TURKEY: Syrian opposition to establish a shadow government

Record ID: 279083

  • Title: TURKEY: Syrian opposition to establish a shadow government
  • Date: 12th July 2011
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JULY 11, 2011) (REUTERS) SYRIAN DISSIDENT HAITHAM AL-MALEH ARRIVING FOR A NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERAMEN DURING NEWS CONFERENCE AL-MALEH HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERAMEN FILMING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MEMBER OF OPPOSITION AND FORMER JUDGE HAITHAM AL-MALEH SAYING: "The government will be elected by participants in the conference scheduled to take place in
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8WNSRSYLQLXPWB3A9LJAQGLKL
  • Story Text: Syrian opposition will form a shadow government to steer the transitional process in Syria and lay the foundation for a new constitution and free elections, a prominent Syrian dissident Haitham al-Maleh told a news conference in Istanbul on Monday (July 11).
    The 80-year-old former judge who was jailed last year for "weakening national morale" made his first foreign visit to Turkey after being released in March under an amnesty marking the anniversary of the 1963 coup which brought the Ba'ath Party to power.
    One of President Bashar al-Assad's most outspoken critics, al-Maleh said the shadow government will be formed by independent, political technocrats.
    "The government will be elected by participants in the conference scheduled to take place in Damascus on July 16. If there is an agreement on a work agenda -- this agenda would include the election of a government and this government will be elected from people with no particular political affiliation, so like technocrats -- a government of independent, political technocrats," he said.
    Al-Maleh stressed the shadow government would be focusing on ways of ruling the country and steer opposition movements.
    "This will allow for the establishment of a shadow government so that work would be at a professional standard, not just some haphazard work, meaning that each shadow minister will have a special team that would be overlooking the work. This is better for the long-term. This is not an actual government that runs the country, but it is a government that oversees happenings, which as I personally believe and I think as most Syrians also believe, that the fall of the regime is an absolute necessity -- there is no longer room for discussion on this," he said.
    Al-Maleh went on to say that Assad's regime had lost its legitimacy and that was acting unlawfully.
    "Any regime that uses weapons against its own people is considered an expired regime. This regime is confronting its citizens with military tanks. In Syria there are 3,000 military tanks that are directing their arms towards the people. They are breaking into homes and bombing civilians. A country fighting its own citizens -- instead of directing their weapons towards Golan (Heights) to retain it, they are directing them at the people. Such a country is not legitimate and the regime is considered over," he said.
    Encouraged by the widening protests, prominent opposition figures plan to convene a 'national salvation' conference in Damascus on July 16 to reach a broad based blueprint for solving Syria's political crisis.
    The conference is being organised by 50 figures, including Haitham al-Maleh, Kurdish leader Mishaal al-Tammo, Nawaf al-Bashir, a tribal leader from the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, economist Aref Dalila, a fierce critic of the Assad's family's involvement in business and Walid al-Bunni, a physician who played a major role in the movement for democracy ten years ago known as Damascus Spring.
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