for his injuries and has recently been released, although his condition remains critical. While no charges have yet been brought against him, he is currently being subject to regular interrogations by the authorities.

Front Line believes that the attack against Karam Ibrahim Yousef is related to his legitimate human rights activities, in particular his work to defend the rights of the Syrian Kurdish community. Furthermore, Front Line believes that this attack represents part of a trend of escalating intimidation and acts of hostility against human rights defenders in Syria. Front Line is concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Karam Ibrahim Yousef and fears that he may be subject to ill-treatment during interrogations.

A Bloody Era of Syria's History Informs a Writer's Banned Novel

By ROBERT F. WORTH

DAMASCUS,Syria _ PEOPLE still talk about what happened here in the 1980s as "the Events," as if they were too awful to describe. The Syrian military's bloody struggle with militant Islamists left at least 10,000 dead in the city of Hama, and produced a trauma the authorities do not like to hear discussed.

So when Khaled Khalifa decided to write about it in his latest novel, "In Praise of Hatred," he knew he was touching a taboo subject. The book, a Balzacian tale full of romance and murder that ranges from Afghanistan to Yemen to Syria, was promptly banned when it was first published here in 2006.

Last month, the novel, republished in Beirut in 2007, became a finalist for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a new award modeled on Britain's Man Booker Prize. It is now being translated into English and other languages.

All that has given Mr. Khalifa, who is better known here for his television screenplays, a new prominence as one of the rising stars of Arab fiction, and a rare public voice on a largely forbidden topic.

"If I had won the Booker, the regime would have had a huge problem," he said with a barrel-chested laugh. "I think the culture minister breathed a big sigh when I lost." (The top prize went to an Egyptian novelist, Bahaa Taher, the éminence grise of Arab letters.)

A bearish man with a boiling corona of steel-gray hair, Mr. Khalifa, 44, has a clownish humor that undercuts his large literary ambitions. He smoked, drank and plowed through a table full of appetizers during a late-night interview at Ninar, a Damascus restaurant popular with Syrian artists and intellectuals, his long answers interrupted by bursts of raucous laughter.

The facts of the Syrian-Israeli flirtation

By Michael Young
Daily Star staff

Amid rumors that the political furniture is being moved around in Damascus, perhaps the strangest thing is how Syria has organically lodged itself between Iran and Israel, states that are otherwise mortal foes. The Iranian connection is well known, but less understood are the dynamics of the Syrian-Israeli relationship, and where they might lead.

Rarely a day goes by without someone in the Israeli press advocating a revival of Syrian-Israeli negotiations. The arguments are familiar: Syria has a "secular regime," therefore is worthy of Israel's attention; now is Israel's best chance to "break Syria off from Iran"; Syria alone can control Hizbullah; and so on. That each of these arguments has been explicitly contradicted by Syrian actions or statements is generally ignored. The fetish of "talking" is too strong for anyone to punch through the myths.

And yet the rationale for Syrian-Israeli peace talks rests on a bed of myths. Syria's regime may be secular, but it has built long-term alliances mainly with Islamist regimes and groups, such as Iran, Hizbullah, and Hamas. When possible, as in the case of Fatah al-Islam, Syria has created or overseen militant Islamist groups, while Al-Qaeda operatives caught in Iraq will routinely describe their training and passage through Syria, usually via networks linked to the country's intelligence services. Given all this, the Assad regime's "secularism" seems irrelevant.

Urgent Appeal to Save the Freedom of Expression in Syria

It is sad and worrying that the Syrian government and its security branches continue to practice brutal media censorship. Human rights activists and journalists are tried, indicted, and jailed because of articles they have published.

There has recently been alarming changes in the behavior of the Syrian security forces, such as the unprecedented shooting and killing of protesters, in addition to arresting journalists who happen to be covering these protests.

Mr. Karam Ibrahim Yousef, a Syrian journalist and writer, was shot in the head while taking pictures of the national Kurdish celebrations (Nawroz) in the city of Qamishli. Karam's health situation is critical, and he is recurrently losing consciousness. If he survives, he will have to deal with security interrogations, aggravation, and possible imprisonment.

We, the members of 'Journalistes sans press' appeal to international organizations that are committed to defending freedom of expression and freedom of the press, to stand by Syrian journalists and support them in their struggle. We urgently call for assistance in protecting these journalists from the aggressions of Syrian security forces.