Alistair Lyon: A sheen of tolerance in Syria but the iron fist of Assad still grips

SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad has started liberalising his country's stilted economy, but not its politics. His first decade in power, a milestone he will pass on 17 July, is ending more repressively than it began.

That has not deterred the West from gradually rehabilitating Syria from years of isolation imposed for its role in Lebanon, its backing of opponents of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and its support for Islamist groups fighting Israel.

Syria is still locking up dissidents, drawing only verbal condemnation from the United States and its European allies - and silence from an Arab world where similar practices abound.

A military court gave 79-year-old lawyer Haitham al-Maleh a three-year jail term last week for "weakening national morale". He was arrested last year after renewing calls to dismantle the 1963 emergency law that bans all opposition to the Baath Party.

In June another lawyer was jailed on the same charges and a writer was re-arrested a day after completing 2 years in prison. Five opposition figures were freed after serving similar sentences. Former parliamentarian Riad Seif remains behind bars.

"Assad is sending a message that he doesn't care about human rights and political reforms in Syria, and that he doesn't think the international community cares," said Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch director in Beirut.

Damascus has acquired an outward gloss in the past ten years, with a sprinkling of boutique hotels, chic cafes and shopping malls, along with private banks and construction projects. But critics say the main benificaries have been a narrow class of well-connected businessmen.

While some public criticism of economic policy is tolerated, much remains unchanged, including the security system Assad inherited from his formidable father, the late Hafez al-Assad.

"The government undoubtedly assumes that by keeping a tight rein on the people and maintaining clear red lines, it will face less trouble in the long run," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at Oklahoma University. "Syria is surrounded by countries that have been plagued by long civil wars and tough insurgencies," he said.

After taking over in July 2000, Assad freed some political detainees and allowed debate on democracy and reform to flower, only to crush the "Damascus spring" a few months later. Another crackdown scooped up opposition intellectuals who tried to revive the movement after an international outcry over the assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri forced Syria to pull its troops out of Lebanon in 2005.

"The international pressure on Syria was never about human rights," Houry said.

"In the Bush years there was clearly more criticism of its human rights record, but it was often part of a campaign that had broader interests and the Syrians knew that."

In the past two years Assad has forged closer ties with Iran, Turkey and Qatar, mended fences with Saudi Arabia and revived much of Syria's influence in Lebanon.

Regardless of which American president is in power, Assad seems in no hurry to ease up on his domestic critics.

"In reality, Syria's touch regarding human rights is not a function of administrations in Washington," Murhaf Jouejati, a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said.

"Syria's organising principle seems to be: it's better to be feared than to be loved."z