HUMAN RIGHTS ROUNDUP: PROMINENT ACTIVIST CONSIDERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAMASCUS 006509 SIPDIS SIPDIS PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/12/2015 TAGS: PGOV PHUM SY SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS ROUNDUP: PROMINENT ACTIVIST CONSIDERS RELOCATION TO EUROPE; HUMAN RIGHTS DAY DEMONSTRATION STOPPED BY POLICE; GOETHE INSTITUTE LECTURE ON IRAQ POLICY CANCELLED REF: DAMASCUS 6075 Classified By: CDA Stephen Seche for reasons 1.4(b)/(d) ¶1. (C) PROMINENT ACTIVIST MULLS RELOCATION TO UK: Civil society and women's rights activist Maan Abdul Salaam told PolOff and visiting NEA Senior Advisor David Denehy on December 7 that he is considering relocating to the United Kingdom following recent difficulties with Syrian security services. Abdul Salaam, the owner of the Etana Press publishing house, organized the recent conference on Women and Tradition (reftel). During the conference, Abdul Salaam distributed copies of a book by journalist Louay Hossein highly critical of the hejab (the Islamic headscarf.) ¶2. (C) Despite having received official permission from the Ministry of Information for the publication and distribution of the book, Abdul Salaam came under enormous official and unofficial criticism following the conference. He received threats from Islamists, the University of Damascus, and the University security apparatus. After receiving a summons to appear at meeting with the security services, Abdul Salaam fled to Lebanon for ten days and only returned to Syria because was unable to depart Lebanon for a third country without his Syrian passport. Abdul Salaam then met the head of an unidentified security branch for a five and a half hour interrogation on December 1, during which he received a lecture on the importance of Islam from his Ba'athist interrogator and was threatened with three years in prison. Abdul Salaam informed Poloff and Senior Advisor Denehy that he would be traveling to London in late December to investigate the potential of relocating to the UK where he feels he could work more independently and without government interference. ¶3. (C) SMALL HUMAN RIGHTS DEMONSTRATION SHUT DOWN BY POLICE: A small demonstration held by Kurdish activists to commemorate Human Rights Day was broken up by police forces on December 10. According to human rights activist Anwar al-Bunni, approximately 50-100 Kurds attended the rally held in Saba'a Bahrad Square near the Central Bank of Syria. About 200 police officers were also present. They disrupted the demonstration and began beating demonstrators with sticks. However, no demonstrators were arrested. According to Bunni, the event was organized by the Kurdish Azadi, Yekiti, and Kurdish Tayer Mustaqbal parties; other opposition groups, including the Damascus Declaration supporters, chose not to participate, feeling that such an act would be too dangerous and they did not want to "put themselves in front of the gun," according to Bunni. ¶4. (C) GERMAN CULTURAL CENTER FORCED TO CANCEL EVENT: The Damascus branch of the Goethe Institute, the worldwide German cultural organization, was forced to cancel a lecture by leading civil society activist Abdul Razzaq Eid on Aspects of Germany's Iraq Policy. The Goethe Institute management distributed an e-mail to its mailing list on December 11, informing subscribers that the lecture was canceled "as we were not granted permission for the Arabic contribution." According to a German diplomat, Razzaq Eid's presentation made heavy use of veiled language about the Iraqi Ba'ath Party to criticize the Syrian Ba'ath Party. (NOTE: The Goethe Institute has held a number of similar lectures throughout the fall, featuring other prominent Syrians like Michel Kilo and MP Suleiman Haddad.) SECHE