Syrian Human Rights Activists Under Siege, Watchdog Warns

Syria was accused today of "besieging" human rights activists by preventing them meeting and traveling abroad and forcing them to live in fear of repression.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based watchdog, says in a new report that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has failed to live up to early hopes that he would be more liberal than his father, Hafez, whom he succeeded in 2000.

A short-lived "Damascus spring" gave way to a new crackdown in 2001, and draconian emergency laws remain in force, the study finds.

"The human rights community in Syria has grown in important ways in the last few years, but they remain under siege by authorities that cannot fathom any criticism of their record," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.

The country's powerful security services routinely harass human rights groups by breaking up meetings, banning activists from traveling and arresting them, with Kurdish groups facing especially intense difficulties, the group says.

Under Syrian law, the ministry of social affairs and labor controls the registration of all civil society associations, and has wide jurisdiction to intervene in the internal governance and day-to-day operations of any association by appointing board members and attending meetings.

"Activists who dare to document government violations end up being charged for dubious crimes such as 'weakening national sentiment' or 'spreading false news'," Ms Whitson said.

In April, a Syrian court sentenced one of the country's most prominent human rights lawyers, Anwar al-Bunni, to five years in jail in connection with a statement he made claiming a man had died in prison owing to inhumane conditions there.

Mr al-Bunni was arrested in 2006 after signing the Beirut-Damascus declaration, which called for improved Syrian-Lebanese relations based on respect for each other's sovereignty. Five other government critics and human rights campaigners, including the writer Michael Kilo, have been convicted and sentenced to up to 12 years in prison this year.

Damascus often justifies its intolerance of criticism by arguing that it is under threat from the US and other western countries that are seeking to isolate it, and that any criticism of the government will serve the interests of foreign powers, especially Israel, which is still occupying the Golan Heights.

HRW called on the Syrian authorities to stop arbitrarily arresting activists and to free any it has detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression. It also urged the government to amend existing law and practice to allow human rights groups legally to register and operate free from state interference.