Syrians use murder to stifle open reporting

Press, 11 August 1980, Page 16

Syrians use murder to stifle open reporting

From the ‘Economist,’ London

By using the.crudest forms of terror against journalists working in Lebanon — threats of death, attempted killings, and . actual murder — the Syrian . government has just about succeeded in drawing a damask curtain around its increasingly peri-lous-condition.

From the beginning of their military presence in Lebanon in 1976, .the Syrians showed that they had no respect for the freedom of the press in that country — a ..freedom unique in the Arab world and of which ’the Lebanese are justly proud. In early 1976, during the Lebanese civil war, a Syrian commando unit led by "a colonel assaulted the premises. : of the newspaper’ “Al ■ Muharrer” and killed . the editor, several employees, and Ibrahim Amer, a distinguished Egyptian journalist who was the. Middle East correspondent of the Jugoslav. newspaper “Politika.” The Syrian government then sent wreaths to his funeral. JEVen after the civil war Beirut, in a battered, crippled sort of way, has continued to be a centre for Middle Eastern reporting and for picking up hard' news as well as alarming - rumours about events in Syria. ' - All the news about the widespread uprisings-in northern Syria in March and the subsequent acts of violence and rebellion there was put out through Beirut. In Syria the' press and radio are firmly under official control, all news is censored and local correspondents of foreign news agencies and publications are .Syrian nationals who, through patriotisni,or prudence, do not report''anything that would annoy the regime. A. gruesome < warning that censorship . 'was no. longer enough for Syria and that it was going to try to block off the Lebanese outlet came on March '. 4. The mutilated body of Mr Selim al Lozi, the Lebanese editor of the weekly, “Al Hatyadess,” formerly,; appearing;. k; in, Beirut but now. based in iParis, was discovered in the woods south-.pf Beirut. He had been kidnapped within yards. of a Syrian army checkpoint. ■■ : Thfeh. on June 6 the head of the; local Reuters bureau, Mr.;.Berndt ..Debusman, was' shot: at five times, hit in the

back and narrowly escaped death. In the preceding weeks Mr Debusman had received several- warnings and threats from Syrian officials in Beirut, because he and his bureau had been reporting on the continuing unrest and violence in Syria. As soon as he recovered enough he left Beirut. Lebanese security picked up three men who said they had been hired by the Syrians to kill Mr Debusman. But the Reuters story about the attack on, its bureau chief did not mention the possibility of Syrian involvement. In July, in 1 Damascus, Syrian sources Jet it be known that the reporting of two British ’ journalists , was so displeasing. . that. what had happened, or nearly happened, to Mr Dubusman would happen 'to them. ; ‘ They were Mr Tim Llewellyn, the BBC’s experienced and respected Middle East correspondent and Mr Jim Muir, a freelance journalist, long resident in Lebanon, v/ho reported for the BBC from time to time. (Mr Llewellyn had witnessed the shooting of Mr Debusman, which took place at the entrance of his apartment block.), . • These threats were'serious enough for the British Embassy in Damascus to raise the matter with the Syrian authorities. It was told, with what may be called laughable cynicism, that security in; Beirut was the response bility of the. Lebanese Government. ■ , ..Not counting on that virtually non-existent entity. to protect them against Syrian wrath, the two journalists left Beirut So did Mr Jorg Stocklin of “Le Figaro” a few, days later, when he was warned by, Lebanese journalistic colleagues that Syrian intelligence agents were looking for him. .....It was a week later, after

the shooting in Beirut (though not by Syrians) of Mr Riad Taha, the head of the Lebanese press syndicate, that the 8.8. C. broke the news that Mr Llewellyn,

Mr Muir and Mr Stocklin had

been forced to leave Beirut Sunder threat, of death. "It made .no reference ■ to the

Syrian connection, though it ■ is hard to see how -journal-

ists can be protected against attack unless their attackers and would-be attackers are identified. The 8.8. C. has instructed its correspondents to seek authorisation from head office before visiting Syria and Lebanon. At present there is no direct 8.8. C. reporting on? either country.

The Syrians have thus forced the representatives of Reuters and the 8.8. C. out of Lebanon by terrorism, and have got away with it without even being named. Foreign and local journalists in Beirut were all in favour of a concerted exposure of the Syrian role, but when the two leading

„ British news organisations declined to name any names the protest collapsed.

Since then the Syrian Government has announced that journalist, can no longer obtain entry, visas at the Syrian frontier or at Damascus Airport, as has been the custom for many years. Prior permission for entry will now have to be obtained and one can assume that this will rarely be given. It is, of course, not unusual that a Government in trouble should seek to'keep out foreign observers. But by attempting ,to kill and threatening to kill correspendents reporting on Syria from another country,' the Syrians have gone a long way beyond partial muzzling.

As if to underline .the seriousness of the Syrian threat, .President Assad declared last week that his regime will. kill; its enemies .wherever they may be. This could account for the assassination in Paris a few days earlier of the former .Syrian Prime Minister, Mr Salaheddin Bitar. The Assad regime, manifestly alarmed by the opposition to it inside Syria, is lashing out.

The killing of ' Mr Riad Taha was apparently the work of pro-Iraqi Lebanese who are carrying on a miniwar ■with pro-Iranian Lebanese Shias, of whom Mr Taha was one. But the killings of Mr Lozi and Mr Taha have made Lebanese journalists extremely ' wary about reporting on -Syria; and what happened 'to Mr Debusman and-Mr Llewellyn has had tire'same effect on foreign correspondents.