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Analysis: Bashar Clamps Down

Council on Foreign Relations

June 23, 2006
Prepared by: Esther Pan

It's not a good time to be an outspoken writer, lawyer, or democracy advocate in Damascus. Bashar al-Assad's government has arrested dozens of such activists in the last few months in what experts call the harshest crackdown on dissenters since the end of the short-lived "Damascus Spring." Mona Yacoubian of the United States Institute of Peace tells CFR.org in this podcast that Assad's regime is particularly taking aim at Syrians who have signed the Damascus-Beirut Declaration (CSMonitor), which calls for more political freedoms and a full investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many suspected was carried out by Syrian security forces. Scott Lasensky of the United States Institute of Peace tells CFR.org's Bernard Gwertzman that, despite the crackdown, many dissidents are still challenging the government.

The opposition website Syria Monitor lists some of the writers and human rights activists who have been arrested recently. A March posting to the site detailed some of the new rules applied to dissidents: no contact with the opposition abroad, no street demonstrations, and no writing about the army or security forces without official approval.

Six months ago many observers thought Assad would be in no place to impose such strict rules. In the fall of 2005 a damning report from previous UN investigator Detlev Mehlis directly implicated senior administration officials in Hariri's death. At that point, with international pressure building, the very survival of Assad's regime seemed in doubt.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.