Hafez al-Assad

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Assad.jpg Hafez al-Assad (Template:Lang-ar) (October 6, 1930 - June 10, 2000) was the president of Syria from 1971 to 2000.

Assad was Syria's longest serving president, and his rule stabilized and consolidated the power of the country's government after decades of coups and counter-coups. His strongly authoritarian regime, under the leadership of the Baath Party dominated all aspects of Syrian political life.

Upon his death he was succeeded by his son, current president Bashar al-Assad.

1 Early life
2 Rise to power
3 Internal policies
4 Foreign policy
5 Death and succession
6 Family
7 Trivia
8 References
9 External links

[edit]

Early life

Template:Politics of Syria Assad was born in Qardaha in western Syria as part of the minority Alawite community. He was the first member of his family to attend high school . He joined the Ba'th party in 1946 at the age of 16. Because his family had no money to send him to university Assad went to the Syrian Military Academy (where he met Mustafa Tlass) and received a free higher education. He showed considerable talent, and the military sent him to be trained in the Soviet military. He rose through the ranks of the military and became an important figure. Assad opposed the 1958 union between Syria and Egypt which created the United Arab Republic (UAR). Stationed in Cairo, he worked with other officers to end the union, sticking to his pan-Arab ideals while arguing that the UAR concentrated too much power in the hands of the Nasser regime. As a result of this, al-Assad was briefly imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities at the breakup of the union in 1961, but Tlass escorted his family to Syria and he could later rejoin them there.

In the chaos that followed the dissolution of the UAR, a coalition of left-wing groups led by the Ba'th seized power. Assad was appointed head of the airforce in 1964. The state was officially ruled by Amin al-Hafiz, a Sunni Muslim, but through the Ba'th, it was effectively dominated by a coterie of young Alawites, a religious minority in Syria to which Assad belonged.

[edit]

Rise to power

In 1966 the Ba'th launched a coup d'etat within the regime and cleared out the other parties from the government. Assad became Minister of Defence, and wielded considerable influence over government policy. However, there was much tension between the dominant radical wing of the Ba'th, which promoted an aggressive foreign policy and rapid social reform, and al-Assad's more pragmatic, military-based faction. After being discredited by the failure of the Syrian military in the Six-Day War in 1967, and enraged by the aborted Syrian intervention in the Jordanian-Palestinian Black September war, conflict erupted within the government. When president Nureddin al-Atassi and the de-facto leader, deputy secretary general of the Baath Party Salah Jadid realized the threat and ordered al-Assad and Tlass to be stripped of all party and government positions, it was too late: al-Assad swiftly launched a bloodless intra-party coup, the so-called "corrective revolution" of 1970. The party was purged, Atassi and Jadid sent to prison, and al-Assad loyalists installed on key posts throughout the bureaucracy.

[edit]

Internal policies

The police state

Al-Assad inherited a dictatorial regime shaped by years of unstable military rule, and lately organized along one-party lines after the Ba'th takeover. He not only continued this form of rule, but increased repression, and attempted to secure his domination of every sector in society through a vast web of police informers and agents. Under his rule, Syria turned genuinely totalitarian. Al-Assad was made the object of a state-sponsored cult of personality, depicting him as a wise, just and strong leader of Syria and of the Arab world in general.

Syria under al-Assad never quite reached the levels of repression practiced in neighbouring Iraq, ruled by a rivaling Ba'th faction. Where Saddam Hussein's policies of perpetual state terrorism aimed to secure his rule through fear, Hafez al-Assad took a more sophisticated approach to the exercise of power. Rather than immediately brutalizing restive communities, al-Assad's regime would often seek to bribe or threaten dissidents. Only after milder forms of persuasion had been tried and failed, swords would come out, but then the regime could be counted on to act with unflinching cruelty in order to set an example to would-be dissenters.

A shrewd power player, al-Assad would use diplomacy, terrorism and tank armadas to the same effect: invariably, he strived to build a strong Syria under his own one-man rule.

Stability and reforms

While dictatorial, the government of al-Assad initially achieved some popularity for bringing stability to Syria (which had experienced about 50 attempted coups since 1948). He also implemented many social reforms and infrastructure projects, notably the Thawra (revolution) dam on the river Eufrat. It was built with Soviet help, and still supplies much of Syria's electricity. Public schooling and other reforms were extended to larger segments of the population, and a notable rise in living standards occurred. The government's secularism meant that many members of religious minorities, such as the Alawites, Druze and Christians, naturally supported al-Assad for fear of a Sunni-dominated Islamic government, in which they feared a return to historic persecution.

Al-Assad also continued previous Ba'th policies by overseeing massive increases in Syria's military strength (again with Soviet support) and by maintaining a strong Arab nationalist stance. School curriculums and the state-controlled media gave much attention to the glorious past of Syria and the Arabs, and portrayed al-Assad's government as the lone uncorrupted champion of the Arab nation against Western imperialism and aggression. This propaganda aimed to legitimize the government, but also to unify the diverse and fractured Syrian society, and instill a nationalist sense of pride in the population.

Ethnic and religious opposition

These policies were popular with the majority of the population, but the emphasis on 'uruba, Arabism, also meant that the non-Arab populations were discriminated against. The biggest such population was the Kurds of northern Syria. Campaigns of Arabization led to tens of thousands of Kurds losing their Syrian citizenship, and only through military repression was the central government able to keep the lid on tensions in the Kurdistan areas of Syria.

Hafez Al-Assad worked continually to ensure the preeminence of his own Alawite sect within the government, and Alawites were appointed to fill virtually all important government posts (a notable exception was Mustafa Tlass, the Sunni defence minister). This was probably less a case of religious or ethnic solidarity, than an attempt to confine power to people close to al-Assad himself, but it simultaneously meant that the historically repressed Alawites became increasingly dependent on al-Assad. Many feared (and still fear) renewed marginalization and retribution from the majority Sunnis, Syria's historical rulers, should the Ba'th regime lose power.

The concentration of power in the hands of a religious group comprising no more than 10% of the population, meant that other groups felt increasingly excluded from power. Since political clout was also a valuable asset in trade and the economy, due to the corruption of the state appratus and the government-dominated economy (which was formally socialist, but in reality a mixed system of big monopolies and preserved small trade), the rising fortunes of the Alawites paid off in government spending in their areas of western Syria. As the unbalance became more and more distinct, discontent grew among Sunnis and some minorites.

The Muslim Brotherhood uprising

Many conservative Sunnis considered the Alawites a heretical breakaway sect from Islam, and resented being ruled by "non-Muslim" politicians. Al-Assad's embrace of secularism and his alliance with the Soviet Union (intensely unpopular after its occupation of Afghanistan in 1979) increased tension between the government and the Sunni religious leadership. In the late 1970s, religious dissent became more and more pronounced, and the oppressive policies of the state pushed non-Islamist dissenters to join forces with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The religious fundamentalists portrayed the Syrian ruler as an "enemy of Allah", an "Atheist" or even "a Maronite", a Christian sect whose militias was at that time fighting Sunnis in Lebanon. Step by step, the underground opposition turned violent, into a low-level insurrection, and the harsh military reprisals further escalated violence.

Throughout the early 1980s the Muslim Brotherhood staged a series of bomb attacks against the government and its officials, including a nearly successful attempt to assassinate al-Assad on June 26 1980, during an official state reception for the president of Mali. As a machine gun salvo missed him, al-Assad ran to kick a hand grenade aside, and his bodyguard sacrificed himself to smother the explosion of another one. Surviving with only light damages, al-Assad's revenge was swift and merciless: only hours later many hundreds of imprisoned Islamists were murdered in a massacre carried out by his brother Rifaat al-Assad in Tadmor Prison [1].

Calls for vengeance grew within the brotherhood, and bomb attacks increased in frequency. Events culminated with a general insurrection in the conservative Sunni town of Hama in February 1982. Islamists and other opposition activists proclaimed Hama a "liberated city" and urged Syria to rise up against the "infidel". Brotherhood fighters swept the city of Ba'thists, breaking into the homes of government employees and suspected supporters of the regime, killing about 50.

In the eyes of al-Assad, this was total war. The army was mobilized, and Hafez again sent Rifaat's special forces and Mukhabarat agents to the city. After encountering fierce resistance, they used artillery to blast Hama into submission. After a two-week battle, the town was securely in government hands again. Then followed several weeks of torture and mass executions of suspected rebel sympathizers, killing many thousands, known as the Hama massacre. Robert Fisk, who was in Hama shortly after the massacre, estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 citizens were killed, but according to Thomas Friedman Rifaat later boasted of killing 38,000 people. Most of the old city was completely destroyed, including its palaces, mosques, ancient ruins and the famous Azzem Palace mansion. After the Hama uprising, the Islamist insurrection was broken, and the Brotherhood since operates in exile. Government repression in Syria hardened considerably, as al-Assad had spent in Hama any goodwill he previously had left with the Sunni majority, and now was compelled to rely on pure force to stay in power.

The challenge from Rifaat

In 1983, Hafez suffered a heart attack and was confined to a hospital. He named a six-man governing council to run the country in his absence, among them long-time defense minister Mustafa Tlass. Curiously, all of the six were Sunnis, possibly because that meant they had no independent power over his Alawite-dominated government, and was thus less likely to try to keep power. Despite this, rumours spread that Hafez was dead or near death, and indeed his condition was very serious. In 1984 Hafez's brother Rifaat attempted to use internal security forces under his control to seize power. Rifaats Defence Company troops of some 50,000 men, complete with tanks and helicopters, began putting up roadblocks throughout Damascus, and tensions between Hafez loyalists and Rifaat supporters came close to all-out fighting. The stand-off was not ended until Hafez, still severely ill, rose from his sickbed to reassume power and speak to the nation. He then transferred command of the Defence Company, and, without formal accusations, sent Rifaat on an indefinite "work visit" to France.

[edit]

Foreign policy

Israel

Al-Assad's foreign policy was shaped by the relation of Syria to Israel, although this conflict both preceded him and persists after his death. During his presidency, Syria played a major role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The war is, despite heavy losses and Israeli advances, presented by the Syrian government as a victory, as Syria regained some territory that had been occupied in 1967 through peace negotiations, headed by Henry Kissinger. Since then Assad-led Syria has carefully respected the UN-monitored cease-fire line in the occupied Golan Heights, instead using non-Syrian clients such as the Hizbullah and various Palestinian extremist groups to exert pressure on Israel. Syria denied Israel any recognition, and long preferred to refer to it as a "Zionist Entity". Only in the mid-1990s did Hafez moderate his country's policy towards Israel, as he realized the loss of Soviet support meant a different regional power balance. Pressed by the USA, he engaged in negotiations on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but these talks ultimately failed.

The Palestinians

The hostile attitude to Israel meant vocal support for the Palestinians, but that did not translate into friendly relations with their organizations. Hafez al-Assad were always wary of independent Palestinian organizations, as he aimed to bring the Palestinian issue under Syrian control in order to use it as a political tool. He soon developed an implacable animosity to Yassir Arafats Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), with which Syria fought bloody battles in Lebanon.

As Arafat moved the PLO in a more moderate direction, seeking compromise with Israel, al-Assad also feared regional isolation, and he resented the PLO underground's operations in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Arafat was depicted by Syria as a rogue madman and an American marionette, and after accusing him of supporting the Hama revolt, al-Assad backed the 1983 Abu Musa rebellion inside Arafats Fatah-movement. A number of Syrian attempts to kill Arafat were also made, but with no success. In 1999, Al-Assad had his right-hand man, the trusted defence minister Mustafa Tlass, make an on-the-record statement labelling Arafat "the son of 60,000 whores and 60,000 dogs", in addition to comparing him to a strip-tease dancer and a black cat, calling him a coward and, finally, pointing out that the Palestinian leader was getting uglier.

An effective strategy was undermining Arafat through support for radical groups both outside and inside the PLO. This way, Syria secured some influence over PLO politics, and was also able to literally blow up any attempts at negotiation with the US and Israel through pushing for terrorist attacks. The PLO's As-Sa'iqa faction was and is completely controlled by Syria, and under Hafez, groups such as the PFLP-GC and others were also turned into clients. In later years, Syria focused on supporting non-PLO Islamist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Lebanon

Syria also deployed troops, ostensibly as a peacekeeping force, to Lebanon in 1976, in another of al-Assads major foreign policy decisions. There it warred throughout the Lebanese Civil War to counter Israeli pressure in south Lebanon and secure Syrian primacy, and eventually turned into an occupation army. In 1991 the Syrians crushed the last factions resisting their rule, after having struck an under-the-table deal with the US government, in exchange for participating in the Gulf war. On US recommendations, Israel withdrew its air cover for the Lebanese military government of Michel Aoun, and after a ravaging air bombardment, Syrian forces poured into Beirut and the presidential palace. Al-Assad promptly set about writing treaties of "cooperation and friendship" with a puppet Lebanese government, which secured his Syria's indefinite domination of the country.

As a sort of provincial governor of Lebanon, al-Assad installed security strongman Ghazi Kanaan, who ruled from the Beqaa valley. From its bases in the Beqaa, Syria armed and used Palestinian and, most importantly, the Shia Muslim Hizbullah guerrillas as proxies in its war against Israel's occupation of south Lebanon. In 2000, Israel withdrew, and Syria then extended its control to the border, using Hizbullah. This de facto-occupation of Lebanon would not end until 2005, in the wake of the Hariri murder.

Saddam's Iraq

Despite the fact that Iraq was ruled by another branch of the Ba'th party, al-Assad's relations to the Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein were extremely strained. Hostile rhetoric was intense, and Iraq was until Saddam's fall in 2003 listed in Syrian passports as one of the two countries no Syrian citizen could visit (the other being Israel). But with the exception of a few border guard skirmishes, and mutual support for cross-border raids by opposition groups, no heavy fighting broke out until 1991, when Syria joined the US-led United Nations coalition to expel Iraq from Kuwait.

[edit]

Death and succession

Assad ruled the country until his death in 2000 due to a heart attack while speaking on the telephone with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. Hafez had originally groomed his son, Basil al-Assad as successor, but Basil died in a car accident in 1994. Hafez then called back a second son, Bashar al-Assad, and put him in intensive military and political training. Despite some concerns of unrest within the regime, the succession ultimately went smoothly, and Bashar rules Syria today. Hafez al-Assad is buried together with Basil in a mausoleum in his hometown, Qardaha.

[edit]

Family

Family connections are presently an important part of Syrian politics. Several members of Hafez al-Assad's closest family have held positions within the government since his ascent to power. Most of the al-Assad and Makhlouf families have also grown tremendously wealthy, and parts of that fortune has reached their Alawite tribe in Qardaha and its surroundings.

Rifaat al-Assad, brother. Formerly a powerful security chief; now in exile in France after attempting a coup d'êtat in 1984
Jamil al-Assad, brother. Parliamentarian, commander of a minor militia.
Anisah Makhlouf, wife.
Basil al-Assad, son. Original candidate for succession. Died in 1994.
Bashar al-Assad, son. President of Syria.
Majd al-Assad, son. Electrical engineer; widely reported to have mental problems.
Lt. Col. Maher al-Assad, son. Head of Presidential Guard.
Dr. Bushra al-Assad, daughter. Pharmacist. Said to be a strong influence on both Hafez and Bashar, sometimes called the "brain" of Syrian politics. Married to Gen. Assef Shawqat.
Gen. Adnan Makhlouf, cousin of Anisah Makhlouf. Commands the Republican Guard.
Adnan al-Assad, cousin. Leader of "Struggle companies" militia in Damascus.
Muhammad al-Assad, cousin. Another leader of the "Struggle companies".
Gen. Assef Shawqat, son-in-law. Present head of military intelligence.

[edit]

Trivia

In official propaganda sources, Assad was often referred to as "the Fighting Comrade."

[edit]

References

Fisk, Robert (2001, 3rd edition). Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192801309 (pp. 181-187)
Friedman, Thomas (1990, British edition). From Beirut to Jerusalem. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0006530702 (pp. 76-105)
Human Rights Watch (1996). Syria's Tadmor Prison. HRW Report, Vol. 8, No. 2.

[edit]