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Summary of the report of the National Organization of Human
Rights in Syria on the State of Human Rights in Syria in
2006
(National Organization of Human Rights in Syria)
Introduction:
Nearly 20
million people are living in the Syrian Arab Republic. They
are distributed over an area of 185,000 square kilometres.
Perhaps what distinguishes the Syrian society is the
constancy of sectarian diversity and the quiet mixture of
national minorities, which facts have confirmed that they
represent a force that cannot be overlooked in the movement
of society.
Perhaps the
continued enforcement of the Emergency and Martial laws
since 1962 to date is the only reason for the retreat of all
aspects of society’s movement in all fields. On top of this
movement is the jurist and legal struggle on the hope of
abrogating the Emergency Law, or at least minimizing its
enforcement.
The National
Organization of Human Rights in Syria
The activities
of the organization were launched more than one year ago as
a jurist organization seeking to disseminate the culture of
human rights and to confront all forms of violation of these
rights. It is a civil organization which was formed with its
constituent members representing all the Syrian national
diversity, including the ethnic and sectarian diversity. It
built up the strategy of its work in accordance with a set
of constants which made a special model that should be
followed.
The first of
these constants is that professionalism should be used in
monitoring and documenting the violations in accordance with
international criterion. The second of these constants is
that the organization views itself as a neutral body between
the citizens and the government. This neutrality has created
a credibility for the organization which was evident in its
most glamorous images in the fact that several Arab and
international news agencies and local and Arab newspapers
are depending on the news, statements and reports of this
organization in everything that is related to the state of
human rights in Syria.
The third
constant is that ever since its establishment, the National
0rganization of Human Rights in Syria has avoided
involvement in any activities of a political nature or any
activity that is not jurist in the real sense of the word.
Within a
related context, the organization adopted the principle of
institutional work as its method. Consequently, the
responsibilities were distributed among the members of the
Board of Directors and its branch offices.
Out of respect
of the organization’s members of the law and desire to
achieve harmony with its policy of the enforcement of the
law, a decision was made to apply for licensing the National
Organization of Human Rights in Syria to the Ministry of
Social Affairs and Labour in accordance with the Societies
Law that is enforced in Syria and which dates back to 1958.
On 4 April 2006, the president, secretary and agent acting
on behalf of the founders of the organization submitted an
application to the competent ministry along with a complete
file with all the required papers.
However, on 30
August 2006, the Ministry of Social Affairs and labour
issued Decree No. 1617 stipulating the rejection of the
request of the National Organization of Human Rights in
Syria.
We decided to
go ahead with the legal procedures within what is permitted
by the laws concerned. Therefore, the organization submitted
an appeal to the Ministry explaining that it would fulfil
all the legal conditions required for forming an
organization. On 2 November 2006, the organization was
notified with the decision of the Ministry of Social Affairs
and labour No. Qaf/4/3/1953 rejecting the appeal. On 7
November 2006, the organization received a notification from
the Social Affairs and labour Directorate in the capital
city of Damascus No. 13085 stipulating the rejection of the
appeal.
On 27 December
2006, the National Organization of Human Rights in Syria,
represented by its president and secretary, filed a lawsuit
at the Administrative judiciary demanding that the decision
issued by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour No. 1611
of 30 August 2006 rejecting the request for licensing the
organization be revoked.
Political
Rights and Public Liberties
Although
political rights and public liberties in Syria are almost
squandered for the last 45 years, there was a considerable
retreat in this area in 2006, prompting people to fear the
return of the dangerous security conditions which dominated
the Syrians in the decade of the eighties in the past
century. The Syrians are still the victim of the Martial Law
which has been enforced for dozens of years. The Martial Law
has in fact obstructed and undermined political life in
Syria.
1- On the
International Treaties and Conventions: According to the
legal principles, the international conventions, treaties
and agreements which the State signs and endorses are given
priority in enforcement over all national laws. The Syrian
government has violated the international laws to which it
complied with according to the United Nations Charter and
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its
appendices.
A- The United
Nations Charter: The United Nations Charter says at its
preamble and in some of its articles that states should
comply with the respect of the social, economic, cultural,
and political rights of the individuals and their basic and
public liberties, particularly in Articles l, 13, 55, 56,
62, 68, and 76 of the Charter.
B- The
International Covenant of Human Rights: The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights issued in December 1948 and its
appendices have become an international term reference and a
binding covenant to states. The evidence of this is that the
states are respecting its provisions and have included some
of these provisions into their constitutions, including the
Syrian constitution of 1973. The two covenants attached to
the Syrian constitution have asserted these rights,
particularly the political rights and freedoms and the
economic rights. Other treaties pertaining to torture, women
and the child and the Declaration of the Defenders of Human
Rights were attached to it also.
The United
Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution No. 53/144 of 9
December 1998 on the rights of individuals and groups in
consolidating and protecting human rights and the basic
liberties. This is what was called the Declaration of the
Defenders of Human Rights, which is recognized
internationally.
2- The
Constitution and the National Legislation: With all the due
reservations on some articles of the Syrian permanent
constitution, particularly Articles 8 and 153 of the
constitution which restricts the leadership of society and
State to part of the people represented by the ruling party,
there were several articles in the constitution that
stipulate compliance with the international conventions.
3-
Manifestations of the violation of the political rights and
public liberties in
Syria.
1- Lack of
compatibility between the international conventions and the
national legislation:
A- On the
freedom of opinion, we can say that the arrests made in 2006
and the sentences issued against the people arrested confirm
the opposite of the stipulations contained in the articles
of the constitution. We have provided in the attached lists
the names of the detainees and convicts because of the
political views they held, views which oppose the regime.
This situation was not improved by the fact that some of the
defendants were referred to the ordinary judiciary for
trial. Despite the fact that this action was positive, the
principle of the independence of the judicial branch of
government in Syria is a matter that is suspected and is
refuted by facts on the ground.
B- On the
continued imposition of the Emergency Law and Martial Law:
Perhaps the continued imposition of the Martial Law in all
part of Syria for generations, without the country
undergoing an extraordinary conditions, such as wars or
natural disasters, or disturbances represents the gravest
violation of the political rights and public and basic
liberties, all the more so because this violation led to the
imposition of restrictions and abuse of power. In
particular, Decree no. 47 of 1968 created the Supreme State
Security Court, and Article five of the Decree gave the
“martial law administrator the power to refer any case he
deems fit to this extraordinary court.” The article also
gave the court the power “to look into any case referred to
it by the Martial Law administrator.” This gave the Martial
Law administrator unlimited powers, and this could only lead
to the obstruction of all covenants and legislation.
C- On the
separation of powers: The constitution of the country
affirms the principle of the separation of legislative,
executive and judicial powers and the independence of each
of these powers. However, when it comes to application, it
becomes clear that these powers are interlocked and the
executive power, which depends on the security services
whose powers extend to all the branches of government and
all aspects of life, is the dominant power.
Members of the
executive branch of government, namely, the cabinet
ministers only serve as civil servants and do not enjoy the
minimum freedom of movement or decision making in isolation
from the security services.
D- On the
Freedom of Holding Meetings and Staging Demonstrations:
Some provisions
of the constitution are compatible with the freedom of
holding meetings and staging demonstrations. Nonetheless,
they remain pure slogans that are not applied on the ground.
The package of extraordinary laws and the imposition of
Martial Law can prohibit and suppress any meeting of more
than five persons and consider the meeting as a crime
punishable by law.
As for the
freedom of staging demonstrations and protests, it is
stopped by force or by innovating other tactics as was the
case in more than one protest called for by jurist societies
and opposition parties whereby the government sent the
security services and students to the venue of the protest
to disperse it by insulting and assaulting the protesters.
E- About the
free elections: All the Syrians realize how these sham and
formal elections are held. Lists are drafted by the ruling
party and the security services of unknown candidates, even
on the level of their cities and towns, and empty seats are
designated for these candidates.
F- On the
freedom of the formation of political parties, professional
associations and societies:
1- The
political parties: There is no law in Syria governing the
activities of the political parties. The only recognized
party is the Socialist Arab Ba’th Party. As for the other
parties, which have joined the Ba’th Party, and which are
called the “National Front” Parties, they are a pure
cosmetics intended to beautify and improve the image of the
regime.
2- The
Professional Associations: Professional associations in
Syria do not enjoy any form of independence. They are
attached to the regime’s services. Therefore, the mechanism
of their formation and the elections that are held within
these associations to select their leaders are done in a
distorted fashion. Even the Articles of Association of these
professional associations, especially the private
associations, include provisions that allow the prime
minister to dissolve these associations.
3- Societies:
The societies that are licensed in Syria are charity and
housing societies. As for the societies which deal with
public affairs, or the cultural Fora that seek to
disseminate the human rights culture or to highlight the
opposition views, they are not given licenses to operate and
the regime rushes quickly to suppress these societies.
Some people
have recently been under the illusion that there is a margin
of political action that is allowed in Syria. However, the
truth of the matter is that the regime quickly goes back on
its promises and suppresses some of the moves that seek to
form jurist or cultural fora and societies.
Perhaps, it has
now become necessary to amend the constitution of the
country or drafting a new modern constitution that can be
compatible with the resolutions and recommendations of the
regime’s party adopted in its recent conference held in June
2005. This should include the issuance of a new Political
Parties Law and the adoption of the market economy which
contradicts several articles of the constitution which
states that the Syrian economy is a guided socialist
economy. It has also become necessary to issue a new
Publications Law that can safeguard the freedom of the press
and publication. Moreover, the following should be done:
- Repealing the
Emergency Law and revoking the state of the long-term
Martial Law.
- Revoking all
extraordinary laws and courts.
- working for
the independence of the judicial branch of government and
freeing it from the hegemony of the executive branch of
government.
- Activation of
Article 81 of the Judicial Powers Act to secure a good life
for the judges. The article states that “judges are
prohibited from expressing their political views or
perceptions. Judges shall be further prohibited from working
in politics.”
- Amending the
executive lists of the Societies Law and canceling the
security approvals.
- Working for
the sake of licensing human rights societies and securing
the protection of the activists in this field in
implementation of the United Nations General Assembly
Resolution No. 144/53 of 9 December 1998 and issuing a
special legislation concerning the protection.
- Setting free
all the detainees who were held in prison because of their
views as well as the political detainees and stopping the
pursuits and trials and closing down this issue once and for
all.
- Working for
the actual application of the independence of the
professional associations and all the civil society
organizations.
- Achieving
equality among the Syrians and making every Syrian citizen
irrespective of his status subject to the rule of the law.
- Revoking the
penalty of depriving the detainees who were imprisoned
because of their views from their civil rights and their
rehabilitation along with restoration of the rights of those
who came out of prison.
- Working to
resolve the problem of those who were denied the Syrian
citizenship, such as the Syrian Kurds.
- Tacking the
question of the political deportees by allowing them to
return home without any restrictions or conditions.
- Combating
corruption and referring the corrupt persons to the
judiciary, without being selective about it.
- Repealing all
the lists of Syrian nationals who are prohibited from travel
outside Syria unless their prohibition is done on the
strength of a judicial decision.
- Seeking to
settle the conditions of the missing persons in the
disturbances of the eighties and afterward and the
settlement of their legal status.
The death
penalty
The death
penalty is not in harmony with the continuous attempts that
are made to consolidate the desired impact and change in the
human rights field in our region. The death penalty deprives
the person of his right to life, and this right cannot be
restored once it is gone. After the death penalty is carried
out, no mistake made at the issuance of the sentence could
be corrected. The death penalty means the crushing of
fundamental human instincts, namely, the survival of the
fittest. As for the view which says that there is a
humanitarian method in carrying out the execution, it is a
pure nonsense. The persons condemned to death suffer the
horror of their definite death in advance. Moreover, the
method of killing is not always a clinical method void of
pain. Here we can add to the death penalty the Penalty of
torture.
In its Articles
of Association, the National Organization of Human Rights in
Syria asserted that its only term reference was the
International Covenant on Human Rights. Since the
International Covenant on Human Rights is represented in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two
international covenants, in addition to the optional
protocols, which are all against the death penalty, the
National Organization of Human Rights is also opposed to
this penalty.
The national
Organization of Human Rights in Syria views human rights as
inseparable. Human rights are a universal order in their
goals and mechanisms. Therefore, it agrees to the third
chapter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
sixth chapter of the International Covenant on the Civil and
Political Rights as well as the second optional protocol
attached to this covenant stipulating that the death penalty
should be revoked.
The Syrian
constitution and revoking the death penalty:
The Syrian
constitution did not focus on the right to life. On the
contrary, the Syrian legislator provided the death penalty
for a number of crimes. The truth of the matter is that
there is no intention to revoke this penalty. In fact, there
has been expansion in the use of this penalty in accordance
with the extraordinary laws such as the Law on Joining the
Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood Group No. 49.
In many cases,
the death penalty is applied, on the strength of laws, on
the opposition of the goals of the revolution or the
protection of the socialist system and the security of the
Socialist Arab Bath Party. Nonetheless, the law gave to
those who were sentenced to death the right to seek amnesty
or change the penalty. Moreover, the President of the
Republic can curb the use of this penalty, because he can
give the person condemned to death this right according to
Article 105 of the constitution, and consequently, issue a
private amnesty and rehabilitate the convict.
It is possible
to cancel the death penalty from the Syrian penal code, and
the Syrian society will accept such a step provided that
serious work is done in that direction. This can only be
done through cooperation between the Syrian government, the
jurist organizations, public affairs activists, the
intellectuals and writers.
In fact, there
are no real obstacles standing in the way of revoking the
death penalty. In fact, it is possible to upgrade the
current legislation to curb the death penalty and eventually
revoke it. However, we should use a phased, graduated method
to revoke this penalty. Azerbaijan is a good example to be
followed in this regard.
Monitoring the
State of Human Rights in Syria in 2006
The State
security service arrested in the Idlib Governorate on 14
January 2006 Mr. Fahed Da’doush from Idlib. On 29 January
2006, the supreme State security court sentenced Aref Haydar
to a two-year prison term. On Sunday, 5 February 2006, the
supreme State security court in Damascus sentenced Ahmad
Aleko to a prison term of two and a half years.
On the evening
of 7 February 2006, the political security service arrested
the 50-year old writer Adel Tawfeeq mahfooz from his house.
He was released on 11 March 2006. On Thursday, 16 February
2006, the Syrian authorities arrested the Syrian Kurdish
national, 30-years old Faheem Shaykhu immediately when he
arrived at Damascus International Airport from Germany. The
German authorities have deported him to Syria via Frankfurt.
The
Intelligence Service of the Syrian Air Force arrested on 19
February 2006 Razin Ma’niyah, brother of prisoner Bara’
Ma’niyah from El Tall town in the rural-side of Damascus.
With reference
to the news which spoke about he arrest of student Husam
Milhem of the school of law at Latakia and Business
Administration student Ali nazeer Ali of Draykish town of
the Tartus Governorate by the Air Force Intelligence Service
on 24 December 2005, it followed that the Syrian authorities
arrested their colleague, 25-years old Tariq Ghurani of
Damascus on 19 February 2006, and then summoned each of Umar
al-Abdallah and Diyab Sariyah for interrogation on daily
basis. The Syrian authorities arrested them on 18 March 2006
in connection with the same case.
On Thursday, 24
February 2006, the Syrian authorities arrested each of
26-year old Maher Ibrahim Isber, a graduate of the Fine Arts
College Allam Fakhur, and barber Ayham Saqer. All of them
were from El Salmiyeh. On 14 February 2006, the Syrian
security forces summoned deputy at the Syrian parliament
Ma’moun El Himsi and released him after interrogating him
for seven hours.
On the same
day, the security forces arrested Muhammad Najati Tayyareh,
a researcher and a former vice president of the Human Rights
Society in Syria. He was arrested at the Jordanian-Syrian
borders and was released on the second day. He was
rearrested on 22 March 2006 and released at a late hour on
the evening of 23 March 2006 after spending 24 hours in
custody. On 15 February 2006, Syrian police stormed the
residence of parliamentarian Riyad Sayf at 4.30 hours on the
morning of 15 February 2006 and released him a few hours
later.
On 14 February
2006, the court sentenced Jawad Attak of Turkey’s Kurdistan
and Najad Ahmad of Iraq’s Kurdistan and Jusan Shamsul Deen
of Syria to a seven and a half years of imprisonment for the
first, a three-year imprisonment for the second, and two and
a half years imprisonment for the third on charges of
membership in the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK).
On Sunday, 5
March, 2006, the Syrian military intelligence arrested the
correspondent of the London-based Lebanese newspaper El
Nahar in Damascus, Sha’ban Abboud, who remained in the
custody of the Syrian military intelligence for four days
after which he was referred to the extraordinary military
judiciary. On the same day, the security services arrested
Muhammad Darar, son of prisoner Riyad Darar. Muhammad was
released on 9 March 2006.
On Sunday, 2
April 2006, the supreme State security court in Damascus
sentenced Riyad Darar to a five-year imprisonment after
indictment on charges of publishing false news, arousing
sectarian prejudices, and affiliation with a clandestine
organization.
On 9 March
2006, police arrested university students Shawkat Ghurzul
Deen, Adnan Abu Assi, and Ayham Bdour. They were arrested
after participating in a sit-in and were then referred to
the military prosecutor who accused them of “inciting
disturbances.” At the fifth session held by the court and
after the defendants named their defending attorneys, the
military judge decided to change the status of the witnesses
to defendants and adding them to the file of the lawsuit.
The witnesses
were the following: Ayman Shabibul Deen, Ayman kamal Murad,
Rabi Nawfal El Shurayti, Husayn Dawud, and Abdullah El
hallaq.
At 1500 hours
on 12 March 2006, Dr Ammar Qurba, president of the National
Organization of Human Rights in Syria, was arrested at
Damascus International airport as he was returning from a
trip to the United States capital city of Washington and the
French capital city of Paris. He was held in custody for
four days on the strength of three separate orders to arrest
him. He was released on 16 March 2006, but was referred to
the State security court in Damascus which has not held any
session as yet.
The Syrian
authorities used force to disperse the protesters on the
second anniversary of the regrettable 12 March 2004
incidents and then arrested many participants in the
protest, including former parliament deputy Riyad Sayf and
each of student Isam’il Muhammad, and Zubayr Abdul Rahman
Haydar, As’ad Shaykhu, and Rijjal Tamer Mustafa of the
Kurdish progressive Democratic party in Syria and released
them a few hours later.
On Sunday, 12
March 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
issued prison sentences against Ibrahim Khalil Hassani and
Ehab al-Abka’. Each was sentenced to three years in prison
while Mu’awiyah Ahmad Hijou was sentenced to six years in
prison. On the same date, the Supreme State Security Court
sentenced Syrian Kurdish national Salah Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim
for two and a half years in prison.
On Sunday, 19
March 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
sentenced Bailkhati Abdou to two and a half years in prison.
It also sentenced Muhammad Khalil Alou, Latt Yunus, and
Luqman Uthman to seven years of imprisonment for each. It
sentenced Ali Muhyil Deen to a six-month imprisonment term,
Ali Ahmad Hajj Umar to 10 years in prison, and
Jordanian-Palestinian national Abu-Mayyaleh for three years
of imprisonment and deportation from Syria.
On Thursday, 16
March 2006, the military court met in Al-Qamishli to try
Syrian attorney Sabri Mirza on charges of owning the
prohibited “Akhbar Al-Sharq” website, which is affiliated
with the Al-Sharq Institute in London. OPn the same day, the
trial of Syrian citizen Abd-al-Qadir Hasan began. Hasan was
accused of disseminating false news.
The Syrian
Intelligence Service arrested the old Syrian citizen, Walid
Al-Kabeer of the Al-Qunaytirah Governorate at the Al-Rawdah
coffee shop in Damascus on Monday, 20 March on charges of
making hostile statements. On 23 March 2006, the Syrian
security forces arrested Ali Al-Abdallah and then arrested
his son, Muhammad. On 27 July 2006, they were referred to
the military court. On 4 October 2006, the military judge
released writer Ali Al-Abdalah and his son, Muhammad, after
sentencing them to a prison term of six months each.
In Aleppo in
northern Syria, the military security arrested Sameer
Nashshar at 2100 hours on the evening of 25 March 2006 and
released him on the evening of 27 March 2006. On 26 March
2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus issued
tough sentences of 10-year imprisonment against three
university students. They were Muhammad Usamah Kash from
Idlib, Abdul Rahman El Sharif from Dara’ and Hussein Rajab
Al-Ubud from Deir Al-Zoor. On 26 March also, the Syrian
authorities arrested Fayez Al-Hallaq because of a short
story which he wrote. He was released later.
In Aleppo, the
Syrian Intelligence Service arrested on 26 February 2006
engineer Muhammad Abul Nassr and Jawad Ajam. On 27 March
2006, the security services arrested Hilal Rajab, but was
released at midnight. On 27 March 2006, the security
services arrested the two university students Anwar Hammudah
and Amer Khizaraneh. On 27 March 2006 also, the Syrian
authorities referred 35 citizens, mostly adolescents (less
than 18 years old), to the third investigating magistrate in
Aleppo.
These and
others were arrested on the evening of 29 March in a
campaign of arrests launched by the Syrian security services
in Aleppo at random while the Kurds were celebrating the
Kurdish Nairouz holiday. They were charged, according to
lawsuit no. 719 of 26 March 2006, with causing damage to
public funds and causing disturbances. 18 of them were
released on the same date while the remainder was released
at latter dates of 2006.
On 27 March
2006, the security forces stormed an embroidery workshop in
the city of Aleppo and arrested Ali Waddah Nasri Bin mahmoud
and released him on 27 April 2006. On 2 March 2006, the
Syrian Intelligence Service arrested member of the National
Organization of Human Rights, Muhammad Ghanim, who is a
writer and journalist.
On 6 June 2006,
the military judge at al-Raqqah Governorate issued a
one-year prison sentence against Ghanim. The sentence was
commuted to six months of imprisonment, and on 30 September
2006, the Syrian authorities released him. However, Ghanim
was surprised with the Ministry of Education suspending him
from work despite the fact that he placed himself under the
disposal of the Education Directorate in al-Raqqah
immediately when he left prison. Thus Ghanim decided to file
a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education. The lawsuit was
field at the Labor Court in Al-Raqqah under no. 157 of 2006.
In March the
Criminal Court in Damascus added new charges to detained
activist Kamal Al-Labwani who was arrested in November 2005,
namely, contacting a foreign State and instigating that
State to commit aggression on Syria, in addition to the
previous charges. By the beginning of April, the State
Security Court in Damascus issued on Sunday, 2 April 2006 a
decision sentencing 63-year-old engineer Abdul Sattar Qattan
to death, but commuted the sentence to 12 years of
imprisonment.
On 3 April
2006, the military intelligence Service in Tartus arrested
retired officer, 56-year old Sami Al-Abbas and released him
on the same day. On 7 April 2006, university student
Abdallah Al-Hallaq was arrested at his home in the
al-Salmiyah town in the Hamah governorate. On 19 April 2006,
the Syrian authorities arrested Shihab Shahhud and Haytham
Qatreeb in the Al-Salmiyah town in the Hamah Governorate.
On 10 April
2006, the security services in Aleppo city arrested
President of the National Organization of Human Rights in
Syria, Dr Ammar Qurba, following the declaration of the
elected board of directors of the National Organization of
Human Rights the election of Qurba as its president, but he
was released on the next day.
On Monday
morning, 10 April 2006, the Syrian authorities arrested
Shihab Shahhud and Haytham Qatreeb from Al-Salmiyah city in
Hamah governorate for photographing an unclassified
document. On 18 September 2006, the security services
arrested in the Dara’ Governorate 16 persons, including
Mas’ab Al-Jahamani on charges of membership in a Salafi
religious faction.
On 19 April
2006, the Political Security Service arrested in Aleppo the
following citizens: Jeehan Muhammad Ali, Adnan Khalil
Rashid, Wahid Jihad Mustafa and Fawzi Ali Qahwah. In the
period between 21 to 27 April 2006, the Syrian security
authorities arrested electrical engineer Tayseer Muhammad
Jalal Na’san and his colleague, chemistry and physics
teacher Ghassan makkawi. They were arrested as they returned
from Lebanon and charged with membership in the Islamic
Liberation [Tahrir] Party.
Meanwhile, the
Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research in the Syrian
capital of Damascus reported that 26-year prisoner Shaher
hayseh from Suran in the Hamah Governorate died in April of
heart attack at Sadnaya prison. Traces of torture were found
on his body during the period of his stay in prison. The
director of the center was charged with disseminating false
news after he published this news item.
The National
Organization of Human Rights has also learned that 30-year
old Abdul Jabbar Ahmad Al-Alawi from Abul Dhuhur village in
Idlib Governorate was arrested in April as he arrived into
the Syrian borders from Iraq. On Tuesday, 18 April 2006, the
Syrian security authorities arrested activist Hussein Dawud
from Al-Salamiyah town in the Hamah Governorate.
On Sunday, 30
April 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
sentenced Mahmoud Ayyoub Uthman to three years of
imprisonment, Ali Ibrahim Khalil Mahhou to two and a half
years of imprisonment, and Saeed Mahmoud Kalid Bakri from
Aleppo Governorate to four years of imprisonment.
On 1 May 2006,
the security services arrested in Damascus International
Airport Syrian opposition figure Fateh Jamous, one of the
leaders of the Communist Labor Party. On 13 May 2006, Jamous
was referred to a civil court for trial. On 18 June 2006,
the seventh investigating magistrate, contrary to the claims
of the public prosecution, issued a decision that Jamous
should be tried by a criminal court of First Instance for
committing the misdemeanor of disseminating false news.
On Thursday, 12
October 2006, the judge of chamber ll at the First Instance
Criminal Court in Damascus decided to release Jamous at a
token bail of 500 Syrian liras, after which Legislative
Decree no. 58 of 2006 was issued granting a general amnesty
for some of the crimes committed. Jamous was included in the
general amnesty.
On 7 May 2006,
the supreme State security court in Damascus issued
sentences against 10 of the detainees because of their
Islamist background. The following are their names.
1-Mahmud Hajji
Arab, who was sentenced to eight years in prison.
2-Usamah El
Shafi’I, who was sentenced to three years in prison.
3-Mahmud El
Shafi’I, who was sentenced to seven years in prison.
4-Mas’ab Hajji
Hussein, who was sentenced to nine years in prison.
5-Isma’il
Mustafa, who was sentenced to nine years in prison.
6-Abdul Kader
Murad, who was sentenced to seven years in prison.
7-Muhammad
Tawfiq Murad, who was sentenced to four years in prison.
8-Habeel
Badrou, who was sentenced to three years in prison.
9-Muhammad
Khalil, who was sentenced to eight years in prison.
10-Muhammad
Sharif Dawud, who was sentenced to eight years in prison.
In May 2006 the
worst wave of arrests since the spring of 2000 was staged in
Syria. The arrests were made after 134 Syrian intellectuals
and 138 Lebanese intellectuals signed what was called then
the “Beirut-Damascus Declaration.” When the declaration was
made public, the Syrian authorities launched a campaign of
arrests and summons. They also fired 17 persons out of their
jobs.
The Syrian
authorities arrested the following 10 persons: Mahmoud issa,
Michel Kilou, Khalil Hussein, Anwar El Bunni, Suleiman El
Shummar, Nidal Darwish, Safwan Tayfour, Mahmoud Mar’I,
Ghaleb Amir, and Muhammad Mahfoud. Meanwhile, the
authorities interrogated the following but without arresting
them: The President of the National Organization of Human
Rights Dr Ammar Qurbah, Writer Fayez Sarah, activist Dr
hazem El Nahar, activist Kamal Shaykhu, Scenario writer
Khaled khalifeh, and Abbas Abbas.
The beginning
was on 14 May 2006 when writer Michel Kilou was arrested and
on 17 May 2006, Kilou was referred to the Investigating
Magistrate Ragheed Toutanji, who ordered his arrest. On
Thursday, 19 October 2006, Kilou was released on a bail of
1,000 Syrian Liras or $20. Instead of setting him free, new
charges were leveled to Kilou by the Investigating
Magistrate on the same day of the decision on his release.
The charges
included one that Kilou made Syria vulnerable to the danger
of hostile actions. Another charge said that Kilou has
weakened the national feelings by attacking the prestige of
the State (Articles 278-285). A third charge said that Kilou
aroused sectarian and denominational prejudices. A fourth
charge accused him of slandering and insulting others
(Articles 287-307, 376). All these are regarded as criminal
offenses. The judge decided to remand him in custody and the
file of Kilou was referred to the second chamber of the
Criminal Court in Damascus.
On 16 May 2006,
attorney Mahmoud Mar’I and Nidal Darwish were arrested. On
Wednesday, 17 May 2006, the Syrian security authorities
arrested Safwan Tayfour and Ghaleb Amer. On 16 July 2006,
the second Investigating magistrate decided to release the
four on a bail of l,000 Syrian Liras or $20 each after they
were re-interrogated and said that they did not sign the
Beirut-Damascus Declaration. On 22 October 2006, the Syrian
authorities released Muhammad Mahmoud on a bail amounting to
1,000 Syrian Liras or $20 provided that he will be tried
without being detained.
As for Mahmoud
Issa, Khalil Hussein, and Sulayman El Sharr, they were
arrested on 17 May 2006 and were interrogated by the
Investigating Magistrate at the Courthouse in Damascus on 21
May 2006. At the end of the interrogation, the judge leveled
accusations that were classified under Article 285 and
similar articles. On 25 September 2006, the referral judge
Halimah Haydar decided to set free each of Mahmoud Issa,
Khalil Hussein and Sulayman El Sharr on bail amounting to
1,000 Syrian Liras or $20. On 22 October 2006, the Second
Investigating Magistrate decided to level new charges to
them. The magistrate also decided to deposit them in
Damascus Central Prison.
A patrol of the
criminal security service arrested in Homs for the second
time activist Mahmud Issa on Monday, 23 October 2006 while
Sulayman El Sharr and Kalil Hussein disappeared despite the
fact that arrest orders were issued against the two. The
file of the three persons was referred to the second chamber
at the criminal court in Damascus. The last detainee of the
Beirut-Damascus Declaration was attorney Anwar al-Bunni who
was arrested on Wednesday, 17 May 2006 and interrogated on
21 May 2006.
On 29 November
2006, the first chamber of the criminal court in Damascus
interrogated El Bunni on charges of publishing false news
that could weaken the resolve of the nation (Article 286),
belonging to a society of an international nature (Article
288), and slandering official government bodies and judicial
institutions (Articles 376 and 378). Dates of the sessions
for the trial of El Bunni were fixed.
The last
chapter in this file was that the Syrian prime minister
issued decree no. 2746 on 14 June 2006 dismissing 17 civil
servants from the civil service without giving reasons for
this action. It is believed that they were dismissed from
their jobs because they signed the Damascus – Beirut
Declaration or because they supported the Declaration.
On 30 May 2006,
the security authorities arrested Yasser Milhem and Umar
Adlibi. However, they were released two days later.
Journalist Mahmoud Rashed and Musician Husam Brimou were
tried by the sixth court of first instance in Damascus on
charges of slandering the Director of the El Assad Cultural
House, Nabeel Allou. The two published an article on
corruption which they said that Allou was responsible for
it.
On Sunday, 4
June 2006, the Syrian security authorities arrested mar’I
Imran who tried to take a picture of his imprisoned brother
through a cellular phone in front of the State Security
court when the prison vehicle brought the imprisoned person
to court. He was interrogated on 10 June 2006 and released
on the same day.
With the
beginning of June 2006, the Syrian authorities arrested
Abdallah Abdul Rahman El Zu’bi on the Syrian-Jordanian
borders as he was coming from Kuwait.
Also early in
June, the security services arrested in the city of
al-Raqqah university students Muhammad Rajih, Abdul Razzaq
El Bayram, and Ala’ Shawish in addition to secondary school
student Firas El Madduh and Abdul Rahman El Shannan without
giving any reasons for their arrest.
On Monday
evening, 19 June 2006, a political security patrol stormed
the house of activist Abdou Khalaf and arrested him. He was
released on 29 September 2006, particularly after the
warning made by the National Organization of Human Rights in
the aftermath of the deterioration of his health condition.
On Friday, 9
June 2006, the security service launched large-scale arrests
in the town of ‘Arbin near Damascus. 18 young men were
identified among those arrested. They were Ahmad Ghazzal,
Muhammad El kahhaleh, Sameer Jandali and his brother Firas
El Jandali, Ahmad Yunus, Ahmad Abu-Shawarib, Usamah El
Sharif, Muhammad El Khudari, Zaher Huwayshan, Muhammad El
Shaykh Yusuf, Mahmoud Abu-Nabb, Sameer El Gharib, Khaled El
Hassan, Muhammad Habt, Jalal El Abrass, Hasan Abdul Fattah,
Muhammad El Nahif, and 22-year old Samer Abdul Fattah Kukeh.
It is believed that the arrest of these young men was
related to the terrorist operation which targeted the Syrian
Radio and Television building on Friday, 2 June 2006.
On Sunday, 25
June 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
sentenced 31-year old Muhammad Usamah Sayes to death after
indictment on charges of membership in the Muslim
Brotherhood Organization. The sentence was then commuted to
12 years of imprisonment. Two days later, in 27 June 2006,
the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus sentenced
32-year old Abdul Rahman El Musa to death, but later
commuted the sentence to a 12-year imprisonment term also
after indictment on charges of membership in the Muslim
Brotherhood Organization.
As Sayes
departed from Britain, El Musa was forcibly deported from
the United States to Syria on 19 January 2005 for violation
of the Immigration laws. On 28 June 2006, the military
intelligence in the town of Misyaf arrested Dr Ali El Shaykh
Haydar, Syria’s Affairs Secretary at the Social National
Syrian party; and Hussein Bakir, one of the leading figures
of the Unionist Socialists. Haydar was set free two days
later and Bakir was released one week later.
On 4 July 2006,
the military security stormed the work premises of activist
Bassam Badrah. He was referred to the military judiciary
later. Syrian authorities released him on 25 September 2006
provided that he would undergo trial without being detained.
However, Badrah benefited from legislative decree no. 58 of
2006 stipulating a general amnesty for certain crimes
committed before 28 December 2006.
On 12 July
2006, the Syrian authorities arrested Muhammad Salahul Deen
Abdul Latif from the Aleppo Governorate who was born in
Sanaa and who was residing there. He was arrested at his
arrival in the Syrian-Jordanian land borders.
On 4 August,
the Political Security Service arrested in the city of
Aleppo four citizens. They were 58-years old Ibrahim Khalil
Ibn Rahman, 33-years old Izzat Uthman Ibn Husayn, 42-years
old Muhammad Abdou Khalil, and 35-years old Muhammad Bilal
Ibn Muhammad.
On Thursday, 10
August 2006, the security services arrested activist Ali El
Shihabi, and on 10 October 2006, the Investigating
Magistrate of the Third Chamber at the Damascus courthouse
leveled two charges to El Shihabi. The first was his
participation in founding an unlicensed party or society
opposed to the State, and the second charge was the signing
of the Beirut-Damascus Declaration. He was released in early
2007 after he was included in the amnesty.
On 15 August
2006, the military court in Homs sentenced activist Habib
Saleh to three years of imprisonment. Saleh had been held in
custody since 30 May 2005 for publishing false news.
On 23 August
2006, 15 citizens were arrested in Al-Raqqah city. They were
29-years old Ahmad Khalaf El Roumi, 18-years old student
Abdallah El Shawwakh El Jarnab, Khaled Sultan, Ibrahim
Mulla, 29-years old Yasser Hussein El Ahmad, Hasan El
Ashour, Khalaf El Huwaysh, Ramadan Ramadan, Saleh El Rahhal,
Abdul Fattah Shihadeh, Eid El Rahlan, Issa El Saleh, Issa El
Tarrad, and Mustafa El Mustafa.
On 8 September
2006, the Syrian authorities released four of these. They
were Ahmad El Khalaf El Roumi, Hasan Ashour, Ramadan
Ramadan, and Saleh El Rahhal.
On 23 August
2006, schoolteacher Muhammad El As’ad was arrested and on 25
August 2006, citizen Yamin El Taweel was arrested because of
his Islamist background. On Sunday, 27 August 2006, the
security services arrested in the city of Aleppo citizen
Akram Wati Ibn Ahmad.
At the end of
August 2006, the security services arrested 26-years old
Umar Muhammad El Dhughaym. On 4 September 2006, the Syrian
authorities arrested 24-years old Umar Muhammad El Dhughaym
at his return to Syria from the United Arab Emirates where
he was staying.
On Thursday, 7
September 2006, the Political Security Service in the
rural-side of Damascus arrested 25-years old journalist
Muhannad Abdul Rahman, and on 23 September 2006, the
authorities released him.
On Thursday, 14
September 2006, the Palestine branch of the Military
Intelligence Service arrested Muhammad Hajji Darwish and
remanded him in custody until 20 September 2006 when he was
released.
On 19 September
2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus sentenced
Citizen Ammar Na’san to five years of imprisonment after
indictment on charges of membership in a religious Salafi
faction. The court also sentenced on Sunday, 24 September
2006, Wulah Khalil Rasheed to five years of imprisonment.
The sentence was commuted to two and a half years of
imprisonment. He was released because the two and a half
years term was already expired. The same court issued on 1
October 2006 a prison sentence of four years against citizen
Anas El ‘Awf because of his Islamist leanings.
The Supreme
State Security court in Damascus issued on Sunday, 8 October
2006 a death sentence against 43-year old citizen Ahmad Ibn
Mustafa Ibrahim El Sayyid of Aleppo on the strength of Law
no. 49 of 1980 which indicted him on charges of belonging to
the Muslim Brotherhood Organization. The sentence was then
commuted to 12 years of imprisonment.
On Tuesday, 3
October 2006, the Political Security Service arrested
engineer Ghassan Isma’il, who was referred to the military
judiciary. The military judge ordered that he be remanded in
custody.
On Thursday, 5
October 2006, the Syrian security forces quelled and
dispersed the peaceful sit-in staged in front of the Prime
Minister’s office. The sit-in was staged on the 44th
anniversary of the extraordinary census held in the Syrian
Governorate of El Hasakah in 1962. The security services
arrested a number of the strikers and released them hours
later.
From 27 to 29
October 2006, the number of victims who drowned during the
floods in the El hasakah Governorate rose to ll people,
including two fire brigade fighters. 10 other people were
missing. Many villages were encircled with water and large
areas of agricultural land were submerged with water. A
large number of cattle heads died and some houses collapsed.
The catastrophic floods were caused because the Turkish
authorities opened two waterways from Khanki on the Khabour
River in Turkey on the Ra’s El ‘Ayn area.
The local
authorities of the El Hasakah Governorate were slow to act
and failed to take the precautionary measures and necessary
preparations to cope with such a situation. The situation
improved after the National Organization of Human Rights
declared El Hasakah a disaster area. Members of the National
Organization participated in the investigation made by the
fact-finding committee and in the assessment of the losses
incurred.
From 2 to 14
November 2006, the Political Security Service arrested in
the town of El Dirbasiyah in the El Qamishli Governorate two
citizens, namely, Luqman Muammad Muhammad and Ahmad Mahmoud
Farhu, who were taken to Damascus at their return from a
visit to the Iraq Kurdistan region.
On Sunday, 5
November 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
sentenced Abdul Samad El Jajeh to a prison term of six
years. It also sentenced each of Muhammad Abdul Wahhab El
Imadi, Ahmad Hijazi, and Abdul hamid Tabaa’ to prison terms
of five years. It also sentenced each of Firas Hammud, Ahmad
El Mousali, Huthayfah Qazerbash, Bassam El Asfar, Iyad
Derbieh, and Muhammad Hamameh to three years of
imprisonment. On the same date, the same court sentenced two
citizens from El Raqqah, namely, Hamed Khader and Muhammad
Hussein Hamadeh, to five years of imprisonment each.
On 11 November
2006, the Syrian security authorities arrested each of
Ghazwan El Shawwa, Jihad El Kayyal, Basheer Salahul Deen
Abul Laban, Mushir Salahul Deen Abul laban, Iyad El Harraz,
and Hashem Abdul Manan Bayreli. On Sunday, 24 December 2006,
Basheer Abul laban and hashem Bayreli were released.
On Monday, 13
November 2006, the Syrian authorities arrested Murad, son of
Shaykh Ma’shouq El Khaznawi on the Jordanian-Syrian borders
and released him a few hours after his arrest. However, he
was prohibited from travel,
On Tuesday, 14
November 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
issued sentences against the El Utaybeh Group. It sentenced
each of Ahmad Ali Haraniyah, Hussein Jum’ah Uthman, and
Samer Abul El Khair, Muhammad Abdul hafiz Kilani, Muhammad
Izzul Deeb, Muhammad Ali Haraniyah, and Na’im Muruwwah to
six years of imprisonment each.
It also
sentenced Khaled Jum’ah Abdul ‘Al, Khalid hamami, and
Muhammad Ahmad As’ad to seven years of imprisonment and
sentenced Ahmad Umar ‘Aynayn to nine years of imprisonment.
On Wednesday,
15 November 2006, the Syrian Intelligence Service arrested
medical doctor Muhammad Ali Issa. On Thursday, 16 November
2006, the Political Security Branch in the city of Aleppo
arrested each of Khaled Rashid Rashid from Jandars district,
Muhammad Musa Hamkou from the village of Maydaneh of Rajou
sub-district, Uthman Muhammad Musa Hamkou of the Maydaneh
village of the Rajou sub-district.
On 19 November
2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus sentenced
jurist Nizar Rastanawi to four years of imprisonment after
indictment on charges of publishing false news.
On Sunday, 19
November 2006, the Political Security Service arrested
Musallam Mustafa Kutou of Aleppo Governorate. The security
services have in the recent period launched a large-scale
campaign of arrests against a group of Kurdish citizens who
returned from northern Iraq.
On Monday
evening, 20 November 2006, a company of the Syrian military
intelligence service stormed the homes of each of Abdul Aziz
Rafi’ah, Abdul Rahman Rafi’ah, Umar Rafi’ah, Umar Rafi’ah,
Abdul Rahman Yusfan, Abdul Aziz Yusfan, Adel Mahlami, and
Abdul Aziz Malhami because of their religious leanings.
On Sunday, 26
November 2006, the security authorities arrested Dr Jamal
ABBA of Dar’a city. On Wednesday, 29 November 2006, the
military court in Damascus sentenced attorney Hasan Isma’il
Abdul Azeem, spokesman for the Democratic National Grouping.
The trial was held without keeping Azeem in custody. Azeem
appealed the sentence. Nevertheless, he benefited from the
amnesty issued on 28 December 2006 and did not serve the
prison term.
On 3 December
2006, the military court in the city of Homs sentenced
engineer Hasan Zaynou to a prison term of one and a half
months on charges of publishing and possession of unlicensed
publications. On the same date, the court sentenced each of
Abdallah Eid and Basil Midrati to a five-year imprisonment
term and sentenced Ahmad Shahin to a three-year prison term.
On the
anniversary of the International Day of Human Rights on 10
December 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
issued a prison sentence of 12 years against Muhammad Thabit
Halli after indictment on charges of belonging to the Muslim
Brotherhood Group. It also sentenced each of Qanbar Hussein
Qanbar, a Kurd, and Mustafa El Fahel, to a three-year prison
term for each.
On Wednesday,
13 December 2006, the Syrian security services in Tartus
city arrested Fa’iq El Meer, one of the leaders of the
opposition Al-Sha’b Party. On 20 December 2006, El Meer was
referred to the ordinary justice. On the evening of
Wednesday, 20 December 2006, the security services in the
city of Aleppo arrested 53-year Muhyil Deen Shaykh,
secretary of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party in Syria at
the El Nakheel café in Baghdad Station in Aleppo.
On 24 December
2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus sentenced
Husayn Ibrahim Ibn Hassan to six years of imprisonment,
Abdul karim El Ahmad Ibn Khaled and Mu’awiyah El Rahhal Ibn
Bashir to one and a half years of imprisonment in addition
to stripping them of their civil rights, and Mazen Anbdul
Qader El Khatib to three years of imprisonment each.
The State
Security Court:
The State
Security Court was established by Legislative Decree no. 47
of 28 March 1968 amended by Legislative Decree No 79 pf 2
October 1972 and Legislative Decree no. 57 on 1 October 1979
in accordance with the decision of the provisional Regional
Command of the Socialist Arab Ba’th Party no. 2 on 15
February 1966 and the cabinet decision no. 47 of 20 March
1968.
These courts
can try any person, including those who enjoy special
immunity, such as the members of parliament (Article 6).
This court replaced the extraordinary military court and
enjoyed all its powers and jurisdiction.
This court does
not comply with the due process of law stipulated in the
valid legislation in all the roles and proceedings of the
follow-up, investigation and trial. Moreover, the decisions
made by the court are final and cannot be appealed. However,
they are not enforced unless they are ratified by a decision
of the Head of State who has the right to revoke the rulings
of the court.
Persons
prohibited from Travel:
Article 33 of
the Syrian constitution in force provides for the right of
citizens to travel and to move from one place to another
unless there is a judicial ruling barring them from travel.
However, the security services stop citizens from travel
outside Syria without a judicial ruling to this effect in
violation of the international norms and agreements and the
simplest human rights. Often citizens see off a friend
traveling outside Syria and they see him only a few hours
after the take off of his plane, without him being on board.
This was done to the president of the National Organization
of Human Rights Dr. Ammar Qurbi, who is prohibited from
travel on the strength of a memorandum issued by the State
Security Administration-Branch 255 and the memorandum of the
external security, Branch no. 279. The Syrian authorities
are requested by all Syrian citizens to stop the measure of
prohibition of travel because it violates all the
constitutional principles and is not suitable for a modern
law-abiding State.
Syrian
detainees outside Syria:
Syrians in
Lebanon:
The National
Organization of Human Rights monitored several assaults made
against Syrian citizens residing in Lebanon. They were as
follows:
-Tents used by
Syrian workers in the El Biqa’ area in Lebanon as their own
shelter were burned down.
-Three Syrian
citizens were killed in the aftermath of assaults by unknown
persons.
-Tens of
thousands of Syrian workers working in Lebanon returned to
Syria amid assaults on the vehicles carrying Syrian plates.
-Assault of a
number of Syrian workers by beating them, including 16-years
old Syrian worker Abdallah El Hassan, who was beaten by
unknown persons wearing masks and clad in black clothes.
They stormed a gasoline station on the road between the
towns of Ramish and Ayta, 135 kilometers south of Beirut,
where the Syrian workers work. They beat him, tied his hands
and legs and then tied him to a chair with a poster.
Meanwhile, the
consequences of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon in July
were not restricted to Lebanon only. The Syrian workers in
Lebanon suffered from these catastrophic results. Well over
35 Syrian citizens died as a result of the barbaric Israeli
bombardment of the Lebanese farms employing Syrian workers.
Detained
Syrians in Spain:
After the
Spanish authorities arrested Syrian journalist Tayseer
Allouni in 2006 and sentenced him to seven years of
imprisonment, the National Organization for Human Rights has
been asking the Spanish judiciary to allow Allouni to appeal
the sentence issued against him, all the more so because he
is suffering from numerous diseases.
Syrian
prisoners in Israel:
Most of these
prisoners are ill and are suffering from chronic ailments as
a result of the deterioration of the health and humanitarian
conditions under which they are living and the bad treatment
they are accorded.
- One of these
prisoners died lately, namely, Hayel Abu Zaid who died of
leukemia. It was negligence inside the prison which led to
his death. Moreover, prisoners Bishr Sulayman al-Maqat,
Sitan Nimer El Wali, Assem Muhammad El Wali, and Sidqi
Sulayman El Maqet have been detained in Israel for the last
21 years and they need immediate medical care, particularly
in light of the slow action of the prison management of the
occupation forces in rendering them the necessary medical
care.
-On Friday, 9
June 2006, the Israeli occupation authorities released
Syrian woman prisoner Amal Mahmoud, who was detained at the
Israeli prison of Talmound in the occupied city of Akka
since 24 December 2001, provided that she should be kept
under house arrest in her village of Majdal Shams in the
Golan Heights.
-The National
Organization of Human Rights in Syria requested the Syrian
authorities, with the president of the republic on top, to
treat as a priority of Syrian policy the file of the Syrian
prisoners of the occupied Golan Heights and to seek through
all means to secure their release. The National Organization
of Human Rights calls on all the Arab and international
human rights organizations, particularly the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations to
quickly intervene with the occupation authorities and the
Syrian government to secure the release of these prisoners.
The obstinacy of the occupation forces, on the one hand, and
the negligence of the Syrian government, on the other, have
caused the file of the Syrian prisoners to be ignored for a
long period of time.
As for the
Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights and the Shab’a Farms,
they are suffering the ugliest forms of persecution,
repression and despotism from the Zionist-Israeli
imperialism which tried to impose the Israeli identity on
them. Israel’s attempts to change the citizenship of the
Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights are the
highest form of aggression on the right to freedom. It is
also an unprecedented step in the modern age. Meanwhile,
Israel is prohibiting the Syrian citizens from contacting
their relatives in the Syrian territories. The aim of this
estrangement is to alienate them from their cultural,
historic and social environment.
Some of the
Syrian prisoners who are suffering from terminal diseases
1- Bishr
Sulayman El Maqat who has been under arrest since 1985.
2- Assem
Mahmoud El Wali who has been under arrest since 1985.
3- Kameel
Sulayman Khater who has been under arrest since 1985.
4- Sitan Nimer
El Wali who is still under arrest since 1985.
5-Sidqi
Sulayman El Maqat who is still under arrest since 1985.
6-Abbas Saleh
Amasheh who is still under arrest since 2003.
7-Shams Kamal
Shams who is still under arrest since 2003.
8-Samih
Sulayman Samarah who has been under arrest since 2001.
9-Kamal Atallah
El Wali who has been under arrest since 2003.
10-Ra’ouf
Ghassan.
11-Nawal Issa.
12-Wi’am
Mahmoud Amashah.
13-Amal Hamad
Uwaydat.
14-Lu’ayy
Bahjat mar’i.
15-1Julan Samih
Abu-Khayr.
16-Nadeem
Fareed El Qadamani.
17-25 The
following nine detainees are from al-Ghajar village: Ra’ouf
Ghassan nawfal Issa, Husayn Hasan Yasser Qammnouz, Yusuf
Sa’d Jameel Qammouz, Ahmad jameel Yasser Qammouz, Sa’d
Jameel Yasser Qammouz, Hatem Ahmad Muhammad El Khatib,
Hussein Ali Ahmad El Khatib, Ahmad Abdou Muhammad El
Shamali, and Muhammad Abdou Muhammad El Shamali.
The Syrian
detainees in Iraq
The
Organization has learned that the Multinational Forces have
arrested 350 Syrians, who are held in the Iraqi and American
prisons and that these forces are treating the detainees in
a fashion that violates the treatment of prisoners as
stipulated by the international conventions. Furthermore,
the Syrian government received news to the effect that 120
Syrian citizens are missing in Iraq and that nothing was
heard about them. The Organization sought through diplomatic
channels to determine the whereabouts of the Syrian
prisoners held in Iraqi prisons so as to bring them back
home or to appoint defense lawyers for them.
The
Organization viewed the closure of the Iraqi-Syrian borders
as a measure that harms the rights of the Syrian citizens.
The Organization also said that the human rights violations
committed in Iraq were not a domestic issue and called on
all the intellectuals in the world to raise their voices
high in order to put an end to this humanitarian
catastrophe.
Within the same
context, the American occupation forces arrested 11 Syrian
drivers operating trucks to transport wheat to Iraq. The
reason for arresting these drivers was not known.
On 6 February
2006, the Iraqi Interior Ministry released 12 Syrian
detainees if the group which was arrested at the
headquarters of the officially licensed El Fayha’ Society
while three of them were kept in custody in anticipation of
the completion of some administrative measures. The group,
consisting of 15 Syrian nationals, was arrested on 29
November 2004 and sentenced to one year of imprisonment each
for unknown reasons. Their sentences were expired on 28
November 2005 but their release was delayed for unknown
reasons also. Those who were released were the following:
Ahmad Muhammad Darwish, Muhammad Amin Haffar, Ahmad Hussein
El Kaba’, Abdul Wahhab Sankari, Amer Mustafa Ji’an, Muhammad
Diy’al-deen Assaf, Mua’ayyad Muhammad Ali Suwwan, Mas’ab El
Khalaf, Muhammad Shamsi hajj Bakeer, Mustafa Ahmad Midlij,
Muhammad Ammash Muhammad, and Ahmad El Shatti. The three
remaining members of the group were Abdallah Julaq, Yasir El
Sayel, and Hamad El Ujayl.
The family of
Syrian citizen Khalil hamadah Ibn Sulayman said that he
traveled to Iraq on a business trip, but was arrested in
Mosul. His family did not hear anything about him after his
arrest.
On 15 July 2006
the Iraqi Interior Ministry arrested 25-years old Saleh
Fawzi El Madani by picking him up from the street just
because he was Syrian. His body was found in a Baghdad
street in early August 2006. He was killed and his body was
mutilated.
With the
beginning of October 2006, the two twin brothers Zaid and
Zaidoun, sons of the political refugee Ahmad Muhammad Dhib
Tarkawi of Homs were killed by an armed gang.
Meanwhile,
Syrian Kurdish national Mahmoud Daghastani was abducted and
killed in cold blood in Iraq. He was abducted along with six
other non-Syrians by an unknown group.
On 21 October
2006, Syrian Kurdish journalist Hussein Fiqeh of ‘Afreen,
who is the correspondent of the Laylan Magazine, left Syria
for Iraq. On his way back to Syria, he disappeared. It was
known later that he was arrested by the American forces at
the Rabi’ah border crossing and held in Abu Ghayrib prison.
On Tuesday, 19
December 2006, the American forces released Syrian citizen
Muhammad Abdul Qader Kattan from Aleppo after spending about
two years in American prisons in Iraq without any reason. On
the same day, Syrian citizen Abdul Ghani Mustafa Hamdou of
the coastal area, who spent about one year in the American
prisons in Iraq without any known reasons, was released.
It should be
noted that many Syrian citizens who sought refuge in Iraq
because of their opposition to the regime in Syria, were
arrested, abducted or killed in Iraq. Some Syrian citizens
tried to return to Syria after the entry of the American
forces into Iraq in 2003. Nonetheless, the Syrian security
authorities did not allow some of them to come back home
while others were allowed to return to Syria. Meanwhile, the
Syrian security authorities arrested some of them and
referred them to the State Security Court, which issued
prison sentences against them.
Arab detainees
in Syria
-Syrian
authorities arrested on 17 January 2006 Bahraini university
student Jad Subhi.
-Four
Palestinian young men from the Yarmouk refugee camp in
Damascus were arrested and referred to the Supreme State
Security Court in Damascus on different charges. These were:
28-year old Yahya Qa’oud, 23-years old Majd Dahman; 31-years
old Diyaul Hindi; and 21-years-old Muhammad Sha’ban.
-On Sunday, 19
March 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
sentenced a Jordanian national of a Palestinian origin,
Abu-Mayyaleh, to a three-year prison term along with
deportation from Syria.
-On 17 August
2006, Syrian authorities arrested Maher Sulayman Najmeh, a
Palestinian from the Yarmouk refugee camp on the strength of
his Islamist leanings.
-On Sunday, 24
December 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
sentenced Muhammad Mustafa Isma’il, a Lebanese national of
Palestinian origin, to an eight-year prison term.
Al-Ahwaz:
On 11 May 2006,
the security services arrested the leader of the
Organization for the Liberation of Al-Ahwaz, Faleh Abdullah
El Mansuri, who arrived in Syria from the Netherlands. He
was carrying the Dutch nationality. The Syrian authorities
also arrested Taher Ali Mazra’ah, alias Abu Nidal El Ahwazi.
On the same
date, the Syrian authorities arrested the following:
-Abdul Rasoul
Ali Masra’ah El Tamimi, alias Abu-Tawfiq.
-34-years old
Musa Mahdi Suwwari, a university student.
-30-years-old
Issa El Yassin, a university student.
-20-years old
Ahmad Abdul Jaber Abiyat.
-32-years old
Jamal Ubaydawi, a political science student at the
University of Damascus.
-Sa’eed Saki
OUdeh.
Nonetheless,
four days after their arrest, the Syrian authorities handed
over most of these detainees to Iran, which held them in
custody and sentenced some of them.
Arab detainees
in Libya:
As Mahmoud
Hassan Shuhayber and Fatahallah Hassan Shuhayber, two
Palestinians residing in Syria, arrived in Damascus
International Airport at dawn on Friday, 17 November 2006,
they were arrested by the Syrian authorities. These two,
along with a group of Palestinians residing in Lebanon and
Jordan, were arrested in Libya in 1990 on Charges of
belonging to a Sufi (Mystic) faction and released on Friday,
17 November. On 4 December 2006, and after two weeks of
investigation, the Syrian authorities released them.
The Lebanese
detainees in Syria
The Syrian
authorities continued to deny that there were any Lebanese
citizens imprisoned in Syria for political reasons.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese side was insisting that there were
some 600 Lebanese prisoners held in Syria. Lebanese human
rights organizations confirmed this figure and said some of
these were missing. Meanwhile, the Syrian government has
recently requested to know about the fate of Syrians which
it said that they were arrested or were missing in Lebanon.
Some progress
was made in 2006 in this regard. A committee comprising the
two countries was formed to tackle the issue of the missing
Syrians and Lebanese on equal footing. Following a series of
meetings held between 3 October 2005 and 29 April 2006, the
Syrian side received a reply from the Lebanese side
concerning 1088 missing Syrians, disclosing the fate of two
of them only.
Meanwhile, the
Lebanese side received a reply concerning 724 missing
Lebanese in Syria. Syria said that 10 of these were Syrians
while the Lebanese said that they were Lebanese nationals of
Syrian origin, and that they were released from prison by a
presidential amnesty.
The Lebanese
side also received an answer on the fate of a further 88
persons held in Syrian prisons in addition to a Lebanese nun
called Inhad Fayez who was held at the Homs central prison
on charges of smuggling drugs. The Lebanese also received an
answer concerning the execution of a Lebanese citizen called
Bassam Riyad Mujalej on 22 May 1995 along with the
attachment of the court decision. The Lebanese also received
an answer concerning the fate of 32 Lebanese who were tried.
The charges were contained in an attachment sent to the
Lebanese.
The Syrians
said that some of them were released. They also submitted to
the Lebanese side the dates of the issuance of the sentences
and the dates of the release. The Syrians also submitted
records containing information on Lebanese who were arrested
in Lebanon during the Syrian presence in Lebanon, saying
that they were handed over to the Lebanese authorities
between 1991 and 2005.
Those who were
released in 2006:
-After spending
four years and five months out of the five-year prison
sentence, the Syrian authorities released on 18 January the
following five detainees who were arrested in the spring:
Riyad Sayf, Ma’moun El Himsi, Dr Walid El Bunni, Fawwaz
Tallu, and attorney Habib Issa.
-On 25 February
2006, the Syrian security authorities released Muhammad
Najati Tayyarah, who was arrested one day earlier. He was
then released at a late hour on the evening of 23 March 2006
after spending 24 hours in the prison cell when he was
arrested on 22 March.
-On 9 March
2006, the security authorities released the correspondent of
the Lebanese newspaper Al-Nahar in Damascus, Sha’ban Abboud,
after holding him for four days after which he was referred
to the extraordinary military judiciary.
-The security
authorities released on the same day of 9 March 2006
Muhammad Dirar, son of the imprisoned Riyad Dirar. Muhammad
Dirar was arrested for distributing a statement demanding
the release of his father Riyad Dirar.
-On 16 March
2006, the President of the National Organization for Human
Rights in Syria, Dr Ammar Qurbi, was released. Qurbi was
arrested by the Syrian security authorities at Damascus
International airport on 12 March 2006 when he was returning
from a trip he made to Washington and Paris.
-On 22 April
2006, the security services in the city of Aleppo released
Dr Ammar Qurbi who was arrested one day before 10 April 2006
after the Council of the Board of Directors of the National
Organization of Human Rights in Syria declared him as
president of the organization.
-On 27 March
2006, the authorities released Samir Nashshar, who was
arrested by the military security at 2100 hours on 25 March
2006.
-On 27 March
2006, the Syrian authorities released 18 Syrian Kurdish
citizens and then released 17 others who were arrested on
the evening of 20 March during Kurdish celebrations of the
Kurdish Nayrous Festival in the suburbs of the city of
Aleppo.
-On 28 March
2006, the security authorities released Hilal Rajab, member
of the Democratic Action Committee in the city of Latakia.
-On 29 March
2006 the security authorities released Shawkat Gharz El
Deen, Adnan Abu-Asi’, and Ayham El Bdour and referred them
to a military court.
-In April, the
Syrian authorities released Fayez El Hallawq, who was
arrested on 26 March.
-On 4 April
2006, the Syrian authorities in Tartus released 56-years old
retired army officer Sami El ‘Abbas, who was arrested by the
Syrian military intelligence at home before 3 April 2006.
-On 27 April
2006, the Syrian authorities released Waddah Nasir Ibn
Mahmoud.
-On 2 June
2006, the Syrian authorities released Yasser Milhem and Umar
Adlibi who were arrested by the security authorities in the
city of Homs at noon on 30 May 2006.
-On 10 June
2006, the court released Mar’I Imran who was arrested by the
Syrian authorities in front of the Supreme State Security
Court, on Sunday, 4 June 2006.
-Early in July,
the Syrian authorities released Dr. Ali El Shaykh Haidar,
Syria’s secretary of the Social National Syrian party, and
Hussein Bakir. The two were arrested on 28 June 2006.
-On 16 July
2006, the second investigating magistrate decided to release
each of attorney Mahmoud mar’I, Nidal Darwish, Dr. Safwan
Tayfour, and Ghalib Amer at a bail of 1,000 liras, or $20,
each. The authorities arrested them on 16 and 17 May 2006 on
charges of signing the Beirut-Damascus Declaration.
-The Syrian
authorities released on 23 July 2006 Kurdish Syrian national
Mas’oud after serving his prison term in full. He had been
indicted by the Supreme State Security Court for three years
of imprisonment.
-On 25 August
2006, engineer Hassan Zainou was released on a bail so as to
be tried by the military court without being held in custody
during the trial period. The court sentenced him for a month
and a half of imprisonment on 3 December 2006.
-On 5 September
2006, the Syrian authorities released Muhammad Mahfouz on a
bail of 1,000 Liras, or US $20.
-On 7 September
2006, the Syrian authorities released four citizens arrested
on 23 August 2006. They were Ahmad El Khalaf El Roumi,
Hassan El Ashour, Ramadan Ramadan, Saleh El Rahhal.
-On 20
September 2006. The Syrian authorities released Muhammad
hijji Darwish, who was summoned to the Palestine branch on
14 September 2006 and stayed there until he was released.
-On 20
September 2006, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus
agreed to the request to release Dr. Mahmoud El Sarem on a
bail of 5,000 Syrian Liras, provided that he is tried while
he is out of custody. The security services arrested him on
19 September 2005 in Damascus.
-On 23
September 2006, the Syrian authorities released journalist
Muhannad Abdul Rahman who was arrested by the Political
Security in the outskirts of Damascus on 7 September 2006.
-Syrian citizen
Wulat Khalil Rashid was released on 24 September 2006
following a sentence issued by the State Security Court
imprisoning him for five years. The sentence was commuted to
two and a half years.
-On the evening
of 25 September 2006, the Syrian authorities released
activist Bassam Badrah provided that undergoes trial while
he is not held in custody. However, the Amnesty Decree
issued on 28 December 2006 included Badrah.
-On 25
September 2006, referral judge Halimah haydar decided to
release each of Mahmoud Issa, Khalil Hussein, and Sulayman
El Sharr on a bail of 1,000 Syrian Liras each, provided that
they undergo trial while they were not held in custody. On
22 October 2006, the Second Investigating Magistrate decided
to level several charges to them. He also decided to deposit
them at the Damascus Central Prison.
-On 29
September 2006, the Syrian authorities released Abdou Khalaf
Wallou after the warning which the National Organization of
Human Rights made about his deteriorating health condition.
Wallou was arrested on Monday night, 19 June 2006.
-On Saturday,
30 September 2006, the Syrian authorities released member of
the National Organization of Human Rights, writer Muhammad
Ghanim, after serving his prison term. He was arrested on 31
March 2006.
-On 30
September 2006, the Syrian authorities released Shafan Abdou
at the expiry of his prison term.
-In September,
the Syrian authorities released two Kurdish Syrian citizens
which they arrested on 20 March 2006 after they participated
in the candles procession at night to celebrate the Nairouz
Festival. The number of people arrested was 75.
-On 4 October
2006, the military judge release writer Ali El Abdallah and
his son Muhammad, after issuing a sentence on them. The
military court sentenced them to six months of imprisonment
for each. They were arrested at the end of March 2006.
-On Thursday,
12 October 2006, the judge of chamber 11 of the First
Instance Criminal Court in Damascus decided to release
Syrian opposition leader Fateh Jamous on a token bail of 500
Syrian Liras, provided that he is tried while not being kept
in custody.
-On Monday, 13
November 2006, the Syrian authorities released Murad, son of
Shaykh Ma’shouq El Khaznawi, who was arrested on the morning
of the same day on the Jordanian-Syrian borders.
-On Sunday, 24
December 2006, the Syrian authorities released Basheer
Abu-al-Laban and Hashem Bayrali in Homs. They were arrested
along with others on Saturday, 11 November 2006.
-with the
beginning of 2007, the Syrian authorities released activist
Ali El Shihabi who was arrested on 10 August 2006 as
benefited from the amnesty issued on 28 December 2006.
The economic,
Social and Cultural Rights
The economic
report
Despite the
numerous economic decrees and the serious efforts made by
the Syrian government to raise the level of income of its
citizens, nothing new was evident to distinguish the year
from earlier years vis-à-vis the overall problems which the
State has been suffering from for years. These problems
could be seen in the rising rate of unemployment, meager
wages compared with the high commodity prices, the
increasing inflation, and the lack of new work
opportunities.
Observers
believe that there are several reasons for this. On top of
these were the political reasons. There were also the
domestic reasons vis-à-vis the futility of the solutions
which the government tried because of bad planning or no
planning at all, the spread of economic diseases, and lack
of accountability. All this has created a chaos which the
Syrian citizens paid its price.
It was noticed
that in this year, an increasing number of decrees was
issued by the Finance Ministry on taxes. This has
overburdened the citizens and this was evident from the
decrees issued by the Justice and Transport Ministries.
The sum total
of these problems produced an enormous number of money
crimes, i.e. burglary, theft, and misuse of trust. In the
Aleppo Governorate alone, a total of 7400 crimes were
committed until 28 December 2006. Moral crimes such as
adultery and fornication, reached a total of 890 in Aleppo
until 28 December 2006.
The average
income of the Syrian citizen was $150 per month and this
income cannot cope with the high prices of commodities,
including staples, such as fuel and foodstuffs.
It remains for
us to say that the rate of unemployment was 2 per cent
higher this year from the earlier year. Preliminary figures
show that there are well over 800,000 unemployed persons. 65
per cent of these are university graduates, and this is the
main reason for the spread of the foregoing crimes.
Resolutions and
recommendations
Despite the
relative improvement of the Syrian economy, it still needs
vast and profound reforms in order to reach advanced levels
of growth and the achievement of a higher standard of living
under the challenges which Syria is living:
1- Oil is a
depleting resource. It is expected to dry out within the
next 10 years.
2- The rate of
population growth in Syria at 3.4 per cent per year is a
high rate.
3- Commercial
openness with all its kinds, particularly if the
European-Mediterranean partnership is finally signed.
The situation
of the Syrian economy shows that its capabilities are not
utilized in a good way. This economy could give better
results and create a higher level of social prosperity had
the suitable legislative conditions, the right
organizational structure, and good management been provided.
Moreover, the Syrian economy needs the following:
-Combat of
corruption which is spread in all departments of State.
-Non-reliance
on the experiences of others for application in our country.
-Balance should
be achieved between the necessary role of the State and its
intensive presence in the management of the economy, on the
one hand, and the trend toward the free market economy and
the activation of the private sector, on the other.
-Achievement of
a comprehensive development based on three pillars: growth,
stability and fairness.
-Determining
the priorities of investment.
-Giving the
export-oriented industries a major importance in order to
offset the export of oil if it is depleted.
-drawing up a
special strategy on the upgrading of the industrial sector.
-Formulating a
clear policy for the encouragement of the export-oriented
industries.
-Developing the
specialized technical institutes.
-Developing the
infrastructure and establishing industrial zones.
-Formulation of
an industrial data base.
-rehabilitation
of the vulnerable industrial establishments.
-Developing of
the industrial bank.
-Maximizing the
industrial proceeds.
-Providing
infrastructure and basic services that are necessary for
investment.
-Promoting the
administrative and technical capabilities with the aim of
maximization of skill.
-Finding the
group of the successful managers and qualified human
resources.
-Upgrading and
modernizing the banking system.
-Creating a
stock exchange market for the circulation of shares.
-Review of the
taxation policy and simplifying relevant legislation.
-Eliminating
the bureaucratic obstacles.
-Formulating a
clear specialized strategy.
Press freedoms,
the Internet and publications:
1- Press
freedom:
The Syrian
authorities monopolize all means of expression. Foremost are
the newspapers. The press and media freedom in Syria did not
make any significant progress in Syria in 2006, but
underwent a clear retreat last year, i.e. the consolidation
of the unilateral outlook in all the media and the return to
the use of the method of arrests in replying to the word.
Within the year, several writers and journalists were
arrested, such as Michel Kilou; Ali El Shihabi; member of
the National Organization of Human Rights Muhammad Ghanim;
and the correspondent of the Lebanese newspaper al-Nahar in
Damascus Sha’ban Abboud. There is a firm evidence to
substantiate these facts.
At one point,
the Syrian authorities gave a license to the El Sham
television channel to operate, but soon after that, it
closed down the television channel on the pretext that the
paperwork needed for licensing in the free zone was not
completed. The Syrian authorities earlier suspended the
newspapers El Dawmari and El Mabka.
As for the
activities of publications, writing and printing books, it
is subject to strict constraints as the approval of the
Ministry of Information is necessary for carrying out such
activities. The Ministry of Information in turn sends the
books to the security services to secure the approval.
As for the
cultural centers, they are under the control of the Syrian
authorities and are used to explain the policies and
ideology of the regime. As for the opposition citizens, they
are prohibited to use the halls of the cultural center.
The
Publications Law no. 50 of 2001 was a setback for the
freedom of expression as it spelled out tough penalties for
the violations of the instructions stipulated by the law
which could reach the penalty of imprisonment for three
years and a fine of l million Syrian Liras. It has also laid
down difficult conditions for the licensing of the
publication or for the issuance of the publication.
2- Internet
Some l million
Syrians out of a total population of 18 million people were
using the Internet by the end of 2006. This shows the low
rate of users of the Internet compared to the population. As
for the other services of the Internet, they remained
limited in scope and very expensive and need a series of
documents and complex measures. Despite the relatively high
cost of the use of the means of communications in Syria, the
State represented in the Ministry of Communications imposed
a new tax on the ground telephone and cellular phone bills
by 2 per cent and 3 per cent consecutively under the name of
the Tax on Luxury consumer spending.
The Internet in
Syria remains not subject to a law that regulates it or
regulates its mechanism. This has made it at times an
instrument for the settlement of accounts, slander and
blackmail. It was also used by the Syrian authorities to
disfigure the image of some opposition leaders and
activists. Talk is currently ongoing about a law for
regulating electronic publication, and it is feared that it
might place restrictions on freedom.
Deletion of
some websites
In 2006, there
was an evident retreat in the freedom of the use of the
Internet. The deletion of the websites and the harassment of
users continued. Several new websites for newspapers and
news, cultural and Islamic websites were hacked.
The websites of
the London-based newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, the Lebanese
newspaper El Mustaqbal, and the Kuwaiti newspaper El
Siyasah, the website of the civilized dialogue and the
Middle East dialogue, in addition to the international
electronic websites such as the Hotmail which was hacked on
17 July 2006 to join the long list of the hacked websites
such as the Kurdish websites and news websites such as
Akhbar El Sharq, Al-Quds Al Arabi, Arab Times, Elaf, and
Islamonline. This hacking continued to apply to the new
companies.
Recommendations
1- To delete
the elastic paragraphs contained in the legislation which
could have more than one interpretation or insinuation?
2- To delete
all forms of advance sponsorship of the freedom of
expression and the freedom of the press and the media.
3- To prohibit
prison sentences for crimes committed through publications
or through opinion.
4- To approve
laws that include the right to access information.
5- To amend the
legislation to become compatible with the international
conventions.
6- To include a
provision in the law that journalists should only be tried
by civil courts.
7- To stipulate
the guarantee of the right of criticism which the press
should enjoy.
8- To draft a
professional Charter of Honor for the journalists stemming
from their freewill, not through government pressure.
9- To hold
training workshops with the aim of raising the professional
competence of the journalists and enhancing their legal
education.
10- To free the
newspapers from government control and to restrict their
ownership with the private sector.
11- To cancel
all forms of taxes imposed on the income of the press.
12- Government
and public institutions should not discriminate between one
publication and the other in the advertisements they place
in the newspapers.
Education in
Syria in 2006
It is for
certain that education in Syria spread vertically to cover
all the geography of the Syrian Homeland to the point that
education in the middle and end of the last century reached
the nomads of the al-Sham desert. Although education
according to the principle of the Syrian constitution is
free of charge in all its phases, private education spread
out quickly in several forms to the diverse sectors of the
community.
In the public
education in Syria, there is the phenomenon of the two-shift
schools and the phenomenon of the various branches of the
classes that are crowded with students. Students were not
requested in the Third Millennium to be clad in military
clothes. Nonetheless, the political and ideological
interventions of the ruling Ba’th Party continued.
Two of the main
provisions of the constitution were violated. They were the
provision of free education and the equality of opportunity
among all citizens. The violation could be seen in the
creation of the parallel education which eats up the seats
of universities and offers them to the rich students by
raising the averages of university acceptance to
astronomical rates. Although the beating of students was
officially banned, it is still being done in the remote
villages.
Since the
economic crisis is primarily affecting the middle-income and
low-income families, many Syrian families are withdrawing
their children from school and sending them to the savage
labor market.
The health
conditions in Syria in 2006
The larger part
of the health services offered to the Syrians is carried out
by the public sector through hospitals, health centers and
specialized centers. The public sector continued to suffer
from bad management and administrative corruption, just like
the other services sectors. This is due to the lack of
independence of the health decision vis-à-vis the management
and the circumstances under which the services are offered.
Moreover, not enough money is being spent on health as the
Health Ministry budget was not more than 1.4 per cent of
Syria’s Gross Domestic Product [GDP].
This caused
major health service projects to be completed belatedly.
Moreover, there is shortage in supplying public hospitals
with the needed equipment. The present equipment kept by the
hospitals does not keep pace with the medical developments.
On the level of
the of the health management and legislation, several laws
have not been approved as yet, such as the law demanding
doctors to work full-time for the government and the laws
regulating the transplant of human organs. The health
insurance laws which are disparate from one association to
another and from one government sector to another were not
re-discussed. There is also a need to consider a national
law for health insurance that would include all the Syrian
citizens.
We should make
a reminder in this connection that there is a need for the
distribution of the human resources in the fashion that is
fit with offering efficient health services to the citizens
and in getting rid of the covert unemployment.
We should cite
the failure of the experiment of transforming of some of the
hospitals of the public sector such as the Damascus and Ibn
Sina hospitals to independent administrative bodies as
something which did not reflect on the level of the services
offered to the patients or on the level of improving the
income of the teams working in these hospitals.
We can also
cite the backward conditions of psychiatry in Syria or the
shortage in the number of beds allocated to psychiatric
patients.
Despite all the
negative aspects, we should point out several free-of-charge
health services carried out by the Ministry of health in
collaboration with the World health Organization [WHO] and
the UNICEF, such as the national inoculation program against
epidemic diseases.
This program
has been effectively implemented, and the evidence of this
was that Syria is now free of Polio, Tetanus, and
Diphtheria. Projects of health villages were also
effectively implemented, and insulin was provided free of
charge for diabetes patients.
It was also
noticed that the number of people suffering from
Tuberculosis remained constant. Laboratory tests and
medicines were provided free of charge for these patients.
No bird flu cases were reported in Syria and no SARS cases
were reported either. The rate of death of infants declined
to 17.1 for each 1,000 live newborn. The rate of mother
deaths declined to 58 mothers for each 1,000 live newborn
compared with the earlier years.
Report on the
professional associations and societies in Syria
The law
guarantees for citizens the freedom of forming the
professional associations and societies and the freedom to
join them. However, these professional associations and
societies should be subject to the hegemony of the
government. Most of these associations are members of the
General Federation of the Workers Trade Unions, which is
under the control of the ruling party, which in turn
formulates the rules and regulations for most of these
associations and societies. The ruling party also
participates in formulating the legislation pertaining to
these associations. Up till this minute, the General
Federation remains in control of most of the trade union
action.
This kind of
hegemony which the government exercises on these trade
unions have made them loose every goal for which they were
created, such as the defense of the interests of their
members and the protection of their rights and gains.
Consequently, every organizational or legislative attempt to
advance the structural framework of the trade unions was
undercut.
Consequently,
these trade unions and associations ended up being outside
the framework drawn up by the Syrian constitution which
affirmed in its provisions the right of each citizen to
participate in the political, economic and social life of
the country and the right to exercise their rights and enjoy
their freedom [Article 26-27 of the constitution].
Decades ago,
the government has created two organizational criteria to
regulate the functions of these associations. It allowed the
scientific associations to remain independent. However, it
kept indirect control over these associations through the
executive instructions which placed these associations under
the direct supervision of the security services and the
leadership of the ruling party. Meanwhile, the second
criterion pertaining to the popular organizations and the
General Federation was that the State maintained absolute
financial, administrative and political control over them.
The reality
governing children and adolescents in Syria
Syria has
ratified the International Labor Agreement. Some of the
provisions of this agreement allow the employment of
children and providing them with protection. Syria has also
approved the Agreement on the Rights of the Child in
accordance with Law no. 8 of 13 June 1993 which was approved
by the United Nations. Paragraph 2 of Article 44 of the
constitution provides for the protection of maternity and
childhood, children and adolescents and provides them with
the appropriate conditions to upgrade their skills.
Moreover, Law no. 24 of 10 December 2000 included a
stipulation that persons less than 15 years of age may not
enter the labor market.
However, these
laws remained ink on paper. We can see that 65 per cent of
the working children are of the age group 10 to 14 years
old. They are employed by the agricultural sector. Moreover,
about half of the working children do not get any wages.
There are
thousands of children working in public and private plants
and factories or in a variety of workshops. There are also
destitute children in streets and alleys in the various
Syrian cities. They sell newspapers, cigarettes, lottery
tickets, shoe-shine, and other kinds of work.
These have
become destitute children because of social and economic
conditions. They are gradually turning into criminals. The
National Organization of Human Rights has noticed the
phenomenon of children’s recurrent flight from schools
despite the enforcement of mandatory education in the State.
However, what
really provokes people is the presence of children at the
traffic lights. You will find children knocking at the
windows of the cars and pursuing you in all directions while
the policeman is acting as if it was none of his business
and does not deter or stop them.
Nurseries and
Kindergartens
Most government
homes are unqualified from the environmental and health
aspects to serve as nurseries or kindergartens although
there is a law forcing these homes to have a psychological
social and health guides. As for the nurseries and
kindergartens affiliated with associations or private
denominations, they are very expensive compared to the
personal income, particularly the people with limited
income.
Displaced
children and orphans
Decree no. 52
of 1 September 2003 viewed the a actions violating the law
of the child who completed seven years of age as resulting
from social and psychological circumstances which need to be
corrected instead of being punished. However, the state of
displacement in Syria has no legal institution to care for
the displaced children.
Recommendations
On the crimes
of honor and revenge committed by adolescents
Parents often
push one of their children to commit a crime of murder on
the grounds of honor or a crime of murder as a revenge so as
to benefit from the reduced penalty imposed on the child. If
the adolescent commits such criminal actions, the National
Organization of Human Rights recommends the issuance of a
law of deterrence by holding the father of the adolescent
accountable for the criminal action or whoever instigated
the carrying out of the criminal action.
Issuance of
legislation for the protection of the child
In order to
care for childhood, legislation should be issued for the
protection of the child in all domains, including destitute
children and rejected children who gradually turn into
criminals.
The State
should become involved through the legal and administrative
institutions for the care of criminal adolescents who are
either entering or leaving prison. They should be provided
with care, attention, and education and enroll them into the
various kinds of theoretical and professional boarding
schools.
Rights of
Syrian women
Measures
supporting the rights of women
Syria has
adopted several legislative measures aimed at the protection
of women’s rights. The Syrian Commission for Family Affairs
was created by Law no. 42 of 2003. The law was justified on
the grounds that it sought to amend certain articles and
provisions for the benefit of women and to propose draft
laws seeking to alleviate the obstacles standing in the way
of achieving the advancement of women and their full
equality with men. Moreover, Law no. 78 of 2001 stipulating
that the retirement salary of the working woman should go to
her legal inheritors after her death on the strength of the
Insurances law.
Law no. 18 of
2003 stipulates an increase in the age of custodianship to
become `13 for the boys and 15 for the girls. Article 133 of
the Labor law was amended when Law no. 35 of 2002 was issued
increasing the paid maternity leave from 75 to 120 days for
the first child, 90 days for the second child, and 75 days
for the third child. The nursing working mother is entitled
to an l-hour leave per day until her baby becomes one year
old.
The legislation
provides that healthy conditions should be provided for
women’s work. Accordingly, the Labor Law fixed the working
hours of women in the private sector and Stated that she
should not be employed in dangerous professions from the
health and moral standpoints. It is also prohibited to
employ women in hardship or night jobs.
By virtue of
the law, Syrian women have an independent financial
competence for their husbands. She could become engaged in
commerce and could sign contracts. The law has also provided
her with full equality with men to file lawsuits. Several
legal articles provided for women’s protection against
violence.
The Syrian law
punishes those who trade with women and prohibits the
opening of prostitution places. The law also punishes those
who rape women. The penalty could reach 15 years and could
reach no less than 21 years if the victim is less than 15
years old. There is a number of draft laws which will be
issued soon. These laws will achieve further progress of the
women situation in the Syrian society.
Nonetheless,
there are a still a number of discrimination against women
in more than one domain.
The penal Code
Generally
speaking, the provisions of the civil law were compatible
with the constitution as they held women equal with men in
all rights and duties. Her testimony before the court is
equal to the testimony of man with the exception of the
Shari’ah courts. On the crimes of assault on honor,
abduction, and rape, Articles 489 – 507, the Syrian Penal
Code stipulates the pursuit of the action and the exemption
of the perpetrator from any punishment if a proper marriage
contract is concluded between the perpetrator of the crime
and the victim. Here women fall as victims twice: the first
time by being raped and the second time by accepting to
marry a criminal who does not deserve to marry her. The law
did not incriminate the action of rape if the husband rapes
his wife.
Article 473 of
the Syrian Penal Code on the Misdemeanors that violate the
honor of the family:
This article
distinguished between man and woman in the penalty, in the
evidence, and in the right to file a lawsuit. The article
punishes the adulterous woman by a prison term of three
months to two years and her fornication partner by the same
penalty if he is married and one month to one year of
imprisonment if he was not married.
Crimes of honor
The Syrian
Penal Code absolves the murderer if he catches his wife or
sister or a woman relative red-handed committing adultery or
sex with another person. It also gives him a commuted
sentence if he catches his wife or sister or any woman
relative in a suspicious mood with another person. Women do
not benefit from this commuted sentence if they catch their
husbands red-handed with another woman.
This law seeks
to justify the murder on the ground that the killer in such
a situation was overwhelmed by a revolution of extreme anger
which makes him reach the point of loosing self-control, and
thus, he kills. Nonetheless, the killer commits the murder
for reasons that have nothing to do with honor, but he
fabricates his action on the basis of the motive of honor
that is protected by law.
Moreover, the
practical application of this law explains that the commuted
sentences do no longer embrace the father or brother but
extended to include the cousins and relatives. It is
confirmed in the issues that have been viewed or the
sentences that have been issued.
This article is
unconstitutional because it gives the right of punishment to
the individuals, not to the State. Therefore, it has become
necessary to amend the provision of this article of the
Penal Code, all the more so because the legal reference
which it was taken from was the French Law, not the Islamic
Shari’ah.
The citizenship
Law
The Syrian law
determines the nationality of the child on the basis of the
nationality of his father. Children of a Syrian Arab woman
cannot get her nationality unless it is difficult to
identify their father. This constitutes a real
discrimination against women and this is a violation of the
principle of equality in rights and duties.
Civil status
law
The civil
status law gives man the right to get married, but in the
case of women, their guardians should agree to their
marriage. If a woman gets married to a man without the
approval of her guardian, she would remain vulnerable to
divorce until she becomes pregnant.
There are other
discriminatory issues, such as polygamy and the financial
support for the woman whereas she would stop receiving this
support if she goes to work outside home without the
permission of her husband. Irrespective of the social status
a woman may reach, she would never be given the right to
exercise custodianship over her underage children. Women’s
testimony in legal lawsuits is not equally accepted as that
of men.
Report on the
minorities in Syria
Historically
speaking, the Syrian society is known to be rich in
diversity, whether it is national, religious or sectarian.
There are a number of nationalities which constitute the
Syrian society, including the Arab, Kurdish, Syriac,
Chaldeans, Assyrians, Armenians and Turkomen. The Kurds
constitute the second largest nationality, and according to
neutral estimates, they form some 9 to ll per cent of the
population. However, no official census was made of the
Kurds. The Kurds belong to the Kurdish nationality and are
living in Syria’s northern and northeastern areas, which are
the historic areas of their stay. The Kurds are suffering
from the discriminatory and extraordinary measures that are
applied against them.
On 5 October
1962 an extraordinary census was made in the Kurdish areas
of the El Hasakah Governorate after which dozens of
thousands of Kurdish families were stripped off the Syrian
citizenship. As time went on, the number of the Kurds who
were stripped off the Syrian citizenship increased. This has
created social, economic, legal and political problems.
Denial of the
Kurdish child of his Syrian citizenship is a violation of
Article seven of the Agreement on the Rights of the Child of
1989 which Syria ratified in July 1993. The agreement
stipulates that the child should be “registered immediately
after his birth and shall have the right to have a name and
to gain a citizenship.” The states that are a party to this
agreement shall guarantee these rights in accordance with
their national laws and commitments to the international
agreements on human rights, particularly in the cases where
the child is considered as having no citizenship.
Those who are
stripped off their nationality cannot work or own property.
They are not allowed to stay in hotels or marry persons
carrying citizenship without the approval of the security
authorities.
In 2006, a
positive development occurred. The regime admitted for the
first time officially and publicly that there were problems
related to the Kurds. Vice President Najah El Attar
conferred with the leaders of the Kurdish parties,
intellectuals and writers. She held two separate meetings
with them. Kurdish problems were discussed, including the
problem of those who were stripped off the Syrian
nationality. She promised to tackle this issue, but nothing
really had improved.
As for the
Kurdish holders of the Syrian identity, although their
status was better than those who were deprived of it, they
were still suffering some persecution. They are not allowed
to own property except after the acquisition of the approval
of the security services. The authorities also follow the
policy of Arabizing the names of the Kurdish towns and
villages and changing the demographic structure in the
region.
This has
prompted Kurdish families to immigrate into the interior
cities, thereby forming a belt of buildings that were
constructed without being licensed and a belt of poverty
around these cities. Moreover, the regime is not recognizing
them as the second largest nationality after the Arabs.
Consequently, they were denied the right of education in
their mother language and of accessing their culture.
The sweeping
majority of the Kurds are Muslims. However, some of them are
followers of the Ayzidiyah religion, which is one of the
very old religions that is not recognized by the
authorities, which force the Ayzidis to study the Islamic
religion in the government schools.
In addition to
these two nationalities, there are other national minorities
such as the Assyrians, Circassians, Chechens, Turkomen and
others. They are not constitutionally recognized. Therefore,
they are denied their national and cultural rights. They
only have some societies like the Circassian Society and
some churches where the Syriac language is taught. As for
the Armenians, they have their own churches, schools, and
The right of
environment and the right of housing
As a
consequence of the large increase in the rate of population
growth and the immigration from the rural-side to the urban
areas, more than 50 per cent of the population is now living
in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo. The Environmental Law
No. 50 of 2002 was approved in Syria.
The
environmental situation
Water
contamination
The people who
have no access to clean water supplies are vulnerable to
several diseases which they contract through polluted water.
They are also vulnerable to the spread of diseases because
of using irrigation water as potable water and because of
the deterioration of the environmental water systems as a
result of the pollution of the river waters.
The watch
campaigns of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and the
Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform revealed that
surface and underground water was polluted with the
industrial and household sewerage water in many areas.
Soil pollution
The areas
surrounding Damascus are polluted with the residues of the
lead-melting and other plants in the El Dabbaghat area. The
plantations from which food is taken are also polluted, as
high ratios of lead, cadium, Chrome, and arsenic were
detected in these plantations.
As for the
areas adjoining Homs, the soil pollution is an outcome of
the residues of the chemical industries, particularly the
plants of phosphate fertilizers. This soil pollution is
viewed as a big problem because it is occurring in an
environmentally sensitive area because the pollution could
penetrate the soil to reach the underground waters which are
not too deep and which are used as a source for potable
water.
As for the
areas adjoining Aleppo, the results of the tests made on the
vegetables that are watered by the polluted Quwaiq River
showed a high ratio of Arsenic concentrates which is beyond
the ratio allowed.
Air Pollution
Economic growth
and industrial and population concentrations in the cities
and the commercial, social and scientific activities that
follow and the increasing immigration from the rural areas
to the cities have produced several environmental problems.
On top of these problems is the air pollution. Environment
in the major population centers has turned into an
environment that is polluted with gases, residues of
emissions, hydrocarbons, smoke, lead and noise. This
pollution has reflected on the health of the population and
on their ability to work. Pollution has also caused a drop
in the green areas, gardens, parks and others.
Noise
Most areas now
have a high level of noise where the average level of noise
in most areas of Damascus and Aleppo range from 70 to 80
Decibels. The normal rate of noise in these areas should not
be above 55 decibels at daytime.
Municipal
garbage and dangerous garbage
The quantity of
the household garbage in Syria that are dispensed with is
estimated at 5,000 tons per year where 90 per cent to 100
per cent of the household garbage in the urban areas is
collected while only 64 per cent of the garbage is collected
in the rural areas.
Urban
environment
The
concentration of the commercial and industrial activity in
the cities has led to the increased immigration from the
rural sides to the cities. The expansion of the housing
areas built at random around the big cities, particularly in
Damascus and Aleppo, is viewed as a big problem as there are
209 residential areas built at random in Syria with a total
area of 26,600 hectars. A total of 30 per cent of the
population of the cities live in these areas.
The random
residential areas are densely populated and congested at an
average of 400 persons per square kilometer and could reach
700 to 800 persons per hectar compared to 216 persons per
hectar in the normal areas.
Houses in the
areas built at random lack the basic conditions of life that
are necessary for people to live such as sewerage and
potable water networks. The result of this is the spread of
the diseases that are communicated via water. Often the
quality of the air inside and outside these houses is bad.
This situation really harms the value of these two historic
cities in terms of their heritage.
Reasons for the
growth of the random residential areas
- Price of the
regular land designated for housing is higher than the
adjoining or agricultural land.
- Most of these
people are poor and cannot buy land in the regular areas.
- Lack of
regional planning and weakness of the economic activities in
the rural areas.
-
Organizational plans for the various areas did not keep pace
with the movement of expansion in the cities, particularly
in the areas of limited-income housing.
Report on the
prisons in Syria
No official
statistics have been published for prisons and political
detention places in Syria. Although the El Mazzah and Tadmur
Prisons were closed down, the premises of the security
services are still used as detention houses. Moreover, there
are still some detention houses that have unknown
destinations.
Damascus
Central Prison (Adra Prison)
It accommodates
about 6,000 inmates distributed into 13 sections that
include the various types of crime. The prison has 138
halls, with each hall capable of accommodating 30 inmates.
There are in the prison about 4,500 persons held in custody
and are still under trial. There is lack of material
resources to serve these detained persons while the persons
who have been convicted have better resources. The sections,
corridors, and halls are clean. The prison is supplied with
cabins through which the prisoners can contact the outside
world.
Adra prison has
a school for basic and secondary education consisting of
trades and handicrafts. There are 200 learners benefiting
from the programs offered by the school to rehabilitate the
inmates. There is in Adra Prison a library that can
accommodate 90 learners with 10,000 books. The social
research bureau is facing a problem of appointing the
researchers. Some of them spent 14 years and are still
working on the basis of a provisional daily contract, and
this explains the drop in the number of the researchers from
nine to three.
About the
classification of the crimes and perpetrators held at Adra
prison, we can find the following: the rate of inmates
indicted on charges of drug taking was 15 per cent, the rate
of inmates indicted on charges of drug trafficking was 5 per
cent. The remaining 80 per cent were inmates who were
convicted on criminal charges of the ordinary types of
crime.
There are 2,400
beds in the prison while there are about 6,000 inmates. The
previous administrations of the Society for the Care of
prisoners did not pay attention to the problems of the
inmates and did not try to resolve these problems. Moreover,
these previous administrations were dishonest.
Extortion was
evident by the inmates themselves concerning the selling of
items in Kiosks or the renting of the bed by one prisoner
from the other, or holding a cellular phone call. The reason
for the increase is that the persons held in custody are
more than double the number of convicts. The reason for this
is the slow process of litigation and the belated decisions
issued on the appeals submitted years ago.
Conclusions and
recommendations on prisons
If we return to
the judiciary, we can find out that there is a shortage in
the number of the judges and that each judge has more than
5,000 lawsuits to look into. Moreover, the halls are not
spacious enough. The number of courts has not been increased
so as to cope with a heavy workload of lawsuits which should
be looked into.
The truth of
the matter is that there is an urgent need to increase the
halls of the criminal courts. Courts close to the site of
the prison should be established so as to save time and
effort and to provide an additional factor of assurance
instead of transporting the prisoners to the heart of the
city in the midst of suffocating traffic congestion, not to
say the time and effort needed for doing so.
Finally, the
law pays a meager compensation that is fixed at 10 Syrian
Liras for each day of imprisonment if the defendant is
acquitted. Of course, this compensation cannot offset the
years or months which the defendant spent in prison or the
loss of his social status.
* * *
Current list of
the Board of Directors
1-Dr: Ammar
Qurabi – president
2- Thaer Al
Khateeb - vice president
3- Abdol Raheem
Ghmazeh – secretary
4-Bania
Mardeeny - training and editting encharge
5- Samer Matoky
– financial encharge
6- Jamila
Sadek- member
7- Jihan Amin-
member
8- Ibraheem
Issa waly- member |
