(New York) - Syria should immediately release all those
detained on March 16, 2011, when security services violently dispersed a
peaceful protest calling for the release of political activists, Human
Rights Watch said today. The government should respect the right of
Syrians to assemble peacefully and release all prisoners detained for
peaceful political activity or for exercising their right to free
expression, Human Rights Watch said.
A group of about 150 people, most of them human rights activists and
relatives of political detainees, gathered outside the Interior Ministry
in Damascus at about noon to present a petition calling for the release
of Syria's political prisoners. When the families started raising
pictures of their detained relatives, security officers dressed in
civilian clothes attacked with batons, dispersing the demonstrators,
three participants told Human Rights Watch. Security services detained
at least 34 people, according to a list prepared by demonstrators. Human
Rights Watch was able to verify independently the detention of 18
people.
"President Bashar al-Asad's recent calls for reform ring hollow when
his security services still beat and detain anyone who actually dares to
call for reform," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at
Human Rights Watch. "Instead of beating families of Syria's political
prisoners, President al-Asad should be reuniting them with their loved
ones."
A human rights activist who was at the demonstration described what happened:
When we got to the ministry, we could see that there were
a lot of security services around. I saw five buses full of security
members parked 300 meters from us. At first, an employee from the
Ministry of Interior came out and told us that the families of the
detainees would be allowed to present the petition to the minister. We
asked for five minutes, as some families were still arriving. When a few
families raised photos of detained relatives, the security services
suddenly attacked us and beat us with black batons.
The daughter of a prominent political detainee told Human Rights Watch:
We had barely taken my father's picture out when men ran
toward us and started beating us. They beat my mother on her head and
arm with a baton. They pulled my sister's hair and beat her as well
until my uncle managed to get her away. We started running away, but
they followed us.
One of the people detained during the demonstration, who spoke with
Human Rights Watch following his release, said that security services
detained him with five others and transported them to the Mantaqa branch
of Military Security. The six were: Mazen Darwish, a human rights
activist and head of the Syrian Center for Media Freedom of Expression
in Syria; Suheir al-Atassi, a prominent political activist; Naheda
Badawi; Bader Shalah; Naret Abdel Kareem; and a boy in his early teens
whose name was not known. Security services hit Shalah with a baton over
his eye, causing bleeding.
At the Mantaqa branch, the detainee who spoke with Human Rights Watch
saw four other detainees from the protest: Kamal Sheikho, Usama Nasr,
Nedal Shuraybi, and Muhammad Dia' Aldeen Daghmash. The detainee said
that security services interrogated each person separately and asked him
for the password to his Facebook account. The person who spoke with
Human Rights Watch said that as far as he knew, he was the only one
released from the group detained at the protest.
In addition to the confirmed 10 detainees at Military Security, Human
Rights Watch spoke with a relative of Kamal al-Labwani, a political
activist serving a 12-year jail term, who provided details on the
detention of seven members of their family: Omar al-Labwani, 19; Yassin
al-Labwani, 20; Hussein al-Labwani, 45; Ammar al-Labwani, 24; Ruba
al-Labwani, 23; Layla al-Labwani, 56; and Heba Hassan, 22. Their
whereabouts are unknown.
One of the demonstrators told Human Rights Watch that she saw
security services detain a young man from the al-Bunni family as he was
trying to get into his car. The young man's first name is unknown.
"If President al-Assad is serious about reform, he should hold his
security services to account," Whitson said. "Syrians deserve no less
than the Egyptians and Tunisians who finally succeeded in forcing their
political leadership to disband the feared state security services
."
Middle East unrest: Syria arrests Damascus protesters - BBC
At least 35 people have been
arrested after they defied a ban on demonstrations and protested in the
Syrian capital, reports say.
About 150 people had gathered near the interior ministry, demanding the release of political prisoners.
It follows Tuesday's "day of rage" when hundreds calling for democracy protested in Damascus and Aleppo.
The interior ministry said "infiltrators" tried to stir chaos. But among those held was a 10-year-old boy.
Activists say he was with his father - and both were detained.
Others
included 69-year-old Damascus university philosophy professor and
author Tayeb Tizini, and leading human rights activist Suhair Atassi.
"They pulled Suhair by her hair and took her away," one demonstrator said, according to Reuters.
Journalist
and activist Mazen Darwish told the BBC that he was set free only after
being held for five hours in the military security branch's detention
centre alongside 20 others, including women. A further 15 were still
being detained by state security, he said.
"When
I showed them my international press card they shouted and said 'Why
were you standing among protesters and not among the journalists?',"
said Mr Darwish, head of the Syrian Centre for Freedom of Speech.
No further information about those detained was immediately available. No dissent
The ruling Baath party has dominated Syrian politics for nearly 50 years.
President
Bashar al-Assad - who came to power in 2000 after three decades of rule
by his father Hafez - has moved slowly to open up the economy, but his
administration does not tolerate any dissent.
Some of the 150 protesters who gathered held photos of those they said had been imprisoned for their political views. Image caption
Interior ministry officials said the protest had been infiltrated by trouble-makers
"After a long wait and rumours of an impending
release of prisoners of conscience in Syria, our hopes have vanished,"
said a statement from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The
organisation - which groups together the families of 21 jailed human
rights activists - had said it planned to demonstrate in front of the
ministry on Wednesday.
Reports said that shortly after the
protesters gathered a counter-demonstration was held in the same square
with people chanting that they would defend the Syrian president "with
our soul, with our blood".
The interior ministry denied that the initial protest was political in nature.
"There
were some persons who took advantage of this call to slip among these
people and tried to shout some slogans," said Gen Mohamed Hassan al-Ali,
of the interior ministry's moral guidance department.
There are thousands of political prisoners in Syrian jails, and major opposition groups are banned.
The
government also blocks access to several internet sites and maintains
strict control of the media though authorities have lifted bans on
Facebook and YouTube in the wake of uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
In
January, President Assad told the Wall Street Journal that Syria was
more stable than Tunisia and Egypt. He said that there was no chance of
political upheaval, and pledged to press on with a package of reforms.
The
BBC's Lina Sinjab, in Damascus, said that many had doubted that any
protests would take place in Syria, but observers here believe events
over the past couple of days have broken the silence that dominated the
country.
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