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American embassy diplomat at syrian riot { March 9 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/international/middleeast/09SYRI.html"The security police began rounding up the demonstrators and others at the scene, including ... a junior diplomat from the American Embassy."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/international/middleeast/09SYRI.html
March 9, 2004
Police Dampen a Rare Protest Seeking Reform in Syria
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
DAMASCUS, Syria, March 8 — The security police quickly squelched an extremely rare public demonstration demanding political reform on Monday, the 41st anniversary of the Baath Party's seizure of power here.
Organizers and other reform advocates said the huge police presence in downtown Damascus, which far outnumbered the demonstrators, was a sign of how jittery the government and especially the overlapping security services remained just a year after the rapid fall of the Baath Party in neighboring Iraq.
"There was a band of about 20 to 30 nonviolent people, hardly a group that could threaten the government, yet it reacted in a way that is completely out of proportion," said a Syrian intellectual who declined to be quoted by name, fearing reprisals.
Rights advocates and others seeking reform planned to draw attention to their petition demanding the lifting of emergency laws, which have been in place throughout Baath Party rule, by staging a sit-in at the gates of Parliament. The reform advocates say they have gathered 7,000 signatures to support their demands.
But when the small band unfurled a few paper banners reflecting their demands, dozens of plainclothes security officers pounced. They shredded the banners and ripped up the notebooks of some reporters covering the protest, igniting numerous scuffles.
At that point a colonel on the scene ordered the group to leave. "You are not permitted to be here; disperse," he said.
Instead of leaving, a half dozen demonstrators raised their hands over their heads and one of them said mockingly, "Take us to prison, even if we do fear the authority."
The security police began rounding up the demonstrators and others at the scene, including this reporter, a photographer for The New York Times, a reporter for the BBC and a junior diplomat from the American Embassy. The foreign reporters were driven to a police station, given several rounds of coffee and tea and then sent on their way with an apology after an hour.
The United States government protested the detention of the American diplomat to the Syrian government, a spokesman for the embassy told The Associated Press.
The episode comes at a delicate time, with Washington threatening to impose a new round of sanctions for what it calls Syrian support for terrorist groups.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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