Enough Silence!
SMN 1, May 2, 2010
A group of Syrians have decided to speak out about human rights abuses in their country, creating an interactive group on Facebook, called Kafasamtan or Enough Silence.
The initiative, which started in March, engages in a range of activities, from the production of videos, posting of Twitter messages and creation of online debates in order to shed light on the government’s ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy advocates in the country.
In a country where dissidents are routinely jailed and forbidden from forming political parties or civil groups, young Syrians are attempting to break the wall of silence through on-line activism.
“We are forbidden from speaking, being free or even dreaming. We only have nightmares of arrests, repression and censorship,” the group’s Facebook description said.
It aims to address the Syrian government as well as local, Arabic and international public opinion about the issues of human rights and freedoms in Syria.
The group is also developing a website www.kafasamtan.org that documents news on prisoners of conscience and details of their trials and cases.
The website will post videos on human rights and help mobilise Syrians to organise and take part in protests and conferences in support of human rights in the country.
As its first activity, the group called on expatriate Syrians to demonstrate on Syrian Independence Day, April 17, in front of Syrian embassies in certain capitals. They urged people abroad to stand up against the continuing detentions of pro-democracy dissidents in Syria.
In cooperation with activists abroad, small protests took place, sometimes including activists from Amnesty International and other organisations, in front of the Syrian embassies in Washington DC, London, Paris and Bern. The protesters carried photos of Syrian political prisoners.
The group also recently posted a video on Youtube in support of the lawyer and human rights activist Mohannad al-Hassani, who has been detained by the authorities since last July on charges of “spreading false news” and “threatening to weaken the nation’s moral”, which are typical of trials of dissidents.
The video [youtube id=odzPsjl0pGc] gives information on the activities and trial of Hassani, who heads the local human rights group Sawasiyah. It shows an anonymous Syrian activist speaking with his head covered as well as interviews with two members of the European parliament who support Hassani.
