Urgent appeal for protests against political repression in Syria

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'6 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1992 There are currently 8000 to 10,000 political prisoners in Syria, despite the recent release of more than 2800 Palestinian and other detainees. The great majority are members of the Islamic fundamentalist movement that took up arms against the regime and was crushed in a terrible bloodbath in 1982. (The common estimate is that 10,000 were killed.) However, hundreds have also been jailed simply because of their leftist views and represent genuine prisoners of conscience. They are being held without any sort of trial under a "state of emergency" that has been in force continuously since 1963.

Close to 400 current detainees are from the Communist Action Party (CAP, a revolutionary Marxist organization that has fraternal relations with the Fourth International); almost 50 are from the Syrian Communist Party-Political Bureau (SCP-BP), a splitoff from the Communist Party.

Around 80 belong to the left faction of the Syrian Baath Party, which is known under the name of "February 23," and some dozens of detainees are from a Nasserite current. Since the beginning of 1992, six militants from the Committees for the Defense of Democratic and Human Rights in Syria have also been held.

Presently close to death due to illness worsened by detention are Riad El-Turk (SCP-BP, in prison since 1980); Omar Kashashe (SCP-PB, in prison since 1982); Adnan Mahfud (since 1987); and Aktham Nuaisseh (CDF, arrested January 1992).

Currently in danger of death or permanent disabling as a result of torture are two underground leaders of the CAP arrested on Feb. 1, 1992—Abdul Aziz Al-Khayer and Bahjat Shaabu.

Some of these prisoners have achieved world records for political detention (four have been in jail for 22 years and 13 for 21 years).

Two CAP members have died under torture, in 1980 and 1987, as have two SCP-PB members, in 1984 and 1987. A CAP and an SCP-PB member each died from the direct effects of torture after being released in 1987 and 1991.

A recent example of torture and imprisonment helps to illustrate the plight victims the Syrian regime:

A member of the CAP, Jamal Hasseino born in 1948 and employed at the Bank of People's Credit, married with two children-was arrested on May 6, 1990, after being denounced by an informer who had seen him in possession of a political statement from the party. He was harshly tortured, then thrown into prison, despite the fact that he was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. Jamal Hasseino lost the power of speech and lapsed into a semicomatose state while in prison. He was released on July 25, 1991, but died a few days later.

Send messages of protest about these conditions to: Embassy of the Arab Syrian Republic, 2215 Wyoming Ave., N. W., Washington, D.C. 20008.

Send copies to: Emergency Defense Campaign, P.O. Box 1890, New York, NY 10009. Fax: 202-234-9548

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Cuban economist Carlos Tablada:

We are reprinting excerpts from an interview with Carlos Tablada by Martin Koppel that appeared in the Jan. 24, 1992,