SARG ROUND UP OF DAMASCUS DECLARATION MEMBERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAMASCUS 001170

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ELA

PARIS FOR JORDAN; LONDON FOR TSOU
NSC FOR GAVITO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/11/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SY
SUBJECT: SARG ROUND UP OF DAMASCUS DECLARATION MEMBERS

REF: DAMASCUS 1156

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


1. (C) Summary: Syrian security services detained some 36
Damascus Declaration National Council NC) members this week,
eventually releasing all but three. Security services also
disrupted an NC meeting at the home of National Council
Secretariat Riad Seif on December 13, but there were no

SIPDIS
additional arrests. End Summary

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GID Detains 36, Releases 33
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2. In meetings with Poloffs and visiting NEA/MEPI Senior
Advisor Owen Kirby, Damascus Declaration National Council
members confirmed the arrest of some 36 Council members, 33
of whom appeared to have been released after questioning by
GID officials. As of mid-day (local) December 13, three
National Council members remained in detention:

-- Akram al Bunni, Secretary of the NC Presidential
Committee, a Christian liberal who spent 15 years in prison
for his former affiliation with the Communist Action Party;

-- Ahmad Tohmeh, member of the NC Secretariat, moderate
Islamist, a dentist by training who worked as a human rights
activist;

-- Jabr al Shoufi, member of the NC Secretariat, Druze
teacher and government critic from Suweida.


3. (C) On December 11, Riad Seif told Emboffs and Kirby
that he believed the SARG had been surprised by the December
1 creation of the National Council and by the marginalization
of the Syrian Arab Socialist Democratic Union Party and the
Communist Action Party. He denounced the government's
action, calling it a "stupid and clumsy" attempt to weaken
the Syrian opposition. The round up would ultimately serve
to call public attention to the new Council, Seif argued.


4. (C) At a lunch hosted by Charge the same day, National
Council Members Walid al Bunni and Fawaz Tello and human
rights lawyer Daad Mousa commented that civil society and
human rights activists all over Syria were laying low out of
fear that they could be next. Tello reminded us that he had
predicted a government crackdown a week earlier in a
conversation with Emboffs. Tello repeated his assessment
that the Syrian government would likely detain lower profile
National Council members to signal that it was in control.


5. (C) Tello said he himself had been questioned for three
hours by GID officials earlier in the week, and they were
most interested in why the Socialist Democratic Union Party
and Communist Action Party had effectively been voted out of
the National Council leadership. (Note: Both parties
announced a freeze of their participation in the Damascus
Declaration shortly after the National Council was created.)
This line of questioning struck Tello as an indication of the
SARG's concern about the lack of any internal influence by
the Socialist Democratic Union Party within the Damascus
Declaration. Tello said he had answered the GID's questions
honestly and then sat for two more hours awaiting to learn
his fate. The GID director returned to the interrogation
room "happy" to inform him that GID Director Ali Mamluk had
decided not to detain him any further.

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December 13 Stand Off at Seif's Home
--------------


6. (C) According to Embassy sources, security services
attempted to disrupt a National Council meeting at the home
of Riad Seif on the evening of December 12. After persuading
the GID commander from entering his home, Seif negotiated
with security services to allow the 12 attending NC members
to leave the premises in groups of two without being
arrested.

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Trying to Interpret SARG Behavior
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DAMASCUS 00001170 002 OF 002




7. (C) Bunni and Mousa, noting that the SARG had cracked
down harshly on the opposition community in the last two
years, predicted that the SARG would become even tougher if
relations improved between Syria and the U.S. The latest
arrests of NC members, they opined, were consistent with
existing policies toward opposition and human rights
activists. The SARG no doubt saw the formation of the
National Council as a provocation that could not be ignored.
According to Bunni and Tello, the GID's questioning of Tello
on the Socialist Democratic Union Party's role suggested the
SARG's real concern was the not just the meeting of Damascus
Declaration members to create of a National Council, but the
possibility that it might actually move forward under the
auspices of an overtly pro-Western leadership.


8. (C) Bunni, Tello, and Mousa, in addition to other human
rights contacts, have drawn a parallel to the SARG reaction's
after the Beirut-Damascus Declaration in May 2006, when the
regime rounded up a large group of important human rights and
opposition activists and released all but a handful.
Ultimately, the government sentenced Michel Kilo and Mahmoud
Issa to three years in jail, Anwar al Bunni to five years,
and Suleman Shammar and Khalil Hussein to 10 years (in
absentia). Bunni and others suggested that if the same
pattern applies, we should expect prosecution of and stiff
sentences for a few select National Council members as a
warning to others of government redlines. (On the other
hand, we are also hearing rumors from media contacts that the
SARG will be releasing those still in detention.)


9. (C) Comment: Determining how the security services view
the National Council and identifying SARG redlines remains an
inexact science. Perhaps once content to tolerate a modicum
of opposition activities by Damascus Declaration members so
long as they remain stymied by internal dissent, the regime
appears intent on disabling the newly formed National Council
before it gains any momentum. Though the fate of the three
detained NC members still remains uncertain, SARG behavior up
to now suggests the possibility of their prosecution and
continuing efforts by the security services to disrupt
National Council meetings.
CORBIN