Syria presses “Israel” over ailing prisoner

Source: AFP, 3-7-2007
DAMASCUS - Syria sought UN help on Tuesday to secure the release by "Israel" of a prisoner from the occupied Golan Heights who has been held since 1985 despite reports of a heart attack last month.
The foreign ministry called on the United Nations to "intervene to secure the treatment and release of Syrian prisoner Basher Makt and all the other detainees held for the past 22 years," in a letter carried by the official SANA news agency.
According to a Syrian prisoners` support group, Makt was among 15 Golan residents detained by "Israeli" forces in 1985 for resisting the territory`s unilateral annexation by "Israel" four year earlier.
The ministry recalled that another Syrian prisoner, Hayel Abu Zeid, died from cancer in "Israeli" custody in July last year after spending 21 years in detention.
It called on the world body to take steps to constrain "Israel" to respect international law on the administration of occupied territories, particularly the Geneva conventions.
"Israel" occupied the strategic Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and unilaterally annexed them in 1981.
"Israeli" cabinet ministers confirmed earlier this year that an offer had been made to Syria to relinquish the entire territory, right down to the Sea of Galilee, "Israel's" main source of water.
But Hebrew press reports made clear that the offer had been conditional on Syrian readiness to break its quarter-century alliance with "Israeli" arch foe Iran and Syria later rejected any trade-off for the return of its territory.
More than 18,000 Arabs, nearly all of whom have refused "Israeli" citizenship, continue to live alongside more than 15,000 Jewish (Zionist) settlers in the Golan Heights.