Syrian Elector, Damascus (May 17, 2007)
Pursuant to Syrian Elector’s call for a boycott of Syria’s presidential referendum on May 27, key opposition figures and movements have reiterated this call and issues statements critical of the Assad regime, while Human Rights Watch have called for the release of political prisoners and members of the U.S. Government have taken tougher stand on Syria.
Former Vice Presdient Abdel Halim Khaddam called Bashar al-Assad the head of a “mafia which has impoverished the country,” in an interview with Lebanon’s Future TV channel, according the Middle East Times.
From Paris, where he is based, Khaddam called for “democratic change” and accused Assad of “plant[ing] fear and increase[ing] poverty and backwardness [in Syria].”
“What can we expect from a repressive and corrupt regime which denies civil liberties?” he asked.
In an interview from his home in Tel, North of Damascus, Syrian dissident Riad al-Turk urged Assad to embrace democracy and warned that a political “earthquake” could soon shake the president from power, according to Reuters.
“The survival of any system is ultimately tied to support from the people. It takes only one event,” the 77-year-old Turk who has spent over 17 years as a political prisoner in solitary confinement said.
“An earthquake can be avoided if Bashar chooses the path of reconciliation, democratic change and ousting of the corrupt. It could happen, but I don’t expect it,” Turk said.
Human Rights Watch has also called for the release of Michel Kilo, Mahmud Issa, Sulaiman Shummar and Khalil Hussain, who were sentenced to prison by the Syrian government on May 13 for signing a declaration calling for improved Lebanese-Syrian relations, according to All Headline News.
"Foreign diplomats frequently visit Damascus to discuss ways to improve relations between Lebanon and Syria, but when Syrian activists raise the same issues, they end up in prison," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said.
On May 14, the Presidency of the European Union expressed its “profound concern” over the sentencing of Kilo and Issa “merely for expressing their political views,” according to Reuters.
The U.S. State Department condemned “the unjust sentencing of political prisoners . . . who have been punished for expressing their personal views,” and called on “President al-Assad to unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience.”
A group of Republican lawmakers have also submitted a new draft bill to the US Congress to impose harsher sanction on Syria after President Bush renewed already-existing sanctions on Syria for the fourth year in a row, according to the Daily Star.
The new bill, the Syria Accountability and Liberation Act, calls for support for human rights activists in Syria.
While opposition leaders condemn referendum, Human Rights Watch calls for the release of political prisoners and the U.S. takes a stronger stand against Syria, the Syrian Elector calls upon Syrians everywhere to continue putting pressure on the Assad regime, by boycotting the May 27 referendum and by attending protest rallies outside of the Syrian Embassies in whatever country in which they may live.
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