Take heed of Saddam verdict, Syrian prisoners say

DAMASCUS, Nov 6 (Reuters) Authoritarian Arab rulers should take heed from the verdict against Saddam Hussein and start respecting human rights in their own countries, political prisoners in Syria said from their jail today.

Although putting Saddam on trial was a precedent, three prominent Syrian prisoners urged the U S-backed Iraqi government not to execute the former Iraqi leader, saying they were opposed to the death penalty.

''This was the first time that Arab people have held their leaders accountable for crimes against them,'' Anwar al-Bunni told Reuters by telephone from the Adra prison on the outskirts of Damascus.

''This may be their last chance. They may want to reconsider their policies and start observing human rights,'' Bunni said.

Syria has been under pressure from the West to improve its treatment of human rights and end a clampdown on dissent, which increased this year as the government faced tensions over its role in Lebanon. The Baath Party has controlled the political system since 1963.

Human rights organisations have called for the release or independent trials for hundreds of political prisoners still in jail, far less than the number six years ago when President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his late father.

DECLARATION Bunni, whose EU-funded human rights centre was shut shortly after it opened earlier this year, was jailed a few months ago after signing the Damascus-Beirut Declaration, which called for a change in Syria's policy toward Lebanon and greater civic and political freedoms in Syria.

Kamal al-Labwani, a political activist who Syrian authorities jailed after he attended a meeting at the White House last year, said: ''The verdicts show that the day is nearing when any official, however high up, will face trial.'' His statement was echoed by Michael Kilo, a leading writing who had been expected to be released last month but has remained in Adra. ''It has become a world policy to try those who violate human rights,'' Kilo said.

Kilo and Bunni were arrested in May. Details of the charges against them are vague. Kilo was charged last week with ''weakening national feelings'' and raising sectarian divisions, human rights activists say.

Syria has ignored calls by international human rights organisations and Western governments to release the three prisoners, although other dissidents, including signatories of the Damascus-Beirut Declaration, have been set free recently.

A U S-backed court sentenced Saddam to hang on Sunday for his role in executing 148 Shi'ites after a failed assassination attempt in 1982. His half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and a former judge were also sentenced to death.

Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said the verdicts were illegitimate because they were handed down under U S occupation.

Arab League General Secretary Amr Moussa, who was in Damascus, refused to comment.

Reuters AKJ DB2354