U.S. Shadow Haunts Arab Reformers

DAMASCUS, Syria â€”  Riad Turk knows something about freedom.

The grandfather of this country’s opposition, Turk spent more than two decades as a political prisoner, most of it in solitary confinement. He was tortured and beaten repeatedly, once slipping into a coma that lasted 25 days.

Released late last year, Turk, who is in his early 70s, immediately renewed his efforts to win more freedom from Syria’s repressive dictatorship. But now there is a new, if unwelcome, participant in his long struggle: the United States.

“The specter of the U.S. is now roaming the Arab region, and the Arab leaders are frightened of it,� said Turk, who limps and needs a cane to navigate the broken sidewalks of this ancient capital. “Even foreigners now understand that they can’t continue to support these regimes.�

In more than two dozen interviews in five Arab nations, leading dissidents, analysts and diplomats said opposition movements were taking advantage of the political uncertainty that the U.S. invasion of Iraq has caused to demand basic reforms from the autocratic regimes that dominate the region.

“Every dictator was watching [the fall of Saddam Hussein] carefully. It was a very important moment for all dictatorships,� said Mohsen Awajy, a Saudi lawyer who was once jailed for his criticism of moral corruption among the Saudi princes. “The climate is now completely different.�

At the same time, most opposition leaders said the push for democracy in Iraq had also complicated their efforts. In a region where the U.S. is deeply distrusted, dissidents must now struggle for democratic changes without appearing to be allies of an enemy.

They expressed strong doubts about U.S. motives in the region, noting that the U.S. has long backed repressive regimes in countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even tacitly Syria, which the State Department designates a state sponsor of terrorism.

“We are going our own way. We are not against the American agenda, but nobody here trusts American policy,� said Essam Erian, a member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, one of the oldest Islamic fundamentalist movements. “We are struggling for our democracy, not American democracy.�

Although some skeptics questioned the depth of the reform possible, there was general agreement that the invasion had created the biggest political opening in the Arab world in decades. Among the changes underway:

* Syrian opposition figures are publishing two newspapers that criticize the regime of President Bashar Assad. Similar attempts in the past have resulted in jail terms.

* Lebanese are forming a Christian-Muslim political alliance whose goal is to expel Syrian military and political influence. Syria controls political activity in Lebanon, thanks to the 15,000 troops that it maintains as part of a deal to ensure stability in its next-door neighbor. Past opposition efforts have been punished with mass arrests.

* Some Egyptian groups recently came together to protest the succession of President Hosni Mubarak’s son as the country’s next president -- long a forbidden topic.

* Saudi Arabian reformers are criticizing the royal family in newspapers and on Arab-language television channels such as Al Jazeera. Past attempts have resulted in arrests, the suspension of travel privileges and jail sentences.

Despite the burst of activity, nobody is predicting any immediate political shift in the Arab world where opposition movements have flourished periodically, only to be crushed.

Rather, there is hope of small, gradual changes to allow such basic rights as freedom of speech or assembly.

“This is a historical moment. Nobody knows how it is going to go. You have to be prudent,� said Mohammed Mattar, a lawyer in Lebanon who is part of the effort to form a Christian-Muslim political alliance.

Much depends on Iraq. Many opposition leaders predict that, if the U.S. becomes bogged down in prolonged occupation, the region’s authoritarian regimes will have a free hand to crack down again.

But if the U.S. manages to install a stable democracy, it may spark a series of democratic changes, the so-called domino effect that the Bush administration cited as one of the justifications for the war.

“We dream about the domino effect,� said Fares Souhaid, a Christian legislator working on the Muslim-Christian alliance.

It is difficult to talk of opposition movements in the Arab world. Where organized political parties exist, as in Jordan and Lebanon, election laws, gerrymandering and outright repression make it difficult to win elections or advance a political agenda.

In other countries, like Syria, opposition movements are simply outlawed. Harsh repression -- in the form of arrest, torture and expulsion -- has ravaged the ranks of dissidents. The late Syrian President Hafez Assad ordered an attack against the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Hama in 1982, killing at least 10,000 people.

Turk, for instance, is the head of the Communist Party Politburo in Syria -- the branch of the party that does not back the government. But even he acknowledges that neither his party nor any other in Syria is strong enough to present a political threat.

“The opposition is not coherent,� Turk said.

How exactly to benefit from the U.S. effort is one of the hardest questions facing opposition leaders, considering that anyone cooperating with the West has long been suspect in the Arab world.

“Nobody can be on America’s side. We will be accused of being traitors,� said Mahmoud Abdul Karim, a Syrian filmmaker and journalist. “They are supporting the guys in Israel who are occupying our land. It’s not acceptable.�

Still, there is an undeniable enthusiasm about the possibility of change.

Journalist Nabil Molhem sat in a lawyer’s office in Damascus one morning recently, poring over the final proofs of a weekly satirical newspaper called Al Domari -- the Illuminator.

The paper had been shuttered by the Syrian government, but Molhem had in his hands the latest edition, which featured an open letter to Assad, calling on him to allow political reform to proceed.

Molhem, who proudly identifies himself as part of the “press militia� that is against Assad, said he was not sure whether the paper would actually be distributed on the streets.

He leafed through the pages slowly and with care, like a man examining his newborn child. The ceiling fan clattered overhead, and the sounds of cars honking on the street outside filled the room.

The risk of being shut down again -- or even being arrested--was worth it, he said.

“We must say who we are. When we call for political freedom in this country, that has nothing to do with the U.S.,� he said. “It’s impossible to be frightened.�