Syrian poet Adonis calls on President Assad to listen

According to human rights activists, on Monday night eleven people were shot and killed in Hama, the bastion of the rebel movement sealed off by Syrian government troops. The Syrian poet Adonis calls on President Bashar al-Assad to listen to his people in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica: "Democracy presupposes the full separation of religion on the one hand, and politics, social questions and culture on the other. However this is exactly where the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party has failed. The only goal it pursues is to maintain power. A reactionary power, which needs no revolution to topple it as it carries within it the seed of its own destruction. ... Now more than ever Syria needs a new political alphabet. One that is based on a rejection of the unity of the state and the party. ... Only tyrants seek to preserve this unity. Mr President, you are called upon today to put a definitive end to the equation of Syria with the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. ... Events have shown that it has failed right down the line. Arrogance is senseless. Violence will only be counterproductive. Jails can confine individuals, but not an entire people."

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