Syrian authorities have arrested two Kurdish leaders and charged
one with a capital offence, as part of a campaign to crush
political dissidents that has triggered international
protests.
The two men were arrested ahead of a visit by French President
Nicolas Sarkozy to the Syrian capital on Wednesday.
Sarkozy has been trying to convince President Bashar al-Assad to
release leading political prisoners who have been campaigning for
minority rights and a democratic constitution as an alternative to
four decades of Baath Party rule.
Talal Mohammad of the banned Wifaq party, an offshoot of the
Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is also active in Turkey and
Iraq, was arrested without warrant in northeastern Syria last week
and not heard from since, according to the National Organisation of
Human Rights in Syria.
Authorities earlier arrested Mashaal Tammo, an official in Future
Movement, which like all opposition parties in Syria is
banned.
Future Movement advocates democracy and equal rights for Syria's
one million Kurdish minority.
The Kurdish language is not allowed to be taught in schools and
tens of thousands of Kurds were denied citizenship after a 1960s
census.
Tammo had said before his arrest that Syrian policy toward the
Kurds risked a repeat of riots that killed 30 people in Syria in
2004. The riots started in a Kurdish region.
Tammo was charged on August 27 with committing aggression and
arming Syrians to start civil war, an accusation that carries the
death penalty and is rarely directed against well-known political
activists.
Other charges regularly used against dissidents were also levelled
at Tammo, including belonging to an organisation that aims to
change the basis of society and causing racial and sectarian
tension.
Denies charges
Tammo has denied the charges and human rights lawyer Mohannad
al-Hassani said it would require a great deal of evidence to prove
that Tammo, who renounces violence, had wanted to start civil
war.
"The authorities cannot resort to such fearsome charges just
because they disagree with someone's opinions," he said.
The U.S. State Department denounced Tammo's arrest, saying he was
held incommunicado for 15 days before he was charged.
"We condemn the detention of Tammo and other Syrian prisoners of
conscience and call for their immediate release," State Department
spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement.
"We encourage the international community to join us in calling on
the Syrian government to stop its policy of arresting critics of
the regime and to comply with its obligations under the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
Syria, which has been controlled by the Baath Party since it took
power in a 1963 coup and imposed emergency law, has thousands of
political prisoners, human rights lawyers say.
Assad said during a visit to Paris last month authorities only
arrest those suspected of violating the constitution and that
criticism of his rule was permitted.
Under Turkish pressure, Syria has cracked down on the PKK, which it
once backed.
A security court handed several PKK members long sentences in 2006
in trials branded illegitimate by international human rights
groups.
"What is this? You armed us and now you imprison us," one defendant
shouted at the judges before he was sentenced to seven years in
jail.
