The "crime" of those recently arrested is to have signed the recent Beirut-Damascus declaration penned by intellectuals from both countries. This is not a revolutionary memorandum authored by trigger happy radicals itching for a fight. It is for the most part a mild-mannered, balanced and reasoned declaration replete with politically correct pan-Arabist lingo. Yet the Baathist regime in its downward spiral back into the suffocating repression of the 1980s has found this declaration intolerable.
I had promised in a previous post to do my best to publicize the names of all those wrongfully detained by the regime. Many people know about Kilo and al-Bunni, the others are less known but equally important in my mind and I admire them for their courage and perseverance. The following are the regime's latest victims:
- Michel Kilo: Journalist, political and human rights activist
- Anwar al-Bunni: Lawyer and human rights activist
- Mohammed Mahfouz
- Nidal Darwish: Human rights lawyer
- Mahmood Issa: Communist activist
- Safwan Tayfour: Activist
- Khalil Hussein: Kurdish Future Current
- Khaled Khalifeh
- Suleiman al-Shammar: political activist
- Kamal Sheikho: human rights activist
- Mahmoud Mer'i: Secretary to the Arab organization of Human Rights
6 comments:
Great Work...
It is very disturbing what is happening currently in Syria. Squashing basic human rights...
I am really upset too and I am trying to contribute with my new Blog
Free Michel kilo Now
Arresting human rights activists is more a sign of weakness of the regime than anything else. Am I missing something?
Ms Levantine,
Is it a sign of weakness or a sign that the regime has been given a free pass? This regime is so opaque that it is hard to read. Opposition members predicted that the regime would fall within "weeks" last Spring, yet not much has changed. I hope you are right and that these are desperate moves by desperate people.
Ms Levantine,
I suspect you are, at least partly, right.. Problem is, a ruthless and reckless regime like Assad's is most dangerous when it is desperate.. It will fire its venom most fiercely when it is in a tight corner..
I think it's a sign that the end is near... they're bleeding, and it only makes them more irrational..
I donno, it might be just the hopes inside me.
but whatever it is, wothout a movement fom the inside, the people taking things into their own hands, the results are gonna be catastrophic!
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