SYRIA'S BLOODY SPRING; Congressional Record Vol. 157, No. 100

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YRIA'S BLOODY SPRING

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from

California (Mr. Schiff) for 5 minutes.

Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, there are moments in the lives of nations

when the existing order is suddenly revealed as bereft of legitimacy

and no longer viable. The wave of unrest spreading across the Arab

world, touched off by the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit vendor

tired of petty humiliation by corrupt governments, has exposed the rot

of decades of caprice, corruption, and incompetence. That this one

man's desperate act could lead to the downfall of the governments of

Tunisia, Egypt, and perhaps Yemen is testament to the pent up

frustration of millions of people who were denied the basic rights and

economic opportunity that we take for granted here in the West.

But it is in Syria, where the future of the Arab Spring seemingly

hangs in the balance and where the security services have acted with

the least restraint and maximum violence. Like marauding armies of old,

select units of military and security services troops have been moving

from city to city in a quest to quash the ever-spreading demonstrations

that have become a feature of life in Syria.

Deraa, a town of some 75,000 lying near the border with Jordan, has

emerged as one of the centers of the Syrian uprising against the 40

years of rule by the Assad family. Army and security forces have

repeatedly assaulted the town and surrounding villages, killing

hundreds of civilians and arresting anyone suspected of taking part in

demonstrations against the regime. On April 29 in the village of Jiza,

the Syrian secret police rounded up anybody it thought was involved

with the protests, including Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, who had gone to

watch the demonstration with other members of his family.

For a month, Hamza's family waited for him to return, worried but

hopeful that he would be released unharmed. It was not to be. On May

30, Hamza's mutilated body was returned to them. He had been tortured,

subjected to repeated electric shocks, and whipped with cables. His

eyes were swollen and black, and there were identical bullet wounds

where he had been apparently shot through both arms, the bullets

lodging in his belly. On Hamza's chest was a deep, dark burn mark. His

neck was broken, and parts of his body were cut off. Hamza Ali al-

Khateeb was 13 years old. Video of the boy's shattered body has been

seen by millions on television and the Internet.

Hamza, like the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself alight, has

become a symbol to his countrymen and the world of the depravity and

illegitimacy of a regime that would torture its own children to death.

Our ability to bring additional economic pressure on Syria is

limited. Its economy is already under immense strain. It is small,

weak, and isolated. Political pressure, in the form of a U.N. security

resolution condemning the violence and crackdown, has been blocked by

Russia and China. And there is dread over what will happen when Assad

falls, given the internal divisions between Sunni and Shia, Muslim and

Alawi, Christian and Druze. The confessional and sectarian splits are

as pronounced as in Lebanon, the potential for large scale violence as

great as Iraq.

The dangers are real, but the promise of what began in Tunisia and is

now materializing in Egypt and elsewhere is also real. People of

courage can determine their own destiny, and it need not be one of

hereditary dictatorship, kleptocracy, or lack of opportunity and

stagnation. In the Arab world, as elsewhere, people should be free to

choose their own government to represent them and to chart peace with

their neighbors.

To conclude otherwise means that we relegate tens of millions of

people to suffer the capricious ruthlessness of their despots for

generation after generation, or that we are willing to trade the

illusion of stability for the harsh reality of their suffering. That is

not the choice we made for ourselves 235 years ago, and it is not one

that we should presume to make for others.

Bashar Assad is a ruthless tyrant whose time has passed and who

clings to power only by virtue of brutal force. Our role and that of

the international community should be to work with

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Syrian opposition figures and others to advance a negotiated transition

to a new Syrian Government that will represent all Syrians and prevent

the trading in of one set of thugs for another. The Arab Spring cannot

be allowed to fail because of brutal repression, the specter of

religious fanaticism, a fear of the unknown, or the cynicism born of

unmet expectations. The region's many millions must have the freedom to

write a new chapter for themselves and their posterity.

In this, the younger Assad has taken a page from his father, who

unleashed his troops in 1982 to suppress a revolt by the Muslim

Brotherhood in the city of Hama, an offensive that may have cost as

many as 20,000 civilian lives. Indeed, history may be repeating itself

as Hama has become a focus of both anti-government activity on the one

hand, and the use of extreme violence by the Assad government on the

other.

For American policymakers, Syria presents a collection of overlapping

and sometimes contradictory challenges. Like his father, President

Assad has repeatedly tantalized the United States and the west with the

possibility of a new opening, but he has never followed through.

Syria's illegal and clandestine nuclear program, its alliance with Iran

and its meddling in Lebanon, a policy that culminated in the 2005

murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, form a compelling case

that the Syrian people and the world would be better off with a new

leader in Damascus.

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