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President Bashar al-Assad of Syria may be
feeling the effects of President Obama's promised "change".
After years of US-imposed isolation, Assad has received two
US Congressional delegations since Obama became president,
plus a visit from John Kerry, the new chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
The very fact of these visits is an important step in
resuming diplomatic dialogue with Syria. But there are
concerns that the US delegations may be focusing solely on
Syria's regional policies and ignoring the country's abysmal
human rights record. Such a decision would be shortsighted
and would ultimately hamper the stated objective of making
Syria a positive actor in the Middle East.
The experience of European officials who have engaged in
talks with Damascus over the last year about Syria's support
for Hamas and Hezbollah and its relations with Lebanon,
Iraq, and Israel, is a good lesson in what not to do. The
European officials rarely raised the issue of human rights
with their Syrian hosts and, when they did, it was often as
an afterthought and without much insistence. They
effectively allowed Syrian authorities to continue to
oppress their citizens while gaining in stature at every
"photo-op" with a visiting dignitary. The US should be
clearer than Europe in adopting a principled foreign policy
that encourages dialogue but also stands up for human rights
in Syria.
Currently, at least 30 known political and human rights
activists, including Riad al-Seif, 61, a former member of
parliament suffering from prostate cancer, and Dr Kamal
Labwani, a physician and founder of the Syrian Democratic
Liberal Gathering, are serving prison terms for publicly
criticising the authorities. The treatment of these
activists is only one aspect of Syria's repression. The
government has multiple security agencies devoted to keeping
itself in power and quashing voices of dissent.
Emergency rule, imposed in 1963, remains in effect, severely
restricting freedom of speech and assembly. There are no
opposition political parties; there are no free elections.
Syria's security agencies continue to detain people without
arrest warrants, and in many cases, torture them to extract
confessions. The authorities treat Kurds, Syria's largest
non-Arab minority, as second-class citizens. Independent
press remains nonexistent; Syrian internet censorship
extends to popular websites such as Google's blogging
engine,
www.blogspot.com and
www.facebook.com.
Early signs indicate that the US is following the European
trend in ignoring Syria's internal record and focusing only
on its relationship with the US and Israel's adversaries. US
Senator Benjamin Cardin, on a two-day visit to Damascus with
other members of congress, called on Syria to end its
alliance with Iran and its support for militant groups in
the region. Senator John Kerry stated on the same day that
the Obama administration would press Syria to help disarm
Hezbollah. Neither man alluded to Syria's human rights
record. This has not gone unnoticed by the Syrian activists.
"Bush used us, and now Obama will ignore us," one of them
told me.
For many foreign policymakers, it is natural for regional
politics to take precedence over Syria's internal record.
For others, it is preferable to avoid mentioning Syrian's
human rights record because the mere act of establishing a
dialogue with Syria is difficult enough. A Damascus-based
European diplomat summed up the approach by saying, "once
relations with Syria are good, we can then raise our human
rights concerns."
This approach is shortsighted. US officials currently have a
good opportunity to press for needed human rights reforms
because Syria is eager to emerge from its isolation. And
Syria's respect for human rights is not just a "good thing;"
it also has a direct impact on its foreign policy. Without
internal reforms, Syria's policies in the region will
continue to be determined by the interests of the security
services and the narrow ruling class that have governed the
country for the last 45 years.
A Syria that permits a free flow of information and an
internal debate about national interest and priorities is a
Syria that is likely to act more responsibly in the region.
It is also important for the new US administration to send
a clear message that it will be committed to promoting
genuine democracy and human rights in the Middle East,
despite the disastrous impact of Bush policies in the region
that were sometimes conducted under the guise of spreading
democracy.
President Obama said in his inaugural speech: "To those who
cling to power through corruption and deceit and the
silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of
history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing
to unclench your fist."
President Assad has heard the second part of the sentence
but not the first. In an interview printed in the
Guardian on Wednesday, he
referred to Obama's call by saying that "we never clenched
our fist". His visitors in Damascus must remind him that as
long as he continues to abuse the rights of his own people,
his fist remains as tightly clenched as ever.
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