February 1992, Page 17, 82

Special Report

Syrians Record Almost 100 Percent Vote to Re-elect Hafez Al-Assad

By David Rohde

In Syria, a presidential election is a national holiday. The two weeks before the Dec. 2 election featured daily rallies in every major city celebrating the rule of Hafez Al-Assad. Syrians appeared to revel in the opportunity to re-elect their "wise leader," as banners throughout the country proclaimed. Hundreds of thousands of people braved December rains and cold to join in the celebrations.

The many conversations I had with Syrians tempted me to think I understood the "election" I was witnessing. It appeared to be a display of an authoritarian regime's control over its people, somehow legitimized by the Syrian people's desire to prevent civil war and to have their country be considered a regional power.

Groups of men danced in the streets, and thousands of school children marched in the rallies, holding pictures of Assad and chanting "Hafez Al-Assad Forever, Forever!!" Loval government officials made short speeches at the rallies, but the spectacle seemed to be designed primarily for the people to see, and be awed by, their own support for President Assad.

Awe-Inspiring Support

Each night, state-controlled TV provided video coverage of the day's rally. Government buildings were covered by towering portraits of Assad and Syrian and Palestinians flags. While most cars, buses and trucks featured portraits of Assad on their windshields, one rural village even had decorated its tractors and donkey carts with flowers and Assad portraits. To top it off, a rope was strung across a nearby ravine with dozens of portraits of Assad hanging from it.

One Damascus bakery owner called Assad's iron-handed rule and the election "the Arab way." "We know we do not have democracy like in America, but we must have one strong ruler or there will be chaos," he warned. "Each group will try and seize power." He said that although the Arab countries were not ready for democracy, someday they would be.

Each night convoys ranging from a handful to dozens of cars roamed through Syrian cities adorned with pictures of Assad. As young men chanted his name, their car horns blared late into the evening. Their cars also featured stickers saying "We" in Arabic, followed by the shape of a heart meaning love, followed by a picture of Assad.

One Syrian was quick to point out that these young supporters of the regime all were driving Mercedes or foreign luxury cars. "Who do you think their parents are?" he asked, referring to the tightly knit group of Assad loyalists who run Syria.

Although most Syrians refused to comment on the rallies or the election, one man proudly declared, "You have nothing like this in your country-you don't have this kind of unity."

Such unity was less evident in Hama, the site of a brutal crackdown by the Assad regime in 1982. Hama is a stronghold of Sunni Muslims, who make up the majority of Syria's 11 to 12 million people. Assad and most top government and military officials are members of Syria's Alawite minority which makes up between 10 and 12 percent of the population.

The 1982 revolt in Hama by Sunni Muslim Islamists against the secular Assad regime left as many as 25,000 people dead, according to Amnesty International. Assad's brother, Rifaat, unleashed tanks on the ancient part of the city, leveling most of it. Hama's top soil is still filled with chunks of concrete from houses that were bulldozed in the crackdown.

Election rallies in Hama appeared to be better organized but less well attended than in other Syrian cities. Groups of young men, led by an older man waving a sword, paraded through the streets each night, but few Hama residents joined the chants. Instead, they stared in silence as the procession passed.

Although most people in Hama refused to speak with me, one Sunni Moslem told me the same thing I had heard from Sunnis in other cities. "There will be civil war," he said, adding, "We Syrians are far away from our book [Qur'an]." He predicted fighting only after the 61-year-old Assad, who has a history of heart problems, dies.

Other Syrians praised Assad for making of foreign affairs. They called his shift to the side of the United States as the Soviet Union disintegrated "strategic" and "necessary." Every Syrian interviewed supported Syria's role in the war against Iraq, saying Saddam Hussain was "stupid" and "evil."

Nearly all Syrians said they had come to accept the existence of Israel after so many years of struggle. They said all they wanted was the return of the Golan Heights and, in the words of one man, for Israel to "stop the murderous things they are doing to the Palestinians and give them a state." Another Syrian was more direct; "What can we do?" he asked. "Israel is a reality now. We do not have the strength to drive them from the land."

Several businessmen complained of the drag on Syria's economy that resulted from spending what they estimated was 60 to 80 percent of the government's budget on the military. One man said, "Look at this country. We are poor people. Fifty years has been enough. Let there be peace so that we can build this land."

Most Syrians said they supported the US-sponsored peace talks, but every Syrian interviewed predicted that the talks would fail. Several called the talks a "photo opportunity" and "cinema" designed to satisfy the US. Others said none of the sides, including Syria, were ready for peace.

The talks have made George Bush and James Baker extremely popular. The vast majority of Syrians interviewed believed that Bush and Baker wanted a lasting peace involving the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. They predicted that Israel would make no concessions, however, except under intense US pressure.

It was Bush's decision to delay $10 billion in loan guarantees to Israel that won over many Syrians. Several said they now viewed the US as an even-handed broker in peace talks, after years of US partiality for Israel. Syrians also spoke of classic Zionist conspiracy theories, saying Bush, whom one man called "a friend of the Arab people," would not be re-elected in 1992 because he had crossed the powerful Jewish lobby.

Several days before the elections, Syrian TV prominently featured a pro-Assad rally by the tiny Jewish community of Damascus. The community has been the focus of a public relations battle between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and the Assad government. Shamir has called on Assad to allow the Jews to emigrate to Israel, while the Syrian goverment maintained that Jews are not discriminated against in Syria.

The subject that brought the most anger into every Syrian's voice was terrorism. Syrians deeply resented having their country labeled a terrorist state. All Syrians interviewed said they deplored terrorist attacks on American or European civilians, calling victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing "innocent people." However, most Syrians considered attacks on Israeli soldiers or settlers in the occupied territories legitimate military actions.

Many Syrians proudly pointed out their country's role in obtaining the release of the last American hostages in Lebanon, saying it showed Syrians weren't terrorists. "Hafez Al-Assad is a peaceful man," they said over and over again.

People expressed both gratitude and frustration over the Bush administration's claim that Syria was not involved in the bombing of Pan Am 103. "You spent 10 years convincing the world we are terrorists," one man said. "Now the world believes we are all terrorists and suddenly you say we are not. Why?" he asked. "Why?"

The power of the Assad regime over its people seemed to be accepted by many. "As long as you say the right things here you will have no problems," one man explained. He blamed members of Assad's multi-layered secret police and security apparatus, but not Assad himself, for abuses of power and intimidation.

Another Syrian explained to me that fax service would be available in Syria as soon as the police developed a way to screen and read every fax sent in and outside the country. The omnipresent police and such security measures were necessary, he argued. "You don't understand the tension here," he said. "We are in a nearly constant state of war." He went on at length about the fear of Israeli air raids and Zionist spies.

One elderly businessman summed up the situation with a finality that remains in my mind. After refusing to speak about politics or related matters, because he was frightened of the government, he suddenly remarked, "It is unfortunate we cannot speak about these things. This way, you will never be able to understand us."

Of the more than six million votes cast in the Dec. 2nd election, 364 people voted against Hafez Al-Assad.

David Rohde is a 1990 graduate of Brown University and has worked for ABC News in New York and as a stringer for the Associated Press and The New York Times in the newly-liberated Baltic states. He prepared this report during a November and December visit to Syria.

 

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