|
Syria: Domestic opposition gaining
strength, but still facing pressures
22.3.2006
|
|
|
|
DAMASCUS, 22 Mar
2006 (IRIN) - In 2001, then Member of Parliament
Riad Seif accused the regime of corruption after a
lucrative mobile-phone contract was awarded to a
cousin of President Bashar al-Assad. The MP's
accusation represented the high-water mark of the
so-called “Damascus Spring”, the brief thaw in
Syrian political life that followed al-Assad's
assumption of power.
It was a period in which political discussion groups
openly criticised government policy, hundreds of
political prisoners were released, media laws were
eased to allow for private publications and
activists spoke openly about lifting the country's
43-year old emergency laws.
"The regime is interested in staying in power for as
long as possible, preferably forever,” said Seif,
who was imprisoned in late 2001 after the “Spring”
turned to autumn, bringing a government crackdown on
opposition and pro-democracy activists.
Five years on, Seif, freed in January, finds himself
a key figure in a rejuvenated opposition movement
that – for the first time in its history – has
united behind a single reform statement, known as
the Damascus Declaration. "It spoke of bringing
democracy,” said Seif of the declaration, “and
changing, not reforming, the country for the first
time."
The petition was signed last October by an alliance
of leftist pan-Arab opposition parties in the
National Democratic Rally, a group of eight Kurdish
parties, the Committee for Revival of Civil Society
and a number of prominent opposition figures. The
declaration demanded the introduction of a
democratic system, the lifting of the country's
emergency laws and the release of prisoners of
conscience, explained the former MP, who has been
re-arrested twice since his release in January.
The statement, now endorsed by over 1,000 opposition
figures inside and outside the country, was also
signed by Ali Bayanouni, the London-based head of
the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Bayanouni’s signature
brought Syria's secular Arab nationalist opposition
together with the two forces – Kurds and Islamists –
seen as the main opponents of the ruling Ba'ath
Party.
In the early 1980s, a militant wing of the Muslim
Brotherhood led an armed uprising against the
secular Ba'athist state. The insurrection was
brutally suppressed in 1982 by security services,
who ordered the shelling of the city of Hama, which
the brotherhood had declared an autonomous Islamic
emirate.
A multi-faceted opposition
While suppressed by the Ba'ath party, whose right to
rule Syria is spelt out in the constitution, the
diverse and long-divided opposition commands little
support.
Ethnic groups are divided
largely along ideological lines: there are 12
Kurdish parties, only three less than all Arab
parties. Kurdish political aspirations range from
the radical activism of the Kurdish Leftist Party,
whose leaders seek membership in an independent
Kurdistan, to the Kurdish Unitarian Democratic
Party, which encourages Kurdish activism under the
umbrella of Syrian nationalism.
Conversely, ideological parties are divided along
ethnic lines: Syria's Assyrian Democratic
Organisation, for example, says it promotes
democracy based on securing the interests of the
ethnic minorities it represents. The Democratic Arab
Socialist Union Party, whose leader heads the
opposition grouping known as the Democratic Rally,
strives to unite pro-democracy movements under the
banner of Arabism.
The National Progressive Front (NPF), meanwhile, is
a coalition of nine parties – including the Syrian
Communist Party and the Syrian Socialist National
Party – whose agendas are politically aligned with
the Ba'ath party. The NPF passes legislation in the
People's Assembly, the country's legislature.
All opposition parties outside the NPF operate
illegally. This means that opposition party leaders
and activists are subject to arrest and imprisonment
on charges of violating the constitution or on
security-related charges. In its latest report on
Syria, the International Crisis Group called on
Damascus to "promote domestic political reform by
lifting the state of emergency [and] legalising
opposition parties".
Last June, the closing statement from the Ba'ath
Party's Regional Leadership Congress recommended the
introduction of a new law to license independent
political parties "to guarantee national
participation in political life on the foundation of
boosting national unity”. No such law, however, has
since been introduced.
www.irinnews.org
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 