THE DRUMBEAT:

Inside Syria's Gulag (Nir Boms, May 26, 2004, FrontPageMagazine.com)

[T]he story of Aktham Na’eesah—a lawyer, activist, and the recent laureate of the prestigious “Ludovic Trarieux” award for his distinct human rights work—provides a glimpse into the Syria’s “democratic” reality.

Two weeks ago, Na’eesah nearly died as a result of a stroke suffered inside the unforgiving walls of the Sadniah prison in Damascus, a facility notorious for the brutal “rehabilitation” programs it offers its political prisoners.

Luckily, though, Syrian guards summoned a doctor, who was able to save Na’eesah’s life—at least for the moment.

A longtime critic of Syria’s totalitarian Ba’athist regime, Na’eesah was first imprisoned in 1982 for his written calls for the protection and respect of human rights in Syria. In 1989, after years of harassment by Syria’s security apparatus, he and a group of fellow Syrian pro-democracy activists created the Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights (CDF).

In 1991, Na’eesah was arrested yet again for taking part in activities intended to regain the independence of the Syrian Bar Association. For his actions, he was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Following his release in 1998, Na’eesah and other CDF members continued their activism despite being subjected by Syrian authorities to routine surveillance, phone tapping, confiscation of mail and the harassment of their families.

That is, until April 13, when Na’eesah was arrested and thrown into Sadniah prison, accused of “spreading false information and establishing a secret organization with an international influence.”

Shortly before his arrest, Na’eesah had presented a petition to the government signed by 7,000 Syrian intellectuals seeking the abolition of Syria’s emergency laws, which have been in place since the Ba’ath party came to power in 1963.

He also issued a report that accused Syrian authorities of illegally arresting more than 1,000 Kurds and called for an end to the state's “terrorist and illegal practices” against the Kurdish minority in Syria (last month, close to a 100 Kurds were killed and more than 500 wounded in anti-government riots and around the Syrian city of Quamoshli).

Pssst...Assad has the yellowcake...pass it on...

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 26, 2004 12:58 PM