Taxes and Political Blackmail

The oppressive mentality of Syrian Power Corpses have introduced a new method of political punishment against the new businessmen opponents managing to establish their political status . It is the over-exaggerated taxes that only appear when a member of Parliament raised his voice louder than the clapping sounds gathering in the Parliament Hall. This new type of opposition which basically came into existence from constitutional, legislative and legal channels, could not appeal to those whose interests are threatened and who want the Parliament (the People’s Council) to persist in clapping and supporting role. Therefore, they invented a new method of political blackmail; namely imposing over-exaggerated taxes adequate to destroy any national institution or industrial enterprise.

Years ago, MP Riadh Saif went bankrupted and relinquished the business world as a result of series of taxes that were imposed on him. Another point in the case is what happened to MP Moh’d Ma’moun Homsi, let alone what will happen to those with a another opinion in the People’s Council. All this indicates that the Syrian authorities are stuck to their approach announced on several occasions; namely, to delay political reforms till after completing the economic reform. This means a delay in considering the humane issue for hundreds of Syrians victimised by the suppressive policies throughout the past thirty years.

Before becoming a means of political pressure, the Syrian Taxation Law used to be source of horror for people due to its rubberlike nature that delgates responsible parties at the Ministry of Finance to adjust it on an ad hoc basis. Therefore, it has become usual for avarege people to pay income tax exceeds what is paid by a car rental company. It has become familiar to have the tax department impose a profit tax on a citizen selling an estate that exceeds in multiple amounts the price of that estate on the pretext of applying Ministry of Finance’s by-laws. A tax reform was one of the requests initiated by some members the Parliament whose requests victimized them.

It should be an illusion to think that the reform process can be effected in one part of the Society leaving the other domains till later. The economy can never go forward unless liberties are released, suppressive laws are abolished, and the emergency state is lifted. Politics will never be effective unless the humane issue of thousands of Syrians who are arrested, missed and exiled is settled. It is an integral process that must be implemented simultaneously.

In the seventies and eighties of the past century blackmail had been manifested by taking hostages from the opponent’s family members and detaining them; perhaps for years, and torturing them. Now, in the business age, the suppression tools have been developed to incorporate another economic dimension called persecuting non-compliant tax payers.

In the past ten years, taxes have become a nightmare chasing people and decent entrepreneurs. One visit to the Tax Department at the Ministry of Finance in Al-Mazra’a Area in Damascus must suffice to witness human tragedies, and to listen to fictions of virtual taxes with a backward date accumulation. We should not be exaggerating when saying that these taxes have resulted in the destruction and bankruptcy of many Syrians or even ending them up to a state of mere desperation. Unsurprisingly, these practices have targeted businessmen and industrialists members at the Parliament when they raised their voice in favour of a just and fair tax system.

Should it be a surprise after all to listen to the authorities complaining of poor investments and amazingly asking where the migrating and Arab capitals go in spite of the Law of Investment No. 10 for 1991?

Syria: The Worst Seventh Country in the World Continuous Violations of Human Rights

On 28th June 1998, the well-known British weekly newspaper, 'The Observer', published its Human Rights Index to launch the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. An evaluation of the world's countries from Human Rights perspective was carried out to measure each country's commitment to the human rights standards and how those countries deal with their citizens according to the said norms. With the backing of a panel made up of internationally recognised human rights campaigners and Nobel laureates, The Observer has drawn up the first comprehensive league table of countries according to their respect of human rights. Research results have been announced following wide studies of human rights records across the world and the extent each country has committed to them.
The index has been constructed by careful deliberation, multiplying abuses of human rights over 13 categories. The first three most critical indicators marked out of 30, the other 10 marked out of 10.
Syria under the rule of President Hafiz Asad occupies the worst seventh place in the world in violating the basic human rights of Syrian citizens and in humiliating their honour. It is worth to mention that this Index coincided the 'plastic surgery' announced by the Syrian regime by releasing scores of prisoners of conscience in order to fit the diplomatic and political moves of President Asad's rule. Despite all sorts of praise made by some states and human rights organisations to encourage the Syrian government for a further human détente, the truth is still saying without hesitation that the regime of President Asad is among the few and rare regimes in the world that practise all sorts of killings, repression and denial of the basic rights of their citizens. Then, from time to time, this regime flies empty balloons to delude the public opinion.
Syrian citizens have been captured in thousands, isolated in Prison cells away from their families and the world, subjected to the most brutal sorts of torture under which hundreds have been killed. Others have been executed mercilessly or gunned down in their cells. During his visit to France, for example, the French press opened the Syrian government's record of human rights, Asad gave orders to release some detainees as an introduction to meet the French president with a better record. When asked by French press about prisoners of conscience in Syrian jail, he said in cold blood: ' I do not go into prisons, but I believe that there are not many prisoners any more'.

For more info follow the link:

http://www.shrc.org/data/aspx/d8/1118.aspx

Syrian government and the Internet.

On the pretext of protecting the public from "subversive ideas" or defending "national security and unity", some governments totally prevent their citizens from gaining access to the Internet. Others control a single ISP or even several, installing filters blocking access to web sites regarded as unsuitable and sometimes forcing users to officially register with the authorities. In a press release made by the well-known French human right organisation 'Reporters San Frontiers' on 9^th August 1999, it said that the Internet is considered a two-edged sword for authoritarian regimes. On the one hand it enables any citizen to enjoy an unprecedented degree of freedom of speech and therefore constitutes a threat to the government. On the other, however, the Internet is a major factor of economic growth, due in particular to online trade and the exchange of technical and scientific information, which prompts some of these governments to support its spread.

"Reporters sans Frontiers" has selected 20 regimes that it regards as enemies of the Internet because they control access totally or partially, have censored or taken action against users.

The government of President Asad officially bans Internet access. Offenders may face prison sentence, just as they may for "unauthorised" contacts with foreigners! Only official organisations are allowed access to the Internet through the public telecommunications authority, whose ISP maintains web sites for state newspapers, the national agency SANA and a few ministries.

Syria has been the cradle of many human civilisations; knowledge and messages were emitted from the Levant and interacted with other world civilisations without apprehending fear or concern on its security and stability. Taking part in that flourishing marsh stimulated security, progress and prosperity in the region. Now, as the world is prepared to receive the third millennium, the Syrian authoritarian regime exceeds all limits by imposing ignorance, isolation, and successive restrictions on Syrian citizens, stripping them of all natural rights. Syria is considered now as underdeveloped country because the Syrian regime has apprehensions, and doubtful about the use of any modern product. Purchasers of typewriters, computers, printers and photocopiers should be monitored as it is likely to use them for opposition purposes. Fax use is very restricted, and users are obliged to register with the concerned authorities. Now it is the turn of Internet and electronic mail to be classified as taboo and unauthorised contact with foreigners!

The Syrian human rights committee calls on the government of president Asad to rectify the position of Internet immediately by doing the following:

1. Abolish the Syrian authority monopoly of Internet access.
2. Cancel any obligation for citizens to register with the government before obtaining Internet access.
3. Abolish censorship through the use of filters, and stop blocking access to certain sites maintained by foreign servers.
4. Protect the confidentiality of Internet exchanges, particularly by lifting controls on electronic mail.
5. Call off the legal proceedings undertaken against Internet users who have done no more than exercise their right to freedom of expression.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee calls on the regime of president Asad whose government has signed the covenant to respect the undertakings his government made to respect civil and political rights of Syrian people.

Deaths in Syrian Jails

The under mentioned names have been recorded by Mr. Mohammed Saleem Hammad in his documentary book, “TADMUR: A WITNESS & A WITNESSED” published in 1998 following his 11 years imprisonment in Tadmur detention camp. He said that he had either witnessed their execution, heard their names read in the list of those called for execution, or informed by authentic sources that they were executed. The number of persons executed is many times this number, but this is his own knowledge.

Follow the link for more info:

http://www.shrc.org/data/aspx/d0/1110.aspx

Tadmur hell.

In 1980, the young man "Mohammed Saleem Hammad" moved from his country Jordan to Syria to study engineering in Damascus University. Like any ambitious student, Mohammed hoped to acquire an academic qualification that brings about happiness to his family and benefits him in his future.

Mohammed was still a teenager when he found himself surrounded by an uprising people who seek to get back their basic human rights. He has never undergone any political experience or practised opposing activities against the Syrian government, save that he was surrounded by a Syrian academic environment opposing to the closed totalitarian regime. This was a good reason for Syrian authorities to cast him in Tadmur desert detention camp without trial for only 11 years.

In a book he issued this year 1998 entitled" Tadmur: a Witness & a Witnessed" Mohammed narrated his horrific experience in Syrian prisons which summarises the suffering and ordeal lived by thousands of Syrian and other Arab detainees (from Lebanese, Palestinian, Jordanian & Iraqi nationalities). The Syrian regime denied consistently the existence of such detainees in Syrian jails, and therefore all appeals to release them have been turned down despite the long imprisonment periods they spent away from normal life and their families.

In his book of 245 pages of Medium size, Mohammed said that torture started with his detention in the Intelligence Headquarter Branch at Al-Adawi in Damascus on 8^th October 1980. At that time his name and identity were replaced by the number (13), he was stripped out of his clothes, and interrogators ordered him to kneel on his knees, blindfolded, lowering his head to answer their questions while he was severely beaten under threats to finish him instantly.

Mohammed added that he was unable to admit something he had never known anything about, so he was moved to the torture chamber downstairs in a dim cellar. There, he was tied up naked up the chamber while the executioners and interrogators started storming him with hot iron bars, electric stripped cables and sticks. They rushed to use electric shocks in sensitive parts of his body threatening him to death unless he confesses soon.

Finishing that round of torture called "spreadsheeting" in executioners terminology, Mohammed was moved to experience another kind of torture called "the flying mat" In this technique the detainee is held fast by iron fasteners to a timber board of two sections. One section is raised while beating on the soles of feet starts with metal-stripped cables. A third style of torture is called "The German chair". This chair contains moveable parts where detainees are tightened by arms and feet, then its back shore is pulled backward driving the body upper part, while the feet are still fastened from the other side which causes sever pressure on the chest and the spine, and consequently resulting in ripping the spine apart and later causing paralysis.

The Jordanian youth said that this round of torture is but a preliminary stage of a long agonising journey spent by political detainees in Syria. Mohammed was transferred later to the Military Interrogation Branch in Damascus where he was subjected to new rounds of horrific torture, which included electric shocks, hot metal branding, beating and spreadsheeting.

Tadmur (Palmyra) Desert Prison, which was built on the days of the French occupation to hold freedom fighters, is the worst among Syrian prisons and detention camps. Torture there is considered an indispensable and systematic part of detention. It usually starts the moment detainees arrive blindfolded and terminates with their death, or occasionally with their release.

Mr. Hammad counted some sorts of tortures he experienced, or witnessed in Tadmur detention camp:

0. "Marking": It is a random selection of a detainee and marking him to become continuously a subject to torture until he dies, so that he becomes an example to the other detainees.
1. "Tire": In this technique the detainee is squeezed in a rubber tire so that his feet are raised up, then he is severely beaten. Then his feet are tightened by metal chain to obstruct any movement. Executioners then make their assault by beating, kicking the detainee until he is bathed with blood.
2. "Regular Monitoring" of the dormitory where a big number of detainees are crammed together. Dormitories are usually rectangular halls with two barred openings in the roof. Intelligence and Military Police elements monitor round the hour everything from above. They select detainees for torture whenever a new round of torture is due to start.
3. "Register": It is the daily check of detainees, which is always accompanied by beating, kicking, swearing. Detainees are allowed to sleep only on worn blankets that do not provide warmth or shelter in the severely cold desert nights.
4. "Break": The intelligence and executioner elements get use of this period when detainees are driven out to prison yards to launch their assault against them with sticks and stripped cables, and to prevent them talking to each others. Food is another insulting and tormenting story in Syrian detentions, particularly in Tadmur detention camp. Meals served are little and rotten which cause many diseases. Sometimes detainees are ordered to eat flies, cockroaches and dead rats under threats of torture if they refuse to obey orders.
5. "Haircut": Detainees are ordered to kneel in front of the barber who is usually an executioner, who uses a sharp blade to cause deep cuts in detainees’ heads and faces.
6. "Bathing": Detainees are ordered to get out to the prison’s yards while they are receiving beats, kicks and whips. Then they are driven in-groups of six to compartments where showers of cold water accompanied by torture. No sooner they take out their clothes than water is cut off and they are ordered to quit under torture.

Mohammed describes the horrific atmosphere engulfing Tadmur Detention camp:

0. continuous execution campaigns of political detainees,
1. decease of others due to serious diseases because they are simply denied the

   basic rights to receive treatment,

2. false trials presided by security and intelligence officers during which random judgements are pronounced pursuant to confessions pulled out under torture.

Despite all that, executioners forced detainees whose majority come from academic background and university students to vote "YES" to the reelection of President Asad in 1991. Mohammed said that executioners extended their harshness unlimitedly to force detainees to write the word "YES" with their blood.

This documentary book contained witnesses made by a number of detainees about the massacre took place on 27^th June 1980 when Colonel Rifat Asad, the president’s brother ordered his Defence brigades to open fire on more than 600 detainees and later to bury them in collective graves somewhere east of Tadmur.

Mohammed who is still suffering from the long imprisonment years, makes his appeal for all Human right organisations and supporters of liberties to use their full authority and exert pressure on Syrian government :

0. to release all political prisoners from Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities;
1. to send a fact investigation committee to Tadmur detention camp to investigate the narrated horror, madness and systematic torture operations;
2. to request the Syrian government to disclose names of all persons died under torture, due to execution campaigns and diseases;
3. to submit to trial those persons responsible for torture and causing deaths;
4. and eventually to terminate all sorts of human rights violations in Syria.

Full book text is available online on http://www.shrc.org/books/tadmur.saleemhamad

the Long term State of emergency.

The international declaration of Human Rights and the international convention of civil and political rights both endorsed by the government of Syrian Arab Republic on 21^st April 1969 recognise that a state of emergency could be exceptionally declared within circumstances as such stated by article (4) of the convention such as a danger threatening the security of the state, and according to item (3) of article(4) of the convention which states that:

(every state party of the convention using the right to disengage from its commitments has to inform other states parties of the convention through the UN secretary general about the disengaged articles and the reasons of such disengagement. Likewise, this state has to inform other states in the same way of dates when such disengagements come to an end)

All information available with the Syrian Human Rights Committee prove that the Syrian government has never informed the UN secretary general about disengagement from any item of the aforesaid convention.

After 34 years of its declaration, the state of emergency in Syria has become a permanent situation. It was declared by a martial order No. (2) on 8^th March 1963 and is still in force up to date, so that the exception has been rendered into an original situation while both the international declaration of human rights and the international convention of civil and political rights have been violated ever since because article (4) of the Syrian state of emergency law states that:

( the martial ruler or his deputy may issue written orders to empower all restrictions or to take the following measures and to forward all divergents to courts-martial:

1. to restrict the freedom of assembly, residency, moving and passing at certain times, to detain precautioarily doubtful persons or those who pose danger to security and order, to grant authority to check persons and places at any time, and to give permission to any person to undertake any action.
2. to monitor all kinds of letters and calls , and to monitor before issuance newspapers, newsletters, pamphlets, printed matters, drawings, broadcastings and all sorts of mass media and advertisement, to seize and confiscate them, cancel their concessions, and close their printing houses.
3. to define opening and closing times of public places.
4. to withdraw licenses of arms, ammunition, and all sorts of explosive

   materials, to issue orders to hand them over, to seize them and to close arm stores.

5. to evacuate certain areas or isolate them and reschedule or restrict transport between different areas.
6. to confiscate all moveable or immovable properties, to impose temporary custody on companies and establishments and to put off paying all debts and due commitments.
7. to prescribe punishments imposed on divergents to the mentioned orders, so that punishments should not exceed three years imprisonment and/or three thousand Syrian pounds. If a punishment is not specified for such order, divergents are punished no more than six months imprisonment and/or five hundred pounds without prejudicing the most strict punishment stated elsewhere).

Any person born in Syria in 1963 or later, brought up in the environment of the state of emergency, deprived from fundamental rights (i.e. freedom of opinion, expression, creed, etc.) guaranteed by international covenants will be able to witness the contradiction between what he views and listens to in the latest media and the reality he lives at home. This matter will surely influence his psyche badly and make him inclined to fanaticism and terrorism.

The state of emergency in Syria is in force without genuine reasons. The Syrian Human Rights Committee would like to refer to many victims of martial law who have been subjected to indefinite periods of detention and the confiscation of their properties while they can not resort to any other legal courts to seek justice. The Syrian Human Rights Committee has confirmed information about numerous persons subjected to bodily torture and to more than ten year imprisonment just because of their opinions. Numerous persons also were sentenced to short periods of imprisonment by exceptional courts (i.e. state security courts, courts-martial, etc.) but they have not been released, however some of them have spent more than twenty years in jail.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee would like to express deep concern about the tragic situation of state of emergency in Syria and its implications, and to appeal to all human rights organisations and philanthropists to help alleviating the suffering of the Syrian people by abolishing the state of emergency and ensuring the true return to the constitutional life.

Political Detainees situation in Syria.

The international declaration of human rights (article 25) granted every person the right of a living standard, that ensures good health and provides him/her with an acceptable standard of living in cases of unemployment, illness, disability, etc.

Article 12 of the international convention on economic, social and cultural rights states that all countries parties of the convention acknowledge the rights of every person with the maximum possible standard of physical and mental health.

The constitution of World Health Organisation states that enjoying the maximum obtainable health standard is one of the dispensable human rights which should be provided to every person without any discrimination. The constitution defines health as the state of physical, mental and social safety, not merely the state of relief from illness and weakness.

Article 6 of UN document on the conduct of officials in charge of executing the laws states that these officials should ensure the full protection of the health of detainees in their custody and should take immediate action to provide medical care whenever needed.

All information available with the Syrian Committee of Human Rights confirm that most political detainees in Syrian prisons and in particular those detained in Tadmur (Palmyra) prison, although suffer of serious ailments, they are deprived from medical treatment and visits by doctors. Everyday some of these prisoners die and the prison’s office buries them without even informing their families of their death.

Ailments spread among detainees in Tadmur prison include tuberculosis, heart and artery diseases, digestive apparatus diseases ( i.e. ulcer, colitis, etc.), dermatoses, malaria, paralysis, diabetes, psychological and mental diseases, cancer, etc.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee learnt that the following detainees in Tadmur prison suffer from:

1. Ibrahim Hassan Aj’ouj a citizen of Hama suffers from tuberculosis
2. Abdul Samad Dakhil, dentist, a citizen of Deir Ezzour, suffers from a heart disease.
3. Ahmad Sameh Al-Ba’th a citizen of Idlib, suffers from Appendicitis
4. Yaser Amin Idlibi, university student, suffers from tuberculosis
5. Fakhr Nino, university student, suffers from tuberculosis
6. Mohammed Bashaar Bayanoni, student, citizen of Aleppo, suffers from tuberculosis
7. Hassan Mansour, university student, citizen of Idlib, suffers from tuberculosis and psychological disorder.
8. Bakri Fata Al-Nahaas, university student, citizen of Aleppo, suffers from tuberculosis

The Syrian Human Rights Committee appeals to all human rights organisations to request a visit to Tadmur prison in Syria accompanied by specialist doctors to be fully aware of the tragic situation of political detainees.

We, as well appeal to the international public opinion to intervene to put an end to the tragedy of political detainees in Syria.

The Ugly truth.

Syria Arab republic: this is how they call my country, and if it’s really republic then why on earth we have the same president for 30 years, and why on earth his son is in power after him.

Can you as a reader explains to if there is any democratic regime in the world make the president position inheritance, how give them the right to do so?

I would rather call my country the Kingdom of Assad than Republic.

In nutshell republic means a group of people working as equals in the same field, and yet we are in Syria far away from Justice and fairness.

The problem in Syria that people needs education, people almost living and survived , they want just to live but the government make them only live just above the line of poverty, so that 70% of people can survive and live and around 28% are average and above but 2% are rich beyond your imagination.

They the elite who are ruling your country, since George W Bush imposed economic punishments on Syria and especially on the way the money transferred from Syria to Scandinavian country the Assad family and their relatives decided that growing their bank account abroad is hard to do.

So what Bashaar did and his father didn’t even dare to do is to open up a chance to his relatives (Rami Makhloof) and start investing in the country , it is estimated that this guy owns third of the Syria economy.

It’s all up to you, you find the fact and you do something about it and free Syria, the thing we will never finish if we don’t start somewhere.

The regime in Syria is dictator and unfair they are running emergency laws since 1963, if you express your political opinion and it was against the government then you are in jail.

People of Syria for how long you will stay like this?

People of Syria when are you going to break the silence?

Is there any point of hiding?

Is there any point in giving the Baath government the permission to abuse you and abuse your family and your sons and grandsons?

Sons of Syria I am one of you, I witnessed the transport officer getting bribe to issue unlawful driving license , and immigration officer getting bribed to smuggle drugs or guns and gangsters into my country , I witness the same one issue fake passport.

I witness the General in the army who gets monthly salary from his rich soldier just to relieve him of his duty and stay at home until he finishes his military service.

I witness the ombudsman getting some money for giving permission to people to built there plant in civil areas, not industrial, or to give permission to some companies to knock down historical places for the sake of big companies profits.

I witnessed the farmers suffered from poverty and abuse and scarcity of tools and machinery, I witnessed the big sectors in Syria taken by the president relatives such as transport, flight communication, shopping centres etc..

Hafiz Alassad took over the country by force on 1971, and he ruled Syria by force and terror for 30 years, since he took over and became the president of Syria, he was jailing his opponents from other political parties and executed some of them when they refused to obey his orders.

You will notice that, there is only one political party in Syria which is the Baath and the other parties they only have small offices and some representatives just to obey his order and if not, they are jailed.

Alsaad was preparing his eldest son Basel who died in 1994 in tragic car accident, so after that he was preparing his son Bashaar to take over after him, I was against that and I have been jailed and tortured over a year in Tadmor prison.

Their practices have to end we should rise hand in hand and do something about it.

Freedom for my people, Freedom for Syria.