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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syria in new clampdown on dissidents |
| 2005-05-24 |
| Syrian security forces arrested all eight members of the country's only active political forum Tuesday in the latest crackdown against dissident activists, a prominent human rights lawyer said. The participants in the Al-Atassi Forum for National Dialogue were taken from their home in dawn raids, said Anwar al-Bunni. France swiftly called for the detainees' release. "We have learnt of a number of arrests in Syria... We hope that those who were arrested will be freed," said foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei. Atassi Forum was one of a number of political forums set up in a brief political honeymoon after President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father Hafez in 2000 but was the only one still operating amid an intensifying crackdown by the authorities. Forum founder Suhair al-Atassi and writer Hussein al-Awadat, who previously headed the official SANA news agency and served as an advisor in the prime minister's office, were among the detainees. Also arrested were activists Nahed Badawiyah, Hazem al-Nahar, Jihad Massouti, Mohammad Mahfouz, Abdulnasser Kalhous and Youssef al-Jihmani. The non-governmental National Centre for Defending the Freedom of Press and Journalists condemned the arrests and called for the detainees' immediate release. The arrests also drew condemnation from the Syrian Organisation for Human Rights, which voiced concerns over the increase in "political arrests." On Sunday, Syrian intelligence officers detained the head of the unofficial Arab Human Rights Organization, Mohammed Raadun, after his group took up the cause of jailed Islamist dissidents. The Cairo-based Arab Centre for Judicial Independence said Tuesday that Raadun's arrest showed the "extent of the deterioration of justice and human rights in Syria." Dissident writer and rights activist Ali Abdullah was also picked up last week in his home in Qatana just outside the capital. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 "We have found the terrorists - they are pro-reform dissidents and have been arrested" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-05-24 14:07 |