STILL LAND OF MIDNIGHT KNOCKS
by Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli
Arab Times
May 27, 2005

By Ali Al-Baghli
Former Minister of Oil

IT appears our brothers in Syria are living in the past, in the eras of Josef Stalin, Nicolae Ceausescu, Gamal Abdul Nasser and Saddam Hussein when the voice of the people was suppressed. The regime, represented by its leader, was everything and the leader represented the homeland. These regimes never accepted the opinion of others because they knew this would highlight their defects and weak points. Since the Nineties, and with advent of the New World Order, such regimes started collapsing. But some black spots, like the Cuban and North Korean regimes, remain. We have plenty of such black spots in the Arab world. On seeing the winds of change blow across their lands some of these Arab countries have started implementing political reforms.

This is especially true in some Gulf countries and Libya where Muammar Al-Gaddafi has handed over everything to his "former enemies" so he can gain some time to implement political reforms.The only autocratic regime left in the region is in Syria. This regime corrupted not only Lebanon but also its own country. Lebanon has been saved at the cost of Rafik Al-Hariri's blood. This leaves us with the people of Syria who are still struggling under the yoke of this regime without political, economic or any other kind of freedom. When Syria withdrew from Lebanon, leaders of the regime announced they would hold a meeting of the Baathist Party in June and vowed to implement political reforms.

Just when we thought everything was going to be fine we see the Syrian regime arrest Chairman of the Arab Human Rights Association Mohammed Radoon without any charges. As if to prove the days of midnight knocks are not yet over, the Syrian regime also arrested members of Al-Ataci party in the wee hours without any reason. The only ‘crime' they committed was to hold some meetings to discuss the political situation of their country.We request our brothers in Syria to release these people and other such prisoners because they have done nothing wrong. They didn't hold any weapon against the state or the regime. All they did was to express their opinion on some general political issues. Such things are not a crime in most parts of the world. It is unreasonable this can be a crime in Syria.

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