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Syrian Opposition Journalist Founds Rights Committee
DAMASCUS, July 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Syrian dissident journalist and human rights activist Nizar Nayyouf said Sunday he had formed a committee to take legal action against officials and Islamist opposition members guilty of "crimes".
Nayyouf, 40, announced the "Committee for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation" shortly before leaving Damascus for Paris, where he is to receive treatment for medical problems arising from a prison ordeal.
He said in a statement that "national union", or coexistence, had received a disastrous blow from clashes between authorities and the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s.
He accused both armed Islamic groups and the government of "crimes" and "massacres", adding that "national reconciliation has become a priority to get the country out of crisis and re-establish itself politically, economically and socially."
"This will only be possible if truth is established, and all those implicated in these crimes, directly or indirectly, are brought to court," he said.
He said his committee also aimed to "bring before an international court military and civilian Israeli officials who committed crimes on the Golan Heights," the strategic plateau captured by Israel from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
Nayyouf, who was released in May after nine years in prison, did not reveal who else was a member of his committee.
He had told the French news agency AFP before leaving, "I will not make any statements outside Syria, unless there are problems or I am the object of provocations by the regime."
Nayyouf said he plans to stay around ten days in Paris, and make a stop in Germany before heading back to Syria. "I want to speak from Syria, and not from abroad," he said.
"I will not feel free as long as there is still a single prisoner (in Syria) and I feel guilty traveling when some are behind bars," he added.
According to rights organizations, between 700 and 800 political prisoners are still held in Syrian prisons.
Nayyouf was given permission last month to travel to France for medical treatment for illnesses which press watchdog groups attribute to his detention between 1992 and 2001 in a Syrian jail.
The Syrian regime has been repressing the Muslim Brothers for more than 20 years, but has only recently given more slack to a moderate Islamist movement that supports inter-faith coexistence.
The secular pan-Arab Baath party which has ruled Syria since 1963 exercised ruthless repression against the Brotherhood in the 1980s, following a string of deadly attacks across the country.
Political forums sprouted up in Syria after Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father, late Syrian strongman Hafez al-Assad, as president upon his father's death in June 2000.
The Baath government has been characterized by authoritarian rule at home and a strong anti-Israeli occupation policy abroad, particularly under former President al-Assad.
In 1967, Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel, while civil war in neighboring Lebanon allowed it to extend its influence in the region.
The government has dealt harshly with any opposition, with thousands presumed dead since the crackdown on the 1982 uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama.
The young Assad's modernizing credentials have been bolstered by his role in a domestic anti-corruption drive. He studied to become an eye doctor in Damascus and London but joined the military after his brother's death, and was promoted to colonel in 1999. He is the head of the Baath party and Syria's army.
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