A biweekly digest of select reports prepared by Tharwa-Syria
Note: All links below are to the original articles in Arabic.
Tharwa Foundation Executive Director Ammar Abdulhamid met with the President of the United States on Tuesday, December 4, 2007.
The White House meeting was also attended by opposition leader Mr. Mamoun al-Homsy and Kurdish activist Mr. Djengizkhan Hasso of the Kurdistan National Assembly.
Talks focused on the worsening human rights situation in Syria, with the Syrian participants stressing the necessity of making any improvement in bilateral relations between Syria and the United States conditional on qualitative improvements in human rights conditions. Specifically, these include: lifting of the state of emergency in the country (in effect since 1963), release of all political prisoners, allowing the return of all exiles, and ending the tragic situation of the 350,000 denaturalized Kurds in the country. Syria’s need for internal peace is no less important or vital than its need for peace with its neighbors, Al-Homsy, Hasso, and Abdulhamid said.
For this reason, the three democracy activists also stressed the importance of refraining from any military action against Syria, instead keeping pressure on the regime through diplomatic and legal means only. They stressed that the Syrian people should not be punished for the crimes of the regime, nor should the decision of seeking democratic change be taken from their hands, for only the Syrian people have the right to decide the timing for democratic change in Syria.
Abdulhamid was heartened by the President's interest in Syria and in the work of Tharwa. "The activities of the Tharwa team across the region in general and in Syria in particular have attracted much international attention of late," said Abdulhamid. "This is in part due to the amazing success of the Tharwa Syria team in its efforts to monitor, document, and report the various fraudulent activities and official manipulation of the electoral processes during Syria's legislative 'elections' and presidential referendum in April and May 2007. The subsequent reports that came out of Syria in the following weeks and months exposing various aspects of daily life in Syria under the current regime added much to the credibility of Tharwa and we are gratified that our work has merited the attention of the White House."
An interview with former Syrian MP and current opposition leader Mamoun Al-Homsy
This interview took place a few days before Mr. Al-Homsy’s meeting with President Bush.
Mamoun al-Homsy was stripped of his immunity as a member of parliament and was made to languish for five long years in Syrian jails alongside his comrade, Riad Seif, just for daring to raise the issue of high-level corruption in the Syrian regime. But, this ordeal has only made him tougher, and more adamant in his pursuit of justice. Mr. Al-Homsy, now released and living in exile, is continuously lobbying to bring global attention to the plight of the Syrian people. Revenge is not his motivation, however, and he opposes any kind of external military intervention to bring about regime change. What Mr. Al-Homsy seeks to achieve, he explains, is to help strip the regime of any international legitimacy while simultaneously working to facilitate a popular uprising in the country. The Syrian people will not accept exchanging one dictator for another. The entire ruling system needs to be brought down, and not only the Assad family, who feed on and fuel sectarian hatreds and suspicions.
No Shame At All
This is short commentary by Tharwa was necessitated by the sheer ludicrousness of the development concerned. At a time when Tharwa is busy chronicling the plight of Syria’s children, including publishing reportages on child labor and the fate of poor ad derelict children, the Federation of Arab News Agencies awarded a Syrian Arab News Agency photographer the best picture prize for 2007 for a photo showing a young 8-year old girl doing her homework while crouching beside a small candy stall at which she is forced to work. Instead of seeing the ugly and harsh reality involved here, everybody from the photographer, to the people who gave him the award, to the journalists who covered the event looked at the photograph as a celebration of human determination. The plight of the Arab peoples, the Syrian people in particular, seem to lie in the fact that their leaders are oblivious and blind -- or worse, indifferent -- to the tragedies with which the people have to contend on a daily basis.
Utaya Camp: When death becomes an irresistible urge
A daring reportage that exposes an ongoing 30-year old tragedy: the tragedy of a people whose village was submerged as a result of the construction of the Tharwa Dam in the province of Raqqa in northern Syria in 1976. The inhabitants of the village, who are Arabs, refused initial offers by the authorities to be resettled to Kurdish territories in Qamishly, seeking to avoid being caught in the Arabization policies of the regime and wanting to avoid conflict with the Kurds. As a result they have been relocated to an area in rural Damascus where they have been living for 30 years in makeshift camps, waiting for the Syrian authorities to fulfill their promises and compensate them for their lost lands. The reportage chronicles the daily life of Utayans both in sound and picture (though the link is to the original Arabic-language report, the pictures nevertheless speak for themselves).
Podcasts (Arabic): (1، 2، 3)
Begging in Syria
Two reports on an increasingly visible phenomenon:
1) Will Syria witness the establishment of a Beggars Union?
This report exposes the sharp rise in beggars in Syrian streets, a phenomenon that closely corresponds with the noticeable increase in unemployment in the country. The report notes as well the emergence of a commercial dimension to the phenomenon, by exposing how some beggars are known to make thousands of Syrian pounds every day, more than what an average state employee makes in a month. The report includes as well the opinion and analyses of many sociologists and human rights activists who note the emergence of sophisticated beggars networks and their increasing reliance on children.
2) Gangs impress derelict children into begging
This report focuses on the rising Dickensian phenomenon of impressing derelict children into service as street beggars. Children beggars target in particular plush neighborhoods, where they are often “protected” from arrest by special armed body guards riding in luxurious cars, indicating how sophisticated and profitable this industry is becoming.
A day in the life of a Syrian child
The report chronicles the life of an average 12-year old living in a poor village in the province of Hassakeh in Northern Syria. Samer is expected to attend school, located far from his home, and work as a shoe-shine boy at the end of the day to contribute his share to covering household expenses. The author also documents the attempt at ideological brainwashing that children like Samer are subjected to at school. But, at the end of the report, the author notes (with a wink) that the story was, of course, fictitious and that any similarity between it and 90% of Syria’s children is purely accidental.
What crime against God did women commit?
The author of this report alternates between relating true stories of honor crimes and an analysis of existing laws and norms in the country that continue to discriminate against women. The author concludes by protesting the miserable state allotted to women by major religions.
From Annapolis to Kobani
This report exposes the attempts of Syrian authorities to sow terror among the inhabitant of this Kurdish town in Northern Syria on the eve of the Annapolis conference, contrasting the ruling regime’s attempt to seek legitimacy abroad while continuing to violate the basic rights of its citizens.
Corruption Matters
Corruption in the housing sector
The reports focuses in particular on the corrupt practices of housing official Ahmad Mardini as an example of high-level corruption in all state sectors. Corrupt practices including forging official seals, disregard of existing laws, nepotism, bribery, and the inability of law enforcement agencies to prosecute Mr. Mardini or, at least, relieve him of his duties, due to his connections. The author concludes: if one part in a thousand of the Syrian mind currently engaging corruption was devoted to the liberation of the Golan, it would been liberated a long time ago.
Legal Perspectives
If there is no compulsion in the matters of faith, there should be no compulsion in matters of politics
Tharwa legal expert Michel Shammas argues in this report for greater political freedoms on the basis of the various Qura’nic verses protecting freedom of belief, while criticizing in this one the continuous recourse on the part of the ruing authorities to the use of emergency courts, pointing out its innate contradiction with international human rights conventions.
Human Rights
The Word Killers
The author of this report bemoans the state of freedom of press under the rule of the Assad dynasty in Syria. In the period of 1918-20, the author notes, there were 54 journals in Syria, and more than 180 periodicals flourished during the French occupation. But under Baath rule, the country had only three official newspapers, and imposed a moratorium on independent press. All current international organizations concerned with monitoring freedom of the press in the world, including Reporters Without Borders and Article 19, continue to consider Syria as one of the counties with the worst records in this regard.
The winner of the Gibran Tweini Award offers it to Syrian dissident Michel Kilo
Winner of the 2007 Gibran Tweini Award, the journalist Haji Diorgiou, dedicated his reward to the Syrian dissident and political prisoner Michel Kilo, a man whom he does not know, he professes, but whom he wishes to know one day, as he said. Michel Kilo is one of one of the most prominent and respected prisoners of conscience in Syria. He was jailed for showing support to Lebanese demands for full independence of Syrian hegemony.
Comments