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Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0525/p06s01-wome.htm
Syria Launches Crackdown on Dissent
(Christian Science Monitor) Rhonda Roumani - Syria has jailed writers, activists, and intellectuals over the past week in the largest crackdown on internal dissent since 2001. The crackdown is aimed mostly at signatories of a declaration demanding that Syria improve relations with Lebanon. "The government wants to forbid any kind of dissent or opposition so when the results of the international investigation [into last year's assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister] come out, the regime will have complete control of the country," says Yassin Haj-Saleh, an opposition figure who also signed the declaration but has not yet been arrested. With international pressure now focused on Iran and on Hamas, some believe the arrests are a sign that the Syrian government has weathered the storm.