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Show THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, Thursday, September Page'Efr 23, 1994 Syrians mourn president's son, worry about future JOHN DONNELLY B . Knight-Ridde- version of his father. Now they wonder about w ho will become the Newspapers r - James DAMASCUS, Sria Dean was never mourned like this. In Syria, the cult-lik- e following of the late Basil Assad, the eldest son of the president, only seems to even now, eight months after his death. Basil's picture is omnipresent. Taped to car windows. Gracing apartment complex entrances. And grow filling any spare space in shops. There's Basil on horseback. Basil pray ing. And most common of all. Basil behind dark glasses. Why- - the Basilmania? Western analysts suggest that it's a way to please his father, President Hafez Assad, who has ruled his nation with an' iron fist since a bloodless coup in 1970. Syrians, though, say it's more than that. For one thing, there is lost promise: Basil, like Dean, president-in-waitin- g. speculation Syria's comes at a particularly sensitive time. The country, long a haven for terrorists, including the recently captured Carlos the Jackal, now post-Assa- d is negotiating peace with Israel. Secretary of State Warren Christonepher has made the Syria-Israel gotiations his top Middle East priority, visiting the area four times in the last th ree months. Still, no breakthrough is expected soon. And so observ ers closely the health of the Assad, a workaholic who suffered a heart attack in 1983 and doesn't appear to be in robust shape, diplomats say. "Nowadays every thing depends on him," said Suhail Zakkar, a historian and author w ho sees Asw atch ld died young and behind the wheel of a fast car. sad fairly regularly. "For stance, I just received an inv itation to go to Oman to deliver a lecture. I But more important, Syrians viewed Basil as their next leader. They perceived him as a humane mission. I don't want to think about w hat happens after our president leaves the scene." in- w ill not go w ithout getting his per- Basil tall, thin, "much more handsome than his father, w ithout that long neck," said one businesswoman was w idely viewed as a and populist playboy, at least by Syrian standards. He loved equestrian events and liv ing a little bit on the edge driving fast cars and on parachuting weekends. He had become an Air Force major, and in recent years his father had assigned him greater responsibilities. He was in charge of presidential security, and in the months before his death he had convinced his father to launch a high-profil- anti-dru- g e campaign in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Basil led elite Syrian security corps into the Bekaa. where they destroyed poppy fields and drug labs. On the morning of Jan. 21, behind the wheel of a Mercedes 600 sport coupe, Basil sped in excess of 80 mph on a road. He was late for a Lufthansa flight. As he raced, w ith the plane loaded but for him, a Lufthansa repre- sentative called the presidential palace to tell Basil not to hurry. They were fogged in. Basil never got the message. He failed to negotiate a turnoff to the airport, slammed into a barricade, and the new Mercedes flipped six or seven times. He was killed instantly. He was 31. His father, known for his stern countenance, crumbled. On the Boeing 727 that took him to the family's town, Qurdaha, for the funeral, the president ordered his son's mahogany coffin to be placed beside him in the cabin. At the funeral w here 25 speakers eulogized Basil's life Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak took the elAssad as he bow of a yellow-face- d to appeared collapse. A headline in the government newspaper Tishrin said: "Goodbye Our Golden Knight." Basil was mourned for the traditional 40 days. Forty days has become 200, and counting. At official events, there's a minute of silence in his memory. Nearly every day, something else is named after Basil. Equestrian competitions. Skydiving courses. An apartment com plex. Immigration facilities. So who replaces Basil? One possibility is his shy younger brother, Bashar, w ho was summoned home from London, where he was studying to be an eye sur- geon. There's also Hafez Assad's unruly younger brother, Rifaat, who returned from eight years of exile in 1992. Rifaat brought Sy ria to the edge of civil war in 1984 in a bid to seize power after the president's heart attack. The Assads belong to Syria's Alawite minority, and there are those who believe that one of the president's Alawite deputies will replace him. "This is not a monar- chy, after all," said Moshe Maoz, a Syrian expert and chairman of the Truman Institute in Jerusalem. "The only thing you can say for sure is that when Hafez Assad departs or dies, there w ill be a power struggle." Zakkar, the historian, dreads the day. "We had so much hope for Basil. He was the man of our future," he said. "We now have to hope that Bashar will someday be as good as his father, and as good as Basil." "He was a very good and gentle man," said Fati Mehda, a jewelry store owner who has taped Basil' photograph above his Visa sign. 'T put up the picture because I loved him. I loved him too much. The only thing w e can say is that Allah wanted this." JJ "He helped the poor," said Mustafa Salma, a worker at an an- - ' - - ' tique shop that has seven photolisten"--? graphs of Basil. "He would to people. Really listen. He was a-- v man of the people. He would w a- nder into the souk and spend time'."" with us." ' Although left unsaid, it is a stark V ' comparison to President Assad, who spends 16, 17, 18 hours a day holed up in his palace working on-."' affairs of the state. ' ! 11 ' i ' Find savings on just what thhome yojeHor i jj 30 off 25-3- Noritake' fine china, stoneware and ivory bone china One of the finest names 30 in c hina is now at savings. 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