Middle East and North Africa Overview

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA 349 OVERVIEW Human Rights Developments and the lack of legal redress in cases of Positive developments in some coun- domestic violence. Despite some positive tries in the region were overshadowed by a initiatives, tens of millions of women through- continuing pattern of human rights abuses, out the region continued to be denied full political violence, and a faltering Arab-Israeli equality, a fact that was reflected in high rates peace process. At this writing clashes un- of illiteracy and maternal mortality and low precedented in their lethality had erupted rates of political participation and was justi- between Palestinian demonstrators and Is- fied in terms of religion, culture, and tradition. raeli security forces in Gaza, the West Bank, The issue of refugees, internally dis- East Jerusalem, and inside Israel itself. Seri- placed and stateless persons was prominent ous abuses including arbitrary arrest, torture, throughout the year. Palestinian activists in and unfair trials' were pervasive, as emer- the region and beyond initiated a right-of- gency rule or laws suspending constitutional return campaign that was well-grounded in protections were applied in many countries international human rights law, but the prob- and the death penalty remained in force in all lem of statelessness for Palestinian refugees except Oman, Qatar, and Tunisia. Against in host countries in the region, Syrian-born this sobering backdrop, local activists and Kurds, and Bidun in Kuwait and Bahrain was human rights organizations challenged these largely unaddressed or addressed in unsatis- policies, though they often paid a high price factory ways. The region as a whole ac- for their courage. The rulers of Saudi Arabia counted for millions of refugees—officially and Bahrain made statements and authorized acknowledged and otherwise—and internally initiatives that suggested they might be ready displaced persons who, along with similarly to take human rights issues more seriously high numbers of migrant workers, endured than in the past. The year also saw a poten- violations of basic rights at the hands of tially significant transition as Bashar al-Asad indifferent or worse government officials and took power in Syria, joining the new genera- abusive private employers. Serious anti- tion of rulers in Morocco, Jordan, and Bahrain. Moroccan immigrant violence erupted in Spain The status and rights of women were a in February. The government of Iraq contin- key issue in many countries. In Morocco the ued to force Kurds and other minorities out of issue of remedying the discriminatory provi- the Kirkuk region into the autonomous three sions of the personal status law and a “na- northern governorates. At least 200,000 Ira- tional action plan” to give women more rights qis were illegal residents in Jordan, vulnerable gave rise to large demonstrations for and to pressure from Iraqi and Jordanian intelli- against in March. Jordanian women and men gence services and to involuntary return to joined together in a campaign to eliminate Iraq. Thousands of Iraqis desperately seeking laws condoning “honor killings” of women, refugee protection have turned up in Europe, and women in Kuwait campaigned vigor- Australia, and the U.S. Many Iranians and ously for the right to vote and stand for public Iraqis fleeing to Turkey were denied protec- office. Saudi Arabia in September ratified the tion there and forcibly returned to the coun- Convention on the Elimination of Discrimi- tries they were fleeing. Iran hosted an esti- nation against Women (CEDAW). But in all mated half a million Iraqi refugees and 1.4 these countries as in others in the region, million Afghan refugees, making it, according women continued to suffer from severe forms to the United Nations High Commissioner for of institutional and societal discrimination in Refugees, the leading refugee host country in nearly every aspect of their lives, particularly the world. Egypt continued to be host to an in the form of unequal personal status laws estimated two million or more Sudanese, 350 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW although most did not have formal refugee and the practice of hostage taking. In Egypt, status. the Constitutional Court struck down the Morocco began to come to terms with restrictive associations law of May 1999 and the legacy of human rights abuses under King the Court of Cassation ruled that parliamen- Hassan II, who died in July 1999. His pow- tary elections had to be supervised by the erful and feared interior minister, Driss al- judiciary rather than representatives of the Basri, was sacked in November 1999 by the executive branch. The absence of an indepen- king’s son and successor, Mohamed VI. In dent judiciary was unfortunately more ap- October, Moroccan activists protested at the parent throughout the region. In Tunisia, the infamous Tazmamert prison, carrying candles judiciary continued at the service of the state and red roses to commemorate those who died to harass and convict human rights activists under horrific conditions at the secret facility and other peaceful dissidents. Egypt and in the 1970s and 1980s. The demonstrators Bahrian continued to try political critics and were not permitted access to the prison itself, protestors before state security courts. In which reportedly was ringed by dozens of Iran President Khatami and his allies spoke paramilitary forces. They called for the trial eloquently about the importance of rule of of those responsible for “disappearances,” law, but his conservative adversaries used deaths in custody, and arbitrary detention, revolutionary courts and special clergy courts and the return to the families of the bodies of to deliver unfair verdicts, persecute citizens those who perished. peacefully advocating political reforms, and This year saw another potentially im- close down the country’s freewheeling print portant generational transition of power when media. the reign of Syrian President Hafez al-Asad Military operations claimed civilian lives came to an end with his death in June, but the in Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Israel, the carefully orchestrated succession of his son occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the Bashar left no doubt that the apparatus of the Palestinian Authority territories. Several ruling Ba’th party was still firmly in place. hundred persons were killed each month in Nevertheless, supporters of political reform Algeria as civilians were killed in indiscrimi- broke the ice with bold public statements that nate attacks, and clashes continued between would have been unimaginable under the rule armed groups and security forces. U.S. and of the new president’s father. In Iran, expec- British air forces continued to enforce the tations that the election of a new parliament “no-fly zone” over northern Iraq from Incirlik with the majority composed of reformers base in Turkey and southern Iraq from bases would lead to substantive progress in human in Saudi Arabia, although according to press rights were thwarted when hardline conserva- reports the number of overflights and use of tives fought back by closing down some missiles and bombs was considerably lower thirty independent newspapers and maga- than in the previous year. zines, effectively destroying what had been a The Israeli occupation of the West Bank, vital element of the reformists’ power base, Gaza Strip, and south Lebanon generated and dealing a severe setback to freedom of civilian casualties and damage, as well as expression. Prominent reformists also faced regional tension, as U.S.-brokered peace ne- intimidation, detention, and prosecution gotiations faltered repeatedly. Israel bombed throughout the year. Lebanon’s electricity infrastructure twice The year also saw important reminders, during the year, targeting on February 8 the positive and negative, of the potentially con- Jamhour plant supplying Beirut as well as structive role of an independent judiciary in facilities in Baalbek and Deir Nbouh near creating an environment of legal protection of Tripoli, and the Bsalim station in Beirut and basic rights. In Israel the high court issued the Deir Ammar station in Tripoli on May 5. important rulings outlawing common interro- It appeared that the Israeli Air Force used gation techniques that amounted to torture U.S.-manufactured helicopters and U.S.-sup- MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW 351 plied AGM-114 Hellfire laser-guided mis- were being held hostage in exchange for nine- siles in the Bsalim attack, which completely teen Lebanese in Israeli jails and possibly destroyed three of the facility’s six large other Arab prisoners. A fourth Israeli was in transformers. In a previous Israeli attack on Hizballah custody as of this writing; the Bsalim on May 16, 1996, U.S.-built F16 Lebanese group alleged that he was a spy but fighter planes dropped laser-guided bombs the Israeli government said he was a business- on the plant. man and army reservist. Successive Israeli Israel’s unilateral military withdrawal governments have long maintained that two from south Lebanon in May, followed by the of the Lebanese prisoners, Shaykh ‘Abd al- rapid collapse of the Israeli-backed militia— Karim ‘Obeid and Mustafa al-Dirani, cap- the South Lebanon Army (SLA)—marked tured in Lebanon in Israeli commando opera- the abrupt end of over two decades of occu- tions in 1989 and 1994 respectively and held pation for the civilian population. Families without charge ever since, were bargaining who had fled violence, intimidation and im- chips in exchange for Ron Arad, the Israeli poverishment in the occupied zone began to navigator who went missing after his plane return as well as those whom the SLA had was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. summarily expelled from their homes. On Comprehensive international economic May 23, local residents stormed the notori- sanctions remained in place on Iraq. High oil ous Khiam prison, which since its opening in prices and a Security Council resolution in 1985 had been a joint enterprise of Israel and December 1999 that removed limits on the the SLA.

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