SEVERAL SYRIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS PREVENTED

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAMASCUS 001144

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

PARIS FOR JORDAN; LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/28/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SY
SUBJECT: SEVERAL SYRIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS PREVENTED
FROM LEAVING

REF: DAMASCUS 0578

Classified By: CDA Michael Corbin, for reasons 1.4 b/d.


1. (SBU) Summary. The Syrian government has prevented several
human rights figures from traveling abroad in recent days.
The regime,s actions appear to be an enforcement of existing
travel bans to which there had previously been some
loopholes. Many of the activists prevented from leaving were
headed to international conferences for training and
underscores the difficulty associated with external training
for Syria-based civil society activists. In addition, the
most recent travel bans illustrate the SARG's
across-the-board focus on increasing security measures
whether against islamists, Iraqis, Kurds or human rights
activists. End Summary.


2. (U) On November 24, the National Organization for Human
Rights in Syria (NOHR-S) released a statement condemning the
SARG,s decision to prevent NOHR-S President Ammar Qurabi
from traveling to Jordan to attend a seminar on civil society
in the Arab world. This conference was partly organized by
the Aspen Institute. The statement also condemned the
regime's actions that prevented other notables from leaving
the country. They include: head of the Kurdish Organization
for the Defense of Human Rights in Syria (DAD) Mustafa Oso,
who was attempting to travel to Cairo for a workshop
sponsored by the International Federation for Human Rights;
Chairman of the Arab Organization for Human Rights Rasem
Suleiman, on his way to Turkey to participate in the
International Forum of Jerusalem; and defense lawyer Siri
Khoury, who defended Anwar al-Bunni and Michel Kilo among
others and was on her way to Jordan.


3. (C) Most of the personalities recently prevented from
traveling abroad have been officially banned from leaving the
country for some time -- in some cases the travel bans go
back years. Despite the official ban, however, many of these
human rights activists have been able to leave the country if
they obtained a one-time travel ban waiver from one of the
security services (reftel). In fact, Qurabi had obtained
many such waivers in the past and had attended international
conferences in Europe on a regular basis.


4. (C) According to the NOHR, the regime has closed the
loophole by issuing multiple travel bans from myriad of
different security services in Syria. In effect, an activist
would now have to get a waiver from each of the security
services that applied a travel ban. In practice, getting
multiple travel ban waivers is next to impossible given the
non-transparent and extrajudicial way in which security
services apply travel bans. The apparent shift in an
unwritten SARG policy demonstrates a tightening of control
over the extent to which regime opponents can communicate
with the outside world, according to Qurabi who POLOFF met
with on November 26.


5. (C) Comment. Aside from the further diminishment of
individual freedoms in Syria, the regime,s most recent
measures to prevent regime critics from traveling is yet
another example of the on-going crackdown on dissent that has
intensified over the last six months. Moreover, the closing
of the loophole on travel bans fits a pattern of stepped up
regime security measures geared towards not only human rights
activists but also a wide range of groups including Kurds,
Iraqi refugees, and islamists.
CORBIN