For Immediate Release
Syria: Targeted Arrests of Activists Across Country, Families,
Neighbors of Protesters Detained to ‘Rebuild Wall of Fear’
(New York, May 15, 2011) – Syria’s security forces continue their
nationwide campaign of arbitrary arrests and intimidation against political and
human rights activists, holding them incommunicado, forcing them to sign
undertakings to stop protesting, and in some cases torturing them, Human Rights
Watch said today.
“Syria’s leaders talk about a war against terrorists, but what we see on the
ground is a war against ordinary Syrians – lawyers, human rights activists, and
university students – who are calling for democratic changes in their country,”
said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Syria’s
emergency law may have been lifted on paper, but repression is still the rule
on Syria’s streets.”
Human Rights Watch urged Syria’s authorities to immediately reveal the
whereabouts of the targeted activists, to ensure that no harm is done to them in detention, and to
release all those held for exercising their basic rights to free expression and
association.
In some cases, the security forces have resorted to detaining relatives and neighbors
of the government critics, in an effort to obtain information on their
whereabouts or force them to stop their activism, prompting many activists to
send their families into hiding.
On May 13, security forces detained human rights lawyer
Catherine al-Talli, 32, in the Damascus suburb of Berze, at around 6 p.m. She
was in a shared minivan taxi, when security forces stopped the vehicle, came on
board and detained her, a family member told Human Rights Watch. The security
services are holding her incommunicado and have not provided any information on
her whereabouts.
On May 12, security forces in Homs detained Mohammad Najati
Tayyara, a prominent human rights activist who frequently appeared in the media
to provide information on Syria’s crackdown on protests. Security forces picked
him up off the streets of Homs, a friend of Tayyara told Human Rights Watch,
and have not provided any information on his whereabouts since then.
On May 11, security forces detained Wael Hamadeh, a political activist and
husband of prominent rights advocate Razan Zeitouneh, from his office. The
security forces had gone to the couple’s house on April 30 searching for them
but detained
instead Hamadeh’s younger brother Abdel Rahman, 20, when they could not
find them. The couple had been staying with different friends to avoid being
caught. To date, there is still no information about Abdel Rahman Hamadeh’s
whereabouts. Zeitouneh told Human Rights
Watch:
I don’t know what made Wael go to work. He had stopped going
lately. We don’t know which security service picked him up. We just know that
they showed up at his office and took him.
Security forces also detained nine people after a peaceful
sit-in at Arnous Square, in central Damascus, on May 10, and released only two,
dermatologist Dr. Mazen al-Sayyid and student Ahmad al-Qattan. Syrian
authorities have sought to try Jalal Nofal, a psychologist, and Ammar Ayruka in
court on charges of provoking a riot, for their role in the demonstration.
According to an activist, their lawyer reported seeing signs of torture,
including beatings, on their faces. The remaining five – Ammar Dayoub, Malak
al-Shanawani, Mohannad Amin Hussein, Ali Omar, and Omar al-Katib – have not been
heard from since their arrests.
This is the second arrest in a month for Malak al-Shanawani, a women’s rights
activist, first detained at her workplace on April 10 for participating in
anti-government protests.
“The Syrian government is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to detain
and punish every last voice for civil society reform in the country,” said
Whitson.
Activists have told Human Rights Watch that the security forces are exerting
enormous pressure on their families and neighbors, forcing many to send their
own families into hiding. A prominent opposition activist, who preferred not to
publish his name for fear of further reprisals against his family, told Human
Rights Watch:
They went to my home and broke the door; when they couldn’t
find anyone there, they went to my neighbor. They asked him if he could tell
them where they could find me, my wife, or one of my children. He refused, so
they arrested him. But he is a known Ba`ath supporter, so they released him
after 10 hours. They then went to my wife’s shop and did the same thing with
two men who own a grocery store and electronics shop near her workplace. One
was in prison for two days, and the other is still in prison now. My wife and
small child are now living in one place, and my other two children in another.
I am in hiding in Damascus, changing my location every two days.
Razan Zeitouneh told Human Rights Watch that she had asked
her elderly parents to go into hiding because she could not bear the thought of
the security forces detaining them to exert pressure on her.
A veteran 67-year-old human rights activist from Salamiyeh, a city in central
Syria that is home to the Middle East largest group of Isma`ili muslims, told
Human Rights Watch that a group of 30 young men, many on motorcycles, drove up
to his house on May 13 at around 3pm:
They drove up and started throwing stones on my house. I was
out, and only female members of the family were inside. They had to rush to
close the shutters. They kept throwing rocks for 15 minutes. They want to
terrorize us. I am worried for my family. We were able to recognize some of the
attackers. Some work as bodyguards for the head of local branch of the Ba`ath
party.
The Salamiyeh activist, whom security services had detained
for 24 hours on May 10 along with another 69 protesters and activists from the
town, told Human Rights Watch that the aim of the arrest and intimidation
campaign was to force activists to sign undertakings to stop protesting.
Another Damascus-based activist who was recently detained and released
concurred:
They are obsessed with the protests. They just want them to
stop and are willing to do anything to make them stop. Those refusing to sign
the undertakings get referred to criminal trials for inciting riots or risk
seeing security forces showing up at their home, office, or even their spouse’s
office.
“When families and neighbors of wanted activists are fair
game for the security services and their Ba`ath thug agents, you know that the
government is morally bankrupt,” said Whitson “Behind the empty rhetoric of
promises and national dialogue, there is a systematic campaign to rebuild
Syria’s wall of fear with only one purpose: allowing Asad and his cronies to
maintain their absolute grip on power.”
Human Rights Watch has called for sanctions against Syrian officials who bear
responsibility for the use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and the
arbitrary detention and torture of hundreds of protesters and for an
international investigation into the grave human rights violations in Syria.
The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions
on certain high-ranking officials in the regime but have so far avoided
imposing sanctions on President Bashar al-Asad. On April 29, the UN Human
Rights Council called for an urgent investigation by the UN high commissioner
for human rights into killings and other human rights violations in Syria.
For more Human Rights
Watch reporting on Syria, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/syria
For more information,
please contact:
In Beirut,
Nadim Houry (English, Arabic, French): +961-1-447833; or +961-3-639244
(mobile); or houryn@hrw.org
In Dubai, Sarah Leah Whitson (English): +1-718-362-0172 (mobile); or whitsos@hrw.org
In Washington, DC, Joe Stork (English): +1-202-612-4327; or
+1-202-299-4925 (mobile); or storkj@hrw.org
In Berlin, Wenzel Michalski (English, German): +49-151-419-24256 (mobile); or michalw@hrw.org
In Paris,
Jean-Marie Fardeau (French, English, Portuguese): +33-1-43-59-55-35; or
+33-6-45-85-24-87 (mobile); or fardeaj@hrw.org
In Washington,
DC, Tom Porteous (English): +1-202-612-4336; or +1-646-203-3090 (mobile); or porteot@hrw.org
In London, David
Mepham, (English): +44-20 7713 2766; +44-7572 603995 (mobile); or mephamd@hrw.org
In
Brussels, Reed Brody (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): +32-49-8625-786
(mobile); or brodyr@hrw.org