Robert Fisk: Freedom, democracy and human rights in Syria, The Independent, 16 September 2010: ODFS Response

Robert Fisk: Freedom, democracy and human rights in Syria, The Independent, 16 September 2010: ODFS Response

The following are a selection of quotes from ODFS Founder and Director, Ribal Al-Assad, which appeared in Mr Fisk's article.

On the future of Syria:

"We want to concentrate on our future country. A country cannot be built on past grudges. We have to forgive – I don't know about forget – and we have to live together, all Syrians who believe in democracy and human rights, to have a new era. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed. Syria will change."

On the current leader of the Syrian regime:

"He is still governing under the ghost of his father. Each person in Syria has an interest in the secret service. Bashar should have declared national unity as soon as he took over. He did things bit by bit, with internet cafes and so on. But it was not enough. There was no real change."

On coup d'etats:

"A 'coup' means dictatorship and dictatorship breeds corruption and corruption breeds terrorism. We are campaigning internationally for a new Syria."

On the Muslim Brotherhood:

"Saddam Hussein funded the Muslim Brotherhood, they were trained in Iraq. So the Baath party decided that those in the Muslim Brotherhood were traitors. I am against all extremism."

Comments made by Ribal Al-Assad, during the interview with Mr Fisk, which were not included in the article, have been added below for full clarity:

The Organisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria was set up after the jamming of the Arab News Network Satellite TV Channel by the Syrian regime in 2009, as a new platform to promote democracy, freedom and human rights in Syria.

Ribal Al-Assad turned down Mr Fisk's offer of coffee as he was fasting on the day (5 September) that the interview took place. He informed Mr Fisk of this but Mr Fisk does not mention it in the article.

In his comments stating that he was against all extremism, Mr Assad said that he had first hand experience of families affected by acts of terrorism and had great sympathy for them. He added that he had close friends who had lost parents due to Islamist violence. Sonia Puopolo, the mother of one of his close friends was killed in the first plane that hit the Twin Towers on 9/11. Dr .Khalil Shahadeh the father of another friend (who was a child at the time) was killed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria.

In the context of the conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood, Mr. Assad talked about Abdullah Azzam(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Yusuf_Azzam), one of the founders of Hamas, who became one of the founders of Al-Qaida and the mentor and teacher of Osama Bin Laden. In a Youtube video (Arabic) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8ye_o03VNo), Abdullah Azzam states that during the conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood president Hafez Al-Assad visited Marwan Hadid (the leader of the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood) in prison to try and bring an end to the conflict. Hafez Al-Assad said to Hadid, "let us open a new page with each other, let Allah forgive what has happened, and we will not take you to account for anything you did, with one condition: that you abandon your weapons." Hadid replied: "I agree, with one condition: that you assist me in establishing an Islamic state in Syria." Assad gathered himself and left the room

(http://forums.islamicawakening.com/f18/abdullah-azzam-marwan-hadeed-2222/).

Ribal Al-Assad made the point to Mr Fisk that his father Dr Rifaat Al-Assad had the majority support in Syria's Baath Party in 1985, at the time of his departure from Syria. This is why the Baath Party did not have an annual congress (from 1985 to 2000) until 2000 when the current regime came to power. Therefore the Baath Party's annual congress was suspended for 15 years and manipulated to bring the current regime to power and hence the Baath Party lost all legitimacy.

Ribal Al-Assad made the point to Mr Fisk that in the 1982 conflict, the Muslim Brotherhood killed 400 cadets in the Alleppo Artillery School for not being their 'type' of Muslims. Also in 1981 the Muslim Brotherhood planted a car bomb next to a girls school in Al-Azbakyah quarter in Baghdad Street, Damascus killing 200 people including children.

Ribal Al-Assad also reminded Mr Fisk about how Islamist's will stop at nothing and even in the modern day they hide behind civilians. In 2007 members of the Fatah al-Islam group killed Lebanese soldiers at an army checkpoint while they slept. The extremist group then occupied the Nehar al-bared refugee camp in North Lebanon and started firing at the army while using civilians as human shields and totally destroying the camp. The Lebanese army had no alternative but to defeat the extremists militarily. Mr Fisk stated that he was at Nehar al-bared during the conflict (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdvKkaKFQXw).

When discussing Lebanon, Ribal Al-Assad said we always have had good relations with all parties in Lebanon.

Ribal Al-Assad reminded Mr Fisk of his own statement that he was in Hama for only 18 minutes (Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk). Mr Assad quoted the following to Mr Fisk from his other book, 'The Great War for Civilisation; The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk.'

Page 1006:

" 'I (Mohamed, a junior government employee) know you disapprove of what happened at Hama, Robert, the killings and executions,' he said, 'But you must realise that if our president had not crushed the uprising, Syria would have been likeAlgeria today. We tried to talk to the Brothers at first, to negotiate with them. We didn't want this bloodbath. We asked them: "What do you want?" They said: "The head of the president." And of course, that was the end. We were not going to have an Islamic fundamentalist state in Syria. You in the West should be grateful to us. We crushed Islamic fanaticism here. We are the only country in the Middle East to have totally suppressed fundamentalism.' And over the our plate of chickpeas and tomatoes and garlic-pressed yoghurt, the local Syrian arak burning in our mouths, one could only reflect upon the devastating truth of the man's last statement."

In response to Mr Fisk's assertion that Dr Rifaat Al-Assad attempted a coup against his brother. Ribal Al-Assad stated that this was not true and he quoted Patrick Seale, who was close to the regime, from his book, 'Asad , The Struggle For The Middle East.'

Page 423:

"This picture of business as usual drew a veil not only over Asad’s still uncertain health but also over the early rumblings of an internal power struggle. No one had been more thunderstruck by Asad’ s illness than Rif‘at, Lord Protector of the realm, who after three sleepless nights at the hospital looked more ravaged than Asad himself. "

Ribal stressed is this the behaviour of someone who wants to do a coup. The whole thing was a scheme to get Dr Rifaat out of Syria.

Ribal Al-Assad also talked to Mr Fisk about the Association of Higher Education (established by Dr Rifaat Al-Assad), which comprised over 30,000 Syrians from all over Syria. It was closed by the regime in 1985 after Dr Rifaat left Syria because it called for democracy. Patrick Seale in his book, 'Asad of Syria; The Struggle for the Middle East', said the Association was democratic and was competing with the Baath Party.

Mr Fisk wrote (about Ribal al-Assad):

"...he insists he wants no political role in a "new" Syria and bursts into laughter when I suggest he might like to be president. Most would-be presidents, I should add, burst into laughter before assuring the world that they have no such ambitions."

In fact, Ribal did not laugh and made it clear to Mr Fisk that in a democracy the people of Syria would decide who would be their president. It is the hope of democratic reform that drives Ribal's campaign.