Syria should reform before change imposed from outside: opposition chief


AFP
 Date: 05-19-05

DAMASCUS (AFP) - Leading opposition figure Riad Turk called on the Syrian authorities to bring in democratic reforms before changes are imposed from abroad, at a press conference in Damascus.

"The Syrian government should make changes before they are imposed from outside," said Turk at the press conference late Wednesday organized by the Syrian People's Democratic Party (SPDP).

Turk served for three decades as secretary general of a banned communist party which has changed its name to the SPDP. A new leader, Abdullah Hosheh, was elected at a secret congress in early May.

Hosheh called for national dialogue, warning that Syria -- faced with US pressure over Iraq, its support for radical Palestinian groups and alleged pursuit of banned arms -- was "in an unenviable position".

"This is our first public press conference in Damascus," he said in front of almost 150 representatives of opposition parties and human rights activists.

The party leader called for the scrapping of emergency laws in force since 1963 and a clause which lays down the death penalty for membership of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

His predecessor Turk, considered a fierce opponent of the Damascus regime, was jailed between 1959 and 1961, from 1980 to 1988, and again between September 2001 and November 2002.

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