Gisteren verscheen op Facebook een verklaring gericht tot het Syrische volk van Haitham Maleh, een vooraanstaande mensenrechtenadvocaat uit Syrie.
—–
Declaration to the Syrian people
The regime has recently stepped up its repressive practices against the Syrian people and its peaceful uprising of the youth, thirsty for freedom, justice and democracy.
And while the Syrian people were waiting for the release of all Syrian detainees, for which the families were holding a civilized, peaceful and legal appeal in front of the Ministry of Interior, last Wednesday 16-03-2011, demanding the release of their sons, brothers and husbands, the security forces from various branches acted barbarically. They molested women, youth, children and the middle aged, and they arrested more than 32 of them, who were directly charged with weakening the morale of the nation.
On Friday 18/3 after the Friday prayer the protesting youth was suppressed in the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, violating the sanctity and sacredness of the mosque, and arrested ten of them, knowing that the French colonial authorities did not dare to violate the mosques!
On the same day the security forces carried out a terrible massacre against the inhabitants and youth of the city of Dara’a, spoiling the blood of its citizens and killing four of its peaceful youth, calling for peaceful demands and civilized reforms, and hundreds were wounded, and a number of them were abducted.
Protests have continued in the following days, in which the regime killed another youth, as a child died as a result of inhaling toxic gases, and the Omari Mosque is still filled with hundreds of wounded. And the regime has abducted dozens of children from the brave city of Dara’a and put them in prison. The fate of many of them is still unknown.
And while we ask for mercy for the pious martyrs, and comfort their families, we consider them martyrs with Allah, when they raised their voices high with the word of truth towards an unjust ruler.
What the security forces were doing, and still are doing, when they’re pursuing and arresting the youth in different Syrian cities, is contrary to the most basic principles of human rights and is incompatible with the fundamental principles of international treaties and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is signed by the Syrian government.
We consider the demands of the peaceful youth to be their right under the umbrella of the constitution and general law, so we warn the regime from persisting in the use of violence against peaceful citizens and the defenceless people, and ask the state to form an independent judicial commission consisting of some jurists of civil society and human rights groups, to unveil those who spoiled the blood of the citizens of the city of Dara’a, and to give them a just judicial procedure, so that they’ll get the punishment that they deserve.
We emphasize the necessity for the regime to quicken the immediate necessary reforms, of which the first is the lifting of the state of emergency, the release of all the political prisoners, provision of public freedoms, leading to political pluralism, the fight against economic corruption, and of living, before it’s too late, and before the youth will escalate to the top of their legitimate demands, and none of the reformers can stand in front of their legitimate aspirations.
We only want the reform that we can have. Have we conveyed the message? God, be my witness.
Damascus, 22/03/2011
Haitham Maleh (lawyer)
shaykh Jawdat Sa’id
shaykh Mouaz al-Khatib al-Hasani
Ghassaan al-Najjaar
Da’d Musa (lawyer)
dr. Muhammad al-‘Ammaar
dr. Yasir al-‘Aiti
Wij Blijven Hier werd in 2005 opgericht, omdat ze vonden dat ze er nog niet waren. Inmiddels zijn ze 3000 bijdragen rijker, die vrijwillig door beginnende én gearriveerde verhalenvertellers worden geschreven. Verschillend van columns, persoonlijke ervaringen tot verborgen nieuwsfeitjes. Ze kijken op hun eigen manier tegen de wereld aan, en vertellen zélf het verhaal. Wie zijn ze? Kijk om u heen. Want ze zijn hier. Zij Blijven Hier!
3 Reacties op "Declaration to the Syrian people"
1 van de mede-ondertekenaars is afgelopen maandag opgepakt!
http://www.causes.com/causes/595218-disappearance-detention-of-dr-mohammad-alammar/about
En mede-ondertekenaar shaykh Mouaz al-Khatib op Aljazeera:
Er is een nieuwe verklaring uitgegeven op zijn facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150115400942135
A few words about what was said:
I listened to Ms. Shaaban reading out a government statement at a press conference.
Other than announcing a paltry increase in salaries, the government’s statement contains little else but more promises of what the authorities would like to do in the future.
After fifty years of totalitarian dictatorship regime, it is time to take critical decisions. We do not hear, in the statement read by Ms. Shaaban, any talk about the abolition of Law 49 of 1980. This law contradicts the Constitution and the Penal Code, and was established to commit massacres. Nor do we hear anything about repealing Article 16 of Decree 14 of 1969, which protects officers in the organs of the state security from any legal liability when committing crimes.
We also hear not a word about the closure of outstanding issues since the reign of the late President Hafez al-Assad in the eighties of the last century. Nothing about the cases of those disappeared since the events of Hama, Aleppo and Palmyra; the issue of thousands of properties’ confiscated; and the problem of exiled Syrians outside Syria who are barred from returning to it.
The situation in Syria requires the President himself to appear on the screen of the television and to address the people clearly and transparently with a speech that provides them with decisions addressing their pressing demands. These are: lifting the state of emergency, and to submit quickly to the Parliament constitutional amendments, which should include the abolition of Article VIII, and the repeal of all laws in contradiction of the constitution, as the ones I mentioned earlier.
The circumstances which our country faces require all of us, those who are in power and those who are in the opposition, not to resort to provocation and to the use of thuggery, not to incite ethnic or sectarian division. Here I urge everyone to be disciplined both in the case of those demanding reforms and in the case of those in the authorities attempting to rein over the protesters.
We are in a decisive moment, a moment that could calm the situation or make it explode. Hence there is heavy responsibility on the authorities for the enforcement of critical resolutions to restore its credibility before the citizens.
We ask God to guide our steps all for the good of the country and people until we meet again.
Lawyer Haitham Maleh Damascus, March 26th, 2011