By William Fisher
As the U.S. State Department was releasing its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, a highly respected Cairo-based research and advocacy organization was publishing a document that could well have as much influence in the Middle East.
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) last week issued its third annual report on the state of human rights in the Arab world in 2010, with a special focus on 12 countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Iraq, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen.
The report is entitled Roots of Unrest, speaking to the distinctive popular revolutions sweeping across the Arab world, which have thus far toppled two of the most entrenched police dictatorships in the region, in Egypt and Tunisia, and is striking at the seats of other dictatorships in Libya and Yemen.
The uprising is also compellingly imposing the need for serious, far-reaching reforms in several states, particularly Morocco, Bahrain, and Algeria, and is having repercussions in Syria, where people are living under a tyrannical regime that barely permits its citizens to breathe.
CIHRS says it hopes that” Roots of Unrest” “will sound a warning for some states and encourage their ruling elites to take the initiative - before it is too late -to adopt far-reaching reforms that meet popular aspirations for freedom and human dignity and a secure transition to democracy.”
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), an organization dedicated to protecting journalists and freedom of the press, said the CIHRS report “digs up roots of unrest in Arab world in new report.”
“As change continues to sweep across the Middle East, with citizens seeking
democracy and guarantees for their basic human rights, you've got to ask: what got them here? CIHRS seeks the answer to this question in "Roots of Unrest,” IFEX wrote.
It is likely that the CIHRS report will have an arguably disproportionate impact on “the Arab Street.” The reason is that, since The Arab Awakening in late January, many in the Middle East have perceived an ambivalence on the part of the U.S. to take strong positions in favor of pro-democracy movements. The U.S. is also seen by many as having applied a double-standard; for example, condemning the Gaddafi regime in Libya while remaining relatively silent on the brutal tactics of the governments in Yemen and Bahrain.
The CIHRS report finds some striking similarities among countries that are now the stage for popular revolutions. Among them: large-scale deterioration of human rights, even in those countries that are supposedly "stable", and a lack of political will to improve the human rights situation; laws that are used often to discipline and harass opponents, including emergency and counterterrorism laws; widespread impunity, often perpetuated by the authorities; and censorship of the media, especially on issues related to the royal family or Islam.
Country by country, "Roots of Unrest" describes in detail the "daily
accumulation of people's suffering and grievances, which led them to the point of no return as they faced their regimes, both those that have already fallen and those still waiting their turn,." IFEX said,
A thorough review of the CIHRS report reveals that the primary roots of unrest in the Arab world are:
• A large-scale deterioration in the state of human rights, even in
those countries that were, or still are, characterized by a level of
ostensible political “stability.”
• A lack of political will among the Arab regimes to advance the
status of human rights in their countries.
• Stagnant legislatures: Arab regimes have preserved an endless
supply of legislation hostile to human rights, that is used to
discipline and harass their opponents and prosecute reformists,
human rights defenders, and advocates. This report notes some
developments on the legislative front in 2010, mostly introduced to
further restrict and suppress liberties, particularly in Egypt,
Tunisia, and Sudan.
• The perpetuation of an authoritarian approach to entrench impunity
and immunity for gross human rights violations.
• The use of states of emergency and counterterrorism laws to
justify serious crimes, including extrajudicial killings, abductions
and involuntary disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture, and
unfair trials, particularly in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria,
Bahrain, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia.
• The continuation of policies that cement and perpetuate absolute
rule or hereditary succession, such as in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen;
or secure systematic ethnic or sectarian social and economic
discrimination and political exclusion, such as in Bahrain, Saudi
Arabia, and Syria.
• The falsification of citizens’ will through rigged general
elections. This report documents the contemptible practices of the
Mubarak regime in administering the so-called parliamentary
“elections” for the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council that
were to precede the presidential elections of 2011. In the run-up to
elections, the regime launched an unprecedented campaign of
suppression that included incitement to kill demonstrators, the
abduction of political activists, and a crackdown on media and new
technologies for information dissemination. The situation differed
little in Bahrain, where parliamentary elections were preceded by detention of hundreds of people, among them prominent
political opposition figures and human rights defenders. Many of the
detainees were brutally tortured before being referred to trial
under the counterterrorism law.
General elections in Sudan were also conducted in a repressive
climate that continued even after the vote. Election outcomes in
Sudan were rigged by manipulating the census and gerrymandering
electoral districts. There was open voter fraud, and the population
of South and West Darfur were unable to vote, while violence and
chaos prevented elections from taking place at all in several
districts.
• Blocking outlets for peaceful expression by placing pressure on
freedom of expression and the media, both traditional and new,
especially in Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, and Bahrain. Morocco continued
its policy of stifling the press, especially on issues relating to
the King, the royal family, Islam, or the Western Sahara conflict.
• As for the regime of the now deposed Ben Ali in Tunisia, it
continued its absolute confiscation of media freedoms and deployed
the capacities of the police state to harass journalists and
prosecute them on false charges. Various human rights defenders and
political activists, as well as trade unionists, were placed under
close surveillance and endured various forms of harassment and
physical assault. Indeed, the media, totally dominated by the state,
launched smear campaigns against many of these activists.
In Syria, the regime maintained its hostility and intolerance for
freedom of expression and towards political activists and human
rights defenders in general. The regime’s hostility was also
particularly apparent when it came to the rights of the Kurdish
minority.
Yet, the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen surpassed even the Syrian regime over the course of last year, sending dozens of journalists to trial, where most of them received harsh prison terms and had their professional credentials revoked.
Newspaper offices were stormed by state security, and several journalists were targets for physical attacks or assassination attempts. Both journalists and human rights defenders faced abductions, temporary disappearances, and torture, while some were then referred to exceptional courts lacking all due-process guarantees.
• The grave assault on the right to equality and freedom from
religious or ethnic discrimination; especially in Bahrain against
the Shiite majority; and in Egypt against Copts, Nubians, and the
Bedouin residents of Sinai.
• The international community’s fading concern with human rights and democracy in the Arab region. Indeed, both the United States and the European Union increasingly allowed expediency and interests with authoritarian regimes trump the protection of human rights and the push for progress on democratic reform.
The report notes that Palestinians remain the targets of egregious abuses, both due to the Israeli occupation and the Fatah-Hamas conflict. Israeli crimes, most notably the use of collective punishment the siege of the Gazan population as well as the imposed blockade on Gaza continued. Last year, Israel attacked the Freedom Flotilla, a convoy ship attempting to bring in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Israel also continued to implement measures to Judaicize Jerusalem, further entrench settlements, and enforce apartheid, as well as maintain its policy of extrajudicial killings.
The ongoing conflict between Fatah and Hamas was accompanied by the politicization of rights and liberties, which were routinely violated on the basis of political affiliation. Authorities in both the West Bank perceived opponents, including arbitrary detentions, torture, crackdowns on freedom of assembly, NGOs, and human rights organizations, in addition to harassment of journalists and media workers.
Iraq remained the theater of the most lethal violence in the Arab world, which claimed nearly 4,000 lives in just ten months. Religious and ethnic minorities were constant targets for violence and random killing as a result of the dominance of extremist religious discourses and groups in Iraqi political and cultural life.
Hundreds of civilians were killed in military operations against Houthis in Saada, in northern Yemen, as Saudi Arabia joined combat operations on the side of the Yemeni army. The report also documents how the Yemeni authorities have used the war on terror as a pretext to launch military campaigns against the southern provinces, whose residents are involved in widespread protest against the policies of marginalization and exclusion and the ongoing repression of southern citizens.
The U.S. will view much of the this Egyptian report with favor; it largely echoes the findings and conclusions of the State Department’s own Human Rights report.
Other assertions may be less palatable to the U.S. For example, the assertion that “the Yemeni authorities have used the war on terror as a pretext to launch military campaigns against the southern provinces, whose residents are involved in widespread protest against the policies of marginalization and exclusion and the ongoing repression of southern citizens.”
But the issue could be largely moot. The reason is that the views of the U.S. don’t have anywhere near the political clout they once carried among Middle Eastern Arabs. Today, we are being seen as favoring democracy and human rights selectively – willing to give the storied “get out of jail free” card to nations we need, no matter how repressive their rulers.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
The Three Blind Mice of the Middle East
By William Fisher
In Bahrain, the daughter of one of that country’s most prominent human rights advocates has now been on a hunger strike for well over 52 hours. The whereabouts of her father, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, and his family members, as well as many others, remains unknown after they were whisked out of their homes in a dead-of-night raid by 15 masked security forces dressed in black.
She told The Guardian newspaper of his arrest: "They broke the door of the apartment. My father didn't resist at all, he went to them calmly but straight away a policeman told him, 'Down, down, get on the floor' ... They dragged him down the stairs and started beating him," she said.
"They did not give any reason ... They were beating him very severely, on the ground, maybe four or five of them, kicking him and hitting him in the face."
She said her father had been calling for democracy and had been saying that the regime was guilty of killing, torturing and detaining people, and should be put on trial.
And then there is Ali Isa Saqer, who died in Bahraini custody. Nabeel Rajab,
the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, is accused of posting a "fabricated image" of Sager on his Twitter account, showing that Saqer was beaten in custody. The images are graphic, showing Saqer's body covered with bruises and gashes.
According to the interior ministry, the Sager photos were fabricated.
As for Rajab, the official Bahrain news agency and a newspaper close to the government accused him of being part of a "terrorist network" and of passing "false information" to international organizations for the purpose of "harming Bahrain's reputation.”
Later, he was prevented from traveling to Saudi Arabia. In December, Rajab's computer was confiscated as he was about to board a plane at Bahrain international airport. It was returned with the power on, indicating that information may have been downloaded or copied.
Meantime, Maryam Alkhawaja of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, reports, "The fourth death in detention in 10 days yesterday." Kareem Fakhrawi was a businessman who disappeared after he went to the police station to file a complaint. He was one of the founders of AlWasat Newspaper and was on the board of directors.
She writes, “You can see the footage of his body which shows torture marks here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z3hoDO_Lfg The only official statement was on the Bahrain News Agency twitter account he died from liver failure complications: https://twitter.com/#!/bna_ar/status/57938447310131200.”
In Yemen, violent clashes were also reported in Sana’a and Aden. Across Yemen, thousands continued protesting against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Arab Gulf states, involved in mediating the crisis in Yemen, made a more aggressive push for Saleh to step down, a move that Saleh has rejected. Meanwhile, opposition demonstrations grow and more protesters are killed, injured and jailed.
And in Syria, as Security Forces open fire on protesters, the Syrian branch of the International Federation for Human Rights calls for international pressure on Syria, denunciation of the repression by the UN Security Council and the convening of a special session of the UN Human Rights Council.
But Syrian security forces continue to fire on thousands of demonstrators in Deraa, killing more than 20. Mass demonstrations continue in Douma despite the cutting of phone lines. Over the weekend, clashes continued with security forces firing live ammunition on funeral processions and protesters in Banias and Deraa.
Some have suggested that Syria’s President Asad is changing his strategy, moving from “break up the demonstrations in any way necessary” to “just take photos of the main demonstrators and go to their homes and arrest them after the demonstrations.”
But perhaps the Security Forces didn’t get the memo. They are continuing to use tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition to quell the massive disturbances.
Given what has already happened in Egypt and Tunisia, the rulers of Bahrain, Yemen and Syria must be thought of as “The Three Blind Mice of the Middle East.”
Despite incontrovertible evidence from Egypt that merely changing the government does not satisfy those who demand nothing less than the ouster of their present rulers, the Three Blind Mice nevertheless went through this ritual Kabuki dance.
Predictably, with no effect whatever.
In Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has been approached by various groups and individuals with suggestions for his orderly departure. The King is a Sunni Muslim; a sizable part of his population is Shia. But the uprisings against his rule have come from both Sunni and Shia. The Shia live mostly in the Eastern part of Bahrain, nearest to Shia copmmunitieuis in neighboring Sunni Saudi Arabia. That was a major reason the Saudis sent a thousand troops into Bahrain to help the King maintain law and order, Saudi style.
The United States, while excoriating Iranian ally Syria, has been largely silent on Bahrain, presumably because of the tiny Kingdom’s proximity to Saudi Arabia and the presence of sizable populatuions of Shia Musis in each couintry, and Bahrain’s strategic role as headquarters of the U.S. fifth fleet.
In Yemen, President Saleh first sought to mollify demonstrators by pledging not to run in 2012, when his term expires. Later, under still more pressure, he agreed to leave office by the end of this year. Still later, he appeared to reject both these positions and his current thinking remains unclear. Protestors are demanding nothing less than his immediate departure, as Egyptians did vis a vis Mubarak.
For the U.S., the Yemen situation is causing a major migraine.
In Syria, opposition groups say the Asad regime has reached out to them to begin talks. And Syrian President Bashar al-Asad has made some concessions to the demonstrators. For example, he granted Syrian citizenship to up to 150,000 Kurds living in eastern Syria, thus satisfying a long-standing demand of the Kurdish minority.
But these belated gestures will mean less than nothing if armed police and soldiers are killing, injuring and arresting protesters at the same time.
That is a fool’s strategy. And it is unlikely to satisfy the demands of the pro-democracy movement.
How is all this likely to play out? The honest answer is that no one knows. It is possible that The Three Blind Mice of the Middle East may for now be successful in putting down their rebellions using brute force, or some combination of the usual repression sweetened with a few crumbs of new freedom.
But history tells us that when movements such as The Arab Awakening reach the kind of numbers and intensity it took to oust Mubarak from Egypt and Ben Ali from Tunisia they become virtualy unstoppable.
They may be quieted for weeks, months, even years. But, one day, they will be re-galvanized by some random event, like a fruit-seller setting himself on fire.
So The Three Blind Mice of the Middle East shouldn’t bet on The Arab Awakening going back to sleep.
In Bahrain, the daughter of one of that country’s most prominent human rights advocates has now been on a hunger strike for well over 52 hours. The whereabouts of her father, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, and his family members, as well as many others, remains unknown after they were whisked out of their homes in a dead-of-night raid by 15 masked security forces dressed in black.
She told The Guardian newspaper of his arrest: "They broke the door of the apartment. My father didn't resist at all, he went to them calmly but straight away a policeman told him, 'Down, down, get on the floor' ... They dragged him down the stairs and started beating him," she said.
"They did not give any reason ... They were beating him very severely, on the ground, maybe four or five of them, kicking him and hitting him in the face."
She said her father had been calling for democracy and had been saying that the regime was guilty of killing, torturing and detaining people, and should be put on trial.
And then there is Ali Isa Saqer, who died in Bahraini custody. Nabeel Rajab,
the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, is accused of posting a "fabricated image" of Sager on his Twitter account, showing that Saqer was beaten in custody. The images are graphic, showing Saqer's body covered with bruises and gashes.
According to the interior ministry, the Sager photos were fabricated.
As for Rajab, the official Bahrain news agency and a newspaper close to the government accused him of being part of a "terrorist network" and of passing "false information" to international organizations for the purpose of "harming Bahrain's reputation.”
Later, he was prevented from traveling to Saudi Arabia. In December, Rajab's computer was confiscated as he was about to board a plane at Bahrain international airport. It was returned with the power on, indicating that information may have been downloaded or copied.
Meantime, Maryam Alkhawaja of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, reports, "The fourth death in detention in 10 days yesterday." Kareem Fakhrawi was a businessman who disappeared after he went to the police station to file a complaint. He was one of the founders of AlWasat Newspaper and was on the board of directors.
She writes, “You can see the footage of his body which shows torture marks here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z3hoDO_Lfg The only official statement was on the Bahrain News Agency twitter account he died from liver failure complications: https://twitter.com/#!/bna_ar/status/57938447310131200.”
In Yemen, violent clashes were also reported in Sana’a and Aden. Across Yemen, thousands continued protesting against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Arab Gulf states, involved in mediating the crisis in Yemen, made a more aggressive push for Saleh to step down, a move that Saleh has rejected. Meanwhile, opposition demonstrations grow and more protesters are killed, injured and jailed.
And in Syria, as Security Forces open fire on protesters, the Syrian branch of the International Federation for Human Rights calls for international pressure on Syria, denunciation of the repression by the UN Security Council and the convening of a special session of the UN Human Rights Council.
But Syrian security forces continue to fire on thousands of demonstrators in Deraa, killing more than 20. Mass demonstrations continue in Douma despite the cutting of phone lines. Over the weekend, clashes continued with security forces firing live ammunition on funeral processions and protesters in Banias and Deraa.
Some have suggested that Syria’s President Asad is changing his strategy, moving from “break up the demonstrations in any way necessary” to “just take photos of the main demonstrators and go to their homes and arrest them after the demonstrations.”
But perhaps the Security Forces didn’t get the memo. They are continuing to use tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition to quell the massive disturbances.
Given what has already happened in Egypt and Tunisia, the rulers of Bahrain, Yemen and Syria must be thought of as “The Three Blind Mice of the Middle East.”
Despite incontrovertible evidence from Egypt that merely changing the government does not satisfy those who demand nothing less than the ouster of their present rulers, the Three Blind Mice nevertheless went through this ritual Kabuki dance.
Predictably, with no effect whatever.
In Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has been approached by various groups and individuals with suggestions for his orderly departure. The King is a Sunni Muslim; a sizable part of his population is Shia. But the uprisings against his rule have come from both Sunni and Shia. The Shia live mostly in the Eastern part of Bahrain, nearest to Shia copmmunitieuis in neighboring Sunni Saudi Arabia. That was a major reason the Saudis sent a thousand troops into Bahrain to help the King maintain law and order, Saudi style.
The United States, while excoriating Iranian ally Syria, has been largely silent on Bahrain, presumably because of the tiny Kingdom’s proximity to Saudi Arabia and the presence of sizable populatuions of Shia Musis in each couintry, and Bahrain’s strategic role as headquarters of the U.S. fifth fleet.
In Yemen, President Saleh first sought to mollify demonstrators by pledging not to run in 2012, when his term expires. Later, under still more pressure, he agreed to leave office by the end of this year. Still later, he appeared to reject both these positions and his current thinking remains unclear. Protestors are demanding nothing less than his immediate departure, as Egyptians did vis a vis Mubarak.
For the U.S., the Yemen situation is causing a major migraine.
In Syria, opposition groups say the Asad regime has reached out to them to begin talks. And Syrian President Bashar al-Asad has made some concessions to the demonstrators. For example, he granted Syrian citizenship to up to 150,000 Kurds living in eastern Syria, thus satisfying a long-standing demand of the Kurdish minority.
But these belated gestures will mean less than nothing if armed police and soldiers are killing, injuring and arresting protesters at the same time.
That is a fool’s strategy. And it is unlikely to satisfy the demands of the pro-democracy movement.
How is all this likely to play out? The honest answer is that no one knows. It is possible that The Three Blind Mice of the Middle East may for now be successful in putting down their rebellions using brute force, or some combination of the usual repression sweetened with a few crumbs of new freedom.
But history tells us that when movements such as The Arab Awakening reach the kind of numbers and intensity it took to oust Mubarak from Egypt and Ben Ali from Tunisia they become virtualy unstoppable.
They may be quieted for weeks, months, even years. But, one day, they will be re-galvanized by some random event, like a fruit-seller setting himself on fire.
So The Three Blind Mice of the Middle East shouldn’t bet on The Arab Awakening going back to sleep.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Are Mideast Women Being Sidelined from “The Arab Awakening”?
By William Fisher
During the pro-democracy demonstrations that ultimately brought down the dictatorial reigns of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, you couldn’t help noticing that these events were distinctly unisex, still a surprising development in the Middle East.
As a leading Egyptian feminist, Nawal El Saadawi, put it: “Women and girls are beside boys in the streets. They are -- and we are calling for justice, freedom and equality, and real democracy and a new constitution, no discrimination between men and women, no discrimination between Muslims and Christians.”
There are hundreds of similar examples: Women of all ages, who have devoted themselves to securing equal rights and freedom from religious as well as political discrimination.
And in Egypt and Tunisia, women in the demonstrations didn’t just make the tea. They participated in –and sometimes led – virtually every facet of the protests. For that time, at least, they were treated more as equals than is usually the case in male-dominated Arab societies.
One of them is a young Egyptian activist named Esraa Abdel Fattah. Esraa has come to be known as “Facebook Girl” for her role in organizing what became known as the April 6th Facebook Protests, a mobilization of thousands of young people demanding political change.
Esraa is a leading Egyptian democracy and human rights activist. In April 2008 she was imprisoned for her Facebook organizing work, She played a leading role in the mass protests in Tahrir Square and is a prominent spokesperson for the youth protest movement in Egypt. Last month she was among a group of activists who met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Cairo.
During the January 2011 nationwide protests in Egypt, Esraa was active on the Internet, on the ground in Tahrir Square, and in media—including on Al Jazeera TV, regularly updating the news on the opposition. Esraa is a prominent spokesperson for the youth protest movement in Egypt. On March 15, she was among a group of activists who met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Cairo.
Esraa and her colleagues are known for their innovative use of social networking sites as an organizing tool.
And then there were Egyptian activists Mona El Seif and Salma al-Tarzi. These two courageous women, camped out in Tahrir Square during all the days of the protests, were the world’s eyes and ears. Western media reps had a tough time getting into Tahrir Square. So these two intrepids undertook to spend hours on the phone with CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many other international networks. Without them, we would all have known a lot less about the details of what was going on in real time in Tahrir Square.
And these three women are far from alone; there is a virtual army of intrepids in Egypt, in Tunisia and throughout the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. The question is: What roles will these women be able to play after the demonstrations – when the hard work of nation-building really gets underway?
Will they occupy senior posts in new political parties? Will they join the men as political strategists? Or head up the ‘get out the vote’ programs? Will they lead the political parties’ new legal teams? Will they be welcomed as equals by the men who would customarily comprise the parties’ internal think-tanks to develop public policies for a new democracy?
The Public Record posed that question to a number of authorities who have reason to know.
Nadya Khalife, a researcher in the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, told us: “ As things stand right now in Egypt, women were unfortunately left out of the Constitutional Committee tasked with amending the Constitution [in Egypt]. Also, there were no women ministers in the newly appointed cabinet. In Tunisia, one female judge sits on the investigative committee to inquire and investigate abuses during the Tunisian revolution. There are also two female ministers (minister for women, and minister for health) in Tunisia’s government. Although there is some presence of women in Tunisia’s transitional government, this does not necessarily reflect the capacity of female politicians in Tunisia.”
Chip Pitts, a longtime human rights advocate and lecturer in law at Stanford and Oxford Universities, told us: “My survey population is a bit skewed, as my female friends and former students there tend to be human rights literate and conscious. But although it varies a bit by country, certainly in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen, and even Syria, I don’t see a lot of satisfaction with the traditional role of women so much as a recognition that it could take some time and lots of persistent effort to overcome stereotypes and what is, ultimately, a cultural issue (even more than a religious issue).”
Pitts added, “In the meantime, I hear lots of frustration but continued determination and optimism to work for change. In Saudi Arabia and Yemen, there’s more ambivalence, but even there I see repressed desires for political involvement and leadership roles beginning to be asserted in some quarters.”
Professor Nathan A. Brown, International Affairs Director for the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University and a senior associate the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has a somewhat different viewpoint. He told The Public Record:
“There certainly were some women involved in the various opposition movements in leadership roles, but gender issues did not figure prominently in the demonstrations or the revolution. I don’t see any sign that changing gender relations is prominent in any way for any of the groups in question. If there is an effect on gender relations, it may be indirect. For instance, deteriorating public security may make public space even more male dominated than it has been -- though I did not see that happening in Egypt when I was there last month, it could be an indirect effect.”
“Should the salafis gain cultural influence, that will probably have some effect as well -- and salafis are certainly more visible now, but I don’t know if they are having much effect on social practice outside their own circles,” he said, adding:
“The groups involved are certainly mobilizing women voters. But in leadership roles? I don’t see any signs that special efforts are being made in that regard, though some women have emerged as leaders.”
Frida Ghitis, an independent journalist, recently wrote in the Miami Herald, “As far as I can see, the new reform structures are not making any provisions to ensure women's rights. In fact, reformists in Egypt were deeply disappointed by the outcome of a constitutional reform referendum a couple of weeks ago, which maintained Sharia as the basis of law. That could prove damaging for women's standing. The Muslim Brotherhood was very happy with the results.”
In Yemen, she added, “where a woman is one of the early leaders of the uprising, the movement is being taken over by the Islamists, who are no friends of women's rights.”
That women were every bit as able to be full partners in the history-making demonstrations that are still continuing in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as in many other countries throughout the region, has been proven. That there is an enormous reservoir of skills among the women of MENA is perhaps less known but no less true.
But integrating these women as equal partners in the post-demonstration phase of democracy-building is going to be tough on Arab men. To achieve that partnership, most Arab males are going to have to take on a really hard job: Changing their attitudes toward women.
Arab men are often heard saying that Sharia law treats women equally (it doesn’t). But if they really believe that, they’re going to have to shed some of the stereotypes that have plagued Arab women for centuries.
Not an easy task. But the incentive is huge. Because this is a time, arguably more than any other in recent history, when embryonic democracies need all the smart, motivated players they can recruit, regardless of gender.
And speaking of motivation, some of the most thoughtful, poetic, heart-wrenching descriptions of what the pro-democracy movement means, have come from women.
One that strikes me as particularly poignant comes from Egyptian-born columnist and speaker Mona Eltahawy. Writing in The Guardian, she said:
“To understand the importance of what's going in Egypt, take the barricades of 1968 (for a good youthful zing), throw them into a mixer with 1989 and blend to produce the potent brew that the popular uprising in Egypt is preparing to offer the entire region. It's the most exciting time of my life. Watching the uprising from New York City exhilarates me and makes me so proud to be an Egyptian. I cry when I see video footage of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, filled with thousands upon thousands chanting: ‘The people want to topple the president.’
“Tahrir means liberation in Arabic, and it gives me goosebumps as I watch my country people demand liberty,” she said.
For Mona, and women throughout the region, democracy is not something the women want the men to achieve for them. It is something they want to achieve with them. Together.
And if the guys in the Middle East are as smart as they’re going to have to be, they’ll figure out how to make that happen.
’
During the pro-democracy demonstrations that ultimately brought down the dictatorial reigns of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, you couldn’t help noticing that these events were distinctly unisex, still a surprising development in the Middle East.
As a leading Egyptian feminist, Nawal El Saadawi, put it: “Women and girls are beside boys in the streets. They are -- and we are calling for justice, freedom and equality, and real democracy and a new constitution, no discrimination between men and women, no discrimination between Muslims and Christians.”
There are hundreds of similar examples: Women of all ages, who have devoted themselves to securing equal rights and freedom from religious as well as political discrimination.
And in Egypt and Tunisia, women in the demonstrations didn’t just make the tea. They participated in –and sometimes led – virtually every facet of the protests. For that time, at least, they were treated more as equals than is usually the case in male-dominated Arab societies.
One of them is a young Egyptian activist named Esraa Abdel Fattah. Esraa has come to be known as “Facebook Girl” for her role in organizing what became known as the April 6th Facebook Protests, a mobilization of thousands of young people demanding political change.
Esraa is a leading Egyptian democracy and human rights activist. In April 2008 she was imprisoned for her Facebook organizing work, She played a leading role in the mass protests in Tahrir Square and is a prominent spokesperson for the youth protest movement in Egypt. Last month she was among a group of activists who met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Cairo.
During the January 2011 nationwide protests in Egypt, Esraa was active on the Internet, on the ground in Tahrir Square, and in media—including on Al Jazeera TV, regularly updating the news on the opposition. Esraa is a prominent spokesperson for the youth protest movement in Egypt. On March 15, she was among a group of activists who met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Cairo.
Esraa and her colleagues are known for their innovative use of social networking sites as an organizing tool.
And then there were Egyptian activists Mona El Seif and Salma al-Tarzi. These two courageous women, camped out in Tahrir Square during all the days of the protests, were the world’s eyes and ears. Western media reps had a tough time getting into Tahrir Square. So these two intrepids undertook to spend hours on the phone with CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and many other international networks. Without them, we would all have known a lot less about the details of what was going on in real time in Tahrir Square.
And these three women are far from alone; there is a virtual army of intrepids in Egypt, in Tunisia and throughout the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. The question is: What roles will these women be able to play after the demonstrations – when the hard work of nation-building really gets underway?
Will they occupy senior posts in new political parties? Will they join the men as political strategists? Or head up the ‘get out the vote’ programs? Will they lead the political parties’ new legal teams? Will they be welcomed as equals by the men who would customarily comprise the parties’ internal think-tanks to develop public policies for a new democracy?
The Public Record posed that question to a number of authorities who have reason to know.
Nadya Khalife, a researcher in the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, told us: “ As things stand right now in Egypt, women were unfortunately left out of the Constitutional Committee tasked with amending the Constitution [in Egypt]. Also, there were no women ministers in the newly appointed cabinet. In Tunisia, one female judge sits on the investigative committee to inquire and investigate abuses during the Tunisian revolution. There are also two female ministers (minister for women, and minister for health) in Tunisia’s government. Although there is some presence of women in Tunisia’s transitional government, this does not necessarily reflect the capacity of female politicians in Tunisia.”
Chip Pitts, a longtime human rights advocate and lecturer in law at Stanford and Oxford Universities, told us: “My survey population is a bit skewed, as my female friends and former students there tend to be human rights literate and conscious. But although it varies a bit by country, certainly in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen, and even Syria, I don’t see a lot of satisfaction with the traditional role of women so much as a recognition that it could take some time and lots of persistent effort to overcome stereotypes and what is, ultimately, a cultural issue (even more than a religious issue).”
Pitts added, “In the meantime, I hear lots of frustration but continued determination and optimism to work for change. In Saudi Arabia and Yemen, there’s more ambivalence, but even there I see repressed desires for political involvement and leadership roles beginning to be asserted in some quarters.”
Professor Nathan A. Brown, International Affairs Director for the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University and a senior associate the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has a somewhat different viewpoint. He told The Public Record:
“There certainly were some women involved in the various opposition movements in leadership roles, but gender issues did not figure prominently in the demonstrations or the revolution. I don’t see any sign that changing gender relations is prominent in any way for any of the groups in question. If there is an effect on gender relations, it may be indirect. For instance, deteriorating public security may make public space even more male dominated than it has been -- though I did not see that happening in Egypt when I was there last month, it could be an indirect effect.”
“Should the salafis gain cultural influence, that will probably have some effect as well -- and salafis are certainly more visible now, but I don’t know if they are having much effect on social practice outside their own circles,” he said, adding:
“The groups involved are certainly mobilizing women voters. But in leadership roles? I don’t see any signs that special efforts are being made in that regard, though some women have emerged as leaders.”
Frida Ghitis, an independent journalist, recently wrote in the Miami Herald, “As far as I can see, the new reform structures are not making any provisions to ensure women's rights. In fact, reformists in Egypt were deeply disappointed by the outcome of a constitutional reform referendum a couple of weeks ago, which maintained Sharia as the basis of law. That could prove damaging for women's standing. The Muslim Brotherhood was very happy with the results.”
In Yemen, she added, “where a woman is one of the early leaders of the uprising, the movement is being taken over by the Islamists, who are no friends of women's rights.”
That women were every bit as able to be full partners in the history-making demonstrations that are still continuing in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as in many other countries throughout the region, has been proven. That there is an enormous reservoir of skills among the women of MENA is perhaps less known but no less true.
But integrating these women as equal partners in the post-demonstration phase of democracy-building is going to be tough on Arab men. To achieve that partnership, most Arab males are going to have to take on a really hard job: Changing their attitudes toward women.
Arab men are often heard saying that Sharia law treats women equally (it doesn’t). But if they really believe that, they’re going to have to shed some of the stereotypes that have plagued Arab women for centuries.
Not an easy task. But the incentive is huge. Because this is a time, arguably more than any other in recent history, when embryonic democracies need all the smart, motivated players they can recruit, regardless of gender.
And speaking of motivation, some of the most thoughtful, poetic, heart-wrenching descriptions of what the pro-democracy movement means, have come from women.
One that strikes me as particularly poignant comes from Egyptian-born columnist and speaker Mona Eltahawy. Writing in The Guardian, she said:
“To understand the importance of what's going in Egypt, take the barricades of 1968 (for a good youthful zing), throw them into a mixer with 1989 and blend to produce the potent brew that the popular uprising in Egypt is preparing to offer the entire region. It's the most exciting time of my life. Watching the uprising from New York City exhilarates me and makes me so proud to be an Egyptian. I cry when I see video footage of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, filled with thousands upon thousands chanting: ‘The people want to topple the president.’
“Tahrir means liberation in Arabic, and it gives me goosebumps as I watch my country people demand liberty,” she said.
For Mona, and women throughout the region, democracy is not something the women want the men to achieve for them. It is something they want to achieve with them. Together.
And if the guys in the Middle East are as smart as they’re going to have to be, they’ll figure out how to make that happen.
’
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Egypt’s Army Being Severely Tested: Can Brutal Old Habits Be Unlearned?
By William Fisher
Ever since January 25, when the Tahrir Square demonstrations started, I have been baffled at the precise role of the army. Ambivalence and indecision seemed to be their mantra. But as the pro-democracy demonstrations progressed, the protesters were seen embracing the soldiers and their tanks. I was told this was because of the great respect the Egyptian people have for their military.
Several days into the protests, the demonstrators were attacked by gangs with machetes, petrol bombs, rocks, even horses and camels. That was the first point that I was aware of the Army stepping in to protect the demonstrators and drive the pro-Mubarak folks out of the Square.
Since that time, I’m sorry to report that Egypt’s interim military rulers have been guilty of a host of crimes formerly associated only with the dreaded security apparatus of Egypt’s ousted dictator, Hosni Mubarak. But unlike Mubarak, the army is now responding quickly to public protests and international media attention.
And it is responding because human rights activists have learned how to work with international media and with social networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and You Tube that expose – or threaten to expose – Mubarak’s legacy of brutality which is apparently alive and well in the country’s military prisons.
One black-humorist said the military police fear CNN more than a gang of rock-throwing Mubarak supporters.”
For example, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) has agreed to retry a protester, Mohamed Adel, and to investigate highly publicized allegations that female protesters were given “virginity tests” and tortured in other ways as well. Treatment of the women detainees was shown on television throughout the world and has reportedly been a major embarrassment for the army.
The protester, arrested on January 28, was charged with vandalism and thuggery and sentenced to five years in prison in a hurried military trial.
The military also promised to investigate whether some women demonstrators arrested by the military on March 9 were tortured after soldiers broke up a sit-in at Tahrir Square.
SCAF’s statement said that Adel's retrial was considered because of grievances sent to the military by his mother, who also publicized the issue using social media. The Associated Press reported that Adel's mother and supporters spearheaded the movement mainly through social networks and a Facebook group.
It remains to be seen whether others still in custody, such as Amr Al-Bihary, 33, arrested on February 26 and sentenced to five years, will also be granted a retrial.
Another protester, Amr Eissa, will also have his case reviewed by SCAF. Eissa is an Ain Shams University student, who was sentenced to three years imprisonment. The review was triggered by protests from Eissa’s fellow university students.
Eissa was arrested in Tahrir Square on March 9, when the military decided to disperse the sit-in that started during Egypt’s revolution, occupying Cairo’s central square and eventually leading to the ouster of the former president on 11 February. Demonstrations have continued to occupy the square in an effort to win respect for the remainder of the protesters’ demands.
The protests resulted in a statement from SCAF trying to reassure the public that the armed forces were only interested in targeting “thugs.” The statement professed the military’s respect for “free youth.” But some observers believe that mass arrests by the military police suggest that the army’s top brass is not fully in charge of those lower down in the ranks.
Since former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11, Egyptians have been living under martial law, which allows for quick military trials.
Egypt’s human rights organizations and individual activists have catalyzed their resources to pressure the military to reconsider the cases of at least 150 people. These men and women, mostly young, were among Tahrir Square’s ardent demonstrators. Their trials have been in military courts, and many of them allegedly suffered torture at the hands of the military police.
Another protester, Ali Sobhi, is among those released after being jailed by the military and allegedly tortured. Again, in his case, activists mobilized to raise a loud unified voice demanding his release.
“It was the media pressure that got him out,” said activist Mona Seif, an activist, blogger and post-graduate student in cancer research at Cairo University. Her father, a lawyer for the pro-democracy forces, was arrested.
Along with other independent activists and human rights organizations, such as the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, Seif has focused on this issue through an initiative called “No to military tribunals.”
She believes that international media pressure, combined with social media such as Facebook and Twitter, has played a huge role forcing the military to focus on its own abuses and shortcomings.
But for the Egyptian public, it’s a harder sell. As was seen in the early days of the Tahrir Square demonstrations, Egyptians hold their army in very high respect. The army is still being given deference because of its role in the Tahrir Square uprisings.
Seif told the Associated Press, “People and the media need to understand that there’s a big difference between confronting the Armed Forces and bringing to their attention -- as an institution we all respect -- some of the mistakes that may have emerged from their ranks.”
“The issue of the girls’ torture was picked up by international media and human rights organizations. That had a big role to play in pushing the military to investigate them, according to their statement,” Seif said.
But the Egyptian military is a huge organization and it is not always clear that orders from commanders are received, understand and carried out by rank and file.
For example, we will probably never know who exactly gave orders to the army to detain five protesters during a demonstration calling for the release of thousands from military prisons.
Three of the five were later released, but two were transferred to military prosecution. According to witnesses, over fifty soldiers surrounded the demonstration and chased protesters away while arresting five. Later, the military violently broke up the Tahrir strike and detained many protesters who later testified to having been severely tortured inside the Egyptian Museum.
Meanwhile, former detainees gathered at a conference to recount their experiences in military detention and accused the army of torture and inhumane tactics. The armed forces have vehemently denied all accusations.
Protesters arrested by the military police during its March 9 evacuation of the Tahrir Square sit-in spoke of their torture and humiliation while in military custody.
An army official, speaking with the (Egypt) Daily News on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, denied these accusations, saying that the military did not detain anyone on March 9.
But according to Adel Ramadan, lawyer with the Front to Defend Egyptian Protesters, 173 were detained on that day; some were released on the same day while others were sentenced to prison. Of those sentenced, some have had their sentences suspended. About 150 are still behind bars, he said.
Actor Ali Sobhy was taken to the military prison on March 9 and but later released by military prosecution. "I was calling lawyers to report detention cases in front of the Egyptian Museum when an army officer took me inside and started beating me severely," said Sobhy.
"I previously had an operation in my lung, but they did not care about this and started beating me everywhere."
Sobhy said that when they were taken to the military prison, cameras filmed them, identifying them as thugs after putting guns and knives in front of them.
"When army officials saw my long hair and knew that I was an actor, they started beating me, saying I wasn’t a man, and insulted me. This was extremely humiliating."
A journalist gave an account of her detention and also criticized the lack of media coverage.
"Media after January 25 is even more restricted than what we were used to before the revolution," said journalist Rasha Azab, who was arrested by the military on March 9.
"As a journalist, I cannot publish my testimony in my newspaper, that's why I had to publish it on the Internet."
Azab said that she was beaten inside the Egyptian Museum.
"There were around 30 women handcuffed and beaten by the army officers inside the museum, and I heard screams of other men who were being tortured in other rooms."
Azab said that she was released, but alleged that thousands were still detained in the military prison and no one knew anything about them.
"We only arrested those who attempted to harm other people or harass women. These videos [in which released activists recount their torture] are for sure fake; the army cannot torture anyone, with or without orders," said the anonymous army source.
"There are people who are trying to create rifts between the army and the people, just because they do not like the army."
Families of other protesters who were still in military custody also recounted their ordeal at the press conference. One of them was the mother of Waleed Samy Saad who was arrested on March 9.
"Waleed protested in Tahrir because he could not find a job. He wanted a better life for himself and for us, so he went to Tahrir to demand his rights," said Samy’s mothers in tears.
"Protesters who got out of the military prison told me about my polite son who has never violated the law. My son is not a thug; my son is a freedom seeker."
She said she did not know where her son was, and didn’t know what to bring him back.
In another happening, after hundreds of protesters barged into Egypt’s state security offices in both Cairo and Alexandria, locked up prisoners were found and freed.
Protesters started hearing calls for help from under the ground when they stormed the state security office in Alexandria. The protestors reportedly released from one of the office’s tunnel cells a prisoner that has been there for 20 years. This has not so far been confirmed.
It has been said that the death of the young Egyptian activist Khaled Said in Alexandria’s state security branch was a major catalyst in sparking the January 25 revolution that ousted the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.
Said was working in a public Internet case, when a gang of police dragged him out and beat him to death in the street.
In Cairo, an activist named Abdul-Aziz called the Prosecutor General and asked him to look for the designer of the State Security office so we could find others detained in the secret cells. In the state security headquarters in eastern Cairo, protestors also heard voices and managed to release 14 women and 25 men from secret cells, said Zakaria Abdul-Aziz, former head of the Judges Club.
“I called the Prosecutor General and asked him to look for the designer of the state security office so we can find others detained in the secret cells,” he said in an interview with an Egyptian satellite channel.
Abdul-Aziz also aims to get the documents that were taken from the Cairo State Security headquarters to hand the classified materials to the army to allow the military police to take the building over until it is entrusted to the general prosecution.
According to Abdul-Aziz, secret underground cells are not only exclusive to State Security offices, but there are many others at the Ministry of Interior, prison facilities, and Central Security camps.
“We demand that the truth about secret underground cells be known now to everybody.”
The size of one of these cells does not exceed a meter and a half. They are usually pitch dark, very poorly ventilated, extremely damp, and smelly, said a reporter from the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabea, one of the five given permission by the army to take a tour in the State Security building in Lazoghli in downtown Cairo.
Like the interior minister’s office at the eastern Cairo headquarters, the offices of State Security officers are luxurious with adjacent bedrooms and fancy bathrooms.
Hell Room Protestors stormed eastern Cairo headquarters looking for documents and prisoners The National Democratic Party, which was the ruling party before the military took over, has its Hell Room as well.
This room, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said, houses evidence of the violations committed by all senior officials in the country and supported by audio and video.
In the interrogation, Adly said that both Safwat al-Sharif, former speaker of the Consultative Assembly, Egypt’s higher house of parliament, and Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak’s son, were aware of the existence of this room.
Derini who speculates that he has been detained at the state security headquarters in eastern Cairo, said that he spent his detention time with bare feet and chained hands.
He added that he was exposed to several forms of torture like laying him down on a wet long chair then connecting his limbs to electricity and sitting him on an electrocuted chair.
A report from Amnesty International reinforces this testimony. A former prisoner recounts:
“The detainees had been rounded up as part of a crackdown on anti-government protesters in the days before the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11. After Mubarak’s fall, the military took charge and promised to transfer power to a civilian government in coming months. Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, urged the military to halt mistreatment in its lockups and release all protesters still in detention.
"The Egyptian military authorities have committed publicly to creating a climate of freedom and democracy after so many years of repression," said Amnesty’s regional director, Malcolm Smart. "Now they must match their words with direct action."
A military spokesman rejected Amnesty’s allegations of abuse, and denied that the military targets activists or protesters. "Where is this information from?" Lt. General Ismail Etman, spokesman for the military said on state TV.
"No soldier would lay a hand on the body of an honorable citizen." He said the military has received a list of detainees provided by activists and is "searching" for them. The military was deployed in Egypt on Jan. 28 to try to restore security as police disappeared from the streets amid the mass protests. Torture by police and other security agents has been widespread in Egypt for years, and grievances linked to such mistreatment helped drive the protests that erupted Jan. 25 and eventually toppled Mubarak.
Criticism of the military’s handling of the transition is on the rise. Youth groups and democracy advocates have said little has been done to usher in reform or bring civilians in the decision-making process. Detainees held in military detention centers said they suffered harsh mistreatment in the days before Mubarak’s fall.
A 29-year-old man said he was detained Feb. 3 and initially held in an annex to the Egyptian Museum overlooking Tahrir Square, the center of the mass protests. "They called me a traitor and a foreign agent and forced me to take off my clothes except my underwear and to lie face down on the floor," the man, whose name was withheld to protect his safety, told Amnesty International.
"Then they beat me with a whip and stepped with boots on my back and on my hands. They kicked me," he said. He said he was then moved to another location, subjected to electric shocks and threatened with rape before being transferred to a military prison northeast of Cairo. There, he was repeatedly beaten before being released after a week, he said.
An 18-year old said he was detained Feb. 3 at Tahrir Square and released with hundreds others on Feb.10. "Then I was taken for interrogation where they insulted me and my family," he told Amnesty. "They said things one should not say. They took off my handcuffs, because they ordered me to take off my clothes, except my underwear, but I remained blindfolded," he said.
He was then tied by the legs repeatedly dunked into a barrel of water. "They told me to confess that I was trained by Israel or by Iran. They also put electric shocks to my body and I fainted," he said.
Mohamed El-Khatib, a 53-year old government employee from the city of Suez, was arrested Feb. 2 for allegedly violating the nightly curfew enforced by the military before Mubarak’s ouster. El-Khatib told The Associated Press he was interrogated at a military detention center about why he participated in the protests, and accused of trying to overthrow the regime.
While blindfolded, he said he was beaten with sticks and whipped and threatened he would never leave the lockup alive. On Feb. 10, he and dozens of other detainees appeared before a military court and were given suspended three-month sentences. "It was as if they were telling us “accept the sentence, so we can let you out,” said El-Khatib, who has since been released. "The honorable people in the military have to get our rights back. I will not be silent. I want my right."
“The Honorable People in the Military” is what El-Khatib said.
Yes, but how can we forget who it was who beat El-Khatib in the first place. It was the Army. That suggests to me that “the honorable people” have a huge culture-shifting educational job to do. And they need to do it with all deliberate speed.
Ever since January 25, when the Tahrir Square demonstrations started, I have been baffled at the precise role of the army. Ambivalence and indecision seemed to be their mantra. But as the pro-democracy demonstrations progressed, the protesters were seen embracing the soldiers and their tanks. I was told this was because of the great respect the Egyptian people have for their military.
Several days into the protests, the demonstrators were attacked by gangs with machetes, petrol bombs, rocks, even horses and camels. That was the first point that I was aware of the Army stepping in to protect the demonstrators and drive the pro-Mubarak folks out of the Square.
Since that time, I’m sorry to report that Egypt’s interim military rulers have been guilty of a host of crimes formerly associated only with the dreaded security apparatus of Egypt’s ousted dictator, Hosni Mubarak. But unlike Mubarak, the army is now responding quickly to public protests and international media attention.
And it is responding because human rights activists have learned how to work with international media and with social networking platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and You Tube that expose – or threaten to expose – Mubarak’s legacy of brutality which is apparently alive and well in the country’s military prisons.
One black-humorist said the military police fear CNN more than a gang of rock-throwing Mubarak supporters.”
For example, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) has agreed to retry a protester, Mohamed Adel, and to investigate highly publicized allegations that female protesters were given “virginity tests” and tortured in other ways as well. Treatment of the women detainees was shown on television throughout the world and has reportedly been a major embarrassment for the army.
The protester, arrested on January 28, was charged with vandalism and thuggery and sentenced to five years in prison in a hurried military trial.
The military also promised to investigate whether some women demonstrators arrested by the military on March 9 were tortured after soldiers broke up a sit-in at Tahrir Square.
SCAF’s statement said that Adel's retrial was considered because of grievances sent to the military by his mother, who also publicized the issue using social media. The Associated Press reported that Adel's mother and supporters spearheaded the movement mainly through social networks and a Facebook group.
It remains to be seen whether others still in custody, such as Amr Al-Bihary, 33, arrested on February 26 and sentenced to five years, will also be granted a retrial.
Another protester, Amr Eissa, will also have his case reviewed by SCAF. Eissa is an Ain Shams University student, who was sentenced to three years imprisonment. The review was triggered by protests from Eissa’s fellow university students.
Eissa was arrested in Tahrir Square on March 9, when the military decided to disperse the sit-in that started during Egypt’s revolution, occupying Cairo’s central square and eventually leading to the ouster of the former president on 11 February. Demonstrations have continued to occupy the square in an effort to win respect for the remainder of the protesters’ demands.
The protests resulted in a statement from SCAF trying to reassure the public that the armed forces were only interested in targeting “thugs.” The statement professed the military’s respect for “free youth.” But some observers believe that mass arrests by the military police suggest that the army’s top brass is not fully in charge of those lower down in the ranks.
Since former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11, Egyptians have been living under martial law, which allows for quick military trials.
Egypt’s human rights organizations and individual activists have catalyzed their resources to pressure the military to reconsider the cases of at least 150 people. These men and women, mostly young, were among Tahrir Square’s ardent demonstrators. Their trials have been in military courts, and many of them allegedly suffered torture at the hands of the military police.
Another protester, Ali Sobhi, is among those released after being jailed by the military and allegedly tortured. Again, in his case, activists mobilized to raise a loud unified voice demanding his release.
“It was the media pressure that got him out,” said activist Mona Seif, an activist, blogger and post-graduate student in cancer research at Cairo University. Her father, a lawyer for the pro-democracy forces, was arrested.
Along with other independent activists and human rights organizations, such as the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, Seif has focused on this issue through an initiative called “No to military tribunals.”
She believes that international media pressure, combined with social media such as Facebook and Twitter, has played a huge role forcing the military to focus on its own abuses and shortcomings.
But for the Egyptian public, it’s a harder sell. As was seen in the early days of the Tahrir Square demonstrations, Egyptians hold their army in very high respect. The army is still being given deference because of its role in the Tahrir Square uprisings.
Seif told the Associated Press, “People and the media need to understand that there’s a big difference between confronting the Armed Forces and bringing to their attention -- as an institution we all respect -- some of the mistakes that may have emerged from their ranks.”
“The issue of the girls’ torture was picked up by international media and human rights organizations. That had a big role to play in pushing the military to investigate them, according to their statement,” Seif said.
But the Egyptian military is a huge organization and it is not always clear that orders from commanders are received, understand and carried out by rank and file.
For example, we will probably never know who exactly gave orders to the army to detain five protesters during a demonstration calling for the release of thousands from military prisons.
Three of the five were later released, but two were transferred to military prosecution. According to witnesses, over fifty soldiers surrounded the demonstration and chased protesters away while arresting five. Later, the military violently broke up the Tahrir strike and detained many protesters who later testified to having been severely tortured inside the Egyptian Museum.
Meanwhile, former detainees gathered at a conference to recount their experiences in military detention and accused the army of torture and inhumane tactics. The armed forces have vehemently denied all accusations.
Protesters arrested by the military police during its March 9 evacuation of the Tahrir Square sit-in spoke of their torture and humiliation while in military custody.
An army official, speaking with the (Egypt) Daily News on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, denied these accusations, saying that the military did not detain anyone on March 9.
But according to Adel Ramadan, lawyer with the Front to Defend Egyptian Protesters, 173 were detained on that day; some were released on the same day while others were sentenced to prison. Of those sentenced, some have had their sentences suspended. About 150 are still behind bars, he said.
Actor Ali Sobhy was taken to the military prison on March 9 and but later released by military prosecution. "I was calling lawyers to report detention cases in front of the Egyptian Museum when an army officer took me inside and started beating me severely," said Sobhy.
"I previously had an operation in my lung, but they did not care about this and started beating me everywhere."
Sobhy said that when they were taken to the military prison, cameras filmed them, identifying them as thugs after putting guns and knives in front of them.
"When army officials saw my long hair and knew that I was an actor, they started beating me, saying I wasn’t a man, and insulted me. This was extremely humiliating."
A journalist gave an account of her detention and also criticized the lack of media coverage.
"Media after January 25 is even more restricted than what we were used to before the revolution," said journalist Rasha Azab, who was arrested by the military on March 9.
"As a journalist, I cannot publish my testimony in my newspaper, that's why I had to publish it on the Internet."
Azab said that she was beaten inside the Egyptian Museum.
"There were around 30 women handcuffed and beaten by the army officers inside the museum, and I heard screams of other men who were being tortured in other rooms."
Azab said that she was released, but alleged that thousands were still detained in the military prison and no one knew anything about them.
"We only arrested those who attempted to harm other people or harass women. These videos [in which released activists recount their torture] are for sure fake; the army cannot torture anyone, with or without orders," said the anonymous army source.
"There are people who are trying to create rifts between the army and the people, just because they do not like the army."
Families of other protesters who were still in military custody also recounted their ordeal at the press conference. One of them was the mother of Waleed Samy Saad who was arrested on March 9.
"Waleed protested in Tahrir because he could not find a job. He wanted a better life for himself and for us, so he went to Tahrir to demand his rights," said Samy’s mothers in tears.
"Protesters who got out of the military prison told me about my polite son who has never violated the law. My son is not a thug; my son is a freedom seeker."
She said she did not know where her son was, and didn’t know what to bring him back.
In another happening, after hundreds of protesters barged into Egypt’s state security offices in both Cairo and Alexandria, locked up prisoners were found and freed.
Protesters started hearing calls for help from under the ground when they stormed the state security office in Alexandria. The protestors reportedly released from one of the office’s tunnel cells a prisoner that has been there for 20 years. This has not so far been confirmed.
It has been said that the death of the young Egyptian activist Khaled Said in Alexandria’s state security branch was a major catalyst in sparking the January 25 revolution that ousted the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.
Said was working in a public Internet case, when a gang of police dragged him out and beat him to death in the street.
In Cairo, an activist named Abdul-Aziz called the Prosecutor General and asked him to look for the designer of the State Security office so we could find others detained in the secret cells. In the state security headquarters in eastern Cairo, protestors also heard voices and managed to release 14 women and 25 men from secret cells, said Zakaria Abdul-Aziz, former head of the Judges Club.
“I called the Prosecutor General and asked him to look for the designer of the state security office so we can find others detained in the secret cells,” he said in an interview with an Egyptian satellite channel.
Abdul-Aziz also aims to get the documents that were taken from the Cairo State Security headquarters to hand the classified materials to the army to allow the military police to take the building over until it is entrusted to the general prosecution.
According to Abdul-Aziz, secret underground cells are not only exclusive to State Security offices, but there are many others at the Ministry of Interior, prison facilities, and Central Security camps.
“We demand that the truth about secret underground cells be known now to everybody.”
The size of one of these cells does not exceed a meter and a half. They are usually pitch dark, very poorly ventilated, extremely damp, and smelly, said a reporter from the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabea, one of the five given permission by the army to take a tour in the State Security building in Lazoghli in downtown Cairo.
Like the interior minister’s office at the eastern Cairo headquarters, the offices of State Security officers are luxurious with adjacent bedrooms and fancy bathrooms.
Hell Room Protestors stormed eastern Cairo headquarters looking for documents and prisoners The National Democratic Party, which was the ruling party before the military took over, has its Hell Room as well.
This room, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said, houses evidence of the violations committed by all senior officials in the country and supported by audio and video.
In the interrogation, Adly said that both Safwat al-Sharif, former speaker of the Consultative Assembly, Egypt’s higher house of parliament, and Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak’s son, were aware of the existence of this room.
Derini who speculates that he has been detained at the state security headquarters in eastern Cairo, said that he spent his detention time with bare feet and chained hands.
He added that he was exposed to several forms of torture like laying him down on a wet long chair then connecting his limbs to electricity and sitting him on an electrocuted chair.
A report from Amnesty International reinforces this testimony. A former prisoner recounts:
“The detainees had been rounded up as part of a crackdown on anti-government protesters in the days before the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11. After Mubarak’s fall, the military took charge and promised to transfer power to a civilian government in coming months. Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, urged the military to halt mistreatment in its lockups and release all protesters still in detention.
"The Egyptian military authorities have committed publicly to creating a climate of freedom and democracy after so many years of repression," said Amnesty’s regional director, Malcolm Smart. "Now they must match their words with direct action."
A military spokesman rejected Amnesty’s allegations of abuse, and denied that the military targets activists or protesters. "Where is this information from?" Lt. General Ismail Etman, spokesman for the military said on state TV.
"No soldier would lay a hand on the body of an honorable citizen." He said the military has received a list of detainees provided by activists and is "searching" for them. The military was deployed in Egypt on Jan. 28 to try to restore security as police disappeared from the streets amid the mass protests. Torture by police and other security agents has been widespread in Egypt for years, and grievances linked to such mistreatment helped drive the protests that erupted Jan. 25 and eventually toppled Mubarak.
Criticism of the military’s handling of the transition is on the rise. Youth groups and democracy advocates have said little has been done to usher in reform or bring civilians in the decision-making process. Detainees held in military detention centers said they suffered harsh mistreatment in the days before Mubarak’s fall.
A 29-year-old man said he was detained Feb. 3 and initially held in an annex to the Egyptian Museum overlooking Tahrir Square, the center of the mass protests. "They called me a traitor and a foreign agent and forced me to take off my clothes except my underwear and to lie face down on the floor," the man, whose name was withheld to protect his safety, told Amnesty International.
"Then they beat me with a whip and stepped with boots on my back and on my hands. They kicked me," he said. He said he was then moved to another location, subjected to electric shocks and threatened with rape before being transferred to a military prison northeast of Cairo. There, he was repeatedly beaten before being released after a week, he said.
An 18-year old said he was detained Feb. 3 at Tahrir Square and released with hundreds others on Feb.10. "Then I was taken for interrogation where they insulted me and my family," he told Amnesty. "They said things one should not say. They took off my handcuffs, because they ordered me to take off my clothes, except my underwear, but I remained blindfolded," he said.
He was then tied by the legs repeatedly dunked into a barrel of water. "They told me to confess that I was trained by Israel or by Iran. They also put electric shocks to my body and I fainted," he said.
Mohamed El-Khatib, a 53-year old government employee from the city of Suez, was arrested Feb. 2 for allegedly violating the nightly curfew enforced by the military before Mubarak’s ouster. El-Khatib told The Associated Press he was interrogated at a military detention center about why he participated in the protests, and accused of trying to overthrow the regime.
While blindfolded, he said he was beaten with sticks and whipped and threatened he would never leave the lockup alive. On Feb. 10, he and dozens of other detainees appeared before a military court and were given suspended three-month sentences. "It was as if they were telling us “accept the sentence, so we can let you out,” said El-Khatib, who has since been released. "The honorable people in the military have to get our rights back. I will not be silent. I want my right."
“The Honorable People in the Military” is what El-Khatib said.
Yes, but how can we forget who it was who beat El-Khatib in the first place. It was the Army. That suggests to me that “the honorable people” have a huge culture-shifting educational job to do. And they need to do it with all deliberate speed.
Assad’s Cookie-Cutter
By William Fisher
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria delivered what must be the Mother of all Cookie-Cutter speeches to his parliament yesterday. It’s a pretty good measure of how far out of touch Assad is with his people that he would even consider delivering a smorgasbord of generalities, devoid of any substance, and essentially blaming a conspiracy by Israel and other “outsiders” for all his troubles.
The impact of this pathetic speech was to create even more disappointment, even more anger, because it followed a hurricane of rumors from people close to the president that he was about to lift the decades-old emergency law, in effect since 1963, and begin to build a foundation for reform and constructive dialogue.
None of that even merited a mention. Pro-democracy advocates will not have been impressed with Assad’s sacking of his government – that’s a ploy used by despots going back centuries. It is a breadcrumb that will feed no one.
The dreaded Emergency Law, similar to one in effect for 30 years in Egypt until the fall of Mubarak, gives the government virtually unlimited authority to arrest and detain people without charges or access to lawyers or family members. There are thousands of untried political prisoners in Syrian jails, many of them locked up for years. The Syrian security police are notorious for torturing prisoners and there have been many deaths in detention.
For those who have been courageously demonstrating for democratic change, the takeaway from the speech must have been: “How it is is how it’s going to be. Suck it up and get over it.”
Well, it’s possible that Assad’s brutal treatment of his fellow citizens thus far has intimidated them sufficiently and that we have seen the last of demonstrators – and of target practice by the security services.
But I rather doubt it. So utterly dismissive was the speech from the chinless wonder that those who want democratic change may only become more emboldened. Friday, after prayers, may tell us a lot about the power, or lack thereof, of Assad’s words.
"We cannot say that everyone who went out (in the streets) is a conspirator. Let us be clear about that," he said in a half-hearted sop to those seeking change. But he was equally clear that all of Syria’s troubles were the result of a conspiracy of outside forces “from near and far” designed to foment sectarian violence.
“The first priority was the stability of Syria,” he told Parliament, dusting off a standard line used by dictators who have run out of every resource save bullets. The last time we heard lots of talk of stability, it was coming from our State Department – before the fall of Ben Ali and Mubarak.
And the price of that so-called “stability”?
So far, the street demonstrations in Syria have largely been limited to the South of the country, away from Damascus, the capital. But those peaceful and relatively modest outbursts have cost between 60 and 100 lives. The dead have been shot by the security police.
And here’s our own State Department’s assessment of Syrian “stability”: “During [2009] the government and members of the security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses, and the human rights situation worsened. The government systematically repressed citizens' abilities to change their government. In a climate of impunity, there were instances of arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life. Members of the security forces tortured and physically abused prisoners and detainees. Security forces arrested and detained individuals--including activists, organizers, and other regime critics--without due process.
“Lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention remained a serious problem. During the year the government sentenced to prison several high-profile members of the human rights and civil society communities. The government violated citizens' privacy rights and imposed significant restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, and travel.
“An atmosphere of corruption pervaded the government. Violence and societal discrimination against women continued, as did sexual exploitation, increasingly aimed at Iraqi refugees, including minors. The government discriminated against minorities, particularly Kurds and Ahvazis, and severely restricted workers' rights.”
Are we really supposed to be surprised that the Syrian people would try to rise up from such a living death and create the kind of stability that comes only with leaders who respond to their people?
The so-called “Arab Awakening” may fail in Syria this time. But Tunisia and Egypt have created a tsunami of protest that cannot be held back much longer.
What’s surprising is not that the Syrian people are rising up but how patient they have been – until now.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria delivered what must be the Mother of all Cookie-Cutter speeches to his parliament yesterday. It’s a pretty good measure of how far out of touch Assad is with his people that he would even consider delivering a smorgasbord of generalities, devoid of any substance, and essentially blaming a conspiracy by Israel and other “outsiders” for all his troubles.
The impact of this pathetic speech was to create even more disappointment, even more anger, because it followed a hurricane of rumors from people close to the president that he was about to lift the decades-old emergency law, in effect since 1963, and begin to build a foundation for reform and constructive dialogue.
None of that even merited a mention. Pro-democracy advocates will not have been impressed with Assad’s sacking of his government – that’s a ploy used by despots going back centuries. It is a breadcrumb that will feed no one.
The dreaded Emergency Law, similar to one in effect for 30 years in Egypt until the fall of Mubarak, gives the government virtually unlimited authority to arrest and detain people without charges or access to lawyers or family members. There are thousands of untried political prisoners in Syrian jails, many of them locked up for years. The Syrian security police are notorious for torturing prisoners and there have been many deaths in detention.
For those who have been courageously demonstrating for democratic change, the takeaway from the speech must have been: “How it is is how it’s going to be. Suck it up and get over it.”
Well, it’s possible that Assad’s brutal treatment of his fellow citizens thus far has intimidated them sufficiently and that we have seen the last of demonstrators – and of target practice by the security services.
But I rather doubt it. So utterly dismissive was the speech from the chinless wonder that those who want democratic change may only become more emboldened. Friday, after prayers, may tell us a lot about the power, or lack thereof, of Assad’s words.
"We cannot say that everyone who went out (in the streets) is a conspirator. Let us be clear about that," he said in a half-hearted sop to those seeking change. But he was equally clear that all of Syria’s troubles were the result of a conspiracy of outside forces “from near and far” designed to foment sectarian violence.
“The first priority was the stability of Syria,” he told Parliament, dusting off a standard line used by dictators who have run out of every resource save bullets. The last time we heard lots of talk of stability, it was coming from our State Department – before the fall of Ben Ali and Mubarak.
And the price of that so-called “stability”?
So far, the street demonstrations in Syria have largely been limited to the South of the country, away from Damascus, the capital. But those peaceful and relatively modest outbursts have cost between 60 and 100 lives. The dead have been shot by the security police.
And here’s our own State Department’s assessment of Syrian “stability”: “During [2009] the government and members of the security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses, and the human rights situation worsened. The government systematically repressed citizens' abilities to change their government. In a climate of impunity, there were instances of arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life. Members of the security forces tortured and physically abused prisoners and detainees. Security forces arrested and detained individuals--including activists, organizers, and other regime critics--without due process.
“Lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention remained a serious problem. During the year the government sentenced to prison several high-profile members of the human rights and civil society communities. The government violated citizens' privacy rights and imposed significant restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, and travel.
“An atmosphere of corruption pervaded the government. Violence and societal discrimination against women continued, as did sexual exploitation, increasingly aimed at Iraqi refugees, including minors. The government discriminated against minorities, particularly Kurds and Ahvazis, and severely restricted workers' rights.”
Are we really supposed to be surprised that the Syrian people would try to rise up from such a living death and create the kind of stability that comes only with leaders who respond to their people?
The so-called “Arab Awakening” may fail in Syria this time. But Tunisia and Egypt have created a tsunami of protest that cannot be held back much longer.
What’s surprising is not that the Syrian people are rising up but how patient they have been – until now.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Death Penalty Declines, But Not in China
By William Fisher
The good news is that momentum against the death penalty is gaining ground around the world. The bad news is that the number of people executed in 2010 -- at least 527 – does not include China, the numbers are in
the thousands .
These are two of the conclusions of a database survey carried out by Amnesty International (AI) entitled, “Death Sentences and Executions in
2010.”
AI’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign Director Laura Moye says, "It is difficult given the incredible secrecy that surrounds the death penalty, but
from the information that we do have, we are convinced that the numbers are in the thousands," she said.
Despite these numbers, Moye says there are signs of a downward trend in China, like elsewhere in the world.
"It seems that in China there has been a move to limit the number of crimes
punishable by death. So some of the white-collar crimes have been eliminated - or at least there is a proposal to eliminate them - from the list of capital crimes. So we are hopeful that China is also heeding the message from the international community and from human rights proponents that the death penalty start to be whittled down toward its elimination," she said.
While the organization did not come up with numbers for other Asian countries that carried out executions, including Malaysia, North Korea and Vietnam, it did include Iran, Yemen and the United States.
Iran ran a distant second behind China, with at least 252 reported executions, followed by Yemen with at least 53, and the United States with 46.
But the report notes that Illinois this month became the 16th U.S. state
to abolish the death penalty.
The only country that joined the list of countries abolishing the death penalty
in 2010 was the central African nation of Gabon.
AI says 139 countries have now abolished the death penalty in law or in
practice. A human rights campaign is currently under way for another African country, Ghana, to take the death penalty off its own books as it revises its constitution.
Asked by The Public Record for the reasons behind the decline, Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told us:
“The use of the death penalty is declining both internationally and in the U.S. because it is increasingly seen as a violation of human rights. In the developed world, secure prisons have for a long time supplanted any perceived need for executions. Moreover, the inherent dangers of abuse and mistake in capital punishment make it an unnecessary risk that endangers, rather than saves, human lives.”
He continued: “So many other rights that countries seek to protect for their own people and for others have their foundation in the basic right to life. With that insight, many countries of world are using tools such as treaties and economic incentives to promote an end to the death penalty. Capital punishment is largely a political symbol rather than an instrument of the criminal justice system. Countries can give it up with no real loss, while shedding the image of tyranny and embracing compassion.”
Dieter added, “In the U.S., the scales are tipping against the death penalty as its financial and intangible costs mount on one side and any benefits disappear from the other. Among those costs is the growing condemnation of the world. Many in this country recall what apartheid meant for South Africa in the 1980s -- they do not want the U.S. to be the last country standing with the death penalty.”
Moye says Amnesty International is also closely looking at the volatile
situation in the Middle East, where many countries caught up in unrest,
including Yemen, Libya and Syria, were in the top ten last year for most
executions. But she says the region also has countries which had very few or no executions.
"In the Middle East, while Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example, have often been at the top of the list as far as number of executions, there are many other countries in the Middle East and North Africa that have not been actively executing its citizens in recent years. That includes Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Western Sahara and the United Arab Emirates as well as Tunisia. So overall in the region we are seeing signs of progress," she said.
In December, a resolution renewing the United Nations General Assembly call for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty was adopted with 109 votes in favor, 41 against and 35 abstentions. This was a slight increase in favor of the moratorium compared to previous votes on the same issue in the world body in recent years.
Countries that continue to use the death penalty are being left increasingly
isolated following a decade of progress towards abolition, Amnesty International has said.
A total of 31 countries abolished the death penalty in law or in practice during the last 10 years but China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the USA and Yemen remain amongst the most frequent executioners, some in direct contradiction of international human rights law.
The total number of executions officially recorded by Amnesty International in 2010 went down from at least 714 people in 2009 to at least 527 in 2010,
excluding China.
“The minority of states that continue to systematically use the death penalty
were responsible for thousands of executions in 2010, defying the global
anti-death penalty trend,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“While executions may be on the decline, a number of countries continue to pass death sentences for drug-related offences, economic crimes, sexual relations between consenting adults and blasphemy, violating international human rights law forbidding the use of the death penalty except for the most serious crimes,” said Shetty.
AI also reports on a number of setbacks during 2010 when six other countries and territories carried out executions after a hiatus and one country expanded the scope of the death penalty.
“In spite of some set backs, developments in 2010 brought us closer to global abolition. The President of Mongolia announced a moratorium on the death penalty, an important first step as capital punishment is still classified as state secret. For the third time and with more support than ever before, the UN General Assembly called for a global moratorium on executions” said Shetty.
Since 2003, less than half of retentionist countries have carried out
executions. Less than a third were known to have executed prisoners every year over the last four years.
“Any country that continues to execute is flying in the face of the fact that
both human rights law and UN human rights bodies consistently hold that
abolition should be the objective.”
“A world free of the death penalty is not only possible, it is inevitable,” said
Salil Shetty. “The question is how long will it take?”
An equally optimistic note was sounded by Chip Pitts, lecturer in law at Stanford Law School and Oxford, and a long-time human rights activist. He told The Public Record, “One of my favorite quotes is Martin Luther King’s observation that ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but bends toward justice’. While the so-called “global war on terror(ism) has been a notable and tragic exception to this long-term positive tendency, events like the Arab Spring validate King’s observation.”
Pitts explains the trend away from executions this way: “The global rejection of the death penalty, though still incomplete, is part of this march of civilization and expanding human rights. The trend is accelerated by information technologies that allow human beings from all over the planet to communicate, appreciate their common humanity and shared rights and values, and then cooperate in forms of education and activism that highlight the corrupt hubris and fallible decision-making of the powerful. Nowhere is the arrogance and imperfection of power more evident than in presuming to take another life, even in the name of justice.”
He adds, “The facts are that the death penalty in practice, wherever in the world it appears, is inherently arbitrary, discriminatory, and imperfect – and such imperfection is simply intolerable when it comes to the ultimate penalty. Amnesty International’s activists and supporters have been at the forefront in pointing this out, so those concerned with questions of human rights and human dignity should join Amnesty and human rights educators in building the understanding and encouraging the actions that abolish medieval atrocities like torture and the death penalty now and forever.”
Pitts is a former Chairman of Amnesty International USA and is currently a member of the Board of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center was asked by The Public Record if people in the “right to life” community are as concerned about executions of adults as they are about the unborn. This is his response:
“For Catholics, I think there is such a correlation. Interestingly, Gov. Pat Quinn noted the influence of the late Cardinal Bernadin when deciding to sign Illinois's abolition bill. Bernadin was the promoter of the "seamless garment" approach that all life is sacred from beginning to end. He espoused an overall respect for life throughout one's actions, rather than various stances on discrete issues.
”Many opponents of the death penalty do not approach the issue as a moral or religious one, so they may see no connection to other ‘life’ issues. At the other end of the spectrum, there are certainly anti-abortion adherents who support the death penalty, and do so religiously. I think the distinction they draw is between innocent lives and the guilty.”
He added, ”I have a sense that distinction is breaking down, partly because of the realization that we have no infallible way of determining guilt and innocence. Also, many conservative religious folks believe that people can change, and their ministries reach out to prisoners. That may further dissipate the wall between worthy and unworthy lives.”
The AI report also includes a set of regional summaries. These are below:
The Americas
In the USA, the only country in the Americas to carry out executions, at least 110 death sentences were imposed during 2010 but this represents only about a third of the number handed down in the mid-1990s. And in March 2011, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.
The Asia-Pacific
In 2010 Amnesty International was not able to confirm comprehensive figures on the use of the death penalty for China, Malaysia, North Korea, Singapore and Viet Nam although executions were known to have been carried out in all these countries. Available information from five other countries in the region confirmed at least 82 executions were carried out in Asia.
Eleven countries imposed death sentences but continued not to carry out executions in 2010: Afghanistan, Brunei Darussalam, India, Indonesia, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The Pacific Islands remained free from death sentences and executions. In January 2010the President of Mongolia announced a moratorium on executions with a view to abolition of the death penalty.
Europe and Central Asia
After a year’s hiatus in 2009 when for the first time no executions were recorded in Europe and the former Soviet Union, in March 2010 the Belarusian authorities carried out two executions. Three new death sentences were imposed in Belarus in 2010.
Middle East and North Africa
Fewer death sentences and executions were recorded in total in the Middle East and North Africa in 2010 than in 2009. However, where the death penalty was imposed it was frequently used after unfair trials and for offences, such as drug-trafficking or adultery, which are not recognized as the “most serious crimes” and therefore in violation of international law.
The authorities of Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco/Western Sahara, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates imposed death sentences but continued to refrain from carrying out executions.
The Iranian authorities acknowledged the execution of 252 people, including
five women and one juvenile offender in 2010. Amnesty International says it received credible reports of more than 300 other executions which were not officially acknowledged, mostly in Vakilabad Prison, Mashhad. Most were of people convicted of alleged drugs offences. Fourteen people were publicly executed. Death sentences continued to be imposed in large numbers.
Sub-Saharan Africa
In 2010 one more African country, Gabon, abolished the death penalty, bringing the number of abolitionist countries among African Union members to 16.
Four countries were known to have executed in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010: Botswana (1), Equatorial Guinea (4), Somalia (at least 8) and Sudan (at least 6).
The good news is that momentum against the death penalty is gaining ground around the world. The bad news is that the number of people executed in 2010 -- at least 527 – does not include China, the numbers are in
the thousands .
These are two of the conclusions of a database survey carried out by Amnesty International (AI) entitled, “Death Sentences and Executions in
2010.”
AI’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign Director Laura Moye says, "It is difficult given the incredible secrecy that surrounds the death penalty, but
from the information that we do have, we are convinced that the numbers are in the thousands," she said.
Despite these numbers, Moye says there are signs of a downward trend in China, like elsewhere in the world.
"It seems that in China there has been a move to limit the number of crimes
punishable by death. So some of the white-collar crimes have been eliminated - or at least there is a proposal to eliminate them - from the list of capital crimes. So we are hopeful that China is also heeding the message from the international community and from human rights proponents that the death penalty start to be whittled down toward its elimination," she said.
While the organization did not come up with numbers for other Asian countries that carried out executions, including Malaysia, North Korea and Vietnam, it did include Iran, Yemen and the United States.
Iran ran a distant second behind China, with at least 252 reported executions, followed by Yemen with at least 53, and the United States with 46.
But the report notes that Illinois this month became the 16th U.S. state
to abolish the death penalty.
The only country that joined the list of countries abolishing the death penalty
in 2010 was the central African nation of Gabon.
AI says 139 countries have now abolished the death penalty in law or in
practice. A human rights campaign is currently under way for another African country, Ghana, to take the death penalty off its own books as it revises its constitution.
Asked by The Public Record for the reasons behind the decline, Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told us:
“The use of the death penalty is declining both internationally and in the U.S. because it is increasingly seen as a violation of human rights. In the developed world, secure prisons have for a long time supplanted any perceived need for executions. Moreover, the inherent dangers of abuse and mistake in capital punishment make it an unnecessary risk that endangers, rather than saves, human lives.”
He continued: “So many other rights that countries seek to protect for their own people and for others have their foundation in the basic right to life. With that insight, many countries of world are using tools such as treaties and economic incentives to promote an end to the death penalty. Capital punishment is largely a political symbol rather than an instrument of the criminal justice system. Countries can give it up with no real loss, while shedding the image of tyranny and embracing compassion.”
Dieter added, “In the U.S., the scales are tipping against the death penalty as its financial and intangible costs mount on one side and any benefits disappear from the other. Among those costs is the growing condemnation of the world. Many in this country recall what apartheid meant for South Africa in the 1980s -- they do not want the U.S. to be the last country standing with the death penalty.”
Moye says Amnesty International is also closely looking at the volatile
situation in the Middle East, where many countries caught up in unrest,
including Yemen, Libya and Syria, were in the top ten last year for most
executions. But she says the region also has countries which had very few or no executions.
"In the Middle East, while Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example, have often been at the top of the list as far as number of executions, there are many other countries in the Middle East and North Africa that have not been actively executing its citizens in recent years. That includes Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Western Sahara and the United Arab Emirates as well as Tunisia. So overall in the region we are seeing signs of progress," she said.
In December, a resolution renewing the United Nations General Assembly call for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty was adopted with 109 votes in favor, 41 against and 35 abstentions. This was a slight increase in favor of the moratorium compared to previous votes on the same issue in the world body in recent years.
Countries that continue to use the death penalty are being left increasingly
isolated following a decade of progress towards abolition, Amnesty International has said.
A total of 31 countries abolished the death penalty in law or in practice during the last 10 years but China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the USA and Yemen remain amongst the most frequent executioners, some in direct contradiction of international human rights law.
The total number of executions officially recorded by Amnesty International in 2010 went down from at least 714 people in 2009 to at least 527 in 2010,
excluding China.
“The minority of states that continue to systematically use the death penalty
were responsible for thousands of executions in 2010, defying the global
anti-death penalty trend,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“While executions may be on the decline, a number of countries continue to pass death sentences for drug-related offences, economic crimes, sexual relations between consenting adults and blasphemy, violating international human rights law forbidding the use of the death penalty except for the most serious crimes,” said Shetty.
AI also reports on a number of setbacks during 2010 when six other countries and territories carried out executions after a hiatus and one country expanded the scope of the death penalty.
“In spite of some set backs, developments in 2010 brought us closer to global abolition. The President of Mongolia announced a moratorium on the death penalty, an important first step as capital punishment is still classified as state secret. For the third time and with more support than ever before, the UN General Assembly called for a global moratorium on executions” said Shetty.
Since 2003, less than half of retentionist countries have carried out
executions. Less than a third were known to have executed prisoners every year over the last four years.
“Any country that continues to execute is flying in the face of the fact that
both human rights law and UN human rights bodies consistently hold that
abolition should be the objective.”
“A world free of the death penalty is not only possible, it is inevitable,” said
Salil Shetty. “The question is how long will it take?”
An equally optimistic note was sounded by Chip Pitts, lecturer in law at Stanford Law School and Oxford, and a long-time human rights activist. He told The Public Record, “One of my favorite quotes is Martin Luther King’s observation that ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but bends toward justice’. While the so-called “global war on terror(ism) has been a notable and tragic exception to this long-term positive tendency, events like the Arab Spring validate King’s observation.”
Pitts explains the trend away from executions this way: “The global rejection of the death penalty, though still incomplete, is part of this march of civilization and expanding human rights. The trend is accelerated by information technologies that allow human beings from all over the planet to communicate, appreciate their common humanity and shared rights and values, and then cooperate in forms of education and activism that highlight the corrupt hubris and fallible decision-making of the powerful. Nowhere is the arrogance and imperfection of power more evident than in presuming to take another life, even in the name of justice.”
He adds, “The facts are that the death penalty in practice, wherever in the world it appears, is inherently arbitrary, discriminatory, and imperfect – and such imperfection is simply intolerable when it comes to the ultimate penalty. Amnesty International’s activists and supporters have been at the forefront in pointing this out, so those concerned with questions of human rights and human dignity should join Amnesty and human rights educators in building the understanding and encouraging the actions that abolish medieval atrocities like torture and the death penalty now and forever.”
Pitts is a former Chairman of Amnesty International USA and is currently a member of the Board of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center was asked by The Public Record if people in the “right to life” community are as concerned about executions of adults as they are about the unborn. This is his response:
“For Catholics, I think there is such a correlation. Interestingly, Gov. Pat Quinn noted the influence of the late Cardinal Bernadin when deciding to sign Illinois's abolition bill. Bernadin was the promoter of the "seamless garment" approach that all life is sacred from beginning to end. He espoused an overall respect for life throughout one's actions, rather than various stances on discrete issues.
”Many opponents of the death penalty do not approach the issue as a moral or religious one, so they may see no connection to other ‘life’ issues. At the other end of the spectrum, there are certainly anti-abortion adherents who support the death penalty, and do so religiously. I think the distinction they draw is between innocent lives and the guilty.”
He added, ”I have a sense that distinction is breaking down, partly because of the realization that we have no infallible way of determining guilt and innocence. Also, many conservative religious folks believe that people can change, and their ministries reach out to prisoners. That may further dissipate the wall between worthy and unworthy lives.”
The AI report also includes a set of regional summaries. These are below:
The Americas
In the USA, the only country in the Americas to carry out executions, at least 110 death sentences were imposed during 2010 but this represents only about a third of the number handed down in the mid-1990s. And in March 2011, Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.
The Asia-Pacific
In 2010 Amnesty International was not able to confirm comprehensive figures on the use of the death penalty for China, Malaysia, North Korea, Singapore and Viet Nam although executions were known to have been carried out in all these countries. Available information from five other countries in the region confirmed at least 82 executions were carried out in Asia.
Eleven countries imposed death sentences but continued not to carry out executions in 2010: Afghanistan, Brunei Darussalam, India, Indonesia, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The Pacific Islands remained free from death sentences and executions. In January 2010the President of Mongolia announced a moratorium on executions with a view to abolition of the death penalty.
Europe and Central Asia
After a year’s hiatus in 2009 when for the first time no executions were recorded in Europe and the former Soviet Union, in March 2010 the Belarusian authorities carried out two executions. Three new death sentences were imposed in Belarus in 2010.
Middle East and North Africa
Fewer death sentences and executions were recorded in total in the Middle East and North Africa in 2010 than in 2009. However, where the death penalty was imposed it was frequently used after unfair trials and for offences, such as drug-trafficking or adultery, which are not recognized as the “most serious crimes” and therefore in violation of international law.
The authorities of Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco/Western Sahara, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates imposed death sentences but continued to refrain from carrying out executions.
The Iranian authorities acknowledged the execution of 252 people, including
five women and one juvenile offender in 2010. Amnesty International says it received credible reports of more than 300 other executions which were not officially acknowledged, mostly in Vakilabad Prison, Mashhad. Most were of people convicted of alleged drugs offences. Fourteen people were publicly executed. Death sentences continued to be imposed in large numbers.
Sub-Saharan Africa
In 2010 one more African country, Gabon, abolished the death penalty, bringing the number of abolitionist countries among African Union members to 16.
Four countries were known to have executed in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010: Botswana (1), Equatorial Guinea (4), Somalia (at least 8) and Sudan (at least 6).
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
From Saudi Arabia: Thanks, Muammar!
By William Fisher
The civil war in Libya has been an unexpected gift to Saudi Arabia: It has diverted the eyes of the world away from how the House of Saud is dealing with its own version of Arab Spring.
The oil-rich kingdom is pursuing a two-pronged strategy.
The first prong is to provide citizens with financial incentives designed to quell deep frustrations with the regime and keep people off the streets.
On February 23, King Abdullah began implementing that strategy by announcing a $35 billion package of financial assistance to the unemployed and support for first-time homebuyers. Then, on March 18, he announced new assistance totaling $96 billion for similar measures, in addition to creating 60,000 new security sector jobs.
The second prong of Saudi strategy is silence. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), “While King Abdullah announces financial gifts to Saudi citizens, his police arrest those who want more meaningful change.”
And “the scale of arrests has risen dramatically over the past two weeks,” according to Christoph Wilcke, HRW’s senior Middle East researcher in New York.
Saudi’s political prisoners number in the thousands. Some have been imprisoned for years, without charges, lawyers or trials. Others have been swept up by security police for trying to organize “Days of Rage” demonstrations in Saudi cities to advocate for a constitutional monarchy and a more open society. Still others have been jailed for gathering outside prisons to demand the release of political prisoners.
And it is fair to say that, aside from a few mainstream outlets, the media has treated Saudi Arabia like Las Vegas: “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas.”
Even Saudi’s deployment of more than a thousand troops to neighboring Bahrain – to help the Sunni minority rulers to hold on to power over the Shia majority – drew only passing media interest. On television, most of that interest focused on the visuals: Saudi armored troop carriers lumbering across the 26 km. causeway connecting the two countries.
HRW reports that Saudi Arabia's minority Shi'ites also complain of discrimination, saying they often struggle to get senior government jobs and benefits available to other citizens.
In early March, the Interior Ministry and the Council of Senior Religious Scholars publicly reiterated the government's ban on protests ahead of demonstrations for a Saudi "Day of Rage" that had been called for March 11.
That day, hundreds of people demonstrated in the streets of Qatif and al-Ahsa', calling for the release of nine Shia men held for over 13 years without charge or trial, and dozens of people demonstrated in Riyadh, calling for the release of thousands of Sunni security suspects held without charge or trial, some for over seven years.
Similar protests took place in the Eastern Province on March 17 and 18, and in Riyadh on March 20.
And Saudi’s response? According to HRW, more than 100 people were arrested in the Qatif district, and about 45 in the al-Ahsa' district, both Shia population centers in the kingdom's Eastern Province. A smaller number of people were jailed in the Riyadh and Qasim governorates.
Security forces in the Eastern Province arrested scores of people during protests there on March 11, 17, and 18. They arrested four people on March 25 during small protests in al-Rabi'iyya and al-‘Awwamiyya, towns in the Qatif district, a local activist told HRW.
On March 17, HRW spoke to two people who took part in the demonstration that day. They said that the protests were peaceful, but that at 8:25 p.m. a member of the security forces in civilian clothes drew a pistol and shot two protesters, Ali al-Zayid and Ali al-Saffar, wounding them. The two were among a throng trying to take away the camera of a suspected mabahith (the secret police agency of the Saudi Ministry of Interior) agent.
Security forces then carried out large-scale arrests and transferred the injured protesters to a military hospital, demonstrators and local news sources said.
Saudi Arabia expelled a Reuters correspondent, Ulf Laessing, over his reporting of the incident.
From al-Ahsa' district in the southern Eastern Province, HRW received updated lists of demonstrators arrested in small protests there on March 11 and 18. Police arrested 27 people on March 11, including seven children, and have released only one person, according to a local activist. On March 18, police arrested another 18 people, another local activist said, three of who have since been released. None of them have faced any charges.
These actions by Saudi citizens are not nearly as dramatic as those that took place in Tunisia and Egypt, but in a Saudi context they are momentous.
"Unhappiness with the current situation is something that has brought sworn
enemies together," writes Eman al-Nafjan, a postgraduate mother of three who blogs under the name Saudiwoman. She wrote:
"It's becoming more and more difficult to tell apart the demands of conservatives from those of liberals and the demands of the majority from those of minorities … Across the board, there's a demand for a constitutional monarchy and accountability and the end of corruption in handling the nation's wealth."
Taking to the streets and setting fire to police stations may not be the Saudi
way of protesting but in the last few days a lot of other things have been
happening.
Mohamad al-Deheme, a 24-year-old computer programmer set up a website called shakwa.net (the Arabic word for "grievance") where the public can post complaints directed at government ministries – and already the site has several hundred.
Then there are petitions. One of them, headed "Towards the state of rights and institutions", attracted 1,554 signatures on the Internet before the authorities blocked access to it inside the kingdom.
Another came from the "February 23 Youth" group who are demanding "national reform, constitutional reform, national dialogue, elections and female participation".
Yet another, "from Saudi intellectuals to the political leadership", is headed
"Declaration of national reform". That too was blocked by the Saudi authorities.
HRW reminds us that “to outsiders more accustomed to open dissent, all this petitioning and complaining may look like no big deal. But under an absolute monarchy, even petitioning can get you into serious trouble.”
The organization reports that in 2006, Musa al-Qarni and three other men politely asked the king to form an Islamic debating society that would discuss "freedom, justice, equality, citizenship, pluralism, [proper] advice, and the role of women". The king ignored his request and several months later, Qarni was arrested and carted off to jail after the secret police stormed a villa in Jeddah where several men "widely known for their advocacy on issues of social and political reform" were meeting.
Some of the detainees’ stories collected by HRW are heart-breaking.
In front of the Interior Ministry in Riyadh, police detained Bahiya, Dana, and Badria al-Rashudi and held them for a day, two fellow activists told Human Rights Watch. They are the daughters of Sulaiman al-Rashudi, a 76-year-old former judge and reform advocate arrested in February 2007 and held for years before prosecutors charged him recently, a lawyer for another man arrested and imprisoned with al-Rashudi told Human Rights Watch. Al-Rashudi is prohibited from contacting his lawyers. The daughters were there to demand their father's release.
On the night of March 20, the authorities arrested Muhammad al-Bajadi at his home in Qasim province, a statement from the Saudi Association for Political and Civil Rights said, and another activist confirmed. Al-Bajadi, a member of the association, which the government has refused an operating license, had supported families demonstrating at the Interior Ministry to demand their relatives' release. Mubarak bin Zu'air, a lawyer whose father Sa'id bin Zu'air, and brother, Sa'd bin Sa'id bin Zu'air, have long been detained without charge by the country's domestic intelligence service, was also arrested, as was Abd al-‘Aziz al-Qaffari, demonstrating for the release of his brother.
Professor Abd al-Karim al-Khadr told Human Rights Watch that on March 20 he went from his home in Qasim province to the Interior Ministry in Riyadh to inquire about his son, Thamir, a rights activist detained without charge since March 2010. Police there arrested his other son, 17-year-old Jihad. Al-Khadr did not hear from Jihad until early on March 25, when he briefly saw him at Riyadh's Ma'dhar Police Station. Officers there informed him that their superiors had prohibited communication with those arrested.
Saudi domestic intelligence forces, the Interior Ministry's Directorate for General Investigations (mabahith), which runs its own prisons, also arrested two Syrian nationals over the past month, apparently for their peaceful criticism of political conditions. On February 26, the mabahith arrested Bashar Mihriz ‘Abud at his office in Riyadh, where he recently had started work as an editor of Mobily, the magazine of the mobile phone carrier of the same name, a Jeddah-based human rights activist told Human Rights Watch.
‘Abud had worked for eight years as an editor for the prominent daily newspaper Okaz and continued to write for the publication. His most recent article, written shortly before his arrest, detailed the life of the Syrian filmmaker Umar Amiralay, who died on February 5. Amiralay had been a vocal activist for political change in Syria, signing petitions in 2000 and 2005 calling for an end to emergency rule and the release of political prisoners there. ‘Abud's wife, now in Syria, told Human Rights Watch that she had received a call from her husband on March 19, saying he was in al-Ha'ir prison south of Riyadh, and that his interrogators had finished their investigation about his article.
A member of the eight-person committee of families of detained persons told Human Rights Watch that on March 23, they requested a meeting with the governor of the Eastern Province, Prince Mohammad al-Fahd bin Abd al-‘Aziz Al Sa'ud, to seek the release of more than 110 people detained at protests over the past weeks, including more than a dozen children.
His deputy, Prince Jilawi bin Abd al-‘Aziz al-Jilawi, met with the families, but refused to release the protesters unless community leaders "quieted down the streets," a person present at the meeting told Human Rights Watch. The government has not charged any of the detained protesters, but required the recently released protesters from Qatif to sign a pledge not to participate in future demonstrations.
"By arresting its peaceful critics and refusing any talk of political reform, Saudi rulers are fast becoming the last hold-outs in a region yearning for democratic change," HRW’s Wilcke said.
HRW notes that, “Throwing money around is the customary way for oil-rich Gulf potentates to deal with a problem. That is not a long-term solution and, even as a palliative, all the signs suggest it is becoming less and less effective. It may be enough to placate some disaffected Saudis, as in the past, but many others are saying money is not the issue: they want real change. The question is whether that message will get through to King Abdullah without mass protests on the streets.”
Ahmed Al-Mulla is a Saudi writer and poet. He said: "There are many of the same issues here as in Egypt and Tunisia. About 70 percent of the people are young and frustrated with no rights, no freedoms, no jobs when they graduate. Our women's rights situation is probably the worst in the world. After seeing others protest, people are becoming more aware, more are connecting online… The government is spending money to make people feel better, but it's not about money. The government tries to divide people, Shia or Sunni, but it's not about that. It's about the freedom to speak, it's about the right to protest, it's about human rights.”
HRW’s Wilke agrees. "By arresting its peaceful critics and refusing any talk of political reform, Saudi rulers are fast becoming the last hold-outs in a region yearning for democratic change," he said.
The civil war in Libya has been an unexpected gift to Saudi Arabia: It has diverted the eyes of the world away from how the House of Saud is dealing with its own version of Arab Spring.
The oil-rich kingdom is pursuing a two-pronged strategy.
The first prong is to provide citizens with financial incentives designed to quell deep frustrations with the regime and keep people off the streets.
On February 23, King Abdullah began implementing that strategy by announcing a $35 billion package of financial assistance to the unemployed and support for first-time homebuyers. Then, on March 18, he announced new assistance totaling $96 billion for similar measures, in addition to creating 60,000 new security sector jobs.
The second prong of Saudi strategy is silence. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), “While King Abdullah announces financial gifts to Saudi citizens, his police arrest those who want more meaningful change.”
And “the scale of arrests has risen dramatically over the past two weeks,” according to Christoph Wilcke, HRW’s senior Middle East researcher in New York.
Saudi’s political prisoners number in the thousands. Some have been imprisoned for years, without charges, lawyers or trials. Others have been swept up by security police for trying to organize “Days of Rage” demonstrations in Saudi cities to advocate for a constitutional monarchy and a more open society. Still others have been jailed for gathering outside prisons to demand the release of political prisoners.
And it is fair to say that, aside from a few mainstream outlets, the media has treated Saudi Arabia like Las Vegas: “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas.”
Even Saudi’s deployment of more than a thousand troops to neighboring Bahrain – to help the Sunni minority rulers to hold on to power over the Shia majority – drew only passing media interest. On television, most of that interest focused on the visuals: Saudi armored troop carriers lumbering across the 26 km. causeway connecting the two countries.
HRW reports that Saudi Arabia's minority Shi'ites also complain of discrimination, saying they often struggle to get senior government jobs and benefits available to other citizens.
In early March, the Interior Ministry and the Council of Senior Religious Scholars publicly reiterated the government's ban on protests ahead of demonstrations for a Saudi "Day of Rage" that had been called for March 11.
That day, hundreds of people demonstrated in the streets of Qatif and al-Ahsa', calling for the release of nine Shia men held for over 13 years without charge or trial, and dozens of people demonstrated in Riyadh, calling for the release of thousands of Sunni security suspects held without charge or trial, some for over seven years.
Similar protests took place in the Eastern Province on March 17 and 18, and in Riyadh on March 20.
And Saudi’s response? According to HRW, more than 100 people were arrested in the Qatif district, and about 45 in the al-Ahsa' district, both Shia population centers in the kingdom's Eastern Province. A smaller number of people were jailed in the Riyadh and Qasim governorates.
Security forces in the Eastern Province arrested scores of people during protests there on March 11, 17, and 18. They arrested four people on March 25 during small protests in al-Rabi'iyya and al-‘Awwamiyya, towns in the Qatif district, a local activist told HRW.
On March 17, HRW spoke to two people who took part in the demonstration that day. They said that the protests were peaceful, but that at 8:25 p.m. a member of the security forces in civilian clothes drew a pistol and shot two protesters, Ali al-Zayid and Ali al-Saffar, wounding them. The two were among a throng trying to take away the camera of a suspected mabahith (the secret police agency of the Saudi Ministry of Interior) agent.
Security forces then carried out large-scale arrests and transferred the injured protesters to a military hospital, demonstrators and local news sources said.
Saudi Arabia expelled a Reuters correspondent, Ulf Laessing, over his reporting of the incident.
From al-Ahsa' district in the southern Eastern Province, HRW received updated lists of demonstrators arrested in small protests there on March 11 and 18. Police arrested 27 people on March 11, including seven children, and have released only one person, according to a local activist. On March 18, police arrested another 18 people, another local activist said, three of who have since been released. None of them have faced any charges.
These actions by Saudi citizens are not nearly as dramatic as those that took place in Tunisia and Egypt, but in a Saudi context they are momentous.
"Unhappiness with the current situation is something that has brought sworn
enemies together," writes Eman al-Nafjan, a postgraduate mother of three who blogs under the name Saudiwoman. She wrote:
"It's becoming more and more difficult to tell apart the demands of conservatives from those of liberals and the demands of the majority from those of minorities … Across the board, there's a demand for a constitutional monarchy and accountability and the end of corruption in handling the nation's wealth."
Taking to the streets and setting fire to police stations may not be the Saudi
way of protesting but in the last few days a lot of other things have been
happening.
Mohamad al-Deheme, a 24-year-old computer programmer set up a website called shakwa.net (the Arabic word for "grievance") where the public can post complaints directed at government ministries – and already the site has several hundred.
Then there are petitions. One of them, headed "Towards the state of rights and institutions", attracted 1,554 signatures on the Internet before the authorities blocked access to it inside the kingdom.
Another came from the "February 23 Youth" group who are demanding "national reform, constitutional reform, national dialogue, elections and female participation".
Yet another, "from Saudi intellectuals to the political leadership", is headed
"Declaration of national reform". That too was blocked by the Saudi authorities.
HRW reminds us that “to outsiders more accustomed to open dissent, all this petitioning and complaining may look like no big deal. But under an absolute monarchy, even petitioning can get you into serious trouble.”
The organization reports that in 2006, Musa al-Qarni and three other men politely asked the king to form an Islamic debating society that would discuss "freedom, justice, equality, citizenship, pluralism, [proper] advice, and the role of women". The king ignored his request and several months later, Qarni was arrested and carted off to jail after the secret police stormed a villa in Jeddah where several men "widely known for their advocacy on issues of social and political reform" were meeting.
Some of the detainees’ stories collected by HRW are heart-breaking.
In front of the Interior Ministry in Riyadh, police detained Bahiya, Dana, and Badria al-Rashudi and held them for a day, two fellow activists told Human Rights Watch. They are the daughters of Sulaiman al-Rashudi, a 76-year-old former judge and reform advocate arrested in February 2007 and held for years before prosecutors charged him recently, a lawyer for another man arrested and imprisoned with al-Rashudi told Human Rights Watch. Al-Rashudi is prohibited from contacting his lawyers. The daughters were there to demand their father's release.
On the night of March 20, the authorities arrested Muhammad al-Bajadi at his home in Qasim province, a statement from the Saudi Association for Political and Civil Rights said, and another activist confirmed. Al-Bajadi, a member of the association, which the government has refused an operating license, had supported families demonstrating at the Interior Ministry to demand their relatives' release. Mubarak bin Zu'air, a lawyer whose father Sa'id bin Zu'air, and brother, Sa'd bin Sa'id bin Zu'air, have long been detained without charge by the country's domestic intelligence service, was also arrested, as was Abd al-‘Aziz al-Qaffari, demonstrating for the release of his brother.
Professor Abd al-Karim al-Khadr told Human Rights Watch that on March 20 he went from his home in Qasim province to the Interior Ministry in Riyadh to inquire about his son, Thamir, a rights activist detained without charge since March 2010. Police there arrested his other son, 17-year-old Jihad. Al-Khadr did not hear from Jihad until early on March 25, when he briefly saw him at Riyadh's Ma'dhar Police Station. Officers there informed him that their superiors had prohibited communication with those arrested.
Saudi domestic intelligence forces, the Interior Ministry's Directorate for General Investigations (mabahith), which runs its own prisons, also arrested two Syrian nationals over the past month, apparently for their peaceful criticism of political conditions. On February 26, the mabahith arrested Bashar Mihriz ‘Abud at his office in Riyadh, where he recently had started work as an editor of Mobily, the magazine of the mobile phone carrier of the same name, a Jeddah-based human rights activist told Human Rights Watch.
‘Abud had worked for eight years as an editor for the prominent daily newspaper Okaz and continued to write for the publication. His most recent article, written shortly before his arrest, detailed the life of the Syrian filmmaker Umar Amiralay, who died on February 5. Amiralay had been a vocal activist for political change in Syria, signing petitions in 2000 and 2005 calling for an end to emergency rule and the release of political prisoners there. ‘Abud's wife, now in Syria, told Human Rights Watch that she had received a call from her husband on March 19, saying he was in al-Ha'ir prison south of Riyadh, and that his interrogators had finished their investigation about his article.
A member of the eight-person committee of families of detained persons told Human Rights Watch that on March 23, they requested a meeting with the governor of the Eastern Province, Prince Mohammad al-Fahd bin Abd al-‘Aziz Al Sa'ud, to seek the release of more than 110 people detained at protests over the past weeks, including more than a dozen children.
His deputy, Prince Jilawi bin Abd al-‘Aziz al-Jilawi, met with the families, but refused to release the protesters unless community leaders "quieted down the streets," a person present at the meeting told Human Rights Watch. The government has not charged any of the detained protesters, but required the recently released protesters from Qatif to sign a pledge not to participate in future demonstrations.
"By arresting its peaceful critics and refusing any talk of political reform, Saudi rulers are fast becoming the last hold-outs in a region yearning for democratic change," HRW’s Wilcke said.
HRW notes that, “Throwing money around is the customary way for oil-rich Gulf potentates to deal with a problem. That is not a long-term solution and, even as a palliative, all the signs suggest it is becoming less and less effective. It may be enough to placate some disaffected Saudis, as in the past, but many others are saying money is not the issue: they want real change. The question is whether that message will get through to King Abdullah without mass protests on the streets.”
Ahmed Al-Mulla is a Saudi writer and poet. He said: "There are many of the same issues here as in Egypt and Tunisia. About 70 percent of the people are young and frustrated with no rights, no freedoms, no jobs when they graduate. Our women's rights situation is probably the worst in the world. After seeing others protest, people are becoming more aware, more are connecting online… The government is spending money to make people feel better, but it's not about money. The government tries to divide people, Shia or Sunni, but it's not about that. It's about the freedom to speak, it's about the right to protest, it's about human rights.”
HRW’s Wilke agrees. "By arresting its peaceful critics and refusing any talk of political reform, Saudi rulers are fast becoming the last hold-outs in a region yearning for democratic change," he said.
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