ABOUT 140 Syrian intellectuals and human rights activists yesterday published an open letter urging Damascus to withdraw its estimated 14,000 troops from Lebanon to avoid further international censure.

The letter, addressed to the Lebanese opposition, said: “We support your demand for the withdrawal of the Syrian Army from Lebanon and in correcting the Syrian-Lebanese relationship.”

Syria deals harshly with political dissent. The intellectuals who signed the letter criticising their Government risk being jailed.

Syrian national pride has been stung by widespread accusations that Damascus was responsible for the assassination last week of Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese Prime Minister, in a bomb blast in Beirut. Bassel Fleyhan, a former minister, was wounded in the attack.

Mr Hariri’s death has spurred an outpouring of anti-Syrian anger in Lebanon. A dormitory for Syrians in north Lebanon was burnt down last week and mobs in Hariri’s home town of Sidon have attacked Syrian workers.

Thousands of Syrian labourers have fled in the past week, fearing further reprisals.

The Syrian activists’ letter said: “We are extremely pained and angry to see and hear that some Lebanese are insulting Syria and its people without (it) being guilty, and attacking hapless Syrian workers, who are seeking a living in Lebanon.”

As many as one million Syrians work in Lebanon, mainly in construction and street cleaning, their earnings giving Syria’s cash-starved economy a significant boost.

Michel Kilo, a Syrian human rights activist and one of the letter’s signatories, said Syria had to change its policies towards Lebanon. “You have the international community against Syria. The Lebanese are no longer with Syria. The Syrians are feeling scared and isolated,” he told The Times.

More than 100 Syrian journalists rallied in Damascus yesterday to denounce the Hariri murder. The rally “reflects the sadness of the man in the street in Syria after the misfortune which has struck our two brotherly countries”, Saber Falhout, head of the Syrian General Union of Journalists, said.

In Lebanon Omar Karami, the Prime Minister, said that he would seek a confidence vote in his Government during a parliamentary debate on Monday to discuss Mr Hariri’s murder.

The Lebanese opposition is calling for the Government’s resignation but it will probably survive the vote: opposition MPs comprise about one third of the 128-seat parliament. It remains to be seen how many pro-Syrian MPs will take heed of public sentiment in Lebanon and side with the opposition.

Hariri’s grave in central Beirut has become a shrine with several hundred mourners and protesters maintaining a vigil. Walls and hoardings surrounding the grave and the nearby “martyrs” monument are covered in graffiti, from pleas of support for Mr Hariri to more ribald messages directed at the Syrian leadership.

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