Abdul Rahman Al Rashed: Damascus regime: history of assassination

“Why does the regime lie?” Damascus regime is the one meant by this question. This was the title of an article written by Selim al-Louzy, the owner of “Al-Hawadeth” magazine, 31 years ago. When he returned to Lebanon to bury his mother, he was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Before his assassination, his brother Mustapha was kidnapped and murdered as a kind of punishment and threat.

“Al-Nahar” manager Jubran Twini borrowed the same title,“Why does the regime lie?”, and wrote it with the same spirit and theme in 2005, in which he challenged the Syrian regime. He was also killed in a car bomb.

Eight weeks ago, a disfigured dead body of a singer was found in Hama, Syria. It was Ibrahim Qashoush with a cut throat, was punished for singing in support of the uprising and his song was a big hit on the YouTube and millions of Syrians sang it.

Few weeks ago, the Syrian government announced that an investigation committee has been formed to probe the attack on the celebrated Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat, who survived an attack, was abducted, tortured, stabbed in the arms and disfigured before his body was dumped. To add insult to injury, the regime announced that security forces—who attacked him—are now probing the crime!

Why does the Syrian regime lie about its deeds, which everyone knows about? The regime lies only to deceive the international community by showing its innocence. Meanwhile, on the domestic level, it deliberately stresses that it is responsible for the crime as part of its policy of spreading fear. The regime’s war against intellectuals aims at silencing its rivals. It deliberately disfigures its critics, whether they were dead or alive, so as to remind everyone that it is capable of reaching them and capable of committing crimes right in front of the eyes of a silent world.

Along four decades, the Syrian regime killed numerous journalists, writers and artists. It was the only suspect in a series of bloody crimes. It started its era by killing al-Louzy and assassinating the head of the Lebanese Journalists Association Riyadh Taha. In the era of the son, Bashar Alassad, famous intellectual Samir Qusseir was assassinated; Jubran Twini was killed and TV presenter Mai Shediaq was almost killed when her car exploded, which she lost her leg.

The convoy of intellectuals killed and attacked by the Syrian regime, such as cartoonist Ferzat, was never part of any armed militias. They were killed only because they represented the conscience of a large sector of people who disagreed with the Damascus regime.

(Abdulrahman al-Rashed is the General Manager of Al Arabiya. This article was translated by Abeer Tayel.)