Jailed Syrian dissident prods Bush on Palestine, Iraq
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AFP Thu Dec 21, 3:59 PM ET
The jailed Syrian dissident writer Michel Kilo appealed to US President George W. Bush to "work seriously" towards a Palestinian state and to withdraw US troops from Iraq.
Speaking to AFP by telephone from Adra prison northeast of Damascus, Kilo said he hoped that Bush would go beyond just calling -- as he did in a statement on December 13 -- for the release of political detainees in Syria.
"I would hope that he announces a timetable for a withdrawal (of US military forces) from Iraq and that he promises to work seriously for the building of a Palestinian state," he said.
He added that Bush should also commit himself to forcing an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and from Lebanese territory that remains under occupation.
"If the American president were to act in such a way, it would do much to serve democracy and human rights, while seriously hampering the ability of corrupt and despotic Arab regimes to repress their peoples," he said.
Kilo, 66, classified by Amnesty International as a "prisoner of conscience", was arrested in Damascus with nine other dissidents in May after signing a declaration that called for radical change in relations between Syria and neighbouring Lebanon.
Seven have since been released, but Kilo -- along with lawyer Anwar Bunni and communist activist Mahmud Issa -- remain behind bars.
Sources close to Kilo say he has access to a public telephone in the courtyard of Adra prison, 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the Syrian capital, like his fellow detainees.
In his December 13 statement, Bush called on Syria to free all political prisoners and to halt "intimidation and interference" which, he alleged, had been hurting Lebanon's embattled democracy.
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