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MIDEAST: Fundamentalist Violence is Spreading
By Ferry Biedermann
AMMAN, May 3 (IPS) - The violence that has thus far mainly hit Iraq, Israel and the Palestinians is
spreading now to other countries in the Middle East.
In Syria attackers were engaged in a rare confrontation with security forces
in the centre of capital Damascus. And in Jordan the authorities aired video-
taped confessions by presumed members of al-Qaeda saying they were
planning a large-scale chemicals attack in the kingdom.
Syria and Jordan have been among the most stable of Middle East
countries, with security forces keeping a tight lid on unrest, or even peaceful
expressions of dissent.
They seem both to have been targeted now, even though they occupy
opposite places in the regional alignment of political forces. Syria, a former
Soviet client, is often stridently anti-American. Jordan is a long-standing ally of
the West and the United States.
What they seem to have in common is a secular outlook that puts them into
conflict with Islamic fundamentalists of different stripes.
Most Syrian officials blamed last week's violence on Osama bin Laden's al-
Qaeda, which they say Syria has been combating vigorously since 9-11.
Other commentators blamed less specific 'Islamic fundamentalists', pointing to
past confrontations with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood.
In 1982 Syrian security forces under the command of late president Hafez
Assad put down a fundamentalist uprising in Hama town in central Syria in
which some reports say up to 20,000 people were killed.
Violence is flaring up again. In recent weeks Syria experienced rare ethnic
and political violence when Kurds in the north of the country clashed with
security forces, leaving an unknown number of people dead. The unrest
briefly spread to Damascus where Kurdish sympathisers held solidarity
demonstrations.
But the supposed targets of new attacks in Damascus last week, an
abandoned UN building and the Canadian embassy, seem to preclude
Kurdish involvement.
"There is no doubt that this was done by Muslim fundamentalists," says
Thabet Salem, a political analyst in Damascus. "After 25 years of quiet in
Syria, the aim was to send a message to the authorities to tell them, watch out,
we're still here."
The authorities are in a way eager to pin the blame on al-Qaeda. The
government can do with some proof that it is on the same side as the United
States in the global fight against terror.
"I think al-Qaeda wanted a media explosion to send a message to the
Americans that it can reach any target, even highly secure countries like
Syria," tourism minister Saadallah Agha al-Kalaa told reporters. "This also
aims to make Syria pay for its role in the campaign against terror."
Syria has long been on the U.S. State Department list of countries
supporting terrorism. During the war in Iraq tension between Damascus and
Washington shot up because of Bashar Assad's outspoken opposition to the
U.S. invasion of the neighbouring country.
More serious allegations followed that Syria intentionally allowed military
supplies and fighters for the forces battling the United States to cross its
border with Iraq. After the war complaints continued that Syria was not doing
enough to seal its borders.
Late last year the U.S. Congress passed the 'Syrian Accountability and
Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act'. The act allows the U.S. President to
slap sanctions on Syria, which he reportedly is in the process of drawing up.
Syria has tried to counter the pressure by emphasising its record on
cooperation with the United States in the global fight against al-Qaeda.
But recent attacks in the Middle East in which al-Qaeda has been blamed,
ominously seem to suggest a Syrian connection. Some of the plotters in the
bomb attacks in Turkey towards the end of last year may have attended
Islamic studies in Syria, according to investigations.
At the same time Jordanian authorities say that at least three cars filled with
explosives that were to be used in al-Qaeda attacks entered the country from
Syria - an allegation Damascus denies. Indisputably, though, three of the four
suspected plotters who were killed in a shoot-out with the police in Amman a
week back were Syrians.
Jordanian authorities too, like their Syrian counterparts, have seemed keen
to link the attackers to al-Qaeda. Unusually this week they aired the
confessions of four men accused of plotting to carry out attacks on Jordanian
and U.S. targets in the country.
The plotters said in their broadcast confessions that they were acting on the
orders of al-Qaeda's senior commander Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, himself a
Jordanian, who has been linked by the United States to attacks in Iraq.
One of the suspects said they had intended to carry out al-Qaeda's "first
chemical attack" in Jordan. A commentary accompanying the confessions
said the attacks could have killed up to 80,000 people.
Jordan TV showed blue containers said to contain chemicals that were
allegedly intended for use in the attacks. The extensive coverage also
included animation of the way the plotters are said to have planned the attack.
Some commentators suggest that televising the confessions was meant to
dispel doubts among Jordanians about the authenticity of the claims. But
many feel the authorities have clamped down on freedom under the guise of
security.
In Syria this prompted human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni to voice rare
criticism of the regime. "This extremism occurred because freedom was
strangled, as was the means of peaceful expression," Al-Bunni says. "No one
is against providing security for people, but using security as a way to
suppress people leads to more extremism."
Also, al-Qaeda is gaining popularity both in Syria and Jordan because of
the group's alleged involvement in fighting the U.S. forces in Iraq.
The authorities in both countries may have had an interest in showing the
population that at least domestically, al-Qaeda would only bring mayhem and
destruction. (END/2004)
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