No One Should Be Surprised at the Escalation of the Syrian Crackdown

The world’s reaction to the first dissident arrest (HT Weapons of Mass Discussion) was muted.

Surprise — If you ignore it, it doesn’t go away. In fact, it gets worse — Much worse:

Syria moves again to quash dissent
ANOTHER CRACKDOWN: In a campaign that Syrian democracy activists have vowed to fight, police have abducted and detained a human rights lawyer and other activists

AP , DAMASCUS
Friday, May 19, 2006,Page 6

Syrian police arrested the country’s leading rights lawyer and five other activists on Wednesday, bringing to nine the number of people detained this week in what a rights group described as the largest roundup of democracy campaigners in years.

All but one of the nine had signed a petition calling for an improvement in relations with Lebanon.

The lawyer, Anwar al-Bunni, was dragged away from his home by security police, his family said. His brother Akram al-Bunni said that the lawyer was leaving home for an English class late on Wednesday when two men asked him to get into their car.

“Anwar asked them to show him an arrest warrant, but they forced him into the car, and drove away while he was shouting [for help],” Akram said.

The Syrian government has not confirmed the arrests. The authorities almost never issue statements about political detentions, regarding them as security matters.

The head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, Ammar Qurabi, said in a faxed statement that he believed most of the detainees were arrested for signing the petition. Only Khaled Khalifa did not sign the letter, which 500 Syrian and Lebanese intellectuals put their names to last week.

Syria is surely testing whether there will be meaningful objections to any attempt to re-establish its former control over Lebanon. A stronger response than seen thus far is clearly in order, or the heady days of the Cedar Revolution may become a distant memory.