Syria slammed on human rights
On the tenth anniversary of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rise to power, a prominent human rights group has accused him of doing too little to change his country's long-running history of government oppression and abuse.
While Assad has used the US invasion of Iraq and the "chaos" surrounding his country in the Middle East to justify his tight control over the limited freedom of expression allowed in Syria, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that "a review of Syria's record shows a consistent policy of repressing dissent regardless of international or regional developments".
Assad's state security forces have jailed at least 92 human rights activists and 25 bloggers and journalists in the past 10 years, according to a report released by the organisation yesterday.
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