DAMASCUS/BEIRUT, 24 February 2005 — In a gesture of defiance, more than 200 Syrian writers, artists and rights activists issued an open letter to President Bashar Assad yesterday calling on his regime to withdraw from Lebanon. “Outside pressures are building in all sorts of ways.

The Syrian people don’t know what is awaiting them as the old political methods are no longer able to resolve crises,” the letter said, a copy of which was received by AFP. Bashar’s regime is facing intense international pressure and calls from the Lebanese opposition to end Syria’s long domination of its neighbor after the killing of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a massive Beirut bomb blast on Feb. 14.

US President George W. Bush has said Syria was “out of step with the progress being made in the greater Middle East” after recalling his ambassador to Damascus following the Hariri murder. Bush yesterday said Damascus would also have to withdraw its intelligence agents from its tiny neighbor. “Syria must withdraw not only the troops but its secret services from Lebanon,” he said during a trip to Germany.

The activists said it was “time for Syria to adopt a new policy which takes account of latest events, notably the aftermath of the killing of Rafik Hariri, and establishes a new healthy relationship with Lebanon based on equality”.

Meanwhile, more than 100 journalists staged a rally yesterday to denounce Hariri’s murder which the Lebanese opposition has blamed on the government in Beirut and its Syrian backers, a charge strongly denied by Damascus. The rally “reflects the sadness of the man in the street in Syria after the misfortune which has struck our two brotherly countries,” said Saber Falhout, head of the Syrian General Union of Journalists.

He also lamented what he said were “unjust declarations made by those who wanted to profit from the martyrdom of Hariri for political ends”, in a reference to the opposition in Lebanon.

“Syrian journalists want to know the entire truth about this odious crime and protest at the iniquitous accusations against Syria,” said one banner waved by the demonstrators.

A growing exodus of Syrian workers, fearful they will be scapegoated for the killing of Hariri, threatens to cost Lebanon’s construction and agriculture sectors millions of dollars. Businessmen in Beirut say many building sites are scarcely functioning amid reports of a spate of beatings, robberies and arson attacks targeting the 300,000-plus Syrian migrant workers, the backbone of Lebanon’s cheap labor force.

No hard figures are available for the number of revenge attacks since the assassination but Syrian workers interviewed by AFP clearly believed they were in danger from opposition sympathizers who blame Damascus for the huge bomb blast. Syrian street-vendors and night watchmen are widely suspected by ordinary Lebanese of working for their country’s powerful intelligence services, particularly in Christian, Druze and Sunni areas, where opposition to Damascus’ dominant role in Lebanon runs deep.

The scale of the resentment against all things Syrian in those areas prompted a call for calm from the leading opposition politician, Druze MP Walid Jumblatt.