Tighten sanctions against the oppressive regime in Damascus and expel the Syrian Ambassador!

On Tuesday, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) sent an appeal to Guido Westerwelle, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to expel the Syrian ambassador from Germany. "Diplomatic representatives of a state, whose rulers decide to fire at funeral processions and shoot down peaceful civilians in the streets, have no right to stay in Germany," the STPs General Secretary Tilman Zülch wrote to Westerwelle. "Our human rights organization welcomes the European Union's decision to ban the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and numerous other representatives of his regime in Damascus from the 27 EU-States. But, given the dramatic situation in Syria, sanctions need to be tightened. An expulsion of the ambassador would be a clear and consistent sign that Germany supports the democracy movement. It is not enough to merely condemn the brutality of the Syrian security forces without taking any further action."

At least 50 people were shot dead by security forces in Syria during peaceful protests and funerals of killed demonstrators since last Friday. At least 900 suspected opponents of the regime were killed and nearly 9000 members of the opposition, especially intellectuals and reform activists, were arrested since the beginning of March. About 5,000 Syrian citizens were taken under fire while trying to escape across the border to Lebanon.

The STP is hopeful that a further escalation of the situation in Syria can be prevented by increased diplomatic pressure. "Germany must also take sides with political prisoners and demand their release," says the STP's appeal. For decades, members of the opposition, human rights and civil rights activists in Syria are persecuted, abducted, killed or sentenced to long prison terms in order to silence them. The regime of Bashar al-Assad has also taken severe action against members of the Kurdish minority and the Christian Assyrians-Arameans. Nevertheless, Germany signed a readmission agreement with Syria in 2008 and German authorities have deported political refugees into the hands of the despots.

About two million Kurdish people in Syria have no cultural, linguistic or political rights – even though they represent the majority in three regions close to the Turkish border. At least 600 Kurdish people are imprisoned. The situation of the Assyrians-Arameans is not much better: After a peaceful demonstration on the 20th May 2011, security forces charged an apartment in the predominantly Kurdish-inhabited city Qamishli which functioned as an office of the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) – arresting 13 leading members of the ADO.