Syrian Exiles Vow To Take Power In Damascus.Meeting in London on June 4-5, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups vowed to toppled the Ba'thist dictatorship in Damascus but said it was conducting its efforts peacefully. It said it was forming a government-in-exile. Its co-leader, former Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, said the Assad regime was about to collapse. The coalition, called National Salvation Front The National Salvation Front (or even better translated National Rescue Front, in Romanian Frontul Salvării Naţionale, FSN) was the governing body of Romania in the first weeks after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, subsequently turned into a political (NSF NSF - National Science Foundation ), pledged to plant democracy in Damascus. (At the same time it was disclosed that human rights activists and some 15 members of the opposition who are being held in prison in Syria had gone on hunger strike hunger strike, refusal to eat as a protest against existing conditions. Although most often used by prisoners, others have also employed it. For example, Mohandas Gandhi in India and Cesar Chavez in California fasted as religious penance during otherwise political or on May 30 to demand their release). Created just over two months ago, the NSF in London laid out its aims and tactics with other exiled opposition groupings. The NSF includes the banned Muslim Brotherhood Muslim Brotherhood, officially Jamiat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun [Arab.,=Society of Muslim Brothers], religious and political organization founded (1928) in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna. . In his opening speech, Khaddam said: "Regime change and the adoption of democracy are necessary for Syria to develop and advance on the path towards independence". Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, the exiled head of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the purpose of the meeting was to set up a "national programme of change" away from the Ba'thist dictatorship. About 50 of Assad's opponents, including Kurdish and Alawite parties, independents and communists, turned up for the London talks. But the meeting was not attended by opposition figures living in Syria in view of a yet another crackdown by the Ba'thist dictatorship. Activist Michel Kilo Michel Kilo (Arabic,ميشيل كيلو) is a Syrian writer and human rights activist who has been arrested by the Syrian government in late 2006. and writer Ali Abdullah were among the 15 jailed dissidents in Syria who began a hunger strike on May 30. Others taking part in the strike included jailed lawyer Anwar al-Bounni and Mahmoud Merhi, the secretary general of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights. The London talks came shortly before the head of the UN commission was to submit an investigative report An investigative report is a document that is meant to provide information on a certain topic that is not easily obtained. It is meant to present the reader with a wealth of easily understood information and usually contains an interview or two on the subject. on the killing of Hariri which has been widely blamed on the Ba'thist regime. Khaddam, who resigned as vice president in June 2005 and now lives in exile in Paris, has alleged that Bashar al-Assad Dr Bashar al-Assad (Arabic: بشار الأسد, himself ordered Hariri's killing, a charge Damascus denies. |
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