DAMASCUS, Syria, May 18 (UPI) -- Syrian authorities stepped up an arrest campaign against political activists Thursday, taking in a new signatory of the Beirut-Damascus declaration.
Lawyer Khalil Maatouk, spokesman for the Center of Freedoms, said the authorities arrested Mohammed Mahfouz, bringing up to eight the number of activists detained since Sunday for signing a declaration with 250 Lebanese and Syrian intellectuals that calls for rectifying relations between the two neighbors.
The declaration said the crisis was triggered by the extension of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's mandate for three years at Syria's behest despite Lebanese opposition.
Relations went very sour following the February 14, 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri which sparked nationwide demonstrations that led to Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon after almost 30 years of military presence.
The Syrian authorities arrested prominent human rights and political activists, including Michel Kilo, a renowned journalist.
The London-based Syrian Democratic Movement warned Thursday that opposition forces at home will take to the street to protest against the regime's policy aimed at terrorizing the activists.
A statement by the opposition group released in London denounced the arrest campaign, cautioning that "political frustrations in Syria reached a peak in support of freedom fighters and not in the ranks of the defenders of oppression."
It called for the immediate release of all political activists and for starting dialogue with them over their political views "because that is what Syria needs and any delay or expansion of the oppressive campaign will have adverse consequences."
