The Syrian opposition, and US policy in Syria:

Battling the Lion of Damascus, by Seth Wikas.

"He sheds light on past and potential missteps -- from strengthening already potent Islamist factions to mismanaging initiatives aimed at funding worthwhile opposition efforts -- that U.S. policymakers must avoid if they hope to help rather than hinder the Syrian opposition."

Labels: reformists/dissidents, US

Ammar Abdul Hamid says he is leaving the Baath/Muslim Brotherhood party, the National Salvation Front.

"I think I just can’t think of any other way to say that I am severing my association with the National Salvation Front. The Reason? A loss of faith really," he says.

After a guessing game - is he, isn't he part of the NSF, he revealed that he would work as one of their representatives, and open an office for them.

Now, he has become disillusioned, and says he is going to focus on his empowerment project Tharwa, instead of the politicking of Khaddam. From negative to positive.

"Oppositional politics per se have always been more of a distraction than the real deal for me" he says.

But he does hint at a personality clash within the NSF in his parting swipe: "It’s not the lack of ideas and possibilities that is the problem here, but the lack of necessary means and the right personalities".

It would be interesting to hear why this NSF-exile is bailing out. Leaving the sinking ship perhaps?

Labels: reformists/dissidents

The past seven days in Syria really could have taken place in 1987, not 2007.

If two events show us that nothing has changed, it is the parliamentary elections, and the sentencing of human rights campaigner Anwar Al-Bunni.

The embarrassing contrast of Syria's polls taking place on the same day that France voted for its new president wasn't lost on many observers outside the country. One point kept being repeated: part of parliament is 'reserved' for the Baath. Yes, there are many independents, who do fight a genuine campaign, and who won dozens of seats. But Syria is no France.

The focus on Syria feels like it has more than a tinge of hypocricy. Hariri bought off opponents in Beirut - so that almost all of the capital's voters had just one choice on their ballot paper: a Hariri candidate. And what of the Gulf states, where until recently women's voice was surpressed. Or Egypt, where anti-Mubarak bloggers are detained and raped by police, and where politicians are jailed en-mass (Ayman Nour and the Muslim Brotherhood). Or Saudi Arabia, where no-one votes.

Should any of this come as a surprise? Did we really expect a change since the last elections in 2003? There hasn't been any pretence of political reform. How can we complain that there hasn't been enough movement, and then act surprised when we realise we're still standing in the same place?

The election period has just drawn attention to that stagnation. And it takes the focus away from the very real economic progress. Growth has gone above 5%, the World Economic Forum praised Syria's improvements on rooting out corruption - one year after an anti-corruption drive was launched, and foreign private banks have sprung up. Tourist developments are underway across the country, funded by Saudi and Qatari money. It's part of Syria's aim to attract 7 million tourists into the country, to fill the gap left by the dwindling oil reserves.

Seven years ago, few believed much would change in Syria's economy. Not enough has happened, but there has been just enough to surprise us all. Maybe we shouldn't be so dismissive of the promised political reform.

And now, Abdullah Al-Dardari - the former UN economist who came back to Syria to head up the economic reform - looks set to be announced as the country's new Prime Minister.

That would really show how much of a priority economic reform is.

It would also signal a significant political shift: Al-Dardari is a non-Baathist.

The self-inflicted pain wasn't limited to the elections, though. Human rights campaigner Anwar Al-Bunni has been given five years in jail.

I didn't agree with much of what he said - especially what appeared to be his support for Farid Ghadhry, who advocates a US military invasion of Syria. But I agree with his right to say it. Syria's opposition is what makes this country strong. I believe that whatever our political opinions, we will all suffer if there is a lack of debate. Bunni's voice is vital.

Over the past few years, the trend has been towards releasing political prisoners, and makes Bunni's treatment even more shocking - many were expecting him to be released, not sentenced. Other human rights campaigners claim Syria has no more than a few dozen political prisoners left in jail (excluding the Muslim Brotherhood). Amnesty International puts the figure at around 600 (including the MB).

Of course, there have been arrests and subsequent quick releases - the reveolving door. In most cases, people are held for a matter of weeks or months, and we can only hope Bunni will be face a similar fate and be out by the summer.

No such chance for a rebirth of the Sandmonkey. One of Egypt's most outspoken bloggers has signed off for the final time. The neo-con made many enemies, but no-one, it seems, can compete with the might of the Big Enemy.

We have to hope a similar fate never befalls Syria's blogosphere. It remains a strong and independent voice amid the turmoil and despair.

Labels: Democracy, Economy, Egypt, Elections, Muslim Brotherhood, reformists/dissidents, Saudi

This from As'ad.

Priorities of the Muslim Brotherhood.

I expressed my contempt for the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood a few days ago. Today, they made strong statements against the Jordanian government.

They said that the government is:

1) neglecting the Arabic language in some official functions;

2) encouraging students to gravitate toward pornographic websites.

These are the worries of the Muslim Brotherhood. What do you expect from an organization that was raised by the colonial powers and their clients in the region.

Labels: Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood, Reform Party of Syria, reformists/dissidents

Interesting piece from former Christian Science Monitor writer Helena Cobban.

"[Danial Saoud, the President of the venerable Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Syria - he was himself a political prisoner] told me that the number of (secular) political prisoners in the country is now less than 20."

Here's another quote: "For 18-24 months the Americans and Europeans have put a lot of pressure on the regime - but the regime then just pushes harder on us. ... Before the US invasion of Iraq, people here in Syria liked us, the human rights activists, and we had significant popular sympathy. But since what happened in Iraq, people here say 'Look at the results of that!' "

And the full piece:

The US and Syria, Human Rights and Democracy

As US 'democratization' efforts in the Middle East wane, human rights activists in Syria see their situation improving, says Helena Cobban.

I spent a few days in Damascus at the end of February, and was able to get a ground reality view of the effects of the Bush administration's (former) campaign for the forced 'democratization' of Middle Eastern societies on the work of Syrian citizens with long experience struggling for human rights and democracy in their country.

Bottom line: "Very bad indeed."

That was the verdict rendered on Bush's 'democratization' campaign by Danial Saoud, the President of the venerable Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Syria (CDF).

Saoud was himself a political prisoner from 1987 through 1999, and has been President of the CDF since August 2006. He was adamant that what Syria's rights activists need most of all right now is a resolution of their country's state of war with Israel.

Speaking of Condoleezza Rice he said, "Her pressure on the regime had a very bad effect for us. Now, for 18-24 months the Americans and Europeans have put a lot of pressure on the regime - but the regime then just pushes harder on us."

Mazen Darwish, who is Saoud's colleague in the CDF's three-person Presidential Council, told me, "Before the US invasion of Iraq, people here in Syria liked us, the human rights activists, and we had significant popular sympathy. But since what happened in Iraq, people here say 'Look at the results of that!'"

Saoud stressed that for Syrians, the question of Israel's continued occupation of Syria's Golan region itself constitutes a significant denial of the rights of all the Syrian citizens affected - both those who remain in Golan, living under Israeli military occupation rule there, and those who had fled when Israel occupied Golan in 1967 and have had to live displaced from their homes and farms for the 40 years since then. "Golan is Syrian land, and we have all the rights to get it back," he said.

In addition, he and the other rights activists I talked with pointed to the fact that the continuing state of war between Syria and Israel has allowed the Syrian regime to keep in place the State of Emergency that was first imposed in the country in 1963. "All these regimes in this area say they are postponing the issue of democracy until after they have solved the issues of Golan and Palestine," he said,

"So let's get them solved! Everything should start from this. The people in both Syria and Israel need peace. We need to build a culture of peace in the whole area. ... The CDF is working hard to build this culture."

Both men pointed out the numerous contradictions and ambiguities in the policy the United States has pursued regarding democratization in Syria. Darwish noted that, "When the US had a good relationship with Syria, in 1991, Danial was in prison - and the US didn't say anything about that." These two men, and other rights activists I talked with also noted that more recently, even during the Bush administration's big push for 'democratization' in Syria in 2004-2005, they were still happy to benefit from Syria's torture chambers by sending some suspected Al-Qaeda people there to be tortured.

Over the past year, two processes have been underway in Syria that seem to confirm these activists' argument that US pressure on the Damascus regime has been detrimental to their cause. Firstly, the rapid deterioration in the US' power in the region has considerably diminished Washington's ability to pressure the Syria regime on any issues, and Damascus has become notably stronger and self-confident than it was a year ago.

Secondly, over the same period, the situation of human rights activists within the country seems to have improved some.

Saoud told me that the number of (secular) political prisoners in the country is now less than 20. Indeed, the day we talked, about 16 Kurdish and student activists who had been held for less than a month had just been released. He said "No-one knows how many Islamist activists are in detention... We don't hear about them until they come to court." He said, "They don't torture people like Anwar al-Bunni or Michel Kilo, or the others who were detained last year for having signed the Beirut-Damascus Declaration." He indicated, however, that it was very likely that many of the Islamist detainees had been tortured. (Human Rights Watch's recently released report for 2006 states that in Syria, "Thousands of political prisoners, many of them members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and the Communist Party, remain in detention.)

Meanwhile, the main factor dominating political developments in Syria, as in the rest of the Middle East, is the continued and extremely painful collapse of conditions inside Iraq. Syrians have watched that collapse in horror. Their country has received and given a temporary refuge to more than a million Iraqis - a considerable burden on their nation, equivalent to the US taking in some 17 million refugees within just a couple of years. And since Iraq's collapse has occurred under a Washington-advertised rubric of "democratization," the whole tragedy in Iraq has tended to give the concept a very bad name, and has caused Arabs and Muslims throughout the Middle East to value political stability much, much more than hitherto.

Under those circumstances, it is very moving to still hear people living in Arab countries talking about the need for democracy. But when they do so, they are very eager to distance themselves from the coerciveness inherent in Washington's recent 'democratization' project. And they all - regime supporters and oppositionists, alike-stress the need for moves toward democratization to grow from the local people's needs and priorities, rather than the geo-strategies pursued by distant Washington.

Labels: Democracy, Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Media, reformists/dissidents, US

Michel Kilo's trial has been delayed again.

He was due to be released in October, but that was changed at the last minute. It seems there is a battle at the heart of government between reformists and the old guard. Some obviously want him freed, others want him to stay in jail.

For those calling for him to be freed, the motives are clear - it is harming the Syrian government much more by keeping him locked up, than his writing could ever do.

And then there are those who want him to stay in jail - he can't write, and he can't leave the country. It's the only way, they think, to keep a lid on him.

Which side will win this tug of war? Only a trial will give a definitive answer. So it's easy to see why the trial date is being postponed, often at the last minute.

The new trial date is March 27.

Labels: reformists/dissidents

The trial of Michel Kilo has been postponed again, this time until March 27. More soon...

Labels: reformists/dissidents

"Partisanship is defensible - many of us make no claims to objectivity"

Labels: Lebanon, Media, reformists/dissidents

When an obituary turns into a critique that can't be replied to.

Well, that's what the Arab neo-cons like - giving their own opinion, and masking others' opinions.

Labels: Lebanon, Media, reformists/dissidents

Are they the only ones who'll listen? Apart from an extremist who wants to make Syria a religious state, and the former deputy of a man he calls a thug (the deputy with the blood of 10,000 people from Hama on his hands). Beggars can't be choosers, I guess.

Labels: Israel, reformists/dissidents

The trial of Michel Kilo (referred to interestingly by AP as a 'militant') has been delayed again.

The Criminal Court postponed the trial because two of his co-defendants failed to turn up.

Dissident writer Michel Kilo was one of 11 people arrested when they called on the Syrian Government to change its attitude towards Lebanon. Seven were released. Kilo was ordered to be released, but then new charges were brought at the last minute.

It's thought Kilo is caught in a tug of war between reformist elements and hardliners in the Syrian government.

Labels: Bashar Al-Assad, reformists/dissidents