(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF letter to Bashar al-Assad, who will be the only candidate in Syrian presidential elections scheduled for 10 July 2000: Mr Bashar al-Assad Secretary General of the Syrian Baath Party Abu Rummaneh, Al-Rashid Street Damascus, Syria Paris, 6 July 2000 Dear Sir, Just a few days prior to the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF letter to Bashar al-Assad, who will be the only candidate in Syrian presidential elections scheduled for 10 July 2000:
Mr Bashar al-Assad
Secretary General of the Syrian Baath Party
Abu Rummaneh, Al-Rashid Street
Damascus, Syria
Paris, 6 July 2000
Dear Sir,
Just a few days prior to the presidential election in which you will solicit the votes of your fellow citizens, our organisation wishes to draw your attention to the press freedom situation in Syria.
We note that you have undertaken to support the struggle against corruption. As you well know, without an independent press it is difficult to effectively combat this plague. Your interest in the Internet leads us to believe that you are not indifferent to the free circulation of information. Allow me then to submit to you the cases of the seven journalists currently detained in your country, often in deplorable conditions.
1998 “Reporters Sans Frontières – Fondation de France” award winner Nizar Nayyouf, a member of the CDF (Committees for the Defence of Democratic Freedom) who wrote for the weekly Al-Huriyya and the magazine Al-Taqafa al-Ma’arifa, was arrested on 2 January 1992 and sentenced to ten years of hard labour for writing CDF leaflets. Nizar Nayyouf is suffering from numerous after-effects of his conditions of detention and torture. He is paralysed in the lower limbs due to spinal fractures caused by torture on the so-called “German chair”, which stretches the spine. He was also crucified upside down and beaten with iron bars several times.
Faysal Allush, a writer and journalist with the Palestinian weekly El Kahida, arrested in 1985, was tried and sentenced on 28 June 1993. He was accused of belonging to the (banned) Communist Action Party and was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.
Samir Al-Hassan, a Palestinian journalist with the weekly Al Asifa, also publisher of the magazine Fatah al-Intifada, was arrested on 1 April 1986. His trial started in July 1993 only, in the State Security Court which sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment. He was also accused of being a member of the Communist Action Party.
Faraj Ahmad Birqdar, a poet who wrote for the Palestinian weekly El Kahida, was arrested in March 1987 and interrogated by the army security police, who allegedly tortured him. He is believed to be in Seydnaya prison, north of Damascus, after spending seven years in solitary confinement. He was tried by the State Security Court in 1993 and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. He needs medical treatment to his spine as the result of torture, but this has been refused.
Nou’man Abdu, with the Lebanese monthly Al-Tarik, has been detained since 1992. In 1993 he was sentenced to 15 years in jail. In July 1998 he was transferred to Tadmour prison, in eastern Syria, where conditions of detention are particularly harsh.
Marwan Mohammed, a journalist with the Syrian government daily Al-Baas, was arrested on 18 October 1987. He was accused of being a member of the Communist Action Party and was sentenced in 1993 to ten years in prison.
‘Adel Isma’il, with the Lebanese daily Al Raïa, is accused of being an active member of the banned Democratic Baath Party. He was reportedly arrested in 1996 on his return from Algeria.
I wish to remind you that these detentions are a breach of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that your country ratified in 1969. I therefore trust that you will do everything in your power to ensure that these seven journalists regain their freedom as soon as possible – like their three colleagues released in recent weeks – and that the conditions for a free press are finally met. These detentions are all violations of the most basic human rights and tarnish the image of your country on the international scene.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Robert Ménard
Secretary-General
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be sent to:
Mr. Bashar al-Assad
Secretary General of the Syrian Baath Party
Abu Rummaneh, Al-Rashid Street
Damascus, SyriaPlease copy appeals to the source if possible.
