SYRIA

World Report 2001 Entry

World Report Entry 2000

World Report Entry 1999

World Report Entry 1998

AN ALLIANCE BEYOND THE LAW
Enforced Disappearances in Lebanon
An unknown number of Lebanese citizens and stateless Palestinians are imprisoned in Syria: some of them “disappeared” in Lebanon as long ago as the 1980s. In two cases we documented, Palestinian families learned only recently through information brought to them by released prisoners, that their loved ones may still be alive and in Syrian custody. The problem, unfortunately, not only involves past abuses but also extends to current practice. Lebanese citizens and stateless Palestinians continue to disappear in Lebanon, taken into custody there by Syrian security forces and then transferred to and detained in Syria, perpetuating a climate of fear.
(E903) 5/97, 42 pp., $5.00/£2.95
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The Silenced Kurds
Kurds are the largest non-Arab ethnic minority in Syria, comprising about 8.5 to 10 percent of the population of 13.8 million. This report documents the situation of stateless Syrian-born Kurds — 142,465 by the government's count, and well over 200,000 according to Kurdish sources — who have been arbitrarily denied the right to Syrian nationality in violation of international law. These Kurds, who have no claim to a nationality other than Syrian, are literally trapped in Syria: not only are they treated in a discriminatory fashion in the land of their birth, but also they do not have the option of relocating to another country because they lack passports or other internationally recognized travel documents. This report also examines policies and practices of the Syrian government that violate the right of Kurds in Syria to enjoy their own culture, use their own language, and otherwise exercise freedom of expression, also in violation of international human rights standards. These issues have received little international attention.
(E804) 10/96, 63 pp., $7.00/£5.95
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SYRIA’S TADMOR PRISON
Dissent Still Hostage to a Legacy of Terror
In December 1995, some 1,200 political prisoners in Syria were released pursuant to an amnesty marking the 25th anniversary of the rule of Pres. Asad. It was widely reported that most, if not all, of the released prisoners were members or supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. These releases were marred by reports that some sentenced political prisoners continue to be pressured to sign statements of support for the government, and repudiate their past political activities, as a condition for release. Furthermore, 21 prisoners who refused to sign such statements were recently transferred to Tadmor military prison, a facility infamous throughout Syria for the extremely brutal abuses that have occurred there since 1980.
(E802) 4/96, 26 pp., $5.00/£2.95
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The Price Of Dissent
This report focuses on Syria’s state security court and the continuing trials of individuals accused of membership in unauthorized political groups. It also examines the practice of torture in Syria, and the pressure and punishment placed on political prisoners after release. It documents the high price that some Syrians have paid—and continue to pay—for exercising their right to peaceful political dissent.
(E704) 7/95, 54 pp., $7.00/£5.95
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European Parliament Should Condition
EC Aid on Human Rights Improvements
The regime of President Hafez al-Asad, which has ruled in authoritarian fashion since 1970, continues to merit the ignominious distinction of holding some of the world’s longest-serving political prisoners, detained without charge or trial for over twenty years. Despite the welcome mass releases over the last two years of thousands of Syria’s security and political prisoners, some 4,000 remain incarcerated. Given the regime’s apparent resolve to end its previous isolation from the West, we call on the European Community to continue to play a lead role in calling attention to human rights abuses in Syria.
(E509) 11/93, 14 pp., $3.00/£1.95
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THROWING AWAY THE KEY
Indefinite Political Detention in Syria
Political detainees in Syria have the distinction of being some of the most isolated in the world. Most have no contact whatsoever with their families; security services for their part, seldom acknowledge having them in their custody. Cramped in windowless underground cells, or in giant communal cell blocks with open-mesh roofs, thousands of individuals whose #147;crime” was affiliation with banned political organizations have remained in detention without trial for years and, in a handful of cases, for more than two decades. Despite the amnesty of some 3,500 detainees in 1991 and what initially appeared to be timely and impartial trials for others, Middle East Watch concludes that a fair trial is impossible in Syria without fundamental reform.
(0871) 11/92, 72 pp., ISBN 1-56432-087-1, $7.00/£5.95
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(E405) Human Rights Workers on Trial, 3/92, 10 pp., $3.00/£1.95
(1158) Syria Unmasked: The Suppression of Human Rights by the Asad Regime, 1991, 240 pp., cloth, ISBN 0-300-05115-8, $25.00/£19.95; (7865) paper, ISBN 0-300-05786-5, $16.00/£12.95 (Available from Yale University Press/John Wiley)

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