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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. They routed the SLA jailers without amount of oil Iraq could sell meant that the oil- violent incident and freed about 130 detain- for-food humanitarian relief program no longer ees, some of whom had been held without faced cash constraints. As a short-term emer- charge for fifteen years. Within days, the gency assistance program limited to com- facility was transformed into an informal modities, however, the oil-for-food program museum, drawing thousands of Lebanese could not provide the extensive investment who toured the cramped cells and solitary and development efforts needed to address confinement rooms, and read the names of the overall humanitarian situation, which re- torturers which were prominently posted on mained grave. The Security Council resolu- a large handwritten list near the entry gate. tion provided for the “suspension” of non- At this writing, the death toll from military sanctions in the event that Iraq coop- Palestinian clashes with Israeli police, border erated satisfactorily with a new arms inspec- police, and IDF that began on September 29 tion regime, but Iraq insisted that it had fully had risen to some 120, almost all of them complied with earlier resolutions and that Palestinians. More than 4,800 were injured. sanctions should therefore be lifted without Human Rights Watch’s investigations in Is- qualification or delay. rael, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip in early In the region and around the world, October revealed a pattern of excessive, and advocacy and demonstrations increased on often indiscriminate, use of lethal force by behalf of Palestinian refugees and their right Israeli security forces in situations where of return under international law. On October demonstrators were unarmed and posed no 7, Israeli troops opened fire at a crowd of 500 threat of death or serious injury to the secu- demonstrators in Ramieh on the Lebanese rity forces or to others. By mid-October the side of the Israel-Lebanon border. The pro- IDF had expanded its use of tanks and heli- testers, carrying Palestinian flags and de- copter gunships armed with both missiles and manding the right to return, reportedly threw medium-caliber machine guns in Palestinian stones at a nearby Israeli outpost. Two Pal- residential areas in the West Bank and Gaza estinians, residents of Lebanon’s Shatila and Strip. On October 7, Hizballah guerrillas Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camps, were killed captured three Israeli soldiers on the south and twenty-three wounded, two critically, Lebanon-Israel border, announcing that they according to press reports. Some 25,000 352 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW

people participated in funeral processions lar al-Jazeera satellite television station. for the victims the next day in Beirut. On Moroccan Prime Minister Abdel Rahman al- October 24, security forces dispersed forc- Youssoufi charged that the station “led a ibly thousands of Jordanians who marched campaign against Morocco, against its demo- from Amman to the Allenby Bridge connect- cratic evolution, its institutions and image.” ing Jordan and the West Bank to press for the Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin right of return. The BBC reported that the Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, said that “today’s demonstrators “were beaten into retreat by world does not fear the press” and press Jordanian police with baton, water cannon freedom “should not be a reason for tension and tear gas, as helicopters hovered over- in relations between states.” head.” Among the protestors were Jordanian The trials of Capt. Mustafa Adib, in- parliamentarians and members of profes- cluding a prison hunger strike, attracted con- sional associations. siderable attention in Morocco. Adib, 32 The rights to freedom of expression and years old, had written in 1998 to then-Crown association were trampled across the region. Prince Mohamed, in his capacity as head of There were no independent and critical local the armed forces, to inform him of corruption media in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, and Syria. and racketeering among the high command at In Tunisia and Egypt, the state-run broadcast the airbase where he served in the southeast- and major print media were not open to ern province of Errachidia. An initial inquiry independent or critical perspectives. Journal- led to the dismissal of those involved and ists were harassed, arrested, or imprisoned in cleared Adib of any wrongdoing, but he sub- Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen, and sequently faced arbitrary transfers and retal- areas under the control of the Palestinian iatory disciplinary measures. After failing to Authority (P.A.), and the independent weekly get relief inside the army, he filed a complaint La Nation remained suspended in Algeria. in a civil court about his treatment, also to no P.A. authorities ordered the closure of five avail. He was arrested on December 17, 1999, radio and television stations between May 5 the day after he was quoted about the situa- and June 2, and arrested Samir Qumsiah, chair tion in the French daily Le Monde. A trial in of the Council of Private Radio and Television February led to his conviction and a five-year Stations, after he called for a thirty-minute prison term on charges of “violating military broadcasting halt to protest the closures. discipline” and “insulting the royal armed In Morocco, despite positive develop- forces,” despite objections by his lawyers ments in other areas, foreign and local journal- that they were not allowed to call witnesses ists faced harassment and threats during the and that one of the judges had been among his year, and newspapers were banned or seized commanders at the air base at the time of his because of critical commentary about the original complaint. After Adib went on hun- current and former king, and interviews with ger strike in May the Supreme Court finally Islamist and Polisario (Popular Front for the acted on his appeal, overturning the February Liberation of saguia el Hamra and rio de sentence and returning the case to the Rabat Oro) leaders. Three journalists from France military court. In what Adib’s defense lawyer 3 were placed under house arrest for three called “a parody of justice,” the court on days in October, the Paris-based press free- October 6 sentenced him to two-and-one-half dom organization Reporters without Borders years of imprisonment after again finding him said, after they had filmed the October 7 guilty of the same charges. In late September, protest march to Tazmamert prison, and Transparency International, the global authorities confiscated their material before anti-corruption organization, named Captain they left Morocco. The Moroccan Adib as one of four winners of the group’s government’s relations with Qatar soured in Integrity Awards at its annual general meet- July in part because of the content of pro- ing. gramming by the emirate’s regionally popu- Intellectuals, including prominent nov- MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW 353 elists, poets, and songwriters in Egypt, Ku- collection of poetry and a description of the wait, Lebanon and Yemen were prosecuted “lustful” coming together of sea waves in al- for the content of their work, sometimes ‘Othman’s novel. based on complaints from self-appointed Palestinians who publicly criticized P.A. private guardians of the Muslim faith. In policies were arbitrarily arrested and December 1999, Lebanese musician Marcel detentained. Security forces arrested eight Khalifa was tried in a Beirut court for singing prominent personalities who signed a No- a song viewed as blasphemous of religious vember 27, 1999, petition criticizing P.A. values because its text included a short verse “tyranny and corruption.” Six were released from the Koran. The song was adapted from on JD50,000 (U.S. $70,000) bail on Decem- a poem written by Palestinian poet Mahmoud ber 19, but Ahmad Dudin and `Abd al-Sattar Darwish. In his testimony, Khalifa, who Qassem were held until January 6, 2000. faced a maximum sentence of three years in Qassem was re-arrested on February 18 and prison, said “Could you imagine that Leba- detained until July 28, despite a July 11 high non would bring its artists to court? When a court order for his release. country brings its artists to court, it brings The tightening of restrictions on free- itself before the court.” The court acquitted dom of opinion and expression extended to Khalifa of the charges on December 15, 1999. scholars and universities. The Tunisian gov- In Yemen, conservative clerics and po- ernment in January summarily dismissed and litical groups targeted Samir al-Yusufi, editor later expelled Jean-Francois Poirier, a French of the weekly al-Thaqafiya, for serializing philosophy teacher at the Institute for Social Sana’a is an Open City, a novel by Mohammed Sciences, in retaliation for his association Abdulwali. He was charged in a criminal court with Tunisian human rights activists, and in in July with “insulting Islam,” and the case late July dismissed Moncef Marzouki from was pending as of mid-October. Egyptian his post as professor of community medicine author Salahuddin Muhsin was arrested in at the University of Sousse after he spoke out March because prosecutors found two of his publicly in Paris and Washington about the books, A Night Talk with Heaven and Trem- government’s human rights record. In late bling of Enlightenment, offensive to Islam. He June, Egyptian authorities arrested Saadeddin was tried in a state security court and received Ibrahim, professor of sociology at the Ameri- a six-month suspended sentence in July. can University in Cairo, in connection with Earlier in April, violent clashes reupted be- his efforts to mobilize students and others to tween protesters and security forces in Cairo monitor the country’s parliamentary elec- after an Islamist newspaper charged that A tions in October and November. The govern- Banquet of Seaweed by Syrian author Haidar ment held him without charge for forty-five Haidar was blasphemous. A panel of literary days and subsequently filed charges against experts appointed by the Ministry of Culture him before the Supreme State Security Court held that the novel was not blasphemous but for allegedly receiving foreign funding with- authorities said that it would be withdrawn out permission and disseminating informa- from circulation. tion harmful to Egypt’s reputation. A Kuwaiti appeals court in March Palestinian academic Jawad al-Dalou of banned a novel and a collection of poetry by the Islamic University in Gaza was sus- prize-winning novelist and short-story writer pended in November 1999, along with two Laila al-‘Othman and Kuwait University students, for writing in a student newspaper philosophy professor Dr. ‘Aliya Shu‘ayb that many beggars in Gaza came from a and fined them both. While the court did not particular district. Yemeni authorities closed specify which references in the works consti- a women’s studies center at Sana’a Univer- tuted illegal expressions, during pre-trial ques- sity in December 1999 in the wake of conser- tioning prosecutors focused on a description vative objection to a conference the center had of an apple in feminine terms in Dr. Shu‘ayb’s sponsored. The pervasive presence of Yemeni 354 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW

security personnel on campus led some fac- strators received sentences ranging from ten ulty to request parliamentary legislation bar- days to six weeks in prison. In the wake of ring them from such a role, and Iran’s parlia- these two incidents, some one thousand stu- ment was reportedly considering similar leg- dents peacefully rallied on three university islation. On August 5, Iranian authorities campuses on April 19 to cries of “The Israeli arrested Hojatoleslam Hassan Youssefi army out, the Syrian army out,” and “Leba- Eshkevari, a leading independent religious non first.” Although the campuses were sur- scholar, after his return from Berlin where he rounded by security forces and army troops, had presented a paper on “Dictatorship and there were no arrests and the rallies did not its History.” He was held in solitary confine- spill out onto the streets. ment for two months and put on trial in Following serious clashes on October 6 October before a Special Court for the Clergy between police and demonstrators protesting on charges of apostasy and “being corrupt on Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian earth,” which carry the death penalty. As of territories, the Jordanian government an- this writing no verdict or sentence had been nounced a complete ban on public demonstra- announced. tions and detained hundreds of people. Clashes Peaceful freedom of assembly, virtually developed after Friday prayers, with the non-existent in several counries including worst incidents taking place in Palestinian Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia was still a sought- refugee camps. Police responded to crowds after right throughout much of the region. calling for an end to Jordan’s peace treaty Tunisian authorities closed down a publish- with Israel with baton charges, tear gas, and ing house after it had hosted a meeting on live ammunition. At least one demonstrator at freedom of the press in that country. Pales- the Baqa’a refugee camp near Amman was tinian Police Chief Ghazi al-Jabali in Febru- killed and scores were injured. Demonstra- ary issued new regulations prohibiting pro- tors and their supporters claimed that the cessions, demonstrations, or public meetings police had used excessive force in quelling the without prior approval from the district po- protests. lice commander. Offenders faced up to two Shaikh Hamad Bin Issa Al Khalifa, months of imprisonment or a maximum JD50 Bahrain’s ruler, announced on October 2 that (U.S. $70) fine. The high court suspended he envisaged “a new organizational and con- their implementation on April 29, but as of stitutional concept of our state,” but it was September had not acted to revoke these or not clear if he intended to institute such other regulations limiting freedom of assemby. changes through mechanisms specified in the The Lebanese government in April sup- constitution of 1973, whose provisions for a pressed peaceful, student-led protests against partially elected parliament were suspended the Syrian role in Lebanon and prosecuted by decree in 1975. The government continued demonstrators in the military court. At an to hold without trial five opposition activists April 17 demonstration, dozens assembled at arrested in January 1996 in connection with the Ministry of Justice in Beirut to protest their campaign to reinstate the 1973 constitu- the arrest of two students on April 13 for tion. One of the five, Abd al-Wahab Hussain, distributing leaflets calling for Syria’s with- was released on March 17 following an order drawal of milittary forces. On April 18, by the High Court of Appeal but was rear- demonstrators gathered near the National rested after spending about an hour at home. Museum and some put tape over their mouths Others who had been released in 1999, includ- to underscore the government’s attempts to ing Shaikh Abd al-Amir al-Jamri and Shaikh silence them. When this crowd refused to Ali Ashoor, had been compelled as a condi- disperse on the order of a Lebanese army tion of their release to refrain from speaking officer, security forces forcibly dispersed the out or engaging in political activities. On April demonstrators, and in an ensuing clash, sev- 3, Peter Hain, the British foreign minister eral were reportedly injured. Eight demon- responsible for the Middle East, responding MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW 355 to a query from a member of parliament, said nation and violence against women, women’s that Abd al-Wahab Hussain was being held in rights became a chip in political negotiations “a flat on Ministry of Interior property” and between conservative and liberal forces in that “the decision to renew the detention society, and inaction on the part of the gov- order was again made on public security ernments unfortunately prevailed. Countries grounds.” that have signed or ratified the Convention on In Bahrain, individuals as well as asso- the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimina- ciations and organizations with views critical tion against Women (CEDAW)—Iraq, Israel, of government policy continued to face se- Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, vere restrictions. According to the London- Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen, and Saudi based Bahrain Freedom Movement (BFM), Arabia—maintained national laws that con- for example, in late December 1999 the au- tradicted the spirit and letter of CEDAW. thorities intervened to prevent a planned Workers rights were limited or nonexist- meeting at the prestigious Uruba Club on the ent, particularly in Gulf states that employed subject of human rights. On August 8 security large numbers of foreign workers. According officials intervened to force the cancellation to the annual report of the International of a long-scheduled public speech that evening Labour Organization released in May, Oman, at the Al-Ahli Club by Hassan Radhi, a Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates leading defense lawyer, on the subject of were among the few countries anywhere that constitutional rights. The BFM also reported prohibited outright any type of labor organi- that on July 4 speakers at the Al-Ahli club zation, while Bahrain and Qatar allowed only publicly criticized the ruling family’s refusal committees or councils “whose freedom of to revive the partially elected National As- action is tightly constrained and which there- sembly. fore do not have attributes of independent Bahrain’s government maintained its workers’ organizations.” policy of providing no information concern- Governments in the Gulf continued to ing the numbers or identities of persons use legislation to promote employment of arrested, tried, convicted, acquitted, or re- their own nationals and to discourage the use leased under the State Security Law or brought of foreign workers. In Kuwait, over one before the State Security Court, where proce- million foreign workers enjoyed little legal dures do not meet basic fair trial standards and protection against abusive practices of em- verdicts were not subject to appeal. The ployers, and women domestic workers were government announced the release of several excluded from the labor law, increasing their hundred prisoners during the year, but the vulnerability to physical and sexual abuse. In opposition BFM charged that there were March, the Indian government stopped issu- numerous new arrests and state security ing immigration clearances for domestic work- court trials. ers in Kuwait due to reported abuses. Women in the Middle East and North In Saudi Arabia, 69 percent of the Africa continued to suffer from severe forms workforce of 7.2 million was composed of of discrimination in nearly every aspect of foreigners, many of them Asian. Nongovern- their lives and women’s rights continued to be mental organizations in Indonesia pressed the one of the most contested areas for reform. government of President Abdurrahman Wahid Institutionalized discrimination in personal for a three-month hiatus in sending women status laws and the lack of legal redress for workers to Saudi Arabia. In August, twenty- violence against women characterized the two groups demonstrated at the Manpower majority of women’s human rights abuses. Ministry in Jakarta, demanding that the gov- The year 2000 was declared by the Arab ernment educate women about their rights Parliamentarian Union as the year of the Arab prior to leaving the country, and reach an woman. Instead of governments adopting agreement with Saudi authorities that would reform policies that would address discrimi- ensure the workers’protection against abuse 356 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW

and the availability of legal remedies. On June Bangladeshi man and woman guilty of adul- 19, an Indonesian domestic worker, Warni tery and sentenced them to three months in Samiran Audi, was beheaded in al-Ahsa in jail and 150 lashes each. UAE Labor and Social eastern Saudi Arabia. The Saudi interior min- Affairs Minister Humaid al-Tayer said the istry said she had been convicted of killing the same month that employment visas would be wife of her employer. Indonesia’s Manpower issued “only to those who possess at least Ministry director general for labour, Din secondary education.” The new measure was Syamsuddin, said the next day that the Indo- expected to affect adversely mainly South nesian embassy had not been officially in- Asians, who comprised the largest number of formed of the execution, although the govern- unskilled wokers in the emirates. ment had been seeking the woman’s release or In Bahrain this year labor activists made a reduced sentence for three years. an effort to win the right to establish an In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), independent trade union body. The Interna- foreigners comprised about 70 percent of the tional Center for Trade Union Rights, an population of 2.76 million and 90 percent of independent London-based nongovernmen- the labor force. Workers did not have the right tal organization, reported in August that the to organize trade unions, to strike, or to executive committee of the General Commit- bargain collectively, and faced deportation if tee of Bahraini Workers (GCBW), set up by they carried out such activities. Domestic and the government in 1981 as an alternative to agricultural workers were excluded from pro- independent trade unions, requested govern- tection under the labor law, and reports con- ment permission to reconstitute itself as an tinued of the physical abuse of women do- independent union in accordance with ILO mestics and withholding of their wages. Mi- and Arab Labor Organization principles. grant workers also faced corporal and capital Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, prime punishment following unfair trials. An Indo- minister and uncle of the amir, reportedly nesian domestic worker, Kartini binti Karim, summoned the executive committee to a meet- was handed over to the police in 1999 when ing where he rejected the request and said that her employer discovered that she was preg- there would be grave consequences if they nant and her husband was not in the country. persisted with such demands. The minister of The Fujairah Sharia court in February con- labor and social affairs subsequently instructed victed her of adultery and sentenced her to the committee to postpone GCBW general death by stoning, while it acquitted in their assembly elections scheduled for November absence the Indian national who was the 2000 to choose a new executive committee. woman’s accused partner. Commenting on Foreign workers were violently attacked the trial, Sulaiman Abdulmanan of the Indo- in Libya, where hundreds of thousands of nesian Foreign Ministry said that Kartini Africans reportedly migrated over the past “did not understand Arabic, and it seems she several years in search of work. On Septem- was just trembling and saying yes to every- ber 21-22, there were clashes between Afri- thing.” Though she did not refute the adultery can immigrants and Libyans in az-Zawiyah, charges during the trial, she later testified that a town near Tripoli, in which approximately her pregnancy was the result of a rape. Kartini fifty Chadian and Sudanese migrants were was never informed of her right to communi- killed, according to the daily al-Hayat (Lon- cate with the Indonesian embassy or her right don). Dozens of others reportedly were in- to a translator, and the embassy was not jured, according to the Libyan media and notified in advance of her trial. The harsh and Sudan’s foreign ministry. The Reuters news inhumane sentence attracted international agency reported from Lagos on October 5 that attention, and on April 25 the appeals court some three thousand Nigerians returned home reduced the sentence to one year in prison and from Libya on Nigerian-government-orga- deportation. In September, the Sharia court nized flights and that state television featured in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah found a the migrants “describing killings and beatings MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW 357 as ordinary Libyans had set upon alleged interior as well as the chairman of the Shura illegal immigrants.” Council’s human rights committee and the Governments in the region continued president of the University of Bahrain. gradually to embrace some of the language of On a less positive note, however, the human rights discourse and to establish what government deferred once again a visit by the they said would be rights-monitoring bodies. United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary There were welcome developments in the Detention that was initially planned for 1999 Algerian government’s decision to permit and most recently scheduled for October four international human rights organizations 2000; the visit was rescheduled for February to visit the country; the invitation that Saudi 2001. On October 28, according to the Bahraini authorities extended to the U.N. special rap- daily Al-Akhbar al-Khalij, the minister of porteur on judicial independence; and the labour and social affairs denied the August 8 launching in Rabat of a human rights center co- written request of eighteen Bahraini citizens funded by Morocco’s ministry of human for permission to set up an independent rights and the U.N. to provide training for human rights committee. judges, police officers, prison administrators, There were conflicting signals from the and teachers. government of Saudi Arabia in response to the Information about human rights devel- launching of Amnesty International’s world- opments in Bahrain remained difficult to wide campaign—“End Secrecy, End Suffer- access but there were several indications from ing”—that focused on the kingdom’s human high government officials that they were rights practices. The Ministry of Foreign taking human rights issues more seriously. In Affairs stated in March that the government October 1999 the amir announced the forma- had a “keen interest and commitment to the tion of a human rights committee comprising cause of human rights.” Interior minister six members of the Shura Council, an ap- Prince Nayef in April dismissed as “merely pointed advisory body with no legislative or nonsense” the allegations of human rights other authority. According to Bahrain Brief, abuses in the kingdom, and added: “We wel- a London-based pro-government newsletter, come anyone to see for himself the facts in the the committee’s duties were to “scrutinize kingdom as it has nothing to conceal.” But legislation,” investigate reports of abuses, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal ap- and “raise awareness within society that the peared to rule out access to the kingdom for government considers the protection of hu- Amnesty representatives. He told the leading man rights a priority.” Bahrain Brief also Spanish daily El Pais in April: “If Amnesty reported that in February the committee was International was seeking the truth and if it asked to examine the treatment of foreign informed itself honesty of the truth, we workers. As of October, no further informa- would consider” a visit. He continued: “But tion was available regarding the committee’s so long as it continues to use erroneous activities or the results of any investigations information as its basis without taking into it may have carried out. On August 2 the amir account our responses,” the visit would have told Cable News Network (CNN) that he was “no sense.” ready to allow international human rights In October, Jordan signed a memoran- groups free access to the country. “I am ready dum of understanding with the International to carry them on my private aircraft and they Labor Organization that was designed to can meet any group,” he said. A two-person address the problem of child labor in the delegation from the office of United Nations kingdom through actions of state ministries High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary and NGOs. The ministry of labor said that the Robinson visited Bahrain in late October to memorandum represented the initial step for discuss technical assistance and human rights Jordan’s participation in the ILO’s Interna- teaching. The delegation reportedly met with tional Program on the Elimination of Child the ministers of education, justice, and the Labor. Jordan was the first West Asian coun- 358 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW

try to ratify ILO Convention 182 Concerning all unlicensed human rights and humanitarian the Prohibition and Immediate Action for organizations remained in force and local Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child advocates were forced to meet informally or Labor, which calls for immediate measures to under the auspices of organizations that en- eliminate child slavery, debt bondage, child joyed legal status. In Yemen, local groups prostitution, trafficking, and other forms of were allowed to function although some were hazardous and exploitative child labor. threatened with closure. There were also positive developments Activists were particularly at risk when with respect to international justice. On Sep- they undertook efforts to expose corruption tember 8, Morocco and Kuwait signed the and gross human rights abuses. In Iran, the Rome Treaty for the establishment of an independent press that had been playing an International Criminal Court, joining Jordan, increasing role in exposing human rights vio- which signed in October 1998. lations and promoting human rights prin- ciples was dealt a crippling blow with the Defending Human Rights enforced closure by hardline religious and The region’s vibrant and growing com- political conservatives of thirty newspapers munity of human rights activists persevered, and the imprisonment and prosecution of despite widely differing local environments. leading journalists and writers. Palestinian At this writing, three Syrians remained in Authority security forces in December 1999 prison, serving long sentences that the state detained eight signatories of a November 27, security court imposed in 1992 following an 1999, petition criticizing P.A. “tyranny and unfair trial. In Bahrain, government-controlled corruption” for periods between three weeks Iraq, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and and seven months. the United Arab Emirates severe internal In Algeria, security forces in May de- restrictions meant that it was impossible for tained Mohamed Smain, head of the Relizane human rights activists to speak and meet office of the Algerian League for the Defense openly. Elsewhere, defenders variously faced of Human Rights (LADDH), after he at- surveillance, official harassment, arrest and tempted to document evidence at a grave site detention, threats of criminal prosecution, connected with the case of two former may- and the inability to register human rights ors implicated in mass killings in the area. groups under the law. In an increasingly Egypt’s large and sophisticated human rights worrying trend, the issue of foreign funding community was under attack throughout the was used in Egypt and Jordan, and by the year. The controversial 1999 Law on Civil Palestinian Authority, to disparage the inten- Associations and Institutions overturned on tions of committed individuals and indepen- procedural grounds by the Supreme Consti- dent, locally based organizations. For ex- tutional Court had been strongly criticized by ample, in September the Jordanian Press local human rights activists since it allowed Association suspended Nidal Mansour, chief the government undue interference in the editor of al-Hadath weekly, for receiving internal affairs of NGOs and criminalized any foreign funding for a local branch of a press activity that authorities deemed political. freedom organization, the Center for Defend- The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights ing Freedom of Journalists. (EOHR) was informed in late July that its In Tunisia, government efforts to mo- application for official registration under the nopolize human rights discourse and smother previous law had been granted. However, independent activists were challenged re- several days later the EOHR was notified that peatedly by human rights defenders on the a final decision had been deferred upon the ground, who faced job dismissals, judicial request of security officials. Due to criticism proceedings, intensive surveillance, and some- by the government and in some of the media times physical assault at the hands of police. of NGO reliance on foreign funding, several The Kuwaiti cabinet’s 1993 order dissolving rights groups were facing the possibility of MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW 359 cutting back on their activities since they were protection and the role of the movement in largely dependent on this form of financial facilitating democratic and constitutional re- support. forms. Women’s rights defenders in the region Also in October the Cairo Institute for continued to address legal discrimination and Human Rights Studies organized the Second violence against women. In Morocco, Egypt, International Conference of the Arab Human Jordan, and Kuwait, they were castigated by Rights Movement around the theme of hu- parliamentarians, conservative parties, and man rights education and dissemination. Over the media, who alleged that their actions were one hundred Arab and international experts destroying the family, the unity of the nation, and activists from human rights groups and imposing “immoral” values on society, and governments—including artists, writers, me- that they were agents of the West. The dia experts—examined the political and cul- Permanent Arab Court to Resist Violence tural obstacles to the dissemination of human Against Women, established in December rights in the region and sought to identify 1999 in thirteen Arab countries, launched the ways and to develop strategies for overcom- Feminine Rights Campaign, which called for ing them. The conference adopted the Cairo equality between men and women especially Declaration on Human Rights Education and with respect to divorce. The one-year Dissemination setting out principles and stan- campaign’s main objective was to achieve dards for human rights education in the region equality in the right of divorce and its conse- and establishing an agenda for the 21st cen- quences; unify laws and juridical procedures; tury. It called on Arab governments to draw ensure equal rights as to the custody of up national plans for human rights education children, marital property and all other mari- and to urgently revise existing educational tal rights; and establish government funding curricula to ensure their consistency with to guarantee the payment of alimony. human rights values. Human rights defenders also continued initiatives to promote joint work in the region. The Work of Human Rights Watch In October 2000 a follow-up conference to Staff and other representatives of Hu- the April 1999 First International Conference man Rights Watch’s Middle East and North of the Arab Human Rights Movement was Africa division travelled during the year to organized by the Arab Working Group for Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the occupied Human Rights in coordination with five hu- Palestinian territories, Jordan, Kuwait, Leba- man rights organizations. The meeting, held in non, Morocco, and Yemen. The missions Rabat, Morocco, and attended by over 60 were multifocused, involving research, coor- participants and observers from 43 local and dination and cooperative work with local international human rights organizations fo- human rights activists and lawyers, and dia- cused its discussions on some of the recom- logue with government officials wherever mendations from the earlier conference. The possible. Thematically, the major concerns conference called for improved coordination of Human Rights Watch included violations among Arab human rights groups and activ- of freedom of expression and association, ists and more effective use of international women’s rights, the absence of due process in human rights protection mechanisms. It rec- legal proceedings in civilian and military courts, ommended the setting up of a coordinating and minority rights and statelessness. In and representational office in Geneva, Swit- Algeria and Lebanon, the focus included ac- zerland to assist in this purpose. It called for countability for past human rights abuses, an end to restrictions on funding sources for including “disappearances” and extrajudicial human rights work and recommended estab- executions at the hands of state agents and lishing a fund for human rights defenders. armed militia groups. Human Rights Watch Discussions also covered ways of improving covered from the field the Israeli military the tools available for regional human rights withdrawal from occupied south Lebanon 360 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW

and closely monitored and publicized subse- radically restructured to remove restrictions quent developments, including the kidnap- on non-military trade and investment while ping of Lebanese civilians by Hizballah op- tightening controls on Iraq’s ability to import eratives. In Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza weapons-related goods. The letter was ac- Strip Human Rights Watch investigated ex- companied by a memorandum addressing the cessive and indiscriminate use of force by impact of the sanctions on the humanitarian Israeli security services in clashes with Pales- situation in Iraq. Human Rights Watch also tinian civilians, failures to protect civilians by called on the Security Council to set up an Palestinian security forces, and attacks on international tribunal to try top Iraqi leaders civilians by civilians. for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch’s requests for The letter acknowledged the high degree of access to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Syria, responsibility of the Iraqi government for the some of them longstanding, were all pending unfolding humanitarian emergency, but in- with their respective governments at this sisted that the United States and other pow- writing. ers also face up to their share of the respon- Human Rights Watch representatives sibility and take action to improve condi- presented concerns to governments in the tions. region, and met with senior government offi- Together with five other international cials in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel and Ku- organizations and religious groups, Human wait, as well as with officials in the Palestinian Rights Watch in March and August again Authority. In Egypt and Israel, Human urged the Security Council to address the Rights Watch brought its concerns about grave humanitarian consequences of the sanc- detention, torture, and prison conditions to tions, and in September Human Rights Watch the ministries of justice. In Iran, a Human wrote to both the Security Council and the Rights Watch researcher met with the judge government of Iraq setting out urgent steps presiding over the trial of thirteen Iranian necessary to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. Jews in Shiraz to discuss due process and fair Human Rights Watch did not forget that trial issues: It was the first time since 1979 other war crimes or crimes against humanity that a revolutionary court judge had accepted had been committed in the region and that to to meet with a representative of an interna- date no one has been held accountable in tional human rights organization. In Kuwait, courts of law with local or international juris- Human Rights Watch met with Ministry of diction. It was eighteen years ago, in Septem- Interior officials to discuss that ministry’s ber 1982, that at least 700 to 800 Palestinians, discriminatory treatment of the Bidun, and possibly as many as several thousand, Kuwait’s stateless long-term residents, and were slaughtered in the Sabra and Shatila met with parliamentarians to express con- refugee camps in Beirut by the Israeli-armed cerns about proposed legislation which dis- and -allied Lebanese Phalange (Kata’eb) mi- criminated against women and Bidun, and litia while nearby Israel Defense Forces (IDF) restricted freedom of expression. Human personnel looked on and did nothing to stop Rights Watch observed the military court the sixty-two-hour indiscriminate carnage. In trials in Lebanon of former South Lebanon December 1999, we wrote to Israeli Prime Army soldiers and officers as well as civilians Minister Ehud Barak to condemn the ap- who were charged with criminal offenses pointment of Maj. Gen. (Reserves) Amos under Lebanese law for contact with Israel, Yaron as director-general of Israel’s Ministry and collected information from Lebanese fami- of Defense and urge his immediate dismissal lies whose relatives were known or believed from public service. While serving as an IDF to be “disappeared” in Israel or Syria. division commander during Israel’s invasion In January 2000 Human Rights Watch of Lebanon in 1982, his actions and omissions wrote to the U.N. Security Council urging facilitated the massacre in the camps. By all that the sanctions in force against Iraq be accounts, the perpetrators of this indiscrimi- MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW 361 nate slaughter were members of the Phalange Communiste des Ouvriers Tunisiens, PCOT). (or Kata’eb, in Arabic) militia, a Lebanese The trial dramatized many aspects of force that was armed by and closely allied to Tunisia’s human rights situation. In addition Israel since the outbreak of Lebanon’s civil to government measures to harass and impede war in 1975, but the killings were carried out the work of human rights defenders like in an area under IDF control. An IDF forward Nasraoui, the case illustrated the use of re- command post, commanded by Amos Yaron, pressive laws to imprison Tunisians who was situated on the roof of a multi-story engage in peaceful political activity deemed building located some 200 meters southwest critical of the country’s present government. of the Shatila camp. It also demonstrated the commonplace nature Human Rights Watch noted in the letter of torture during interrogations in Tunisia and that the Sabra and Shatila massacre was a the judicial system’s disregard of this abuse grave violation of international humanitarian and its failure to provide defendants with law and a crime against humanity, and urged basic guarantees of a fair trial. that General Yaron—as well as the other In advance of the Israeli withdrawal Israelis and Lebanese with direct or indirect from occupied south Lebanon, Human Rights responsibility for the killings—should face Watch disseminated a briefing paper that criminal investigation and prosecution. Hu- identified the human rights issues that were man Rights Watch also sent a letter to Leba- largely being neglected by the international nese president Emile Lahoud that raised the media, and briefed Israeli and international same point and inquired about legal or admin- journalists in Jerusalem. istrative measures that the government of In its 38-page report, “Promises Be- Lebanon initiated or was contemplating with trayed: Denial of Rights of Bidun, Women, respect to investigation and prosecution of and Freedom of Expression,” released in Lebanese citizens who are known or sus- October, Human Rights Watch detailed Ku- pected to have had direct responsibility for waiti laws and practices that systematically the killings in Sabra and Shatilla. Human discriminate against women and stateless Rights Watch did not receive replies from Bidun, and that criminalize free expression by either government. journalists, academics, and writers. Human In the lead up to the February parliamen- Rights Watch called on Kuwait to amend its tary elections in Iran, Human Rights Watch Penal Code and Printing and Publications issued a short briefing on current human rights Law to protect freedom of expression and to conditions. Noting that the atmosphere sur- revoke laws that discriminate against women rounding the election campaign was notably and long-term non-citizens of Kuwait. freer than at the time of the last elections in Also in October Human Rights Watch March 1996, Human Rights Watch pointed published the results of a week-long to a number of human rights issues as still fact-finding investigation into the unlawful impeding a free and fair election in the Islamic use of force against civilians by security and Republic, and said little had changed in the police forces in Israel, the West Bank, and the legal framework relating to the enjoyment of Gaza Strip. The organization condemned a rights in Iran. pattern of repeated Israeli use of excessive In March, Human Rights Watch pub- lethal force during clashes between its secu- lished the findings of international observers rity forces and Palestinian demonstrators in who attended the trial of Tunisia’s outspo- situations where demonstrators were un- ken human rights lawyer, Radhia Nasraoui, armed and posed no threat of death or serious and twenty co-defendants, most of them injury to the security forces or to others. In students, on charges related to membership in cases that Human Rights Watch investigated or activities on behalf of an unauthorized where gunfire by Palestinian security forces left-wing political association, the Tunisian or armed protesters was a factor, use of lethal Communist Workers Party (Parti force by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was 362 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW

indiscriminate and not directed at the source timidation or professional sanctions because of the threat. Human Rights Watch also of their human rights activities. In Iran, Jor- documented a pattern of IDF disregard for dan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Yemen Human and targeting of Palestinian medical personnel Rights Watch wrote to the governments to and ambulances evacuating or treating injured protest arrests or harassment of journalists, civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip In writers, artists and academic, and to urge that the report, Human Rights Watch also criti- the fundamental right to freedom of expres- cized the failure of the Palestinian police to act sion be respected. consistently to prevent armed Palestinians The division also devoted time and re- from shooting at Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) sources to advocacy efforts within the United from positions where civilians were present Nations. For example, in July Human Rights and thus endangered by the Israeli response. Watch attended the U.N. Human Rights In a six-page briefing published in Octo- Committee’s review of Kuwait’s implemen- ber as the first round of People’s Assembly tation of the International Covenant on Civil elections were getting underway in Egypt, and Political Rights, where we briefed com- Human Rights Watch noted several factors mittee members on the results of our investi- not conducive to a free and fair election. These gation into violations of women’s rights, included restrictions on freedom of associa- rights of Bidun residents, and freedom of tion and assembly, including the ability to expression. In October, we called for the form political parties and to hold public rallies creation of an independent panel of experts to as part of an electoral campaign; arrests and investigate human rights violations commit- prosecution before military and state secu- ted during clashes between Israelis and Pales- rity courts of political opponents, in particu- tinians that began on September 29, and urged lar members of the Muslim Brotherhood; the creation of a standing body of indepen- restrictions on freedom of expression, includ- dent international criminal justice investiga- ing banning of books and newspapers and the tors to be available for deployment by the use of criminal charges against journalists; and U.N. at short notice whenever the need arises harassment of human rights activists and for independent, impartial investigations of a others preparing to monitor the elections. criminal justice nature. Throughout the year Human Rights In our continuing efforts to maximize Watch sought to defend those who were communication with activists and others persecuted for their human rights work and to throughout the region, we translated public protect and enlarge the political space in statements and press releases into Arabic and which independent institutions of civil soci- made these widely available. The Arabic ety could express diverse—and dissenting— section of Human Rights Watch’s web-site views. In the case of Tunisia, Human Rights continued to grow and provided access to key Watch spoke out repeatedly in opposition to documents produced by the organization in the government’s systematic efforts to in- its global coverage of human rights violations. timidate that country’s human rights activ- Traffic to this section tripled during the year, ists and to silence its most outspoken writers. up from about 650 page-views per day during In Egypt, Human Rights Watch intervened to 1999 to about 2,000 pages per day in Septem- criticize a restrictive NGO law and to con- ber 2000. During September close to 250 demn threatened prosecution of activists under users each day visited this section of the web- military orders. Following the Palestinian Bar site. Association’s decision to remove the names of Palestinian lawyers associated with human The Role of the International rights groups from its list of practicing law- Community yers, Human Rights Watch intervened to urge the Palestinian Authority to ensure that hu- European Union man rights lawyers did not face threats, in- Human rights abuses in the Middle East MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW 363 did not occasion much in the way of public Palestinian Authority remained to be ratified diplomacy by the European Union or mem- by some E.U. member states before coming ber states, despite visits to European capitals into force. by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, External relations commissioner Patten, Iranian President Mohamed Khatami, King speaking in Cairo in early April on the E.U.’s Mohamed VI of Morocco, and Shaikh Hamad Mediterranean policy pointed to human rights bin Issa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, and visits to the along with drugs, terrorism, immigration, and region by Chris Patten, the European Union’s conflict prevention as areas where “we need commissioner for external affairs, Javier some practical results.” “Our handling of Solana, the E.U.’s high representative, and these crucial topics needs to be sufficiently the foreign ministers of France, the United flexible to allow the partners who wish to Kingdom, and other European countries. The advance ahead of others to do so without E.U. at the U.N. General Assembly in Octo- prejudicing the right of all Barcelona partners ber sponsored resolutions on the human rights to participate in the discussions,” he said. situation in Iraq and Iran. The E.U. speech on In his Cairo speech Patten observed that October 26 on “the human rights situation in Europe “now” accounted for 47 percent of the world” mentioned Syria as a country total “Mediterranean imports,” amounting to “where the expression of opposition or dis- 30 billion euros (U.S. $25.1 billion). E.U. sidence is systematically repressed” and ex- countries took 52 percent of all “Mediterra- pressed concern about the human rights situ- nean exports,” he said, worth 63 billion euros. ation in Saudi Arabia, “in particular by re- (U.S. $52.7 billion). Europe, he said, “is by far strictions on fundamental freedoms.” The the largest donor of non-military aid in the speech welcomed Algeria’s invitation to sev- region, “ amounting to 9 billion euros (U.S. eral international human rights organizations $7.5 billion) in grants and loans. but said that the E.U. “remain[ed] concerned According to a U.S. Congressional Re- by the persistence of violence and by the fate search Service study of transfers of conven- of missing persons.” tional arms released in August and covering The year also saw little movement in the the 1996-1999 period, 85 percent of United “Barcelona process” of establishing a Euro- Kingdom arms deliveries to developing coun- Mediterranean free trade and cooperative tries were to the Middle East, while the security zone. The European-Mediterranean comparable figures for France, Germany, and Association Agreement between the E.U. and Italy were 43 percent, 40 percent, and 12.5 Israel, signed in 1995, went into force in June percent respectively. European countries 2000 after completion of ratification by all accounted for just over 48 percent of all arms E.U. member states. Israel thus joined Tuni- deliveries to the region in this period. Accord- sia and Morocco as countries with opera- ing to the study, the bulk of the sales com- tional association agreements. A draft agree- prised tanks and self-propelled guns, other ment with Egypt was completed in July armor, supersonic aircraft, and naval vessels. 1999, but as of this writing Egypt had not yet taken steps to sign it. There was no public United States discussion of how the human rights practices The Middle East—especially Israeli- of these countries, especially Tunisia and Palestinian negotiations and conflicts and Israel, could be reconciled with the stipula- Iraq—occupied much of the Clinton tion in article 2 of each agreement that the administration’s diplomatic energies over the agreement was premised on “respect for year. In a June speech to the American-Arab human rights and democratic values.” There Anti-Discrimination Committee devoted to were no indications that the year had seen Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and Iraq, progress regarding negotiations over associa- Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs tion agreements with Algeria, Lebanon, and Thomas Pickering identified the components Syria. Signed agreements with Jordan and the of U.S. policy in the region as achieving a 364 MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW

comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, ensuring man Rights, and Labor Harold Koh said that regional stability, stemming the proliferation the list of countries invited “was an inclusive of weapons of mass destruction, creating free one which included not just countries that market conditions, encouraging sustainable were established democracies, but those that development, and “expanding political re- were striving for democracies and those that form and adherence to international norms for had made a commitment on the democratic human rights.” path.” He added that “those countries that In his presentation to Congress in March have experienced backsliding, we hope that of the Near East segment of the the conference will itself be an occasion to Administration’s foreign operations budget engage them and press them aggressively on for fiscal year 2001, Assistant Secretary of the extent to which we found their recent State Edward S. Walker, Jr. said, “Advancing progress to be lacking.” vital U.S. political and economic interests in Koh visited Tunisia in June—the first the Middle East is complicated by a legacy of visit to any country in the region by him or his ethnic conflicts, border disputes, economic predecessor since 1993 (see Tunisia chapter dislocations, ecological disruptions, and hu- below). In October 1999, Koh’s deputy, man rights abuses—all of which have contrib- Bennett Freeman, visited Israel and also met uted to terrorism and violence.” Walker also with Palestinian officials and human rights stated that the Administration was “pursuing activists. a strong program for developing civil society The State Department’s Country Re- in a region that often lacks the most rudimen- ports on Human Rights Practices for 1999, tary institutions for peaceful transition of released in February 2000, continued to pro- leadership, freedom of expression, or respect vide comprehensive coverage of the human for women’s rights.” rights situation in each country in the region. In its budget presentation the Adminis- Koh’s introduction to the report, however, tration requested military and economic as- which set the tone for much of the media sistance grants of U.S. $2.8 billion for Israel, coverage, avoided citing abuses by Middle nearly U.S. $2 billion for Egypt, and U.S. Eastern allies of the U.S., with the exception $228 million for Jordan. The request for of Saudi Arabia regarding religious freedom, democracy programs in the region, “particu- and Egypt, Oman, and Yemen with regard to larly in Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, and Oman,” the practice of female genital mutilation. In- was $4 million. In requesting allocations for explicably, the introduction referred approv- individual countries, Walker’s presentation ingly to Tunisia’s presidential election, where mentioned human rights or support for demo- President Ben Ali won with an official 99.4 cratic institutions as issues of concern in percent of the vote, as “a modest step for- Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen, though ward,” and pointedly failed to include Tunisia there was no such mention in the presenta- in a discussion of Middle Eastern countries tions for Bahrain or Jordan. Surprisingly, where dissidents and human rights defenders Tunisia was characterized without qualifica- face arbitrary arrest, unfair trials, and inten- tion as “a stable democratic country,” raising sive surveillance. serious question about the ability of the U.S. In September, the State Department government to recognize, let alone encourage released its second annual congressionally- or support, democracy in the region. The U.S. mandated report on international religious was a key convener of a conference of foreign freedom, which also included chapters on affairs ministers in Warsaw in June entitled each country in the region. The report cited Towards a Community of Democracies, to Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia for intolerance which Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, towards religious minorities, and Egypt, Is- Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, and Yemen were rael, and Jordan for discriminatory policies. invited. In a press briefing on June 19, Assis- The report also noted limited improvements tant Secretary of State for Democracy, Hu- in Egypt, Iran, Israel, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW/ALGERIA 365

According to the report, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations David ALGERIA Welch met with Saudi Arabia’s foreign min- ister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, to discuss reli- Human Rights Developments gious freedom and human rights issues. In the President Abd al-Aziz Bouteflika’s Saudi Arabia chapter, the report’s authors “civil harmony” initiative achieved only par- wrote that “the overwhelming majority of tial success in bringing an end to the political citizens support an Islamic state and oppose violence that has ravaged the country for most public non-Muslim worship,” without any of the last decade. Although the violence was indication of how this conclusion was reached on a lesser scale than in earlier years, brutal concerning a country where freedom of ex- and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and pression is severely restricted. clashes between government forces and armed The Congressional Research Service re- groups continued to claim an estimated 200 port on arms transfers released in August lives per month. There were very few reports noted that “the high value of U.S. arms of perpetrators being caught and brought to transfer agreements with developing nations justice. The generally improved public secu- is attributable to major purchase by key U.S. rity situation, especially in major cities, was clients in the Near East, and to a lesser extent reflected in fewer reported incidents of arbi- in Asia, together with a continuation of well- trary arrests, “disappearances,” and torture, established defense support arrangements but the lack of progress in resolving thou- with such purchasers.” For the most recent sands of cases of “disappeared” persons period covered, 1996 to 1999, Middle East remained a blight on the government’s human countries accounted for more than 65 percent rights record. The government failed also to of total deliveries of U.S. arms to developing institute reforms to prevent a possible resur- countries, and the U.S. accounted for nearly gence of systematic human rights violations 50 percent of all arms purchase agreements by by the security forces. Middle East states. The principal Middle The Civil Harmony Law, adopted in East purchasers of U.S. arms in this period July 1999 and endorsed overwhelmingly in a were Egypt ($5.8 billion), Saudi Arabia ($5.5 national referendum the following Septem- billion), and Israel ($4.2 billion). The report ber, set a deadline of January 13, 2000, for listed tanks and self-propelled guns, armored members and supporters of armed groups to vehicles, naval vessels, supersonic aircraft, surrender to the authorities. The law offered helicopters, surface-to-air missiles and anti- immunity from prosecution for persons who ship missiles as the main categories of weap- had not themselves committed killings or ons systems purchased. bombings or other serious crimes, and signifi- The U.S. signed a wide-ranging free trade cantly reduced sentences to persons who agreement with Jordan on October 24 similar acknowledged responsibility “for causing to agreements already concluded with Canada, death or permanent injury of a person or for Mexico, and Israel. U.S. and Jordanian offi- rape, or for using explosives in public places cials expressed hope that the agreement would or in places frequented by the public.” In attract international investment to Jordan. principle, individuals wishing to take advan- The Clinton Administration promoted the tage of the law were required to surrender their agreement with Jordan as a model for future arms and make a full disclosure of their actions trade pacts on the grounds that its provisions to the authorities. According to officials, the mandated compliance of both parties with law’s probation or reduced sentence provi- international labor and environmental stan- sions became applicable once the information dards. in such disclosures had been verified by local and national security offices. The issue of whether or not to accept the terms of the Civil Harmony Law reportedly 366 ALGERIA

created considerable dissension within the attacks on civilians as well as security posts armed groups, in particular the Islamic Salva- and military patrols. tion Army (Armée Islamique du Salut, AIS), The government claimed widespread which had, in practice, observed a cease-fire public support for the Civil Harmony Law, with the army since October 1997. Some citing the September 1999 referendum, yet reportedly held out for terms that included a the law made no provision for transparency, political role for the Islamic Salvation Front or for involving the victims of crimes or the (Front Islamique du Salut, FIS), banned since general public. Many Algerians, most vocally 1992. On November 22, 1999, Abdelkader groups representing families of victims of Hachani, the top-ranking FIS official not in attacks by armed groups, contended that detention, was assassinated in Algiers. In investigations of “repentis”—those accept- December 1999, the authorities announced ing amnesty under the law—were cursory the arrest of his alleged murderer, but as of and that many were cleared before the verac- October 2000 no information concerning any ity and thoroughness of their confessions investigation into the killing had been made could be established. They also charged that public. the January 10 pardon betrayed the spirit of On January 10, three days prior to the the Civil Harmony Law by amnestying all expiry of the Civil Harmony Law’s six- crimes, however grave, enabling perpetrators month grace period, President Bouteflika of killings and rape to return to the commu- issued a decree granting a “pardon with the nities they had formerly terrorized. force of amnesty” (grâce amnistiante) to Reflecting this lack of official transpar- “persons belonging to organizations which ency, accurate information about the law’s voluntarily and spontaneously decide to put implementation and the numbers of persons an end to acts of violence, which put them- who benefitted from it was difficult to obtain selves entirely at the disposal of the state and and often contradictory. Algerian and French whose names appear in the annex to [this] press reports suggested that some 1,500 decree”—namely, the AIS. This decree ex- fighters had turned themselves in under the empted all persons covered from having to law, and estimated that the January 10 am- make any declaration of the acts that they had nesty covered at most between two and three committed and from imprisonment or other thousand AIS adherents. The Algiers dailyEl sanction. It also exempted them from the ten- Watan, citing “sources close to the security year deprivation of civil and political rights, services,” wrote on July 13 that those remain- such as the right to vote or stand for office, ing with the armed groups numbered more that had been applied to persons “repenting” than nine hundred, operating in small units under the terms of the Civil Harmony Law. It away from the main populated areas. Interior was, in effect, a blanket amnesty for all crimes Minister Yazid Zerhouni, in a January 20 no matter how heinous. The next day, Janu- press conference, asserted that “eighty per- ary 11, AIS commander Madani Mezrag cent of the terrorists” had surrendered their formally announced the group’s dissolution. arms. However, when pressed as to how Two days later, the Islamic League for Preach- these estimates were calculated, he stated “I ing and Holy War (Ligue Islamique de la can’t give you the numbers for the simple Daâwa et du Djihad, LIDD), which had bro- reason that we are presently at the stage of ken from the Armed Islamic Group (Groupe identification and census.” Ministry of Jus- Islamique Armé, GIA) and, with the AIS, tice officials told Human Rights Watch in observed the cease-fire with the army, also May that the total number of beneficiaries of dissolved itself under the terms of the pardon. the Civil Harmony Law and the January 10 GIA elements led by Antar Zouabri and pardon was about 5,600, of whom some 330 Hassan Hattab’s Salafist Group for Preach- were serving reduced sentences for crimes of ing and Combat denounced President violence. Murad Zoughir, the public prosecu- Bouteflika’s overtures and continued to mount tor for the wilaya (province) of Algiers, told ALGERIA 367

Human Rights Watch that the probation Ouyahia told the government daily El committee he headed had dealt with approxi- Moudjahid on May 21 that his ministry had mately one hundred “repentis,” of whom opened files on 3,019 cases of missing per- about thirty had been sentenced to jail terms, sons and that “a large number of the so-called forty exonerated, fifteen placed on probation, disappeared were in fact in the ranks of and fifteen of whom remained under investi- terrorist groups,” while two hundred were gation. The failure of the government to “alive and well either in prison or among the provide precise information about those ben- beneficiaries of the Civil Harmony Law.” efitting from the Civil Harmony Law or the Ministry of Justice officials told Human full pardon, the offenses to which they con- Rights Watch that of these 3,019 cases, 833 fessed or with which they were charged, and were persons being sought by the security the disposition of their cases fueled consider- forces, ninety-three had been killed in clashes able suspicion that perpetrators of grave with security forces, eighty-two were in abuses were being cleared and given immunity detention, nine had been killed in clashes with little scrutiny or accountability. among armed groups, forty-nine had been There was virtually no progress in ef- released from detention and “may have joined forts to resolve some 4,000 documented cases the terrorists,” and seventy-four were at their of alleged “disappearances” in previous years homes. Human Rights Watch requested the at the hands of security officials. Throughout names of individuals in any of the categories the year Algerian human rights lawyers and mentioned, to determine to what extent they organizations of relatives continued to re- corresponded to those compiled by lawyers ceive and document further cases. In an inter- and human rights groups. The officials de- view in Middle East Insight, a Washington, clined to provide them, however, on the D.C.-based bi-monthly, President Bouteflika grounds that they were all still “under inves- said, “As to disappeared individuals, Alge- tigation.” rian justice will spare no effort, conducted in Kamel Rezzag-Bara, head of the quasi- the framework of the law, to seek solutions to official National Human Rights Observatory cases fully documented with verified evi- (Observatoire National des Droits de dence.” In response to repeated requests by l’Homme, ONDH), told Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch in May, however, as in May that the ONDH had 4,146 “disap- well as requests by other international orga- peared” files open, 70 percent of which dated nizations and families of the “disappeared,” from the 1993-1995 period, and none of government officials declined to provide names which were more recent than 1998. He de- or information in cases they claimed to have clined to provide a list of names of missing resolved. persons, insisting that to do so would be “not Such limited information as was made useful,” but provided oral summaries of sev- available by different ministries and official eral cases in which individuals reported as sources was inconsistent, and the govern- being “disappeared” had allegedly been killed ment made no apparent effort to reconcile the in clashes with security forces or had turned discrepancies evident in the different ac- up at home. counts. Interior Minister Zerhouni, at his Ministry of Interior officials, reflecting January 20 press conference, said that of the lack of seriousness with which they have 4,600 complaints of “disappearances” known addressed the issue of the “disappeared,” told to his ministry, “among them 2,600 or 2,700 Human Rights Watch in May that the prob- have been cleared up. It includes persons who lem of three thousand “disappearances” and have gone back to the maquis (lit. “the bush”), missing persons out of a population today and others who have been killed by their totaling thirty million did not compare ad- comrades, some who’ve been incarcerated, versely with Algeria’s independence war, and still some who were found in the camps which had left some fifty thousand individu- of the AIS.” Minister of Justice Ahmed als out of a population then of around nine 368 ALGERIA

million unaccounted for. to Mebroukine’s lawyer that he was being Women, as well as men and children, held in Blida military prison but did not continued to be killed by armed groups (see divulge any charges or other information WRD section). The Algerian press, reflecting about his detention. official estimates, reported that 2,600 women Ministry of Justice officials assured had been sexually assaulted or raped during Human Rights Watch in May that the govern- the conflict, mostly in the 1995 to 1998 ment treated allegations of human rights abuses period, but some women’s rights activists by government officials seriously, and stated estimated the number at some 5,000. Govern- that 348 persons associated with the security ment officials, when meeting Human Rights forces, including members of “self-defense” Watch in May, pointed to the high propor- militias (Groups for Legitimate Defense, tion of women engaged in professions, such GLD) organized and armed by the interior as medicine and the judiciary, as an indication ministry, had been prosecuted for human of sexual equality, but they were unable to rights abuses since 1992. Of these, they said, indicate progress in dealing with the discrimi- 179 were cases of physical abuse and fifteen natory Family Code of 1984, which institu- concerned arbitrary detention or torture. The tionalized the unequal status of women in officials declined, however, to disclose names matters of personal status, marriage, divorce, or other details, but noted that the numbers property, and inheritance. President included several police officers punished for Bouteflika, at a March 2000 conference orga- their involvement in a well-publicized inci- nized by several women’s rights groups, dent in December 1999 in the town of Dellys. asserted that changes regarding women’s rights There, after a bomb explosion, the authorities had to take into account a society’s religious had indiscriminately rounded up some one beliefs and traditions. hundred persons and beaten many of them. Several individuals were detained and Officials told Human Rights Watch that there held incommunicado by security forces, at had still been no prosecutions, however, in least one of whom remained unaccounted for the case of two mayors and GLD leaders in the in late October 2000. Seventy-three-year-old Relizane area who had been briefly detained El Hadj M’lik was arrested at his home in in April 1998 for allegedly carrying out a central Algiers on the evening of April 13, series of abductions and executions, although several hours after security officials had vis- the case was still “under investigation.” ited his house seeking his son. His family The authorities appeared to make little reported that by mid-September they had had effort to establish an effective process to no contact with him nor received any clarifi- ensure that basic forensic work was carried cation from the authorities concerning his out in order to help identify homicide victims whereabouts. and suspects, and so to help establish whether Ali Mebroukine, a law professor at the those found buried in unmarked graves in- National School of Administration in Algiers cluded persons reported to have “disap- and former advisor to President Liamine peared” in the custody of the security forces Zeroual, was arrested in Algiers on May 27 in previous years. During a visit to Canada in on his return from Paris. According to Alge- April, President Bouteflika reportedly dis- ria-Interface, a Paris-based information missed the question of undertaking credible website, he was seen once by his wife in mid- and independent inquiries into responsibility June when he was brought along by police for “disappearances” and massacres in Alge- who searched their home and seized docu- ria as “intellectual coquetry.” ments. His wife, Insaf, was later taken to a The government maintained the state of secret location and questioned, then released emergency proclaimed in 1992, and on several after being instructed to “be quiet” about her occasions acted to prevent public gatherings husband. On June 28, the military investigat- by human rights groups as well as critics of its ing magistrate overseeing the case confirmed policies. On March 22, for example, police in ALGERIA 369

Oran forcibly dispersed a demonstration of political parties law allowed the government relatives of the “disappeared” and subse- sixty days to reject WAFA’s application, but quently charged several women with partici- it did not do this. However, the interior pating in an unauthorized gathering in a public minister refused to publish notice of the place. On June 25, police clashed with dem- party’s registration in the Official Gazette, a onstrators at an unauthorized rally in Algiers step that requires his signature, and without held to mark the second anniversary of the which the party could not get permits for murder of Kabyle singer and rights activist meetings and conferences. The minister de- Lounes Matoub. clared on May 10 that he “would not be the Several human rights organizations told one to sign the decision to return the banned Human Rights Watch that government poli- party.” The Algerian League for the Defense cies curtailed their right to freedom of associa- of Human Rights (LADDH) and the Algerian tion. The National Association of Families of Human Rights League (LADH) both called on “Disappeared” (ANFD) held weekly dem- the government in July to register WAFA in onstrations outside the offices of the ONDH compliance with the law, but ONDH head to demand that the government provide infor- Rezzag-Bara asserted to Human Rights mation about missing relatives, but it was not Watch that WAFA did not need an official able to obtain official authorization to func- response to function. tion. The Association of Families of “Disap- FIS leader Abbasi Madani remained under peared” in Constantine faced a similar prob- house arrest and the party’s number two, Ali lem, and said that the authorities had inter- Belhadj, remained in prison but was allowed fered several times with their regular demon- to receive family visits. When questioned strations outside government offices. Ali about their status by the pan-Arab daily Al- Mrabet, a founder of Sumoud (Steadfast- Hayat in an interview published on Septem- ness), which advocates investigation of kill- ber 13, President Bouteflika replied, “The ings and kidnapings, said that the Ministry of FIS was disbanded by court order before I Interior had ignored its three-year-old appli- came to power. The new constitution doesn’t cation for registration, without which the provide for FIS’s existence at all. So don’t talk group could not obtain permits to hold meet- to me about this subject because to me FIS ings or open a bank account. Similarly, doesn’t exist.” He said that Belhadj “is now Rassemblement Action Jeunesse (RAJ), a being kept in better conditions than he has national youth association, produced docu- ever been,” and that “If Ali Belhadj disavows mentation from recent years showing numer- all those who use violence, then I will help ous refusals by local authorities to their him.” applications to hold meetings, conferences, Algeria’s privately-owned print media exhibitions, or film showings in Algiers and covered many politically sensitive issues in a Tizi Ouzou. RAJ Secretary General Hakim critical fashion, although some topics, such as Addad told Human Rights Watch that the the political role of the military leadership, authorities had continued to interdict RAJ or remained the off-limits. Press accounts of other organizations’ gatherings, though no security operations continued to rely almost longer in written form. exclusively on official sources, depicting raids The governments commitment to free- and clashes that resulted in the deaths of dom of association was called into question unnamed “terrorists” but seldom their appre- by its response to efforts begun in December hension. No journalists were prosecuted for 1999 to register a new political party, the publication of “security-related information,” Movement for Fidelity and Justice (WAFA), but Reporters without Borders (Reporters under the leadership of former foreign minis- Sans Frontières, RSF) reported that several ter and 1999 presidential candidate Ahmed publishers were subject to libel suits, includ- Taleb Ibrahimi. WAFA was seen by some as ing some brought by army officers or direc- representing a segment of the banned FIS. The tors of state companies. The independent 370 ALGERIA

weekly La Nation remained suspended, os- tional human rights organizations, adequately tensibly for failing to pay outstanding in- discharged the country’s obligations with voices to the Société d’Impression d’Alger regard to U.N. human rights mechanisms. (SIA), one of the state printing houses that Several lawyers and other human rights effectively monopolize newspaper printing. defenders continued to document abuses, and According to RSF, which visited the country women’s and victim’s rights organizations in June, the directors of several newspapers were active. The government imposed limits suspended in 1992 had been unable to secure on the activities of some groups (see above), the official authorization required by state- however, and activists complained to Human owned printing companies to resume publi- Rights Watch that the authorities were often cation. Broadcast media remained a govern- unresponsive when they requested investiga- ment monopoly. Journalists working for the tions or information on cases. On May 27, Paris daily Libération and Radio France Inter- security forces detained Mohamed Smain, national were unable to get visas to visit head of the Relizane office of the LADDH, Algeria immediately prior to President after he attempted to document evidence at a Bouteflika’s state visit to Paris in June. (See grave site connected with the case of the two below.) former mayors implicated in mass killings in the area (see above). He was released the next Defending Human Rights day but authorities confiscated his videotape In March, the government invited four inter- of the site. Rachid Mesli, a human rights national human rights organizations to visit lawyer who had been released from prison in the country after having barred visits by the July 1999 after serving all but a few days of groups for several years. Human Rights Watch, a three year sentence on trumped up charges, Amnesty International, the International was stopped at the airport and questioned in Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), and June after returning from Geneva after attend- RSF visited the country in separate ten-day ing a meeting about the future of Algeria. missions in May and June. Amnesty Interna- Mesli left Algeria with his family in August tional and RSF subsequently said that they and requested political asylum in Switzer- had been able to move around the country land. He told Human Rights Watch that without restriction. The FIDH, however, following his return from Geneva surveillance “strongly deplored” the “continuous tight of his activities had intensified and that a surveillance” it said it had experienced and the prison acquaintance had been tortured in an “misinformation and unfounded attacks” of effort to elicit, among other things, damaging “certain organs of the so-called ‘independent’ information about Mesli, leading him to fear private media.” The Human Rights Watch that he would be arrested and returned to delegation was able to travel freely and meet prison. with officials, lawyers, nongovernmental or- The International Committee of the Red ganizations, and victims and families of vic- Cross, after a seven-year absence, conducted tims of abuses by the government and by prison visits in October-November 1999 and armed groups. March-May 2000, in which they visited The government ignored requests by the seventeen places of detention administered U.N. special rapporteurs on torture and on by the Ministry of Justice and interviewed extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary execu- 763 prisoners of their choosing. They did not, tions to visit the country. Foreign ministry however, have access to persons who may officials and ONDH head Rezzag-Bara told have been held in military barracks or police Human Rights Watch that Algeria considered facilities. the rapporteurs as “secondary mechanisms.” They contended that official reports to the U.N. Human Rights Committee and other treaty bodies, and cooperation with interna- ALGERIA 371

The Role of theInternational ish Aerospace) had specified that, as directed Community by its ruler, Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al Thani, Qatar would forward the equipment European Union freely as a gift “to the armed services of the The states of the European Union pub- state of Algeria.” The equipment included licly supported what political leaders termed Landrover Defender rapid deployment ve- the reconciliation policies of President hicles and night vision equipment. Bouteflika but said little about human rights According to a U.S. Congressional Re- violations or the problem of impunity. An search Service study of arms transfers re- E.U. ministerial “troika” comprising External leased in August, Algeria took deliveries of Affairs Minister Chris Patten, Common For- U.S. $600 million worth of arms from Euro- eign and Security Policy High Representative pean countries other than the U.K., France, Javier Solana, and Finnish Foreign Minister Germany, and Italy in the 1996-1999 period. Tarja Halonen, visited Algiers in November During that same period, Russia delivered 1999. A fifth round of negotiations on the U.S. $400 million and China sent U.S. $100 E.U.-Algeria Association Agreement took million worth of arms to Algeria. place in July, but there were no signs that a final agreement was near. United States President Bouteflika made his first for- The United States quietly but publicly eign visit as president to Italy in November supported President Bouteflika’s political 1999. According to Radio Algiers, when asked initiatives and his efforts to privatize the at a press conference about investigations state-dominated economy. Commenting on into responsibility for killings, he replied the Civil Harmony Law in late January, that, “politics are one thing and history an- Ambassador Cameron Hume told the Chi- other. Now I am extinguishing a fire and cago Tribune that “Algerians are the ones tackling political issues, with priority given who have to forgive and forget. Every country to the present.” He visited France in June has to find its own way. We allowed the 2000, the first official visit by an Algerian people of Northern Ireland, and Turkey and head of state for seventeen years and only the South Africa to do this.” He added, “If it [the second since Algeria’s independence in 1962. law and the pardon] works for them, I’ll France agreed in principle to a debt-for- respect it,” but failed to make clear that grave equity exchange which would convert a small offenses such as crimes against humanity portion of Algeria’s U.S. $3.4 billion debt— should not be covered by an amnesty. Hume Ffr400 million (U.S. $58 million)—into pri- was quoted in the Algiers daily El Watan on vate investments by French companies. French June 21 as saying that “the United States is and Italian warships paid official visits to in the best position to encourage positive Algeria over the course of the last year. change in Algeria, together with and not in During Spanish Prime Minister José competition with its European allies.” María Aznar’s visit to Algiers in July, the Signs of growing U.S. economic interest Spanish daily El Pais reported that Madrid in Algeria included visits by leading private was inclined to look favorably on Algeria’s U.S.-based international banks and invest- request for help in training its security forces. ment houses such as Chase Manhattan to The newspaper reported also that Algeria had Algiers in June 2000, a month that also saw requested action be taken against Islamist a visit by Under Secretary of the Treasury “fundamentalists” residing in Spain. Stuart Eizenstat. U.S. private investments in Qatar confirmed British media reports Algeria were estimated at between U.S. $3.5 in July that £4.6 (U.S. $6.65) million worth and $4 billion, almost entirely in oil and gas of British military equipment that it had exploration and production. Many of these purchased was destined for Algeria. The investments were backed by the U.S. Export- Qatari purchase order to BAe (formerly Brit- Import Bank, whose chairman, James 372 ALGERIA/EGYPT

Harmon, visited Algiers in December and ing and restricting the activities of political whose $1.6 billion exposure in Algeria was by parties, human rights and other nongovern- far the bank’s largest in any Middle Eastern mental organizations (NGOs), professional or North African country. Following associations and the press. Infringements of Harmon’s visit the bank announced that it had freedom of expression, association and as- eliminated the previous U.S. $2 billion ceiling sembly, particularly in the run up to the on Export-Import financing in Algeria. Ac- People’s Assembly elections scheduled for cording to Algerian press reports, Eizenstat October and November 2000, raised doubt told Algerian officials and heads of companies about the government’s stated commitment that U.S. private investments outside of hy- to fair and free elections. State security forces drocarbon industries would depend on the continued to commit grave human rights vio- creation of a North African free trade area lations with impunity, including the deten- with Tunisia and Morocco. tion without charge or trial of political detain- The U.S. also pursued closer military ees and torture, and political opponents con- ties with Algeria. There were several visits by tinued to be sentenced after unfair trials. high-level military officers following the Sep- In May, the state of emergency was tember 1999 visit of Vice-Admiral Daniel extended for a further three years. In force Murphy, commander of the U.S. Navy’s almost continuously since 1967, the emer- Sixth Fleet. Admiral Charles Abbot, deputy gency laws gave the authorities extensive commander of U.S. armed forces in Europe, powers to arrest suspects at will and detain met with President Bouteflika and army chief them without trial for prolonged periods, and of staff Maj. Gen. Mohamed Lamari on April to refer civilian defendants to military courts 24 and reportedly discussed setting up a or to exceptional state security courts whose permanent joint military program. Maj.Gen. procedures fall far short of international stan- Randall Schmidt, director of aerospace opera- dards for fair trial. tions for the U.S. Air Force in Europe, met Elections for the People’s Assembly, with Algerian military and defense officials in initially scheduled to start in mid-November, late July in Algiers. were brought forward to October 18, 2000 Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and spread out over three rounds to allow Ronald Neumann, commenting on the text of judicial supervision of both principal and President Bouteflika’s remarks on human auxiliary polling stations. The change came as rights at a cabinet meeting in mid-March, a result of the Supreme Constitutional Court wrote to Algerian ambassador Idriss Jazairy ruling on July 8 that legislation governing on March 24 expressing support for the parliamentary elections was unconstitutional president’s “determination to strengthen the due to the absence of full judicial supervision. rights of individuals in detention and in pre- In two extraordinary sessions on July 15 and ventive custody” and “his proposals to rein- 16, the People’s Assembly and the Majlis force control by the judiciary of the criminal al-Shura (consultative council, the upper investigative branch of the police services.” house of the parliament) approved three The text of the letter appeared in the May 7 presidential decrees that amended the legisla- edition of the government daily El Moudjahid. tion governing the elections. The principal amendment was to Article 24 of the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights (Law 73 of 1956), which had provided for judicial super- EGYPT vision of principal polling stations only, while auxiliary stations were supervised by Human Rights Developments civil servants. The government of President Husni On May 20, the Political Parties Committee Mubarak intensified its efforts to exercise of the Majlis al-Shura froze the activities of control over civil society institutions, harass- the Islamist opposition Labor Party and EGYPT 373 banned its publications, ostensibly because ning as independent candidates in elections of a leadership dispute within the party. This for the People’s Assembly and for the boards action, widely perceived as part of an attempt of their respective professional associations. to silence government critics ahead of the Mukhtar Muhammad Nouh, for example, a elections, followed violent street demonstra- former member of parliament, had been ex- tions in early May over the publication of a pected to stand as a candidate in the Egyptian novel alleged to be offensive to Islam. The Lawyers’ Association’s board elections due Labor Party’s bi-weekly newspaper, to be held on July 1 but postponed by the al-Sha’ab, had denounced the novel (see authorities pending a court ruling in a dispute below). Despite several court rulings in favor over election procedures. This was resolved of the party, the ban on its publications on September 5 when the Supreme Adminis- remained in force as of October. trative Court rejected a government appeal In another legal move on July 24, the against a lower court decision that board Political Parties Committee formally re- elections be held solely on the premises of the quested the Labor Party’s dissolution by Egyptian Lawyers’ Association and its referring the case to the Political Parties branches. By October 2000 no new date had Tribunal, an exceptional court established by been set for these elections. the Law on Political Parties (Law 40 of 1977). In the absence of official figures, it was This followed a decision by prosecutors to not possible to specify the number of politi- charge nine Labor Party figures with having cal detainees being held without trial, but the links with the banned Muslim Brotherhood, authorities freed at least several hundred receiving unauthorized funding and “working between January and July. They also made against national unity,” among them Labor scores of new arrests, mostly of suspected Party secretary general ‘Adel Hussain. In members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and April, he and three other Labor Party figures thousands of other political detainees, the were convicted for slandering Deputy Prime vast majority of them actual or suspected Minister Yusuf Wali. Hussain was fined and membership of banned groups, in particular the others sentenced to between one and two al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) and years in prison. al-Gihad (Holy Struggle), continued to be In keeping with past practice of referring held in administrative detention under emer- civilian political suspects to military courts, gency legislation. They included some who the government brought twenty defendants had completed prison sentences and others allegedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood who had been held without charge or trial for to trial before the Supreme Military Court on prolonged periods, in some cases for over ten December 25, 1999. The defendants faced years. Many detainees successfully chal- incitement and other charges under articles lenged the legality of their continued deten- 30, 86, and 88 of the Penal Code, including tion in the courts, but Ministry of Interior membership of, and recruiting others to, an officials routinely ignored the courts’ rulings illegal organization and attempting to control and continued to hold the detainees in harsh the activities of professional associations. conditions at prisons such as al-Fayyum, None of the charges involved the use or Wadi Natrun I and II, and Abu Za’bal al-Sina’i, advocacy of violence. The defendants, mostly where detainees were deprived of all contact lawyers, university professors, and other with the outside world for long periods. In a professionals had been arrested in October positive development, at least sixty-eight 1999 and detained at Mazra’at Tora Prison. detainees held in these prisons were allowed The 2000 announcement of the verdicts, due family visits in September. in July, was deferred first to October 3 and Security forces tortured and ill-treated then to November 7. Many Egyptians saw detainees, and there were reports that as the prosecutions as an attempt by the au- many as fifteen detainees died in custody due thorities to prevent the defendants from run- to poor conditions and lack of medical care, 374 EGYPT

and, in at least one case, due to torture. Again, sion as to which law governed their activities. however, the authorities’ failure to disclose On September 3, Deputy Justice Minister information on such cases, or whether official Fathi Naguib told Human Rights Watch that investigations were held to determine the the overturned law would be revised in light causes of such deaths, hampered efforts to of the constitutional court decision and then assess the true scale of the problem in Egypt’s submitted again to the People’s Assembly prisons and detention centers. One case, after the elections. He said there would be no however, did lead to official action. The further consultations with NGO representa- authorities charged six police officers follow- tives regarding the provisions of the law, ing the death of Ahmad Muhammad ‘Issa, which he asserted was “fair and democratic.” beaten to death on February 10 in Wadi The government prosecuted at least one Natrun prison, and their trial was continuing writer for his exercise of freedom of expres- in October. sion. On March 10, police arrested author In a positive development, Interior Salahuddin Muhsin, charging him with writ- Minister Habib al-Adli announced on Sep- ing books deemed offensive to Islam. Pros- tember 17 that the practices of flogging and ecutors cited two of his books, A Night Talk caning as disciplinary measures in prisons with Heaven and Trembling of Enlighten- would be banned. ment, when he appeared before the State Egyptian courts sentenced as least Security Court for Misdemeanours in Giza sixty-six people to death, and the authorities on June 17. On July 8, the court imposed a carried out eighteen executions between Feb- six-month suspended sentence, rendering ruary and September, according to Amnesty Muhsin liable to certain imprisonment should International. Most death sentences were he be convicted of a similar offence in future. imposed for ordinary criminal offences, but The November 1999 decision of the two of those executed had been sentenced in Ministry of Culture to authorize the their absence for membership of an armed re-printing of A Banquet of Seaweed by Syrian illegal group after an unfair trial. author Haidar Haidar, first published in Leba- The controversial Law on Civil Associa- non in 1983, led to widespread protests in tions and Institutions (Law 153 of 1999), Cairo following an April 28 article in the condemned by Egyptian and international Islamist al-Sha’ab newspaper, which de- human rights groups for excessively restrict- nounced the book as blasphemous. Several ing the activities of NGOs and facilitating thousand demonstrators, many of them undue government interference in their inter- al-Azhar University students, staged a series nal affairs, was overturned by the Supreme of protests from May 7, and students at ‘Ain Constitutional Court on June 3. Issued shortly Shams and Cairo universities held similar after the 1999 law’s registration deadline for protests. As the protests became increas- NGOs, the court ruled the law unconstitu- ingly violent, police reportedly used rubber tional on procedural grounds because it had bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstra- not been presented to the Majlis al-Shura. tors, and several police officers and tens of Egyptian human rights activists welcomed students were injured. Police also arrested the ruling, which also noted that administra- scores of students, prompting further dem- tive courts, not the courts of first instance, onstrations calling for their release, and all should hear cases arising from disputes be- were freed without charge within days. Al- tween NGOs and the authorities. The day though a panel of literary experts appointed after the ruling, the Ministry of Social Affairs by the Ministry of Culture cleared the novel announced that Law 32 of 1964, which the of the charge of blasphemy, the authorities 1999 law had been intended to replace, would announced that the book would be withdrawn remain in force, but that NGOs that had been from circulation. On May 12, the granted registration under the overturned law prosecutor-general’s staff interrogated two would retain that status, giving rise to confu- Ministry of Culture employees about the EGYPT 375 re-printing of the novel but no formal charges months and two years. The court acquitted were brought. nineteen others. The trial of the remaining The right to freedom of conscience and defendants before the Dar al-Salam criminal religion also came under attack in other ways, court was still continuing in October 2000. involving both Muslims and Christians. On September 5, the Emergency State Security Defending Human Rights Court sentenced Manal Wahid Mana’i to five The government closely monitored the years in prison under Article 98(f) of the activities of human rights organizations and Penal Code for denigrating Islam. She was restricted their work. Official investigations arrested, together with fifteen others, in De- brought against targeted activists were kept cember 1999 as the alleged leader of a Sufi sect pending, in some cases for years. The case and accused of “claiming prophecy and using against Hafez Abu Sa’da, secretary general of the Islamic religion to propagate extremist the EOHR, who had been detained for fifteen ideas.” Twelve of her co-defendants, among days in December 1998, remained ambigu- them her husband ‘Abd al-Hamid Muhammad ous. The government had charged him and Kamel, received sentences ranging from six other EOHR members with accepting funds months to three years of imprisonment. Two from a foreign donor—the British embassy in other defendants were fined. Another died in Cairo—to harm to Egypt’s national interests. custody, reportedly of natural causes before On February 13, several days before the the verdict. EOHR was due to issue a report on renewed In another case, the Sohag Criminal Court sectarian violence in al-Kusheh (see above), sentenced Sourial Gayed Ishaq, a Coptic the Prosecutor-General’s Office announced Christian, to three years in prison under that it had referred the case to the Emergency articles 160 and 161 of the Penal Code for Supreme State Security Court. In March, insulting Islam. He had reportedly made of- however, Prosecutor-General ‘Abd al-Wahed fensive remarks in public about Islam after told Human Rights Watch that the British sectarian violence broke out between Mus- ambassador had confirmed that the funds in lims and Christians in his village, al-Kusheh, question were intended to support a women’s on December 31, 1999. A financial dispute legal aid project, and that in light of this between a Muslim and a Christian had led to information Abu Sa’da ‘s “file was closed.” three days of rioting and the deaths of some By October 2000, however, the authorities twenty-three victims, most of them Chris- had still not informed Abu Sa’da officially tians. Security forces imposed a curfew and that the case was closed. arrested scores of villagers to end the blood- The EOHR and other local human rights shed, and both the government and local groups condemned the government’s exten- human rights groups, including the Egyptian sion of the state of emergency. The EOHR Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) and was among a number of human rights groups the Centre for Human Rights Legal Aid that applied for official registration under the (CHRLA), launched their own investigations. 1999 NGO law in the first half of the year but On March 11, Prosecutor-General Maher of these, only CHRLA had been granted ‘Abd al-Wahed announced that those respon- registration before the law was overturned by sible would be tried on murder, attempted the constitutional court. Applications by murder, incitement to violence, robbery, and other human rights groups had not as yet been other charges, and two trials involving 135 fully processed. The Arab Organization for defendants began before criminal courts in Human Rights (AOHR) was granted legal Sohag and Dar al-Salam in the first week of status as a regional organization in early May June. On September 5, the Sohag court under a separate agreement with the Ministry sentenced four defendants tried in their ab- of Foreign Affairs. After the 1999 law was sence to ten years of imprisonment and six- declared invalid, the Ministry of Social Af- teen others to prison terms of between six fairs informed the EOHR on July 24 that its 376 EGYPT

application for registration would be consid- authorities then released Sa’adeddin Ibrahim ered under the 1964 law and requested that it and Nadia ‘Abd al-Nur on bail on August 10, provide the necessary documentation. Sev- and others in the ensuing days, but took eral days later, ministry officials told the further action on September 24 after Ibrahim EOHR verbally that its registration had been announced that he intended to monitor the granted, and gave a registration number, but parliamentary elections. The prosecutor gen- on July 30 the ministry informed the EOHR eral formally referred the case to the Supreme in writing that the decision on its application State Security Court, naming twenty-eight had been deferred upon “a request from defendants, including ten who were not in security officials.” custody and would be tried in their absence. Human rights activists preparing to Both the Ibn Khaldun Center and the Women monitor the People’s Assembly elections Voters’ Support Center remained closed. also came under attack. On the night of June The trial was set for November 18. 30, State Security Intelligence (SSI) officials arrested Sa’adeddin Ibrahim, sociology lec- The Role of the International turer at the American University of Cairo and Community director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Devel- opment Studies. The SSI raided both his home United Nations and the center and confiscated documents, The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary computers and other belongings. The authori- Detention, in an opinion issued on September ties also arrested the center’s chief accoun- 15, 1999, requested the government to rem- tant, Nadia ‘Abd al-Nur, and her assistant, edy the situation of Mahmoud Mubarak Usama Hammad, and they, together with Ahmad, a medical doctor held without charge Ibrahim, were interrogated by officials of the or trial since January 1995, in contravention prosecutor-general. The authorities issued of Egypt’s international legal obligations. renewable, fifteen day detention orders against The working group had raised the case with Ibrahim and ‘Abd al-Nur under Military the government in June 1998 but received no Decree No. 4 of 1992. Abd al-Nur went on response. In its December 1999 report, the hunger strike for two days to protest the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Invol- conditions in which she was being held at the untary Disappearances stated that it had Womens’ prison. During her first two weeks submitted new information to the govern- in detention, the authorities interrogated her ment on seven cases, and had received a without the presence of a defense lawyer. response on one case. Prosecutors initially accused Ibrahim of re- The U.N. Committee on Economic, ceiving foreign funding without the authori- Social and Cultural Rights on May 2 and 3 ties’ permission, forgery of election docu- considered Egypt’s initial report on the imple- ments, fraud and the dissemination of false mentation of the International Covenant on information damaging to Egypt’s interests, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In its but failed to specify the legal basis for these concluding observations, adopted on May or later accusations. The authorities ques- 12, the committee noted improvements in the tioned at least fourteen others in connection educational system and the reduction of illit- with the case, some of whom they detained eracy, granting divorce rights to women, and for several weeks. improvements in the public health system. In early July, the authorities detained However, it criticized the state of emergency and interrogated staff of the Women Voters’ for limiting “the scope of implementation of Support Center, a NGO cooperating with the constitutional guarantees for economic, so- Ibn Khaldun Center on educational programs cial and cultural rights,” and expressed con- for voters. They included Warda ‘Ali Bahi cern about infringements of workers’ and and Magda al-Bey, detained without charges women’s rights, child labor, media censor- for six days and one month respectively. The ship, and freedom of association. The com- EGYPT 377 mittee recommended, among other things, order to make financial assistance programs that the Law on Civil Associations and Insti- “more dependent on substantial progress in tutions (Law 153/1999) be repealed or these areas.” amended to conform with Egypt’s constitu- tion and its international obligations, noting United States that the law “gives the government control The U.S. remained Egypt’s largest pro- over the rights of NGOs to manage their own vider of foreign aid, with military assistance activities, including seeking external fund- in fiscal year 2000 estimated at U.S. $1.3 ing.” The committee further recommended billion and U.S. $727 million in economic that the new Personal Status Code be re- support funds, but U.S. criticism of Egypt’s viewed to remove provisions that discrimi- human rights record remained muted. For nate against women, and that new labor laws fiscal year 2001 the Clinton Administration be promulgated “to protect children from requested U.S. $1.3 billion in military assis- abusive working conditions” and to eradicate tance and U.S.$695 million for economic child labor. support funds, describing Egypt as “a key supporter of the Mideast peace process ... European Union [and] an indispensable ally in the region.” The The European Parliament, in a January administration’s budget document stated that 20 resolution, expressed concern about “sec- 10 percent of the economic support funds tarian clashes between Copts and Muslims in were for educational and health programs, as Egypt, which resulted in the deaths of more well as to “support democracy by assisting than 20 Egyptian citizens in several villages civil society organizations’ role in public in Upper Egypt on 1 and 2 January 2000.” decision-making.” The resolution called on Egypt to “raise In the case of Sa’adeddin Ibrahim (see awareness about religious tolerance and re- above), who held dual Egyptian-U.S. citizen- spect for human rights and minority freedoms ship, the State Department several times by launching a campaign on sectarian hatred called on the Egyptian government to press and violence,” and to consider the abolition of formal charges or release him from detention. the death penalty. It also expressed support In its Country Reports on Human Rights for the stated efforts of the Egyptian govern- Practices for 1999, the State Department said ment to investigate the clashes and to com- that Egypt “continued to commit numerous pensate those injured. human rights abuses, although its record im- The E.U. Commissioner for External proved somewhat over the previous year, Relations Chris Patten visited Egypt on April mainly due to a decrease in terrorist activity 1 for talks with Prime Minister Atef Obeid by Islamic extremists.” In its Annual Report and senior cabinet members focusing on on International Religious Freedom for 2000, E.U.-Egypt relations, the Middle East peace released on September 5, the State Depart- process and the Euro-Mediterranean Asso- ment claimed to observe “a trend toward ciation Agreement. Negotiations over the improvement in the Government’s respect Association Agreement were concluded in for and the protection of the right to religious June 1999 but as of October 2000 Egypt had freedom.” not signed it. On September 6, the European President Mubarak visited Washington, Commission adopted a series of recommen- D.C., in late March, and President Clinton dations in preparation for the Fourth Meeting stopped briefly in Cairo on August 29 to of Euro-Mediterranean Foreign Ministers, discuss Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. In scheduled to be held in Marseilles on Novem- neither case was there any indication that ber 16 and 17. These urged Egypt to sign the human rights issues were on the agenda. Prior Association Agreement and, referring to E.U. to President Mubarak’s March visit, the U.S. economic assistance mechanisms, advocated Commission on International Religious Free- “greater emphasis on human rights issues,” in dom as well as several U.S. legislators pub- 378 EGYPT/IRAN

licly urged President Clinton to raise the issue exclusion of representatives of parties op- of sectarian violence and alleged discrimina- posed to, or openly critical of, clerical rule, tion against the Coptic Christian community. Iranians were presented with a choice of candidates representing a range of views. Conservatives maneuvered, however, to limit the extent of the reformist victory, and IRAN blocked high-profile reformists from running as candidates in a variety of ways. Abdullah Human Rights Developments Nouri, the impeached former minister of the There was continued struggle between interior, publisher of the prominent daily reformists and conservatives over the politi- newspaper Khordad, and reformist candi- cal direction of the Islamic republic leading to date for speaker, was brought to trial in new human rights abuses, notably violations November 1999 before the Special Court for of freedom of expression. Reformist candi- the Clergy. dates supporting President Khatami won a However, he used his trial as an oppor- significant victory in February’s parliamen- tunity to advocate reform, reminding his tary elections, hailed as the fairest in Iran’s conservative accusers that they could not history, but hopes that this would lead quickly impose their own interpretation of Islam and to institutionalized gains for the legal protec- challenging the religious and legal authority of tion of human rights proved misplaced. Con- the court, which he likened to an inquisition. servatives used their control over powerful Nouri’s statements, which included favor- state institutions, most importantly the judi- able reference to Ayatollah Montazeri’s criti- ciary, to intimidate and silence supporters of cisms of the velayet-e faqih (rule of the su- greater political freedom. Twenty-five inde- preme jurist) were widely reported in the pendent newspapers and magazines were opposition press. Nevertheless, Nouri was closed, and leading publishers and journalists convicted, sentenced to five years of impris- were imprisoned on vague charges of “insult- onment, and disqualified from standing in the ing Islam” or “calling into question the Islamic election. foundation of the republic.” The prosecution In January, the Council of Guardians and conviction, after an unfair trial, of ten removed other prominent reformists from the Iranian Jews from Shiraz on charges of espio- list of candidates, including Abbas Abdi, a nage for Israel highlighted serious due process leader of the 1989 seizure of the U.S. embassy shortcomings in Iran’s judicial system and in Tehran, which occasioned the hostage raised fears that religious minorities would crisis, who had since then taken public steps face greater persecution. The government to reconcile with his former captives. Candi- continued to make frequent use of the death dates from the opposition Iran Freedom penalty after trials which failed to comply Movement, including its leader Ebrahim with international standards. Some execu- Yazdi, were again banned from participating tions were carried out in public. in the elections. The early part of the year was domi- Mahmoud Ali Chehregani, an advocate nated by elections for the sixth Majles (Is- of the rights of the Azeri minority, was lamic Consultative Assembly). Parliamen- prevented from registering as a candidate for tary elections in 1996 had been marred when the election in Tabriz by being detained by the Council of Guardians vetoed more than 44 local police until after the registration dead- percent of the candidates. This year the line had passed. council, a government-appointed body of On March 12, a gunman shot and se- twelve senior clerics and legal experts, vetoed verely wounded Saeid Hajjarian, a director of less than 10 percent of the candidates. Of Sobh-e Emrouz, the reformist newspaper 6,083 candidates who stood for election to the that had taken the lead in exposing the in- 290 seats, 576 were disqualified. Despite the volvement of state officials in extrajudicial IRAN 379 executions of dissident intellectuals. He was many leading reformists publishing their own also a leading political advisor to President newspapers, which acted as forums for wide- Khatami, and regarded as the architect of the ranging discussion of issues confronting the reformists’ February electoral triumph. His country. The press had been a major factor assailant escaped from the scene of the shoot- in the reformists’ electoral success and, in- ing on a motorcycle of the type reserved for creasingly, was exposing corruption within use by security forces and police at the scene the ruling conservative elite and its involve- made no attempt to apprehend him, raising ment in gross human rights violations, includ- suspicion that he was acting in collaboration ing extrajudicial executions of dissidents. The with members of the security forces. How- conservatives’ action against the press dealt ever, the assailant was arrested soon after- a devastating blow to what had been one of the wards and, together with four co-conspira- few visible achievements of the reform move- tors, tried, and sentenced to fifteen years of ment, a vibrant, independent print media. imprisonment. The reformist movement was far from The attempt on Hajjarian’s life height- monolithic. It included both Islamist demo- ened fears that paramilitary death squads crats, who advocated a more responsive po- were at work within the state apparatus. A litical system, and others who more directly group of police officers charged with an attack challenged the clergy’s central role in politics on a Tehran University student dormitory in and the notion that the supreme leader of the July 1999 (see World Report 2000) went on Islamic Republic should have absolute power trial in March, but they did not include to determine divinely ordained policy. uniformed paramilitaries who witnesses said In April, conservative elements within were responsible for the worst of the vio- the judiciary began to close down indepen- lence, in which at least four students were dent newspapers and magazines, and to im- killed. In July, a senior police officer among prison leading journalists and editors. On those charged was acquitted. Scores of stu- April 10, Mashallah Shamsol-Vaezin, a pio- dents who were detained during demonstra- neer of independent media and editor of a tions and in the raid on the dormitory re- succession of banned titles, was imprisoned mained in prison. for thirty months on the grounds that an State officials accused of involvement in article he had published criticizing the death the murder of dissidents and intellectuals at penalty defamed Islam. On April 22, Akbar the end of 1998 have not yet been tried in Ganji, a leading investigative journalist for public. In September, a statement from the Fath newspaper, was imprisoned by the judiciary, published in the press, announced Tehran Press Court for defaming the security the beginning of court proceedings against forces in articles he had written about official eighteen former ministry of information offi- involvement in political killings and the attack cials accused of involvement in the killings. on Saeid Hajjarian. On April 23, Shamsol- Only two of the accused were in detention. Vaezin’s publisher, Latif Safari, was impris- Lawyers for the victims’ families, who were oned for two and a half years by the press granted access to prosecution files, com- court. The same day, eight daily and three plained that the files were still incomplete and weekly newspapers were ordered closed. raised questions about what had happened to Other prominent publishers or editors, some material gathered during two years of inves- of whom were also politicians, were indicted tigations. for press offenses or summoned to appear Conservatives mounted a concerted cam- before the press court. In August, Ahmad paign to close independent newspapers in Zeidabadi, Massoud Behnoud, Ebrahim order to weaken the reformists’ influence. In Nabavi, all journalists for independent news- the absence of formal political parties, news- papers, were taken into detention without papers were key agents for mobilizing popu- charge or explanation. lar support for the reformist cause, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, 380 IRAN

while endorsing “the free flow of informa- conservative backlash and anxious to reassure tion,” openly condoned the action taken conservatives that change would not under- against the press accusing some un-named mine the foundations of the state. Mehdi titles of being “bases of the enemy.” Follow- Karroubi, a cleric with a long history of senior ing this lead, conservatives redoubled their government service, was elected speaker as a attacks on reformists as agents of hostile alien candidate acceptable to all factions. forces, and the last remaining major indepen- The new parliament promised to amend dent daily, Bahar, was closed down in Au- the repressive press law passed in the closing gust. Ayatollah Jannati, a member of the months of the previous parliament. The law Council of Guardians, remarked that closing required applicants for new newspaper li- down the newspapers was “the best thing the censes to obtain prior approval from the judiciary had done since the revolution.” judiciary, closing a previous loophole that In April, leading Iranian reformist poli- had enabled banned newspapers to reopen ticians attended an international conference days later under a new name. The law also on Iran in Berlin, which was also attended by facilitated the closure of newspapers on banned, exiled political activists. This al- vaguely worded charges of “insulting Islam” lowed conservatives to portray the reform- or “undermining the religious foundation of ists as linked to hostile foreign powers, and the republic,” leaving the press court with many were prosecuted for participating in wide discretion to censor titles of which it what the state-controlled media portrayed as disapproved. Reformists drafted a new bill an anti-Iranian, anti-Islamic event. Veteran that would better protect press freedom but independent politician, Ezzatollah Sahabi, this was vehemently attacked by conserva- now more than seventy years of age, spent tives as un-Islamic and likely to spread cor- more than six weeks in detention under inter- ruption in society. On August 6, Ayatollah rogation before being released on bail. Three Khamenei ordered the parliament to drop its participants in the Berlin conference remained consideration of a new press law. This in prison at the end of the year. Five others are unprecedented intervention in the legislative awaiting trial, but free on bail. process by the supreme leader was accepted With the reformist press suppressed, by Speaker Karroubi, averting open conflict conservatives were emboldened to tamper between the parliament and the Council of with the election results. In May, the Council Guardians, which was anyway expected to of Guardians nullified the results in eleven veto the proposed new law. constituencies and canceled 726,000 of the Other early actions by the new parlia- more than three million votes cast in the ment indicated a pragmatic approach. New Tehran constituency, without explanation. legislation to facilitate access by foreign in- For the clerical establishment, the most em- vestors to the Iranian market passed unani- barrassing outcome of the election was former mously, indicating a shared recognition that President Rafsanjani’s failure to gain enough the country’s severe economic problems votes to win a seat in the new Majles. Revised needed government attention. Reformist results several months later placed Rafsanjani pledges to carry out public inquiries into the higher in the poll but, rather than face humili- attack on student dormitories remained un- ating criticism that the vote had been rigged, fulfilled, however. On a positive note, a the powerful former president stood down parliamentary commission carried out an in- from his seat. vestigation into prison conditions, visiting When the new Majles convened in late prisons in different parts of the country. The May the reformists controlled some 150 of publication of the commission’s findings, the 290 seats, but it was unclear whether the scheduled for mid-October, was delayed, diverse factions of the reformist bloc would reportedly because of their critical tone and be able to operate as a unified voting group. exposure of torture. Many reformists appeared chastened by the Former detainees, arrested after the stu- IRAN 381 dent disturbances in July 1999, informed wards the end of the year, the vigilantes Human Rights Watch that they were tortured resumed their usual activities of assaulting and sexually abused while in prison in 1999 reformists, breaking up demonstrations, and and early 2000. Ahmad Batebi, a student provoking disorder designed to discredit the sentenced to thirteen years of imprisonment, reformist cause. In September, a group of wrote a letter to the head of the judiciary that vigilantes attacked a book exhibit in Esfahan, was published in the international press, claiming that the titles showed disrespect for protesting beating and lashing that he had Islam. After the extreme vigilante violence of suffered while in detention. July 1999, Minister of Information Ali Unfulfilled expectations were the cause Younessi declared that such violence would of several clashes between demonstrators and no longer be permitted, but one year later he hardline conservative supporters and the se- could only acknowledge that “they have their curity forces. On the anniversary of the own leadership network and do as they student demonstrations of July 1999, stu- please.” The activities of the shadowy para- dents marched and were joined by other military supporters of conservatism, and the demonstrators expressing their frustration at identities of the leaders behind the violence, poor economic conditions. The protesters in had been favorite topics of the independent Tehran were beaten by the self-styled parti- press. With suppression of this media, hard- sans of the party of God, ansar-e hezbollahi, liners were able to intimidate political oppo- and forcibly dispersed. nents free from the threat of public exposure. More serious clashes occurred in the A former vigilante, Amir Farshad provincial town of Khorramabad in West Ebrahimi, stated in a videotape that vigilantes Azerbaijan province in late August. Two had received payments from senior clerics in leading reformist thinkers, Abdol Karim order to carry out attacks on reformist per- Soroush and Mohssen Kadivar, were pre- sonalities and to disrupt public events. He vented by hezbollahis armed with clubs and was sentenced in October, after a closed trial, knives from attending a student convention in to two years of imprisonment for defamation the town at which they were due to give of public officials. His lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, speeches. There followed a week of street and another lawyer, Mohssen Rahami, who clashes between students and hardline vigi- had received a copy of the tape, were given lantes in which a police officer was killed and suspended prison sentences and banned from dozens of people were injured, requiring practicing law for five years. False allegations hospital treatment. Townspeople joined in were made by the conservative press that a the protests on the side of the students. One Human Rights Watch researcher had been hundred and fifty protesters, mostly stu- involved in the production and dissemination dents, were detained after these disturbances. of the tape, but no formal charges were made Hardline vigilantes were less active in against her. the early part of the year, partly because the The April trial in Shiraz of thirteen judiciary was more actively targeting reform- Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel was ists. On April 14, the supreme leader con- conducted against this background of fac- doned “legal-violence” against the “bases of tional conflict. The factual basis of the case the enemy” and “centers of corruption,” against the accused remained shrouded in suggesting that the vigilantes should act only mystery even after ten of them were con- when the judiciary and the legal authorities victed of forming an illegal organization and were not doing enough to maintain order. His maintaining contacts with Israel, a hostile remarks at Friday prayers contained a barely foreign power. While the trial was in progress, veiled threat that citizen violence to protect defendants gave interviews on state-controlled Islam was justified if the state was failing in television in which they confessed to espio- its obligation to protect the faith. As demon- nage. These confessions were contested by strations of popular discontent mounted to- their lawyer, however, and appear not to have 382 IRAN

formed part of the court proceedings. appeal to the Supreme Court to pass, and The trial, before a revolutionary court, dismissed their defense lawyers without ex- was unfair. It was conducted in closed ses- planation. sion, and observers, including a representa- While all Iranian leaders took exception tive of Human Rights Watch, were denied to international criticism of the case, stressing access to the proceedings. Before trial, the that the judicial process should be allowed to defendants were held incommunicado for take its course, President Khatami repeatedly many months, during which the statements emphasized that the Jewish community that formed the basis for their conviction were formed an integral part of Iranian society. In taken from them by the judge in his dual role August, he received leaders of the Iranian as prosecutor as well as judge. The defen- Jewish community and relatives of the Shiraz dants, three of whom were acquitted at trial, defendants. were allowed access to legal counsel only once Other minority religious communities they had confessed. continued to be subjected to persecution. In Yet, in some respects, the trial of the February, three Bahais, Sirus Zabihi- Jews was uncharacteristically transparent by Moghadam, Hedayat Kashefi-Najafabadi and the standards of Iran’s revolutionary courts. Manouchehr Khulusi, were sentenced to death, The trial judge met with journalists, diplo- apparently because of their religious activi- mats, and human rights observers and an- ties. Two of the three had been detained since swered questions about the case. Whereas 1997 for violating the ban on Bahai religious most defendants tried before such courts are gatherings. The details of the third man’s denied all access to legal counsel, in the Shiraz detention were not known. trial, principal defense lawyer Esmail Naseri The Iraq-based armed opposition group, openly challenged the validity of his clients’ the People’s Mojahedine Organization of confessions, made while they were denied Iran, continued to carry out attacks against access to their lawyer, and pointed out the targets inside Iran. Although the organization absence of other incriminating evidence. Af- claimed to be targeting officials, several civil- ter the July sentencing of ten of the defen- ians were killed or injured in incidents, such dants to prison terms of between two and as a mortar attack on the presidential office in thirteen years, Naseri commented that, by downtown Tehran in February. law, they should be released pending an appeal because of the many procedural vio- Defending Human Rights lations in the prosecution process, but that he The closure of independent newspapers feared political interference would rule this was a major blow to public awareness of, and out. Then, in September, days before the discourse on, human rights, but some steps result of the appeal was due to be announced were taken towards the creation of indepen- Naseri told a press conference that he had dent local human rights organizations. An been pressured to withdraw his objections to Iranian Committee for the Protection of Jour- his clients’ confessions and told that they nalists continued to promote and protect would choose new lawyers if he refused to do international standards on freedom of expres- so. He said that the thirteen had been held in sion, but most of the organization’s leaders prolonged solitary confinement until they were subsequently imprisoned or facing pros- were disorientated and willing to incriminate ecution for their journalism. The nongovern- themselves, and that he would reveal the mental Writers Association publicly criti- source of the pressure and threats against him cized attacks on the press and restrictions on if his clients’ confessions were upheld. In freedom of expression, and the Islamic Com- September, the appeals court upheld the mission on Human Rights, an official body convictions but reduced the sentences to based within the judiciary, also spoke out between two and six years. In October, the against the closure of newspapers and pros- defendants allowed the deadline for filing an ecutions of editors and journalists. Mehrangiz IRAN 383

Kar, a lawyer and women’s rights activist, European Union was arrested in April after making a speech The prospect of lucrative Iranian trade advocating women’s rights at the Berlin con- and investment contracts for European cor- ference. She was freed on bail after a month. porations was a high priority for E.U. leaders, In August, Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari, a but the Shiraz trial of Iranian Jews strained the religious scholar, was imprisoned on his re- improving relations between E.U. members turn from Germany for his advocacy of liberal states and Iran. In France and other European interpretations of Islam supportive of human countries, demonstrations called for the sev- rights principles. He had delayed his return ering of diplomatic relations with Iran if the from the Berlin conference. He was charged as defendants were convicted, and in April the an apostate and with being corrupt on earth, European Parliament passed a resolution urg- charges which carry the death penalty. ing the Iranian authorities to guarantee a fair Access to the country by international trial, allow access to international observers, human rights observers remained restricted and introduce a moratorium on the death and the U.N. special representative on Iran penalty. Many E.U. leaders, while condemn- continued to be denied entry. However, a ing continued violations of human rights, Human Rights Watch researcher in posses- publicly expressed support for the reformist sion of an Iranian passport was able to visit policies of President Khatami, and he made in April and to meet with officials, but other state visits to France and Germany during the Human Rights Watch representatives and year. those of other nongovernmental organiza- tions were generally not issued visas. The United States government allowed representatives of a There was a continued slow warming of French legal association to visit Iran at the relations between the United States and Iran. time of the Shiraz trial of Iranian Jews. The U.S. commented favorably on the Febru- ary elections, but continued to express con- The Role of the International cern over Iran’s alleged support for interna- Community tional terrorism and efforts to develop nuclear weapons. President Clinton and other U.S. United Nations leaders publicly criticized the Shiraz trial. The U.N. Commission on Human Restrictions were eased on the import to the Rights, while welcoming a number of positive U.S. of certain goods, but restrictions on U.S. developments such as the February elections, corporations investing in Iran remained in “expressed concern” about Iran’s human rights place, to the increasing displeasure of corpo- record in a resolution in April. The resolution rations who saw contracts being awarded to called on the government to resume coopera- their European competitors. tion with the U.N. special representative on A delegation of Iranian parliamentarians Iran, Maurice Copithorne of Canada, and it led by Speaker Karrubi attended an Inter- extended his mandate. The resolution also Parliamentary Union conference in New York expressed concern over the Jews’ trial, dis- in August, and met several members of the crimination against the situation of religious U.S. Congress at a reception. During Presi- minorities, and the prevalence of the death dent Khatami’s visit to New York for the penalty. In his report to the General Assem- U.N. Millennium Summit, President Clinton bly in October, Copithorne was more critical, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright singling out the “accelerating attack on the conspicuously attended his speeches. The press” as the most dramatic development, but State Department’s Country Report on Hu- also noting the lack of progress in judicial man Rights Practices for 1999, issued before reform and the execution of 130 people be- the post-election crack-down on the reform- tween January and July. ist movement, gave some credit for improve- ments in the freedom of expression field, 384 IRAN/IRAQ AND IRAQI KURDISTAN

while remaining critical of a wide range of Council adopted a resolution expanding the violations. The Annual Report on Interna- “oil-for-food” program and setting up a new tional Religious Freedom, issued by the State weapons inspection system, proposing the Department in early September identified suspension of the sanctions for a limited Iran as “a country of concern,” because of its period following compliance by Iraq with the persecution of religious minorities. provisions of the resolution. The Iraqi gov- ernment rejected the proposal, stating that none of the Security Council’s resolutions provided for such suspension, and continued IRAQ AND IRAQI to demand the total lifting of sanctions. Inter- national consensus over the sanctions was KURDISTAN further eroded following several “humanitar- ian flights” by Russia, France, Syria and Human Rights Developments Egypt, among others, following the reopen- The Iraqi government continued to com- ing of Baghdad’s Saddam International air- mit widespread and gross human rights vio- port in mid-July. lations, including arbitrary arrests of sus- pected political opponents, executions of Human Rights Developments in prisoners, and forced expulsions of Kurds Government-controlled Iraq and Turkmen from Kirkuk and other districts. Five Republican Guard officers were Known or suspected political opponents reportedly executed on December 29, 1999, living abroad were reportedly frequently tar- after being accused of complicity in the al- geted and threatened by Iraqi government leged attempted murder of President Saddam agents. Hussain’s younger son, Qusay. Among them Relations between the two opposition were Lieut. Col. Ibrahim Jassem and Capt. groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party ‘Umar Abdul Razzaq. In April, a number of (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Republican Guard and Special Security Forces (PUK), that retained control over most of the personnel were reportedly arrested following northern provinces of Duhok, Arbil and an alleged coup attempt. Some forty Repub- Sulaimaniya, remained strained despite a 1998 lican Guard members were reportedly among U.S.-brokered peace agreement and contin- those taken to Radhwaniyya prison, includ- ued mediation efforts by the U.S. In the north, ing Staff Lieut. Col. Hashem Jassem Majid the year was punctuated by clashes between and Lieut. Col. Shawqi Shraishi. Further these and other Kurdish parties, resulting in arrests and executions were reported in May casualties and some arrests, and human rights of four officers belonging to the Special Secu- abuses were committed by the KDP, PUK rity Forces, among them staff colonels Kadhim and opposition groups. Municipal council Jawad ‘Ali and ‘Ali Muhammad Salman. elections were held in PUK-controlled terri- Numerous executions of political pris- tory in February, the first in the region since oners as well as those convicted for criminal May 1992. offences were apparently carried out as part In the area under Iraqi government con- of the government’s “prison cleansing” cam- trol, elections were held on March 27 for a paign involving several prisons, including new four-year term National Assembly, in Abu Ghraib and Radhwaniyya. In March, the which 220 of the 250 parliamentary seats opposition Iraqi Communist Party’s Center were contested. The other thirty, reserved for Human Rights submitted to the U.N. for the Kurdish population, were filled by special rapporteur on Iraq details on 223 presidential appointees. executions that it said were carried out be- Economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by tween October 12, 1999, and March 9, 2000. the United Nations Security Council in Au- They included twenty-six political detainees gust 1991 remained in force. The Security executed on November 26, 1999, and a further IRAQ AND IRAQI KURDISTAN 385 twenty-six executed on January 27, all in Abu of a female relative by intelligence personnel. Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The majority The rape or threat of rape has long been used were Shi’a Muslims from Basra, al-Samawa, in Iraq as a punitive measure against oppo- al-Nasiriyya, al-Diwaniyya, al-Hilla, nents to extract confessions or information or al-’Amara and Baghdad, some of whom had to pressure them into desisting from been held without judicial due process since anti-government activities. Shortly after- 1991 on suspicion of having participated in wards, Salihi received a telephone call from the March 1991 uprising. The bodies of the his brother in Baghdad, asking him to cease all victims were reportedly buried in mass graves opposition activity. Iraqi political exiles liv- near the prison. ing in Europe and elsewhere consistently Iraqi security forces continued to target reported being threatened with the arrest or suspected supporters of Ayatollah execution of their relatives if they did not Muhammad Sadeq al-Sadr, a leading Shi’a return to Iraq or abandoned opposition activ- cleric who was assassinated in al-Najaf in ity, and asylum seekers in Jordan, Syria and February 1999 together with his two sons. In other countries reported being under surveil- March, scores of Shi’a Muslims who had fled lance by Iraqi intelligence agents. Iraq earlier in the year and in 1999 told Human The government continued its forced Rights Watch that they had been repeatedly expulsion of Kurds and Turkmen from Kirkuk, interrogated and in some cases detained and Khaniqin, Makhmour, Sinjar, Tuz Khormatu, tortured. Some of those detained were rela- and other districts as part of its ‘Arabization’ tives of prominent clerics or of Ayatollah program. Those expelled included individu- al-Sadr’s students who had been arrested als who had refused to sign so-called “nation- shortly after his assassination. Twenty-two ality correction” forms, introduced by the of those arrested soon after his murder were authorities prior to the 1997 population cen- tried by a special court attached to the sus, requiring members of ethnic groups re- Mudiriyyat al-Amn al-’Amma (General Se- siding in these districts to relinquish their curity Directorate) in Baghdad on charges Kurdish or Turkman identities and to register including carrying out armed attacks on mili- officially as Arabs. The Iraqi authorities also tary and Ba’th Party personnel, membership seized their property and assets; those who of a prohibited organization, and sheltering were expelled to areas controlled by Kurdish supporters of Ayatollah al-Sadr who were opposition forces were stripped of all pos- being sought by the authorities. On May 13, sessions and their ration cards were with- at least six, all students of religion in al-Najaf, drawn. A smaller number, mostly Turkmen, were sentenced to death and their homes were forcibly expelled to central and southern demolished. They included Shaikh Salim Iraq, including al-Ramadi, and were allowed Jassem al-’Abbudi, Shaikh Nasser al-Saa’idi to take some of their possessions. In both and Sa’ad al-Nuri. Other defendants received cases, the Iraqi authorities frequently de- sentences of life imprisonment or lesser terms. tained heads of households until the expul- By October 2000 it was not known whether sions were complete. Over 800 people were the death sentences had been carried out. reportedly expelled between January and Some of their relatives were also arrested and June, bringing the total number of those tortured. expelled since 1991 to over 94,000, according Iraqi intelligence agents targeted politi- to Kurdish opposition sources. cal opponents who had fled Iraq, threatening Press freedom and the right to informa- and intimidating them or arresting and tortur- tion remained severely restricted. The gov- ing family members still in the country. On ernment maintained tight control on all media June 7, Staff Lieut. Gen. Najib al-Salihi, outlets, including television, radio, and news- former chief of staff of the Iraqi army’s Sixth papers, most of which were state-owned. Armoured Division who had fled to Jordan in Satellite dishes and modems remained under 1995, received a videotape showing the rape ban, and the installation of facsimile machines 386 IRAQ AND IRAQI KURDISTAN

continued to require special permission. Plans and services was said to be in “steep decline.” announced by the authorities in November This assessment was supported by the find- 1999 to allow Iraqis to tune into selected ings of U.N. and other humanitarian agencies. satellite television channels through a paid In a report published in December 1999, the service had not materialized by October 2000. International Committee of the Red Cross Internet services, provided solely by the (ICRC) said the sanctions have had a “devas- Ministry of Culture and Information, became tating effect on the lives of civilians,” and that available to Iraqis for the first time on July 27 while the “oil-for-food” program has allevi- when an Internet café opened in Baghdad. ated their plight, “it has not halted the col- The authorities announced that additional lapse of the health system and the deteriora- centers would be opened in other cities in the tion of the water supplies, which together future. Minister of Transport and Commu- pose one of the gravest threats to the health nications Ahmad Murtada Khalil reportedly and well-being of the civilian population.” In said that customers could browse those Web a report published on September 13, the FAO sites that did not violate “the precepts of the said that while existing food rations, com- Islamic religion” or offend “morals and eth- bined with market food purchases, have “halted ics.” However, users were reportedly banned further deterioration in the nutritional situa- access to unmonitored Web-based electronic tion, they have not by themselves been able mail systems. to reverse this trend.” It concluded that acute On June 28, two staff members of the malnutrition among children under five had United Nations Food and Agriculture Orga- decreased only slightly from the 12 percent nization (FAO) were shot dead in Baghdad recorded in 1995, and that at least 800,000 and seven others wounded, reportedly by an children under five were chronically malnour- Iraqi identified by the authorities as Fowad ished. Hussain Haidar. He said he had carried out the attack in protest at the U.N.-imposed em- Human Rights Developments bargo. in Iraqi Kurdistan The overall humanitarian situation in The two major Kurdish opposition Iraq remained dire despite the expanded groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, the KDP and the “oil-for-food” program. In his March 10 PUK, retained control over most areas in the report to the Security Council on the opera- three northern provinces of Arbil, Duhok and tion of the program, U.N. Secretary-General Sulaimaniya. Despite mediation efforts by Kofi Annan noted that “an excessive number U.S. government officials, little progress was of holds” continued to impede the relief made towards the implementation of the program. These included holds on contracts provisions of the 1998 Washington Accord. in the water and sanitation and electric power Both sides pledged to normalize relations but sectors, which he stated were a major factor continued to maintain separate administra- impeding progress in the area of public health. tive, legislative and executive structures in In his most recent report of September 8 to the areas under their control. On October 22, Security Council, the Secretary-General noted senior officials from the two parties agreed on some improvements in this area, but said that a series of measures, including prisoner ex- “infrastructural degradation” of the water and changes, the gradual return of internally dis- sanitation sector was being exacerbated by placed people to their homes, and arrange- “the absence of key complementary items ments for the organization of free movement currently on hold and adequate maintenance, of people and trade between their respective spare parts and staffing.” As regards the areas. Most of these measures were not electricity sector, the report stated that the implemented. In December 1999, the PUK “entire electricity grid is in a precarious state announced that it would set up a separate and is in imminent danger of collapsing alto- court of cassation to serve areas it controlled, gether.” The overall provision of health care and on February 3 held municipal council IRAQ AND IRAQI KURDISTAN 387 elections. One prisoner exchange took place istry of Interior building in Sulaimaniya. on March 6, the PUK releasing five KDP Others were arrested in the ensuing days, prisoners and the KDP releasing ten PUK including three IWCP leaders who were re- prisoners. Both sides continued to grant portedly negotiating a settlement with PUK regular access to their prisons to ICRC rep- officials at the time. The premises of two resentatives who, as of April, were visiting an organizations affiliated to the IWCP, the estimated 500 detainees held by both parties. Centre for the Protection of Women in In March, the KDP broadcast on its Kurdistan and the Independent Womens’ television channel, Kurdistan TV, statements Organization, were raided on July 21. Twelve by five detainees in its custody who had women sheltering at the center, a shelter for apparently admitted to carrying out acts of abused women, were taken away and their sabotage in the Arbil region in previous whereabouts remained unknown. Most of months. The five were allegedly members of the IWCP detainees were released by late the opposition Islamic Unity Movement of September. Kurdistan (IUMK), whose leaders denied A number of people were killed and these allegations in a statement issued on attempts made on the lives of others by March 15, saying that Iraqi government agents unknown assailants in apparently politically were likely to be responsible for these acts. motivated acts. Among them was Farhad They also said the five detainees had been Faraj, a political activist and founder of a trade denied judicial due process and their confes- union organization, the Union for the Unem- sions extracted under torture, which KDP ployed in Kurdistan, who was killed outside officials denied in an April 2 statement. Acts his home in Sulaimaniya city on October 17, of sabotage continued, however, with two 1999. In another incident, Hawjin Mala bomb blasts occurring in June in both Arbil Amin, a researcher at the anthropology de- and Sulaimaniya amid reports of the Iraqi partment of Sulaimaniya University, was government’s deployment of additional shot outside his home in the city on December troops to the northern region, apparently 9, 1999. He survived and later stated that he with the aim of launching armed attacks on may have been targeted because of his out- Kurdish-controlled territory. spoken views on Islam. In a speech on KDP security forces attacked the head- December 23, 1999, PUK leader Jalal Talabani quarters of the opposition Iraqi Turkmen condemned the attack and stated that “perpe- Front (ITF) in Arbil on July 11, killing trators of terror” who were targeting writers Abdullah Adil Hursit and Feridun Fazil and artists would be punished. On July 17, Mehmet, both guards. The immediate reason a parliamentarian in the Kurdistan Regional for the attack was unclear, but relations be- Government (KRG), Osman Hassan, was tween the two sides had deteriorated since an shot dead by a group of armed men near Arbil. earlier incident in April, when several ITF He had represented the PUK prior to 1996, members staged a sit-in at their headquarters and had elected to remain in Arbil when PUK in protest at what they stated was undue forces were ousted from the regional capital interference by the KDP in the Turkmen that year and withdrew to their strongholds community’s internal affairs. The KDP de- in Sulaimaniya province. The KDP initiated nied these charges. an investigation into his death, but its out- PUK forces arrested members and sup- come was not known by October 2000. porters of the opposition Iraqi Workers Com- There were repeated military incursions munist Party (IWCP) in July and August in by Turkey’s armed forces into northern Iraq an apparent attempt to pressure them into in pursuit of members of the opposition leaving PUK-controlled areas. Thirteen dem- Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of Turkey. onstrators protesting the cutting of water and Several thousand troops were deployed in electricity supplies to IWCP bases were September and November 1999, with the arrested on July 13 outside the PUK’s Min- Turkish airforce targeting PKK positions in 388 IRAQ AND IRAQI KURDISTAN

both KDP and PUK-controlled areas. Fur- meet basic civilian needs. Iraq’s Deputy ther incursions were carried out in April, Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, condemned the May, and August 2000, resulting in one case resolution and said that no weapons inspec- in the killing of thirty-eight Iraqi Kurdish tors would be permitted into the country. civilians. (See Turkey). In July, armed clashes On February 14, the Secretary-General broke out between PKK and KDP forces, appointed Yuli Vorontsov as high-level coor- lasting several days and reportedly resulting dinator for the return of missing property and in forty casualties, most of them PKK fight- missing persons from Iraq to Kuwait, as ers. In mid-September, fierce fighting broke required by Resolution 1284. An estimated out between PKK and PUK forces, which 605 Kuwaiti and third-country nationals re- continued intermittently for over two weeks mained unaccounted for since the withdrawal in several areas, including Qala Diza, Rania, of Iraqi forces from Kuwait in February 1991. and Zeli, with scores of casualties reported on On June 8, the Security Council adopted both sides. The fighting ended on October 4 Resolution 1302, extending the “oil-for-food” when the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire. program for a further six months, introducing accelerated procedures for the approval of The Role of the International water and sanitation equipment, and instruct- Community ing the secretary-general to appoint indepen- dent experts to conduct a comprehensive United Nations assessment of the humanitarian situation in Policy toward Iraq continued to cause Iraq. In his September 8 report to the Security divisions within the Security Council and the Council on the operation of the “oil-for-food” international community generally, exacer- program, the secretary-general reported that bated by mounting evidence that U.N. sanc- the Iraqi government had refused to issue tions were having a devastating humanitarian visas to the experts he had appointed. It also impact in Iraq. As evidence of this, the refused to discuss how a “cash component” Security Council was able to adopt Resolu- to the “oil-for-food” program could allow tion 1284 on December 17, 1999, only after U.N.-controlled funds to be used to purchase three permanent members, France, China, locally produced goods and services. The and Russia agreed to abstain. The resolution report also cited serious problems stemming established, as a subsidiary body to the coun- from protracted holds by the Security cil, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Council’s sanctions committee on key infra- Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) to structure repair items affecting public health, carry out weapons inspections in Iraq autho- emphasizing that humanitarian relief alone rized by Resolution 687 (1991). Its predeces- cannot address the overall impoverishment of sor, UNSCOM, was disbanded following the ordinary people. withdrawal of its staff from Iraq in December U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq 1998. The resolution proposed the suspen- Hans von Sponeck left Iraq on March 31 after sion of sanctions for a 120-day period, renew- resigning in protest at the effect of sanctions able by the council, made contingent upon on the Iraqi population, and was succeeded Iraq’s cooperation with UNMOVIC. It also by Tun Myat. On August 15, Benon Sevan, removed the dollar ceiling on Iraqi oil exports, executive director of the U.N. Office of the allowing increased funding of the Iraq Program (OIP), urged the Security Coun- “oil-for-food” humanitarian relief program cil to adopt a “fresh approach and more authorized under Resolution 986 (1995). flexibility” following a 17-day visit to Iraq. However, it did not incorporate fully the In a resolution adopted on December 17, March 1999 recommendations of the council’s 1999, the General Assembly strongly con- “humanitarian panel” addressing Iraq’s ur- demned Iraq’s human rights record, including gent humanitarian needs, notably the infra- widespread and systematic torture, sum- structure planning and investment required to mary and arbitrary executions, widespread IRAQ AND IRAQI KURDISTAN 389 use of the death penalty, and “the suppres- Rights adopted a resolution calling on the sion of freedom of thought, expression, infor- Security Council to lift the embargo provi- mation, association, assembly and move- sions affecting the humanitarian situation of ment.” It called on the government to “cease the population of Iraq. The resolution also its repressive practices” and to “bring the appealed to all governments, including that of actions of its military and security forces into Iraq, to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi conformity with the standards of interna- population, in particular by facilitating the tional law.” It also urged cooperation with delivery of food and medical supplies to meet U.N. human rights mechanisms, “in particu- their basic needs. lar by receiving a return visit by the Special On June 14, the Committee on the Elimi- Rapporteur to Iraq.” nation of Discrimination against Women con- In November 1999, Max van der Stoel, sidered Iraq’s combined second and third special rapporteur on Iraq since 1991, re- periodic reports submitted under article 18 of signed. He was succeeded by Andreas the Convention on the Elimination of Dis- Mavrommatis, who said in a preliminary crimination against Women. The committee report to the Commission on Human Rights noted that the advancement of women and in March that he had received numerous their socio-economic well-being had been communications alleging human rights viola- adversely affected by the ongoing sanctions, tions by the Iraqi government, including ar- but stressed Iraq’s obligations under the con- bitrary detentions, executions, torture, “dis- vention to implement the relevant appearances,” and discrimination against re- anti-discriminatory measures. The commit- ligious and other minorities. While expressing tee criticized, among other things, discrimina- concern about the grave humanitarian situa- tion against women under Iraq’s nationality tion in Iraq, the special rapporteur also noted law and violence against women perpetrated that serious violations of human rights and through honor killings. fundamental freedoms could not be justified under any circumstances. He added that he European Union had made a formal request to the government The E.U. remained the largest donor of to visit Iraq to “study, in situ, the human humanitarian aid to Iraq, with 8.6 million rights situation.” The special rapporteur’s euros allocated for the year through the Euro- mandate was extended for a further year in a pean Community Humanitarian Office resolution passed on April 18, in which the (ECHO). It was intended to fund operations commission strongly condemned the “sys- in central and southern Iraq run by U.N. tematic, widespread and extremely grave vio- specialized agencies and NGOs related to lations of human rights and of international health care, water and sanitation, food, and humanitarian law” in Iraq. It urged the gov- education ernment to abide by its international legal The European Parliament, in a January obligations and to cooperate with the U.N. 20 resolution, criticized Iraq for failing to human rights mechanisms, including by grant- clarify the cases of 605 Kuwaiti and third- ing the special rapporteur access to the coun- country nationals taken prisoner during Iraq’s try. In a report to the General Assembly, occupation of Kuwait, calling for their imme- issued in August, the special rapporteur pre- diate release and for the names of those who sented additional information he had received may have died in captivity to be revealed; about human rights abuses in Iraq, including demanding a review of all cases submitted arbitrary arrests, torture, and the harrassment through the ICRC over the past six years; and of political opponents. By October, the urging Iraq to resume participation in meet- special rapporteur had not been invited to ings of the Tripartite Commission, which was visit Iraq. set up in April 1991 under ICRC chairman- On August 18, the U.N. Subcommission ship to ascertain the fate of missing military on the Promotion and Protection of Human personnel and civilians after the 1991 Gulf 390 IRAQ AND IRAQI KURDISTAN

War. In an April 13 resolution, the parliament Iraq is already targeted as far as it can be on observed that “sanctions are penalizing the the government.” civilian population but, in nine years, have not succeeded in weakening the Iraqi regime,” United States and called on the E.U. to take action to ensure The U.S., together with the U.K., main- that the Security Council “clarifies the terms tained its policing of the “no-fly zone” over of Resolution 1284 by specifying precisely northern Iraq from Incirlik base in Turkey, what is expected of the Iraqi government.” and that of southern Iraq from bases in Saudi The resolution also called for the lifting of Arabia. Scores of civilians were reportedly sanctions “as a matter of urgency” once Iraq killed as a result of air strikes carried out by agreed to cooperate in implementing relevant the coalition forces in these zones. In re- U.N. resolutions. In a further resolution on sponse to information released by Iraq on July 6, the European Parliament reiterated its August 15 that since December 1998, U.S. call for the lifting of economic sanctions on and U.K. forces had flown over 18,500 sorties Iraq “while maintaining a strict arms em- killing 311 Iraqis and wounding 967 others, a bargo,” and proposed sending a fact-finding State Department spokesman said on August parliamentary delegation to Iraq to assess 28 that air strikes in the no-fly zones “are only ways of extending the “oil-for food” program taken in self-defense in response to Iraqi as a means of improving living conditions in threats to our forces,” and that “we make Iraq. The resolution also proposed that the every effort to avoid civilian casualties and E.U. play a role in bringing about “a lifting of damage to civilian facilities.” the no-fly zone, together with a formal renun- The U.S. continued to insist on the ciation by the Iraqi Government of the use of maintenance of comprehensive sanctions on military force in dealing with the demands for Iraq, including full compliance with Security autonomy of the Kurdish people.” Council resolution 1284, despite mounting The report of an all-party inquiry by the evidence from U.N. specialized agencies and International Development Committee of the NGOs working in Iraq that the ongoing sanc- U.K. House of Commons entitled The Future tions have caused a humanitarian crisis. In a of Sanctions concluded in January that the statement before the Security Council on heavy responsibility of the Iraqi government March 24, Deputy Permanent Representa- for the humanitarian crisis in the country did tive to the U.N. James Cunningham noted not “entirely excuse the international com- that the sanctions “ have never targeted the munity from a part in the suffering of Iraqis.” Iraqi people and have never limited the import “A sanctions regime which relies on the good of food and medicine.” He placed full respon- faith of Saddam Hussain is fundamentally sibility on the Iraqi government, “due to both flawed,” the report said. its failure to meet its obligations under Secu- British policy on Iraq remained closely rity Council resolutions and its cynical ma- aligned with that of the United States, al- nipulation of civilian suffering in an effort to though there were reports that U.K. officials obtain the lifting of sanctions without com- were pushing their U.S. counterparts on some pliance.” aspects of policy, especially Security Coun- On August 2, the tenth anniversary of cil “holds” on contracts under the Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the State “oil-for-food” program. In a July 17 letter to Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for War Church of England representatives following Crimes issues, David Scheffer, announced the a mission to Iraq, Peter Hain, the minister of administration’s intention to declassify a state with responsibility for the Middle East, number of Iraqi government documents cap- wrote that “this is an area in which we tured by U.S. forces in Kuwait in 1991. He continue to press the U.S. for greater flexibil- said this would contribute to efforts to bring ity.” On the question of “smarter sanctions,” Iraqi officials to justice for war crimes. The Hain wrote that “the regime in place against documents would be released through the Iraq ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES 391

Foundation, a U.S.-based NGO, providing evidence which “justifies an international ISRAEL,OCCUPIED tribunal like what exists for the former Yugo- slavia and Rwanda.” WEST BANK, Ambassador Scheffer also confirmed that the Clinton administration was provid- GAZA STRIP, & ing financial assistance to six NGOs to gather the necessary documentation for that pur- PALESTINIAN pose. On September 28, the State Depart- ment entered into a $4 million grant agreement AUTHORITY with the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) for programs in the areas of informa- TERRITORIES tion, advocacy, and humanitarian relief. The sum was the first part of a U.S. $8 million Human Rights Developments package allocated to the INC by Congress Within three weeks, more than 120 Pal- from the Economic Support Fund for fiscal estinians were killed and over 4,800 injured in year 2000 independently of the $97 million clashes with Israeli security forces that began allocated to INC under the 1998 Iraq Libera- on September 29. Most of the deaths were the tion Act. result of excessive, and often indiscriminate, In its Country Reports on Human Rights use of lethal force by Israel Defense Forces Practices for 1999, released on February 25, (IDF) soldiers, police, and border police the State Department described Iraq’s human against unarmed civilian demonstrators, in- rights record as “extremely poor.” It said that cluding children. The casualties were dispro- the government was responsible for numer- portionately on the Palestinian side, but two ous summary executions of suspected oppo- Israeli soldiers were beaten to death by a nents, “disappearances,” arbitrary detention, Palestinian mob. The large number of deaths torture, and the denial of the basic right of due and injuries in the clashes and the resulting process. In its Annual Report on Interna- deteriorating relationship between Israel and tional Religious Freedom for 2000, released the Palestinian Authority and neighboring on September 5, the State Department noted states greatly overshadowed and put into that the government “for decades has con- question certain human rights improvements, ducted a brutal campaign of murder, summary notably, an apparent decrease in the use of execution, and protracted arbitrary arrest torture by Israeli interrogators, a reduction in against the religious leaders and followers of the hostages and administrative detainees the majority Shi’a Muslim population, and Israel held, and fewer revocations of Jerusa- has sought to undermine the identity of mi- lem residency permits. In several cases the nority Christian (Assyrian and Chaldean) Israeli government also actively sought to and Yazidi groups.” thwart court rulings supporting human rights by supporting initiatives to legalize torture and hostage-taking, and by delaying the en- forcement of court rulings against discrimina- tion. On July 24, the Knesset voted to extend the fifty-two-year-old state of emergency until January 26, 2001, to allow the govern- ment time to enact similar powers into statute law. Discrimination in law and practice against ethnic and religious minorities and other so- cietal groups, especially on issues of employ- ment, social benefits, and personal status, 392 ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES

remained a major problem. While court chal- July the Civil Service Commission had re- lenges to discrimination were sometimes suc- ceived fifty-five complaints of sexual harass- cessful, the process often took years, and ment in the Defense Ministry, five more than court rulings frequently were not applicable in all of 1999. to other cases or were not fully implemented On May 22, the High Court of Justice by the government. For example, on March set a six month deadline for the government to 8 the High Court of Justice ruled on an establish procedures for women to pray “ac- October 1995 petition brought by a Palestin- cording to their custom” at the Western Wall ian couple who, though Israeli citizens, were in Jerusalem. The case was brought in 1989 barred from purchasing a home in a Jewish after conservative Jews violently attacked neighborhood built on state-owned lands. Jewish women who were attempting to pray More than 90 percent of land in Israel is state alongside men according to the customs of land, much of it expropriated from Palestin- Reform Judaism. Despite a 1994 High Court ians. The court ruled that the authorities of Justice ruling upholding the women’s right could not allocate land to citizens solely on to worship at the Western Wall, they were not the basis of their religion, though it noted that permitted to do so. On March 31, a draft law discrimination between Jews and non-Jews punishing such prayer with up to seven years might be acceptable under unspecified “spe- of imprisonment passed its preliminary cial circumstances.” The ruling ordered the Knesset reading, and in early June the govern- government to take such “special circum- ment asked to have the May 22 court judge- stances” into consideration when determin- ment reviewed by an expanded panel of ing “with deliberate speed” whether it would judges, on the grounds that it failed to ad- allow the couple to settle in the neighborhood, equately address “the affront to the feelings and stated that its ruling in this case would not of those who pray at the wall” that would affect previous discriminatory land alloca- ensue if women were allowed to pray with tions. men. Women faced discrimination in employ- The rate of revocation of permanent ment, access to education and health care, and residency permits of Palestinian residents of personal status, including marriage, divorce, East Jerusalem declined following Minister inheritance, and child custody. (See Women’s of Interior Natan Sharansky’s October 17, Human Rights.) Palestinian women and for- 1999, announcement that he had ended the so- eign women workers faced additional dis- called “center of life” policy. (See Human crimination that made them especially vul- Rights Watch World Report 2000). After nerable to abuses. A number of well-publi- repeated legal challenges led by the Jerusa- cized cases of trafficking in women for pros- lem-based Center for Defense of the Indi- titution, domestic violence, and sexual ha- vidual (Hamoked), the High Court of Justice rassment and assault helped increase public ordered Sharansky to clarify the terms of the awareness, but women suffering from such new policy, and on March 15 he stated in an violations still had little recourse. As of this affidavit before the High Court of Justice that writing, the Defense Ministry had taken few Palestinian Jerusalemites living abroad would steps to address an enduring pattern of sexual not lose their permanent residency if they harassment of women in the military, despite visited Jerusalem and maintained valid Is- a number of high-profile cases involving min- raeli-issued travel documents. Those who istry officials. The Knesset voted on July 5 acquired foreign nationality or permanent to lift the immunity of Transportation Min- resident status elsewhere continued to lose ister Yitzhak Mordechai, a former defense residency rights in Jerusalem, and Minister minister who had served in the IDF for thirty- Sharansky did not clarify the status of Pales- three years, after he was accused in March of tinian Jerusalemites living in the West Bank. sexually assaulting three women under his According to Hamoked, persons who sought supervision beginning in 1992. By the end of to reinstate their residency status under the ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES 393 new policy frequently faced serious adminis- Palestinian medics, at least one of whom was trative obstacles. Some 11,000 Palestinians killed and twenty-seven were injured by mid- were estimated to have lost their residency October. At this writing, the IDF had rights between 1996 and 1999. significantly expanded its use of tanks and Labor conditions for foreign and Pales- helicopter gunships armed with both missiles tinian workers remained poor. Palestinians and medium-caliber machine guns in Palestin- faced widespread discrimination in employ- ian residential areas. ment, while foreign workers were especially Israel retained extensive control over, vulnerable to exploitation by employers and and placed restrictions on, the freedom of labor contractors. On August 22, Ha’aretz movement of all West Bank and Gaza Strip reported that Prime Minister Ehud Barak had Palestinians. These policies obstructed Pal- ordered an increase in deportations of un- estinian economic activity and access to health documented foreign workers and set a quota care, schools and universities, places of wor- of 50,000 work permits per year. The move ship, and family members in other parts of the was opposed by workers’ groups and even territories or in Israeli prisons. On October the Public Security Ministry, which pre- 25, 1999, Israel opened a “safe passage” ferred a policy of targeting labor importers. allowing some increased movement between The government had temporarily halted de- the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but the portations in December 1999 following alle- arbitrary nature of the criteria for issuing gations of abuses of foreign workers, includ- travel permits and their indiscriminate impo- ing prolonged detention of persons awaiting sition on an entire population assured that the deportation; their detention together with restrictions remained a form of collective criminal prisoners; and the detention of vic- punishment. Following September 29 Israel tims of crimes while awaiting to testify in increased restrictions on movement into, out criminal cases. In May, the Interior Ministry of, and within the West Bank and Gaza Strip. acknowledged that it had prevented labor Palestinians passing through Israeli organizations such as Kav La’oved from checkpoints were frequently subjected to handing out pamphlets on labor rights to harassment, physical abuse, and even torture workers arriving at Ben-Gurion airport. by Israeli soldiers and police. For example, in On September 29, Israeli security forces a well-publicized incident on September 6, used lethal force to disperse thousands of three Palestinian laborers required hospital Palestinians attending Friday prayers at al- treatment after being beaten by border police Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem after some of at a checkpoint. During the attack the police those present threw stones at police and at photographed themselves with their victims, Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall. An and the unit commander later told Ha’aretz, unusually large number of Palestinians were “What we did was not special. Everybody present at the mosque to protest a visit the does it.” Other incidents resulted in deaths, previous day by Knesset Member Ariel as on July 9 when soldiers fired on a taxi Sharon, interpreted by many as an assertion carrying Atidal Muammer, killing her and of Israeli sovereignty over the area. Israeli injuring her husband, two children, and other forces killed five Palestinians and wounded passersby. Following an investigation, the over 200. Violent clashes between Israeli IDF said the killing was “a terrible mistake,” security forces and Palestinians then spread and stated that its soldiers were responding to to other parts of the West Bank, Gaza, and shots from a different vehicle. However, no Israel. Within three weeks, more than 120 such vehicle was recovered and no spent Palestinians were killed and 4,800 injured, cartridges were found at the scene of the many as result of excessive, often indiscrimi- shooting. nate, use of lethal force by Israeli security According to government figures, settle- forces against unarmed civilians. In a number ment construction in the Israeli-occupied of cases IDF soldiers appeared to target West Bank and Gaza Strip increased by 96 394 ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES

percent in the first half of 2000, with 860 of of Lafi al-Rajabi told the nongovernmental the 1,067 new starts in the Jerusalem area. At Palestinian Society for the Protection of the same time, demolitions of Palestinian Human Rights and the Environment (LAW) homes built without permits in the Israeli- that he had contacted them on January 14, occupied territories and in Israel continued, as shortly before he died in an Israeli detention did forced expulsions and expropriation of center near Nablus, saying his life was in Palestinian land. In October and November danger. His body reportedly was returned to 1999, Israeli authorities expelled some seven the family bearing cuts, bruises, and with wire hundred Palestinian cave dwellers from the marks on the neck. A third detainee, Sami Mount Hebron area of the West Bank, and As‘ad, reportedly hanged himself in Kishon destroyed or confiscated their homes and prison on June 19, seven weeks after being their personal property, including livestock. arrested. According to Ha’aretz, a psychiat- The government alleged that the area where ric evaluation had found him to have person- the cave dwellers had lived for decades was a ality disorders, and he had previously at- “closed military zone.” An investigation by tempted suicide. As of this writing, Human the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, Rights Watch is not aware of official findings concluded, however, that the area had not regarding the causes of any of these deaths been used for military exercises, and the being made public. expulsion was more likely intended to placate On April 12, the High Court of Justice Jewish settlers whom the government had ruled that Israel could not continue to admin- recently removed from a nearby illegal settle- istratively detain Lebanese nationals solely ment outpost. On March 29 the High Court as “bargaining chips” for the return of its of Justice ruled that the cave dwellers could soldiers missing in action. Five such hostages return to the area, pending a final determina- had been released in December 1999, and a tion in the case. sixth hostage, reported to be mentally ill, was Close to one thousand Palestinian pris- released on April 5. Thirteen more hostages oners participated in a month-long hunger were released on April 19, but Israel contin- strike in May, protesting arbitrary treatment ued to hold Shaykh `Abd al-Karim Obeid, by prison officials, substandard prison con- kidnapped in July 1989, and Mustafa al- ditions, prohibitions on family visits, use of Dirani, kidnapped in May 1994, despite solitary confinement, poor medical care, and repeated court challenges. Both men were Israel’s refusal to release all the categories of held in solitary confinement at an undisclosed prisoners specified in its agreements with the location, and on March 13 a lawyer for al- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Dirani filed a civil case against the Israeli strike was called off on May 31 after prison government seeking NIS6,000,000 (U.S. authorities promised to review complaints $1,473,900) in compensation for torture, and ease some restrictions on visitors. Ac- including rape, that al-Dirani had allegedly cording to Ha’aretz, a government report suffered while in Israeli custody. On June 11 issued in June on conditions in Shatta prison the Israeli Cabinet approved draft legislation described living conditions as “particularly to legalize hostage-taking which was specifi- harsh” in the wing where Palestinian prison- cally intended to facilitate al-Dirani and ers from the Israeli-occupied territories were Obeid’s continued detention, and the bill held, and concluded that the exposed tents passed its first Knesset reading on June 21. used to house prisoners and filthy bathrooms Israel also continued to detain Palestin- at the prison were unfit for human use. ians for long periods without charge or trial. Several deaths in custody were reported. According to the IDF, as of September 12 On August 11 Ramez Fayez Mohammed Israel held five Palestinians as administrative Rashid Elrizi died in al-Nafha prison. His detainees, including Khaled Hussein Jaradat, father said that he had been in relatively good who had been held continuously since August health during an August 9 visit. The family 21, 1997. ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES 395

Following a September 6, 1999, High Monitoring Group (PHRMG) reported that Court of Justice ruling that General Security despite seventy-three High Court of Justice Service (GSS) officers were not authorized to orders to release detainees that had been use “physical means”—torture—during in- issued since January 1997, only four had been terrogations, reports of incidents of torture implemented. For example, as of this writing decreased significantly. However, according Wa‘il‘Ali Faraj, arrested on April 25, 1996, to the nongovernmental Public Committee remained in detention despite a February 20, against Torture in Israel (PCATI), the GSS 1999, court order for his release. continued to employ interrogation techniques The security forces’ impunity extended including beatings, sleep deprivation, pro- to torture and ill-treatment of both political longed periods handcuffed to chairs, placing and criminal detainees. According to LAW, detainees with “collaborators” who beat, tor- when questioned on August 7 about specific tured, and threatened them to obtain confes- cases of torture, Police Commander Major sions; and long periods of incommunicado Kamal al-Shaykh asserted that “the thief who detention. In February, the government made does not confess must be beaten as a last public the summary of a 1995 state comptrol- resort to force him to confess.” Such attitudes ler report showing that high-ranking GSS may have contributed to the June 6 death in officers had condoned “serious and system- custody of thirty-five-year-old Khalid atic violations” by GSS interrogators be- Mohammed Yunis Bahar. According to the tween 1988 and 1992, and had lied to judges. Palestinian human rights group Law in the No actions were taken, however, to prosecute Service of Man (al-Haq), P.A. police arrested individuals who had been responsible for Bahar on May 25, apparently without a torture, and the Knesset continued to con- warrant, and his family was prevented from sider draft legislation to legalize torture in visiting him. Earlier, on December 6, 1999, cases where a suspect was believed to have Mahmud Mohammed Khalil Hassan al- information that could stop an imminent Bajjali, age thirty-three, died in Ramallah attack. prison. Both men were reported to have been in good health. As of this writing the P.A. had Palestinian Authority not released autopsy reports in these and Palestinian security services continued twenty-one cases of deaths in custody that to operate with impunity, despite recurring occurred in previous years. cases of torture, arbitrary arrests, and pro- During clashes between Palestinians and longed detention without charge or trial. An the IDF that began on September 29 (see overwhelmed judiciary was further weak- above), Palestinian security forces failed to ened by repeated executive branch interfer- act consistently and effectively to prevent ence in its work. Critics of these and other armed civilians from opening fire on IDF Palestinian Authority (P.A.) abuses were soldiers or positions from places where civil- frequently subject to harassment, arrest, and ians were present. This failure endangered the in some instances, violent attacks. Military Palestinian civilian population when the IDF and state security courts issued death sen- responded, often excessively and indiscrimi- tences after grossly unfair trials, which were nately. not subject to appeal. The judiciary suffered from a severe lack While individuals alleged to have affili- of resources and executive branch interfer- ations to political organizations critical of ence, and trials fell far short of international P.A. policy were frequently targeted for fair trial standards. P.A. President Yasser arbitrary arrest, there were also reports of Arafat refused to ratify the Judicial Author- mass arrests, as when some thirty students ity Law, passed by parliament on November were detained after a demonstration at Birzeit 25, 1998, and instead issued ad hoc decrees, University on February 26. In June, the non- including a June 1 decree creating a Supreme governmental Palestinian Human Rights Judicial Council with poorly defined powers, 396 ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES

and a November 1, 1999 decree creating the said the suspensions were “in respect of the post of “attorney general for state security wishes of the dignified local personalities of courts.” The new post was filled by Khaled the district of Nezla in the Jabalia camp.” al-Qidra, the disgraced former attorney gen- On February 29 Chief of Police Ghazi al- eral who had been removed from his post in Jabali issued new regulations limiting free- 1997 following complaints of corruption and dom of assembly, in contravention of existing protests by human rights organizations. law. The regulations prohibited organizing Fair trial violations were particularly processions, demonstrations, or public meet- egregious in state security courts, which, ings without prior approval from the district along with “regular” military courts, had the police commander, on penalty of up to two power to try civilians and were responsible months of imprisonment or an up to JD50 for the majority of death sentences passed. (U.S. $70) fine. The High Court of Justice Trials in these courts were not subject to suspended their implementation on April 29, appeal, and sentences were sometimes issued but as of September had not acted to revoke only hours after arrest, as in the case of Raji these or other regulations limiting freedom of Saqir. A state security court sentenced Saqir assembly issued by President Arafat in his to death on July 3, having convened on the capacity as minister of interior on April 30. night of July 2, the day after the crime was committed. Security court jurisdiction was Defending Human Rights expanded in June to include drug trafficking cases, including those punishable by death. Israel and the Occupied West Bank The P.A. continued its efforts to control and Gaza Strip and restrict freedom of expression. Broadcast Israel permitted human rights organiza- media were frequently subject to closure, and tions to collect and disseminate information journalists and commentators to arrest, in in areas under its control. However, according retaliation for reporting criticism of P.A. to PCATI, lawyers for Palestinian detainees policies. Five radio and television stations frequently had difficulty gaining access to were ordered suspended between May 5 and their clients, and even after filing legal chal- June 2, and on June 2 Samir Qumsiah, chair of lenges against such denials sometimes waited the Council of Private Radio and Television weeks or months before being able to meet Stations, was arrested after calling on stations their clients. Closures often kept Palestinian to halt broadcasts for half an hour to protest human rights workers and lawyers, including the closures. Security forces also arrested those with Israeli citizenship or Jerusalem eight prominent personalities who signed a identity cards, from traveling freely within November 27, 1999, petition criticizing P.A. the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Israel. “tyranny and corruption.” Six were released Palestinians who had previously been de- on JD50,000 (U.S. $70,000) bail on Decem- tained were also refused access to prisons and ber 19, but Ahmad Dudin and `Abd al-Sattar detainees. Qassem were held until January 6. Qassem was rearrested on February 18 and detained Palestinian Authority until July 28, despite a July 11 High Court of Palestinian NGOs and activists contin- Justice order for his release. ued to be subjected to police harassment and Academics risked punishment when threats by P.A. officials because of their their published views challenged social con- criticism of P.A. abuses. These actions may ventions. On November 24, 1999 the Islamic have contributed to violent attacks on activ- University in Gaza suspended Dr. Jawad al- ists, including the December 1, 1999, shoot- Dalou and two students for publishing a ing of Palestinian Legislative Council member student newspaper article that noted that Mu‘awwiya al-Masri by masked men; the many beggars came from the Nezla district in December 11, 1999, stoning by unknown Gaza. A statement issued by the university persons of Hanan Elmasu, director of Birzeit ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES 397

University’s Human Rights Action Project, The Role of the International which knocked her unconscious; and the Community December 16, 1999, beating of Palestinian Legislative Council member ‘Abd al-Jawad United Nations Saleh by General Intelligence officers. All U.N. bodies made a number of urgent three attacks were apparently in retaliation interventions in an effort to end the violent for support of a November 1999 petition clashes that began on September 29. The campaign. In February staff members of the Commission on Human Rights, in a resolu- PHRMG received threatening letters and tion issued at the end of a special session held phone calls warning them to resign and threat- October 17-19, “strongly condemn[ed] the ening to include their names in a public cam- disproportionate and indiscriminate use of paign against the organization. force in violation of international humanitar- On April 19 the Ministry of Interior ian law by the Israeli occupying Power against improperly closed the Gaza-based Civic innocent and unarmed Palestinian Forum Institute, established in 1998, on the civilians...which constitutes a flagrant and grounds that it was not a registered organiza- grave violation of the right to life and also tion under NGO Law 1/2000. The law set a constitutes a war crime and a crime against nine-month deadline for NGOs to comply humanity.” The resolution established an with the regulations or be considered illegal. independent inquiry commission to investi- Government officials also continued to attack gate Israeli human rights violations and grave Palestinian human rights organizations and breaches of international humanitarian law. It activists in the press. In February, the Pales- also requested several U.N. bodies—the tinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) filed commission’s special rapporteurs on extraju- a complaint with the attorney general against dicial, summary or arbitrary executions; tor- Khalil al-Zaben, coordinator of the govern- ture; violence against women; religious intol- ment-appointed NGO council, for defama- erance; racism, racial discrimination, xeno- tory statements in the semi-official al-Nashra phobia and related intolerance; and the right magazine. As of this writing no action had to housing; its Working Group on Enforced or been taken on that case or previous defama- Involuntary Disappearances; and the repre- tion cases against al-Zaben. sentative of the Secretary-General for inter- Police detained Khalil Abu Shamala, nally displaced persons—to conduct imme- director of Addameer, a Gaza-based human diate investigations and report the findings to rights organization specializing in prisoners’ the Commission on Human Rights at its rights, on April 16, immediately after he had fifty-seventh session and, on an interim basis, issued a press release protesting Chief of to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth Police Ghazi al-Jabali’s ban on Addameer’s session. The commission also requested High rally scheduled for that afternoon to com- Commissioner for Human Rights Mary memorate Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. He Robinson to undertake an urgent visit to the was released on April 17. On August 8, al- occupied territories and to facilitate the mecha- Jabali ordered LAW and its director, Khader nisms of the Commission in the implementa- Shkirat, banned from “visiting prisons, de- tion of the resolution. tention centers, police command centers, and From October 18 to October 20 the police locations” because of his “continuous General Assembly (G.A.) reconvened its attacks on the [Palestinian] Authority.” The emergency special session on illegal Israeli order followed an incident the previous day, actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the when Shkirat was violently removed from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ramallah police headquarters after he raised originally convened in April 1997 under the cases of police torture of detainees and assembly’s “Uniting for peace” resolution. protested against official interference in The G.A. “condemn[ed] acts of violence, LAW’s lawyers’ access to certain detainees. especially the excessive use of force by the 398 ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY TERRITORIES

Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians,” ings, and the Asian Group’s unwillingness to demanded that Israel fulfil its obligations and admit Israel to that grouping had made it responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva ineligible for many U.N. bodies. The U.S. Convention, and “strongly support[ed] the credited its own high-level lobbying for the establishment of a mechanism of inquiry.” WEOG decision. The Security Council adopted a resolution on October 7 that condemned “acts of violence, European Union especially the excessive use of force against The European Union expanded its rela- Palestinians,” and called upon Israel to “abide tionship with Israel, while continuing its role scrupulously by its legal obligations and its as intermediary in bilateral negotiations be- responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva tween Israel and its neighboring states and the Convention.” Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with including a January visit to the region by then- Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Paris on E.U. President Jaime Gama and repeated October 4, and then on October 9 began nine trips by E.U. Council Secretary-General and days of intensive meetings in Israel, the Pal- High Representative for Common Foreign estinian Authority territories, Lebanon, and and Security Policy Javier Solana. E.U. Egypt. member states voted against the Commission The special rapporteur on extrajudicial, on Human Rights’ October 19 resolution. summary, or arbitrary executions on October The French representative to the commission 5 urged the government of Israel to investigate said that while the E.U. supported convening all incidents of alleged killings by government the special session, provisions of the resolu- forces without delay, to ensure that those tion went beyond the role of the commission responsible were brought to justice, and to and threatened the realization of agreements ensure that its security forces respected inter- recently signed by Israel and the PLO. national human rights standards. The Euro-Mediterranean Association Israel continued to refuse to cooperate Agreement between the European Union with the special rapporteur of the Commis- (E.U.) and Israel came into force on June 1. In sion on Human Rights on the situation of a statement following the Association human rights in the Palestinian territories Council’s first meeting on June 13, the E.U. occupied since 1967. Giorgio Giacomelli re- said it had “discussed human rights in Israel, placed Hannu Halinen in that post in Decem- in accordance with the provisions of the ber 1999. His first report, presented on March Association Agreement, which indicate that 15, found widespread Israeli violations of respect for human rights and fundamental international human rights law and humani- freedoms and strengthening democracy are tarian law. A second report, presented to the essential elements of the Agreement itself.” Special Session of the Commission stated The E.U. remained the largest single that during the clashes that began on Septem- donor to the P.A. During a January 24 E.U. ber 29, the IDF and Israeli police had used General Affairs Council meeting with Presi- deadly force “without warning, and without dent Yasser Arafat, the council said it would employing deterrence or gradual measures welcome the PA announcing a moratorium on consistent with the minimum standards and the death penalty. methods of crowd control or management of civil unrest.” United States On May 26 the Western European and Israel remained the largest recipient of Others Group (WEOG) offered Israel tem- U.S. aid which included U.S. $949 million in porary membership in its regional grouping of economic aid and $3.12 billion in military U.N. member states. Full participation in assistance—including a one-time grant of many U.N. bodies, including the Security $1.2 billion in military aid pursuant to the Council, is organized through regional group- October 1998 Wye River Memorandum be- ISRAEL,OCCUPIED WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, & PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY 399 TERRITORIES/ KUWAIT tween Israel and the PLO. The Palestinian meetings with Israeli officials, Rubin said, Authority received no military aid and $485 “with respect to the legislation authorizing million in economic aid, including a one-time the use of physical force, we try not to grant of $400 million pursuant to the Wye interfere with the internal Israeli public de- River Memorandum. bate on this and political debate on this issue,” In 2000 the U.S. significantly stepped but that the U.S. would welcome any actions up efforts to broker a negotiated settlement that are consistent with internationally recog- between Israel and the PLO, including host- nized human rights standards. ing multiple high level trips to the region and hosting a July 11-24 meeting between the Relevant Human Rights Watch Israeli and Palestinian leaders. In an agree- Reports: ment reached during the October 16-17 emer- Investigation into Unlawful Use of Force in gency summit held at Sharm al-Shaykh, Egypt, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Northern the U.S. agreed to head a trilateral U.S.-Israeli- Israel, 10/00 Palestinian fact-finding committee to look into the sources of the violent clashes that began in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip on September 29, and to facilitate security KUWAIT cooperation and consultation between the two parties. On July 27, U.S. President Bill Human Rights Developments Clinton announced plans for “a comprehen- In the aftermath of the 1990-1991 Iraqi sive review” of U.S.-Israeli relations “with a occupation, Kuwaiti officials promised ma- view toward what we can do to ensure that jor human rights improvements. Almost ten Israeli maintains its qualitative edge,” and a years later, enduring violations far outweighed memorandum of understanding on U.S. assis- incremental improvements. Kuwait’s ratifi- tance to Israel “with a goal of making a cation of five major human rights treaties had long-term commitment to the necessary sup- not been accompanied by significant changes port to modernize the IDF.” Clinton also in law or practice. The government had still stated that he would issue a decision by the not investigated or punished those respon- end of the year on whether to move the U.S. sible for hundreds of cases of extrajudicial embassy to West Jerusalem. execution, torture, and “disappearance” in U.S. criticism of P.A. human rights vio- custody, which took place during the Febru- lations continued to pay deference to per- ary to June 1991 post-liberation martial law ceived Israeli interests, as when State Depart- period. Forty-two persons remained in prison ment Spokesman James P. Rubin responded serving sentences imposed after grossly un- to a November 29, 1999 question about the fair martial law court trials. P.A.’s arrests of signatories to a petition More than 100,000 long-term residents critical of its policies . While Rubin expressed of Kuwait faced widespread and systematic concern “about any actions that limit the discrimination, and tens of thousands more freedom of expression and peaceful dissent in were prevented from returning to Kuwait. the Palestinian Authority,” he also stated that Known as Bidun, they had lived in Kuwait for “Incitement to violence, however, would be decades, even generations, unable to obtain another matter and does require a vigorous Kuwaiti nationality, and without effective response,” despite the lack of any evidence nationality elsewhere. Kuwait severely re- linking the petitioners to violence. In con- stricted their rights to leave and return to trast, criticism of Israeli abuses, including Kuwait, to marry and found a family, and to torture of American citizens of Palestinian work, and their children’s rights to education, descent, was decidedly muted. When asked to be registered immediately after birth, and on December 3, 1999, if Secretary of State to acquire a nationality. Bidun also suffered Madeleine Albright would raise torture in her disproportionately from discrimination on 400 KUWAIT

the basis of sex, particularly with regard to Women faced widespread discrimina- issues of nationality and naturalization, mar- tion in both law and practice. The Personal riage, divorce, and family reunification. Ac- Status Law discriminated against women in cording to the Ministry of Interior, some inheritance rights, the weight given to their 37,000 Bidun became eligible to apply for testimony in court, and rights in contracting naturalization following amendments to the marriage, during marriage, and at its dissolu- Nationality Law on May 16. However, the tion. The Penal Code reduced or eliminated law limited the number who would be granted punishments for violent crimes committed nationality in any given year, raising concern by men against women, and criminalized that even those eligible could continue to face abortion even when it was necessary to save discrimination for many years to come. The a woman’s life. Women were prohibited from government also said that Bidun not eligible voting and standing for election, and discrimi- for naturalization would face prosecution and nated in relation to the passage of nationality potential deportation if they did not register to their spouses and children. In November as foreigners. Prosecutions began immedi- 1999, the National Assembly twice rejected ately following June 27, when the Ministry legislation granting voting rights for women, of Interior ended a nine month program in and on July 4 the Constitutional Court re- which it issued five year residency permits jected four legal challenges to the ban on and other benefits to Bidun who signed affi- women voting. As of this writing, the Na- davits admitting to a foreign nationality and tional Assembly had yet to vote on several renouncing claims to Kuwait nationality. The draft amendments to the election law, includ- government tolerated a trade in forged foreign ing amendments granting women voting rights passports, raising concerns that significant but not the right to stand for office. On June numbers of those who presented passports 26 the National Assembly passed legislation purporting to have been issued by countries requiring gender segregation in private univer- such as the Dominican Republic, Colombia, sities. As of this writing, however, a similar and Nigeria when applying for the program law passed in 1996 requiring public universi- may not have had effective nationality in ties be segregated within five years had not those countries. been implemented. Despite repeated government promises Vaguely worded provisions in the Penal to amend labor laws and to crack down on the Code and Printing and Publications Law were illegal trade in work visas, more than one repeatedly used against writers and journal- million foreign workers faced serious restric- ists deemed to have offended religion, moral- tions on their ability to organize and bargain ity, the head of state, or national security. collectively, and had few legal remedies against Punishments included imprisonment, fines, abuses by employers. Female domestic and confiscation and closure of periodicals. workers, who were excluded from the labor On March 26, an appeals court fined law, were particularly vulnerable to physical prize-winning novelist and short story writer and sexual abuse by employers. In March, Laila al-‘Othman and publisher Yahiya India announced that it had stopped issuing al-Rubay‘an KD1000 (U.S. $3260) each for immigration clearances to Indian nationals distributing al-‘Othman’s novel, al-Rahiil wishing to work as domestics in Kuwait (The Departure), despite provisions in the because of abuses there. In October 1999, Penal Code exempting works “published ac- army and national guard units were deployed cording to the accepted rules of science or art.” to halt two days of rioting by thousands of The court also fined al-Rubay‘an and Kuwait Egyptian migrants. According to Kuwaiti University philosophy professor Dr. ‘Aliya newspapers, many of those rioting had paid Shu‘ayb KD100 (U.S. $326) each for distrib- Kuwaiti brokers thousands of dollars in re- uting Shu‘ayb’s collection of poetry, ‘Anakib turn for what they believed were legal work Tarthi Jurhan (Spiders Bemoan a Wound), visas, only to find no jobs awaiting them. without a permit. In January, a lower court KUWAIT 401 had sentenced all three to two months in activists, and victims in Kuwait, and in Feb- prison. Both books were ordered banned, ruary delegates from Amnesty International although al-Rahiil had been published and had sponsored a joint conference with the Ku- circulated legally in Kuwait since 1984, and waiti Bar Association titled “Justice and Anakib Tarthi Jurhan had been in circulation Human Dignity.” since 1993. On February 7, Kuwait executed Matar The Role of the International al-Mutairi, a Kuwaiti national convicted of Community murder. As of this writing, at least twenty- eight persons were awaiting execution. Many United Nations had been convicted of drug offences following The United Nations Human Rights Kuwait’s expansion of the death penalty in Committee reviewed Kuwait’s first periodic 1995. Others included ‘Ala Husayn, the report on its implementation of the Interna- Iraqi-imposed prime minister during its occu- tional Covenant on Civil and Political Rights pation of Kuwait. Husayn, who had been (ICCPR) on July 18 and 19, 2000. Kuwait granted political asylum in Norway, was had submitted the report in May 1998, al- sentenced to death after he returned to Ku- most a year after it was due. The Human wait to face trial in January. Rights Committee identified twenty-three “principal subjects of concern,” including Defending Human Rights discrimination against women and Bidun; Kuwait continued to deny formal recog- unfair trials, “disappearances,” and abuses nition to all human rights nongovernmental by security personnel; and restrictions on associations and to restrict their ability to freedom of opinion, expression, and associa- organize public meetings and events. The tion. The committee also found that Kuwait’s Council of Ministers had ordered the disso- reservation to articles 2(1) and 3 of the ICCPR lution of all unlicensed human rights and “contravenes the State party’s essential ob- humanitarian organizations in August 1993, ligations” and “is therefore without legal but more recently had tolerated some infor- effect.” Kuwait’s second periodic report is mal gatherings by human rights activists, due by July 31, 2004. Six other state reports including members of the unlicensed Kuwaiti due to four other human rights treaty moni- Society for Human Rights (KSHR), an affili- toring bodies were overdue and had yet to be ate of the Arab Organization for Human submitted at the time of this writing. They Rights. Some human rights activists were able included Kuwait’s initial and second periodic to meet under the auspices of registered report on the Convention on the Elimination associations, such as the University Gradu- of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, ates’ Society. which were due on October 2, 1995, and On May 9, the Interior Ministry’s di- October 2, 1999. rector general of punitive institutions pre- Kuwait signed the Rome Statute of the vented National Assembly Human Rights International Criminal Court on September 8. Committee members from making a prear- ranged visit to the Central Prison, despite the Relevant Human Rights Watch committee’s parliamentary mandate to visit Reports: and receive complaints from prisoners. The Promises Betrayed: Denial of Rights of Bidun, minister of interior later called the decision “a Women, and Freedom of Expression, 10/00 misunderstanding.” However, the ministry had interfered with past visits, including confiscating prisoners’ written complaints to the committee in January 1996. A Human Rights Watch delegate met in April with government officials, lawyers, 402 SAUDI ARABIA

pers and media bankrolled by the royal fam- SAUDI ARABIA ily, including the influential pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. The Royal Decree for Printed Human Rights Developments Material and Publications, promulgated in “It is absurd to impose on an individual 1982, contained a list of prohibited topics or a society rights that are alien to its beliefs covering any material that was printed, pub- or principles,” Saudi Arabia’s deputy pre- lished, or circulated in the kingdom. Viola- mier and effective head of state Crown Prince tions of the law were criminal offenses, pun- Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz told the U.N. Third ishable with up to one year of imprisonment Millenium summit in New York on Septem- and/or fines. ber 6. He warned of “the ramifications of The number of independent licensed unbridled globalization and its use as an Internet service providers (ISPs) in the king- umbrella to violate the sovereignty of states dom increased to about thirty, with some and interfere with their internal affairs under 100,000 subscribers. Capacity reportedly a variety of pretexts, especially from the angle could not meet demand, and there was evi- of human rights.” The kingdom’s fourteen dence that the kingdom continued its efforts million citizens and six to seven million for- to monitor and restrict Web access in the eign residents thus continued to be denied a country. “The Saudi government has a right range of basic rights guranteed under interna- to protect its society,” Saudi Telecommuni- tional law. cations Company (STC) president Abdel Freedom of expression and association Rahman al-Yami said. “We would like to be were nonexistent rights, political parties and not open, but selective in what content comes independent local media were not permitted, in....[T]he fast growth in the customer base and even peaceful anti-government activities has created challenges for the network.” The remained virtually unthinkable. Infringements STC was responsible for the backbone net- on privacy, institutionalized gender discrimi- work inside the country while the King Abdul nation, harsh restrictions on the exercise of Aziz City for Science and Technology religious freedom, and the use of capital and (KACST) controlled content as the sole gate- corporal punishment were also major fea- way to the Internet. In August, KACST tures of the kingdom’s human rights record. blocked the Yahoo “Clubs” site, which con- There were some encouraging develop- tained some 250 Saudi clubs with over 60,000 ments, however, such as greater official sen- members. “The Clubs site was blocked be- sitivity to international criticism of the cause most of the material was against the country’s human rights practices, recogni- kingdom’s religious, social and political val- tion of international standards with respect to ues,” said KACST official Khalil al-Jadaan. In women’s rights, and public pledges to estab- April, the government closed an Internet cafe lish human rights monitoring bodies. On Sep- in Mecca that was popular with university tember 7, Saudi Arabia became a party to the students. The action came as a result of a court Convention on the Elimination of All Forms complaint that the women-only cafe was of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), being used for “immoral purposes,” the BBC although on August 21 the Council of Minis- reported, citing Arab News. “What was un- ters, in announcing the government’s inten- covered was against both our religion and our tion to sign the treaty, said that it would not traditions,” charged Brigadier Yousef Matter comply with “any clause in the agreement of the civil police, adding that the court had that contradicts Islamic sharia [law].” empowered him to shut down other Freedom of expression remained strictly cybercafes in Mecca. circumscribed and there was no independent Capital punishment was applied for press. The eighth Arabic-language daily news- crimes including murder, rape, armed rob- paper in the kingdom, al-Watan, was launched bery, drug smuggling, sodomy, and sorcery. in September, joining other Saudi newspa- In most cases, the condemned were decapi- SAUDI ARABIA 403 tated in public squares after being blind- sentencing. folded, handcuffed, shackled at the ankles, Hani ‘Abd al-Rahim Hussain al-Sayegh, and tranquilized. By late September 2000, at a Saudi citizen deported from the United least 104 Saudis and foreigners had been States on October 11, 1999, after the U.S. beheaded, exceeding in nine months the total Attorney General’s Office stated that it lacked of 103 that Amnesty International recorded sufficient evidence to charge him in connec- in 1999. Two of the foreigners beheaded in tion with the 1996 Khobar Tower bombing in 2000 were women: a Pakistani in July for Dhahran that killed nineteen American troops, heroin smuggling, and an Indonesian in June was held in virtual incommunicado detention for murder. without charges and without access to legal Saudi courts continued to impose cor- counsel for at least three months after his poral punishment, including amputations of arrival in the kingdom. The U.S. did not make hands and feet for robbery, and floggings for public guarantees it claimed to have sought lesser crimes such as “sexual deviance” and and received from Saudi Arabia prior to his drunkenness. The number of lashes was not deportation that he would not be maltreated clearly prescribed by law and varied accord- and would receive a fair trial. ing to the discretion of judges, and ranged from The government heavily restricted reli- dozens of lashes to several thousand, usually gious freedom and actively discouraged reli- applied over a period of weeks or months. A gious practices other than the Wahhabi inter- court in Qunfuda sentenced nine Saudi alleged pretation of the Hanbali school of Sunni transvestites in April. Five drew prison terms Islam. Officially, non-Muslims were free to of six years and 2,600 lashes, and the other worship privately but in October 1999 and four were sentenced to five years and 2,400 January 2000, according to the U.S. State lashes. The floggings reportedly were to be Department, two Filipino Christian services carried out in fifty equal sessions, with a were raided by the mutawwa’in, the fifteen-day hiatus between each punishment. state-financed religious police known as the In August, the daily Okaz reported that a Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent court had ordered the surgical removal of the Vice. Thirteen people were arrested the first left eye of an Egyptian, Abd al-Muti Abdel time and another sixteen persons in January; Rahman Muhamed, after he was convicted of all were deported. Saudi officials reportedly throwing acid in the face of another Egyptian, said that the services had too many partici- injuring and disfiguring his left eye. The pants to be considered private. operation was performed in a hospital in The mutawwa’in also policed public Medina. In addition to this punishment, display of religious icons and public worship Abdel Rahman was reportedly fined U.S. or practice of religions other than Wahhabi $68,800 and sentenced to an undisclosed Islam, and had the authority to detain Mus- prison term. lims and non-Muslims for up to twenty-four The inherent cruelty of such sentences hours for offenses such as indecent dress and was heightened by due process concerns comportment. Official intolerance extended about the fairness of legal and administrative to alternative interpretations of Islam, and procedures. Under the 1983 Principles of members of Saudi religious minorities contin- Arrest, Temporary Confinement, and Pre- ued to be harassed or detained for the peaceful ventative Regulations, detainees had no right practice of their faith. Shia Muslims, who to judicial review, no right to legal counsel, and constitute about eight percent of the Saudi could be held in prolonged detention pending population, faced discrimination in employ- a decision by the regional governor or the ment as well as limitations on religious prac- minister of interior. Suspects had no right to tices. Shia jurisprudence books were banned, examine witnesses, or to call witnesses of the traditional annual Shia mourning proces- their own, and uncorroborated confessions sion of Ashura was discouraged, and operat- could constitute the basis for conviction and ing independent Islamic religious establish- 404 SAUDI ARABIA

ments remained illegal. At least seven Shi’a and according to Saudi authorities an illegal religious leaders—Abd al-Latif Muhammad Yemeni immigrant, was arrested on April 23 Ali, Habib al-Hamid, Abd al-Latif al-Samin, for “practicing sorcery” while teaching in Abdallah Ramadan, Sa’id al-Bahaar, al-Mansura mosque in Najran. No details Muhammad Abd al-Khidair, and Habib were available on the precise nature of his Hamdah Sayid Hashim al-Sadah—report- alleged offense, or whether his activities were edly remained in prison for violating these connected with Isma’ili religious practices restrictions. deemed idolatrous by Wahhabi doctrine. An Several incidents during the year punc- associate of al-Khayat reportedly shot and tured the kingdom’s stability. These included injured a policeman who was searching the violent clashes between Ismaili Shiites and cleric’s home. security forces in the southwest province of By some accounts, Saudi religious po- Najran in April; the August 9 shooting by a lice raided an Isma’ili mosque, closed it down, Saudi university student at a housing complex and confiscated its books. Protesters then for foreign defense workers in Khamis assembled in front of the home of Najran’s Mushayt near the King Khalid air base in provincial governor, Prince Masha’al bin Saud southwest Asir province in which authorities bin Abd al-Aziz. According to Agence said one Saudi Royal Air Force police officer France-Presse, the Interior Ministry deployed was killed and another two seriously injured; forces overnight amidst warnings that the a two-day uprising at al-Jawf prison in the protesters were liable to be “arrested, ques- north, also in August; and the hijacking of a tioned, and tried in keeping with Islamic law.” Saudi Arabian Airlines plane flying from According to the Saudi Press Agency, citing Jeddah to London on October 14 by two the Interior Ministry, security forces raided armed Saudis whom the government identi- not a mosque but the home of an “illegal fied as first lieutenants in the security forces. resident” who was practicing “sorcery.” Dur- There were conflicting accounts about ing the search and after the sorcerer was the unrest in the southwest city of Najran arrested, the SPA said, one member of the where Ismaili Shiites confronted security security forces was shot and injured. At a forces and the provincial governor in April. demonstration at the governor’s headquar- The unrest was variously attributed to public ters calling for the release of the alleged Shi’a observance of Ashura for the first time sorcerer, protesters fired guns and burned in many years, the closure of an Ismaili vehicles, killing one member of the security mosque, the arrest of an Ismaili cleric, and forces and injuring others. There was no tensions along Saudi’s border with Yemen, independent confirmation of the numbers where Ismailis have strong links. Between killed, injured and arrested in the days that April 14 and 16, according to the followed, and official government statements London-based Committee to Protect Legiti- clearly sought to downplay the incident. mate Rights in the Arabian Peninsula, three On August 11, some 400 inmates at the Isma’ili religious scholars, Haythim al-Sayyid central prison in al-Jawf went on a two-day Muhammad al-Shakhs of al-Ahsa, Abdullah rampage. According to an unnamed Saudi al-Sayyid Hussain al-Nahwi of al-Mabraz, security official cited in press reports, the and Jud Juwwad al-Nahwi of al-Mabraz, prisoners attacked a guard, burned bedding in were arrested for their involvement with the their cells, and then rioted, causing extensive outlawed Islamic Action Movement. The damage. Calm was reportedly restored the same source named eleven religious scholars next day, after police and special security forbidden from preaching and religious activi- forces were airlifted to the area to assist the ties, and another twelve scholars who re- guards. The inmates reportedly were frus- mained imprisoned for such activities, some trated at the lack of response to repeated for as long as five years. Ahmad bin complaints about prison conditions and Muhammad al-Khayat, a Shi’a Isma’ili cleric sought a meeting with the provincial gover- SAUDI ARABIA 405 nor. According to the Saudi official, demands and violators of the iqama (residency permit included the provision of newspapers, doors system) were given a July 2 deadline to obtain on bathrooms, and improved food, sanitation the proper authorizations or leave the coun- and recreation. try, which authorities later extended to Au- Saudi women continued to face severe gust 29, after which date all penalties were to discrimination in all aspects of their lives, be “firmly implemented,” the Interior Minis- including the family, education, employment, try said. Prince Nayif said that iqama viola- and the justice system. Religious police en- tors included those who left or fled their Saudi forced a modesty code of dress and institu- sponsors or who were carrying out business tions from schools to ministries were gender- activities on their own. Anyone without a segregated. This year a princess and distant residence permit after the deadline faced fines cousin of the king was appointed assistant of over U.S. $25,000, prison sentences of six under secretary at the Ministry of Educa- months, and deportation. Special police squads tion—the highest position ever held by a searched work places and homes for viola- Saudi woman—in charge of girls’ education. tors, including both foreign workers and their Saudi businesswomen continued to be active Saudi employers. Thousands of foreigners through their own associations, including the left or were expelled. For example, the Nige- Businesswomen’s Forum in the Eastern Prov- rian press reported on July 20 that 1,000 ince. According to one report, of the 76,000 Nigerians had already been rounded up and members of the Jeddah, Riyadh and Eastern deported, and Pakistani media said on Sep- Province chambers of commerce, some 5,500 tember 27 that 2,441 Pakistani workers had were women. been deported, in addition to thousands of Interior Minister Prince Nayif bin undocumented workers who left the country Abdelaziz said in August that the kingdom’s voluntarily. In September, the Ministry of high population growth rate and the large Labor and Social Affairs reportedly wrote to number of job-seeking graduates presented private firms with over twenty employees, “an economic, social, security and cultural instructing them to increase by 25 percent the problem.” Unemployment among Saudi citi- number of Saudis on their payrolls. zens was an estimated 14 percent, and 20 Saudi Arabia continued to provide ref- percent among workers aged twenty to uge and financial support to Idi Amin, the twenty-nine years old, according to the chief exiled Ugandan leader whose regime was economist at the Saudi American Bank in responsible for a reign of terror that left an Riyadh. The government therefore continued estimated 300,00 dead in the 1970s. After to take steps to reduce its reliance on foreign fleeing Uganda in 1979, Amin arrived in the workers, a process described as kingdom at the invitation of the late King “Saudiization,” which Prince Nayif declared Faisal and reportedly has since been pro- a “top priority.” tected by government-paid Saudi guards. A The large population of foreign workers journalist with Uganda’s New Vision news- included some 1.2 million Egyptians and 1.2 paper interviewed Amin in Jeddah in 1999 million Indians, according to the U.S. State and reported that he had moved from his home Department. Undocumented workers in- in the city center “to a more exclusive cluded those who remained after entering the area...mainly occupied by powerful oil country to perform the haj or umra, and those sheikhs.” who stayed after the expiry of their work visas. Migrants have long been subjected to Defending Human Rights restrictions such as the surrender of pass- Saudi restrictions on access to the coun- ports to Saudi sponsors, limitations on free- try, coupled with the lack of freedom of dom of movement, prohibitions on trade association and expression, made it extremely union organizing, and lack of access to legal difficult to obtain detailed information about representation in cases of arrest. Overstayers human rights conditions, and there were no 406 SAUDI ARABIA

independent human rights organizations op- But Foreign Minister Prince Saud al- erating from inside the country either overtly Faisal appeared to exclude Amnesty Interna- or clandestinely. Surveillance of telephone, tional from the interior minister’s invitation the Internet, and postal communications made to visit the kingdom. In an interview with the it risky for persons inside the kingdom to Spanish daily El Pais, reported by Agence provide information. Saudis abroad were re- France-Presse on April 16, he said: “If Am- luctant to speak of sensitive matters for fear nesty International was seeking the truth and of repercussion on family members or future if it informed itself honesty of the truth, we employment prospects. As of October 2000, would consider a visit.” He continued: “But there were no indications that the new rights so long as it continues to use erroneous bodies announced by the government in April information as its basis without taking into had been set up or begun operation. It was also account our responses,” the visit would have unclear if the cabinet’s August decision to “no sense.” As of this writing, neither ratify CEDAW, albeit with reservations, AmnestyInternational nor Human Rights would enable independent women’s rights Watch have received positive responses to groups to organize and function freely inside requests for access to the kingdom. the kingdom. After the release of Amnesty Amnesty International launched a world- International’s second report, which con- wide campaign focused on Saudi Arabia— cerned the justice system, the criticism con- ”End Secrecy, End Suffering”—and published tinued. For example, Minister Abdullah al- reports about the kingdom in March, May, Sheik said on May 9 that critics of the and October. The campaign provoked re- kingdom’s rights record “have misled many peated public responses from Saudi govern- people with lies and fallacies which they ment officials that ranged from welcoming spread through the media.” And on May 20 invitations to intense criticism. On March 27, the daily al-Riyadh quoted Prince Turki bin the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued Muhamed, deputy foreign minister for politi- a detailed statement saying that the kingdom cal affairs, charging: “The target of Amnesty’s had a “keen interest and commitment to the campaign against Saudi Arabia is Islam.” cause of human rights,” there were no political prisoners, and the criminal justice system The Role of the International was “properly administered.” Harsh words Community followed from senior Saudi officials. For example, Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin United Nations Abdul Aziz charged on April 11 at a joint Saudi Arabia for the first time was elected press conference with British Defense Min- as one of the fifty-three members of the U.N. ister Geoff Hoon that “all that has been said Commission on Human Rights for the 2001- against Saudi Arabia is motivated by hate.” 2003 term. On April 6, Prince Turki bin He added: “Those who have the slightest Muhammad Saud al-Kabir told the commis- doubt over human rights in Saudi Arabia sion that “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and should come to the kingdom to see for them- the other members of the Organization of the selves. We have six million non-Saudis who Islamic Conference are jointly seeking to work in all fields and enjoy their rights.” Saudi promote the universality of human rights.” newspapers on April 15 quoted Interior The prince stated that the kingdom prohib- Minister Prince Nayef, who dismissed as ited any form of torture, and that his govern- “merely nonsense” the allegations of human ment did “not prohibit exercise of freedom of rights abuses in the kingdom. The interior expression and assembly provided that this is minister was also quoted the same day as neither prejudicial to public order nor detri- saying: “We welcome anyone to see for mental to public morals,” and that all laws himself the facts in the kingdom as it has applied “to both sexes without distinction or nothing to conceal.” exception.” TUNISIA 407

Prince Turki also told the commission European Union that the government would set up “a national The European Commission continued governmental body, reporting directly to the to negotiate with the Gulf Cooperation Coun- Prime Minister and headed by a high-level cil (of which Saudi Arabia is the leading official, vested with authority to look into all member) for a free trade agreement. The Joint human rights issues.” He added that “an Communique of the E.U.-GCC Ministerial independent non-governmental national Meeting issued November 2, 1999, said that body” would also be established “ to help to “The GCC Ministers, while noting the diver- publicize and protect human rights, to affirm sity of systems of values, which should be the need for compliance with the regulations taken fully into consideration, joined the E.U. pertaining thereto and to advocate the pun- in reiterating their continuing commitment to ishment of offenders.” He stated that “human the promotion and protection of human rights.” rights sections” would be created in various European countries, along with the U.S. and government agencies, including the Ministry Japan, have called for Saudi admission to the of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the World Trade Organization. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry According to the Saudi government, of Labor, “to emphasize the vital need for Western-based multinational oil companies compliance with human rights regulations were committed to investing some U.S. $100 and principles,” and that new regulations billion in the kingdom’s natural gas and pet- would be adopted to govern the legal profes- rochemical sectors over the next two decades. sion and legal counseling. In July, it was revealed that twelve corpora- The prince extended an invitation to the tions had been shortlisted to prepare detailed U.N. special rapporteur on the independence project proposals, including four based in of judges and lawyers to study the Saudi court Europe: Royal Dutch/Shell Group, BP system. In July, the Consultative Council, an Amoco, ENI, and Total Fina Elf. advisory body, deliberated over a new draft law for regulation of legal procedures. United Kingdom On September 7 Crown Prince Abdallah Noting that in 1999 Saudi Arabia was the signed at the U.N. the Convention on the nineteenth largest export market in the world, Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination the British government reported that the Against Women (CEDAW), although it was kingdom was its largest market in the Middle too early to assess the practical effect on East, with exports of £1.5 billion. The United women’s rights in the kingdom. Kingdom maintained a hefty arms trade with On October 25, Secretary-General Kofi Saudi Arabia, although exports declined in Annan announced the appointment of 1999 to £131 million sterling from £803 Thoraya Ahmed Obeid, a Saudi woman who million in 1998. has served in U.N. posts since 1975, as Foreign office minister of state Peter executive director of the U.N. Population Hain noted in a speech on June 20 at the Fund. “Today, all the Saudi women are rec- Investing in Saudi Arabia conference in Lon- ognizing that you broke the ceiling one more don that Britain was the second largest inves- time for Saudi women, and we thank you for tor in Saudi Arabia with investments totalling that,” she told Annan. She also was quoted as U.S. $3.5 billion. He noted that some 30,000 saying: “Once you talk about human rights, Britons resided in the country, and there were you talk about women, you talk about free- more than ninety joint ventures between dom. It is a process the country is going British and Saudi companies. He reported through,” adding that she hoped it would that top British corporations in Saudi in- “impact on my sisters in Saudi Arabia and cluded GlaxoWellcome, Shell, Rolls-Royce, make a difference in our lives.” BAE Systems, Tate & Lyle, and Unilever. Hain added: “Saudi Arabia is important. We all know why. It remains the economic 408 SAUDI ARABIA

powerhouse of the region. Saudi Arabia is one help[ed] sustain security and peace in the of the few countries that can still dictate Middle East and throughout the world.” On business on its own terms, sometimes against July 20, the Defense Department announced all the odds of the economics textbooks. Who a proposed $475 million military sale to Saudi else could have the international banks lend- Arabia for 500 AIM-120C Advanced Me- ing so readily? Who else could have the dium Range Air to Air Missiles and other international oil companies queuing-up to logistical and program support. invest billions of dollars?” At a press conference in Riyadh on February 26, U.S. Energy Secretary Bill United States Richardson termed Saudi Arabia “a good U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen friend and strong ally” of the U.S., and noted was asked at an April 9 joint press briefing in that ties were cemented by “a strong trade Jeddah with his Saudi counterpart Prince relationship, a significant investment rela- Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud to discuss areas tionship, a valued strategic partnership and a of disagreement between the United States long-standing energy relationship.” He also and Saudi Arabia. “That’s a very easy an- said that the U.S. welcomed the kingdom’s swer,” he replied. “There are no points of decision to “revise the foreign capital invest- disagreement between his Royal Highness ment law to make it more attractive for foreign and myself or between the kingdom of Saudi investors to do business in Saudi Arabia,” and Arabia and the United States.” that U.S. companies were “very pleased with Saudi Arabia was the largest market in the prospect of participation in the gas up- the region for American products, and the stream sector and other potential foreign U.S. once again was Saudi Arabia’s number investment opportunities.” one trading partner, with military and civilian Saudi officials stressed the importance exports of U.S. $7.9 billion in 1999, according of U.S. support for the kingdom’s entry into to an April 2000 report of the U.S. embassy the World Trade Organization (WTO). At a in Riyadh. The kingdom was among the banquet on September 5 in New York hosted world’s top ten military spenders, the State by the Saudi-American Business Council, Department said in its August 2000 report, Crown Prince Abdullah said: “We expect that World Military Expenditures and Arms official U.S. agencies and the U.S. business Transfers 1998, and the number one recipient community will support our efforts to com- of U.S. arms exports in the period 1995-1997, plete the procedures to win WTO member- with $13.7 billion in sales. ship.” The U.S. embassy in Riyadh noted in About 4,000 U.S. troops were stationed an April report that accession to the WTO at Prince Sultan air base. Ministerof Defense was “the keystone of Saudi Arabia’s eco- Prince Sultan said on April 9 that rumors of nomic reform program.” It was reported in a reduction of U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia were September that Crown Prince Abdullah would “not correct.” He visited Washington, D.C., be meeting in New York with representatives on November 1-4, 1999 at the invitation of of the eight U.S.-based oil companies selected Secretary of Defense Cohen, and had meet- in August to further pursue energy develop- ings with President Clinton, Secretary of ment projects in Saudi Arabia: Chevron, State Albright, Secretary Cohen and other Conoco, ExxonMobil, Marathon, Phillips, senior officials. The State Department issued Texaco, Enron, and Occidental. a joint statement on November 5, saying that The State Department once again issued topics of discussion included “the close co- a critical written assessment of Saudi Arabia’s operation of the two governments, particu- human rights practices in its annual country larly military and economic cooperation,” report, issued in February, but Clinton ad- and that the two countries “agreed that con- ministration officials once again did not raise tinuing high-level military contact and joint rights issues publicly. In a scathing indict- military training enhance[d] preparedness ment of the kingdom’s practices, the U.S. SAUDI ARABIA/SYRIA 409

Commission on International Religious Free- Syria’s long-term domination of the country dom wrote to Secretary of State Albright had their own hopes, calling repeatedly for recommending that Saudi Arabia be added to reassessment of the lopsided bilateral rela- the list of “countries of particular concern,” tionship and return of full sovereignty. It was pursuant to the 1998 International Religious not only Asad’s death but Israel’s earlier Freedom Act, for “particularly severe viola- military withdrawal from occupied south tions of religious freedom.” The commission Lebanon in May that prompted and stated that “the government brazenly denies emboldened Lebanese critics and activists, religious freedom and vigorously enforces its particularly university students, to press prohibition against all forms of public reli- directly and publicly for the withdrawal from gious expression other than that of Wahabi their country of all Syrian troops and security Muslims. Numerous Christians and Shi’a forces. Muslims continue to be detained, imprisoned With Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations and deported.” again stalled, the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981, remained under occupation and Israeli settlement activity there contin- ued. SYRIA Despite the presidential succession, Syrians continued to be denied civil and Human Rights Developments political rights. Freedom of expression, asso- One chapter of Syrian history came to a ciation, and assembly were strictly limited in close with the death on June 10 of President law and practice; the local media and access to Hafez al-Asad, in power since 1970. The the Internet remained state-controlled; and Ba’th Party then quickly orchestrated the the pervasive powers of the security forces political and military elevation of his thirty- under the country’s long-standing emergency four-year-old son, Bashar, allowing citizens law, in force since 1963, were intact. There only the choice of voting yes or no in a one- were no effective safeguards against arbitrary candidate presidential referendum held on arrest and torture; civilian and military pris- July 10. The Syrian constitution also was ons, including the infamous Tadmor in the expeditiously amended to lower the mini- Palmyran desert, remained off-limits to inde- mum required age of the president, and Bashar pendent observers; and the Kurdish minority al-Asad was elected with 97.27 percent of the continued to be denied basic rights, including vote. The British-trained opthamologist had the right to a nationality for tens of thousands. already been designated commander-in-chief No one inside the country dared to advocate of the armed forces and elected leader of the justice and accountability for current and Ba’th Party. Amidst grumbling about the former government officials responsible for possible onset of dynastic rule in Syria by the gross human rights abuses, including the Alawite minority, many nevertheless hoped massacre of possibly as many as 1,100 un- that the new president would eventually armed prisoners at Tadmor in 1980, and the breathe life into the country’s civil society, military assault on the city of Hama in 1982 stagnant from decades of one-party rule. in which thousands were killed. Prior to his father’s death, Bashar al-Asad’s Numerous Syrians lived in political exile action-oriented enthusiasm about computer- abroad. The children of some of those black- based information technology (he headed the listed from returning were deprived of Syrian Syrian Computer Society) and his campaigns nationality and in some cases were techni- against endemic official corruption were well cally stateless because they lacked pass- publicized in Syria, raising expectations that ports. Human Rights Watch continued to as president he might tackle political as well receive information about Syrian exiles who as economic reform. were arrested, detained, and subsequently In neighboring Lebanon, opponents of forced to leave countries where they resided 410 SYRIA

and worked because they carried, of neces- former Prime Minister Mahmud Zu’bi was sity, forged passports. As of this writing, expelled from the Ba’th Party based on alle- there were no reported public initiatives by gations of corruption. He had been removed the government to address this major political from office on March 7 amid accusations of and humanitarian issue, which affected entire mismanagement and was banned from leaving families, including women and children. the country. The interior ministry said on Hundreds of Syrian, Palestinian, and May 21 that Zubi killed himself when the other political prisoners continued to be held, Damascus police commander went to his but the government provided no official fig- house to deliver a summons. His funeral was ures. In a June 27 letter to President-elect not attended by the president or members of Bashar al-Asad, Amnesty International esti- the cabinet. mated the number of political prisoners at A group of three dozen Syrian opposi- 1,500 — of whom approximately 800, mostly tion figures in exile, calling itself the Commit- members or sympathizers of the Muslim tee of Coordination for Democracy in Syria, Brotherhood but also supporters of the pro- criticized the anti-corruption campaign in a Iraqi Ba’th Party and communists, were be- June 10 statement published in al-Quds al- lieved to be in Tadmor prison. Another 560 Arabi, the London-based pan-Arab daily. prisoners were held in Sednaya prison, and The exiles, including Sarkis Sarkis, Adib al- two hundred in other detention centers and in Hurani, and Yusif Abadlaki, charged that the Duma women’s prison, Amnesty Interna- real purpose of the campaign was to eliminate tional said. potential opponents of Bashar al-Asad. The In a welcome development, releases of group also called for the canceling of emer- political prisoners, including human rights gency law, an accounting for the “disap- activists, took place before and after the death peared,” freedom of expression, and political of Hafez al-Asad. Two members of the Com- pluralism. munist Action Party, Fateh Jamus and Abd Another call for political reform and al-Karim Aslan, who had served sixteen and human rights came in a September statement eighteen-year terms, respectively, were re- signed by ninety-nine prominent intellectu- ported released prior to Hafez al-Asad’s als, artists, and others residing in Syria and death. There were reports that sixteen Jorda- abroad that appeared in the Lebanese dailyal- nian political detainees were freed in March, Safir. The statement called on the authorities and another seventeen during the next several to cancel emergency law, issue a general months, and three members of the Muslim amnesty for all political prisoners, allow Brotherhood were released in May. Syrian political exiles to return, and recognize the political exiles confirmed that “dozens” of rights to freedom of assembly, press, and political detainees were released in June and opinion. The signatories included novelist July, including thirty members of the Muslim Abdel Rahman Munif, poet Adonis, and Brotherhood; three Jordanians, including philosophy professor Sadiq al-Azm. Earlier Khalid Awad who had served twelve years on appeals included a June editorial in the pan- political charges; journalist Faisal Allush from Arab daily al-Hayat for intellectual and press the Communist Action Party, who was re- freedoms, and a July request from Ibrahim leased after fifteen years in prison; and two Abu Daqqah, human rights advisor to Pales- members of the Tawhid movement, military tinian Authority leader Yaser Arafat, for the commander Samir al-Hassan and Lebanese release of Palestinian detainees. From Beirut, Sunni activist Hashim Minkara, freed after a Lebanese member of parliament, Boutros serving fifteen years. Harb, called for an “opening of the files” on An anti-corruption campaign launched some two hundred Lebanese known or sus- by Hafez al-Asad and continued by his son pected of being imprisoned in Syria, some of resulted in arrests and convictions of senior whom had been detained without trial for over officials and one alleged suicide. On May 10, fifteen years. The Jordanian branch of the SYRIA 411

Arab Organization for Human Rights also cized “direct Syrian interference in Lebanese called for the release of sixty-nine Jordanians, politics,” and said that Lebanese “refuse the as well as Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners. principle of pre-fabricated voting lists in In other welcome developments, some Damascus” and “reject arresting Lebanese in seventy-five foreign journalists were allowed Syrian prisons.” He went on: “There are greater freedom than previously to report some Lebanese fears that are getting deeper. from Damascus during Hafez al-Asad’s fu- There are people who believe that Syria is an neral. Bashar al-Asad also decreed measures enemy. You have to face this reality to be able that provided greater Internet access through to solve the problem.” Two days later, Leba- connections in offices, at least two private nese president Emile Lahoud condemned such Internet cafes in Damascus, the Asad Na- writing as a “broken record ... played with tional Library, and Damascus International pro-Israeli motivations.” He added: “We all Airport. The Syrian Telecommunications Es- know that such calls and their timing do not tablishment (STE), the country’s only Internet reflect interest in protecting Lebanon’s sov- service provider, still blocked access to Israeli ereignty and independence.” materials and Syrian opposition Web sites— The next month, Lebanese authorities such as the London-based Syrian Rights got tough with anti-Syria protesters and re- Committee—and censored electronic mail. ferred eight of them to the military court. On “In Syria we have 5,000 subscribers,” Ghassan April 14, Lebanese authorities arrested two Lahham, vice-president of the Syrian Com- students and a lawyer, Maroun Nasrani, and puter Society, told a press conference in accused them of distributing pamphlets Beirut on April 15. “These are mainly com- critical of the Syrian presence in Lebanon. panies and government institutions. We are They were tried on April 17 in the military working to increase to 20,000 by the end of court and fined for “distributing pamphlets the year,” he said, adding that STE would harmful to the government and to its ties remain the country’s only Internet provider. with a sisterly country.” On the day of the Beirut’s Daily Star reported on April 17 that trial, several dozen student protesters at the it cost SL2,400 (about U.S. $50) for Internet Justice Palace clashed with police and five subscribers in Syria to receive fifteen hours were arrested and referred to the military court. of access monthly, and that a committee had The Daily Star reported that the demonstra- been created “to consider allowing a private tors “struck at police with their fists and company to study applications from people chanted anti-Syrian slogans. seeking Internet access in Syria.” ‘Syria get out of here,’ they shouted.” Against the backdrop of the impending In June, Tueni penned another editorial, Israeli withdrawal from the occupied south, this time directed at Syrian foreign minister Lebanese citizens used various tactics to Farouq Shara’ who had said that pressure protest Syrian domination of their country. from media campaigns and foreign govern- On March 23, for example, journalist Gebran ments would not lead to the withdrawal of Tueni, managing director and chairman of the Syrian troops, which he contended prevented board of the independent daily an-Nahar the eruption of sectarian strife in Lebanon. (Beirut), wrote as an editorial an extraordinar- “Allow us to completely reject your words ily frank open letter addressed to then Col. and the words of some Lebanese trumpets Bashar al-Asad, who had been assigned re- that use the same justification to defend the sponsibility for Syria-Lebanon relations by presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon,” Tueni his father. He wrote that “many Lebanese are wrote. He added that it was “natural for neither at ease with the Syrian policy in Minister Shara’to believe journalism does not Lebanon, nor the Syria ‘presence’ in have the right to claim it represents the views Lebanon....[T]hey resent the way Syria deals of citizens because in Syria, as in similar with Lebanon, they detest it and reject it....We regimes, journalism does not represent public are not a Syrian province.” Tueni also criti- opinion but talks with the tongue of the ruling 412 SYRIA regime.” and refrain from future political activity. By September, the Council of Maronite Nayouf, disabled years earlier by torture Bishops, led by Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, was under interrogation and at Mezze and Tadmur openly calling for the withdrawal of Syrian military prisons, suffered from serious medi- troops, whose presence it said “embarrasses cal problems. Syrian authorities continued to the Lebanese.” In a September 20 statement deny reports that Nayouf suffered from the council charged that Syria’s “hegemony Hodgkin’s disease, a form of lymphatic can- covered all Lebanese institutions, administra- cer. tions and government departments.” The In Lebanon and France, independent patriarch pledged that the efforts would con- human rights groups actively campaigned for tinue: “We are not going to be frightened into the release of several hundred Lebanese they silence. Nothing will bring this campaign to knew or suspected were being held in Syria a halt especially after the Israeli occupation of prisons. While confirming reports that doz- south Lebanon has ended.” ens of political prisoners had been released by late July, CDF’s Paris-based spokesman Defending Human Rights Ghayath Naisse said that the “prisoner re- There were no locally based human lease is partial, not the comprehensive one we rights nongovernmental organizations were hoping for.” Representatives of eigh- (NGOs) allowed to operate freely and openly teen human rights organizations from Pales- with the protection of legal status as NGOs. tine and Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and other But activists with the lone independent watch- Arab countries wrote in June to the Ninth dog group, the Committees for the Defense of Regional Congress of the Syrian Ba’th Party Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in calling for an end to emergency law. The letter Syria (CDF), including several former detain- said that hundreds of political prisoners re- ees, convened “publicly” in Damascus on leased from “grisly detention centers” were September 15 for the first time in eleven “still deprived of their civil rights by order of years. Their purpose, they said, was to un- the Supreme State Security Court. They are derscore their hope for a democratic transfor- prevented from traveling, their movements mation in Syria. They elected a new board of are restricted, and many have lost their jobs.” trustees, including eight persons living in The letter called on the authorities “to make Syria and three in Europe. Aktham Naisse, an the brave and historic decision to do away attorney who was released in 1998 because of with political detention once and for all, poor health, was elected president of the release all political prisoners, and restore to organization. them their full civil rights as guaranteed by the Ten CDF activists, including Naisse, Syrian Constitution.” had been tried in the state security court in Syrian authorities continued to be unre- 1992 and sentenced to terms ranging from five sponsive to letters from Human Rights Watch, to ten years of imprisonment. Thabet Murad and did not respond positively to a long- and Bassam al-Shaykh were released from standing request to visit the country to carry Sednaya prison after their sentences expired out research. in early 2000. Three others —journalist and writer Nizar Nayouf, Muhammad Ali Habib, The Role of the International and Afif Muzhir—remained imprisoned, Community Nayouf reportedly in solitary confinement in Mezze military prison. The World Associa- United Nations tion of Newspapers denied reports that The United Nations Educational, Scien- Nayouf had been released in April, and said tific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that he “adamantly refused” an offer of re- called attention on May 3, World Press Free- lease in exchange for signing a statement that dom Day, to the plight of imprisoned Syrian he would relinquish all human rights awards human rights activists by awarding Nizar SYRIA 413

Nayuf, who was serving a ten-year prison cized and praised Syria in its Patterns of term despite poor health, the Guillermo Cano Global Terrorism 1999 report, released in World Press Freedom Award. April 2000: “Syria continued to provide safehaven and support to several terrorist European Union groups, some of which maintained training Once again, human rights were not a camps or other facilities on Syrian territory. dominant concern in European relations with Ahmad Jibril’s Popular Front Liberation of Syria. The European Union continued to hold Palestinian-General Command (PFLP-GC) talks with Damascus with the aim of conclud- and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), for ing an Association Agreement by the year example, were headquartered in Damascus. In 2010, according to Marc Pierini, head of the addition, Syria granted a wide variety of European mission in Damascus. Prior to two terrorist groups—including HAMAS, the days of talks in Damascus in November 1999, PFLP-GC, and the PIJ—basing privileges or Pierini told Agence France-Presse that human refuge in areas of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley rights would be “an important part of the under Syrian control.” The report also noted, agreement” and would be discussed in these however, that the Syrian government “con- meetings as well. But he seemed to mute the tinued to restrain their international activi- message with the following words: “The ties, instructing leaders of terrorist organiza- European Union, whose declared objectives tions in Damascus in August to refrain from are to strengthen Syria’s stability and pros- military activities and limit their actions solely perity, must take into account the legitimate to the political realm.” concern of the Syrian authorities not to bring On December 8, 1999, President social troubles in the wake of the reforms.” Clinton announced that Prime Minister Barak In a July 17 speech in London to the and President al-Asad had agreed to resume Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Israel-Syria negotiations from the point that Understanding, British foreign office minis- they were suspended in January 1996. The ter Peter Hain noted the “very smooth” talks commenced at a meeting on December transition to power of Bashar al-Asad. He 15, 1999, between President Clinton, Prime added: “I believe that, over the past year, Minister Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Britain and Syria have laid the foundations for Farouq al-Shara’, followed by talks in a new relationship between our countries. I Shepherdstown, West Virginia, on January welcome President [Bashar] Asad’s commit- 3-11, 2000. ment to social and economic reform, and to the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright strategic choice of peace. Britain will, as an old said on January 17: “At the end of the last friend, seek to help Syria in both.” round, it was agreed that the Israeli-Syrian talks would resume on January 19. Both sides United States have since been reviewing the status of the U.S. relations with Syria remained luke- talks and the draft working document. Pres- warm at best, although Clinton administra- ently, their approaches to the next round tion efforts to broker a peace deal with Israel differ, and as a result, there is going to be a continued, including a meeting in Geneva on delay. In the meantime, each side has agreed March 26 between President Clinton and to send experts to Washington to meet us and President Hafez al-Asad that was widely provide their comments on the draft.” viewed as unsuccessful. Syria remained on There were no breakthroughs at the the U.S. list of “terrorist” countries, although March 26 meeting between Clinton and Asad bilateral trade in 1999 totalled $172.67 in U.S. in Geneva and it appeared that from the exports to Syria and $94.9 million in Syrian American side at least none were expected. En exports to the U.S., according to the Foreign route to the meeting, U.S. National Security Trade Division of the U.S. Census Bureau. Advisor Samuel Berger said in a March 25 The U.S. State Department both criti- press briefing aboard Air Force One that the 414 SYRIA purpose of the meeting was “not to try to “diplomats assessed that the White House reach an agreement between Israel and Syria.” could convince Congress to grant Syria an aid He also noted that “if nothing else happens [in package, but doubts exist about the possibil- Geneva] other than that Asad and Barak and ity of American military aid for Syria.” He the President have a better sense that their wrote that it was expected “that if an agree- interests are either reconcilable or irreconcil- ment with Syria is signed, Israel will seek able, that will be, I think, useful; they’ll each assistance from Jewish groups in the United make decisions based on that.” On the flight, States in pushing an aid package for Syria an unnamed senior Clinton administration through Congress,” and that “[s]ources in- official provided additional background about volved in securing congressional aid said that the U.S. view: “I think it is important for the a combined aid package for both Israel and Syrian government to convey and demon- Syria would be approved because it will be strate to the people of Israel that if, in fact, difficult for members of Congress to oppose they give up some or all of the Golan Heights. such a package.” The article noted that Israel . . .they will gain from that a qualitatively had requested $17 billion in U.S. military different relationship with Syria, which in- assistance to finance its withdrawal from the volves genuine dialogue exchange, at a people- Golan Heights. to-people level as well a commercial level and Except for a reference in an October 14, otherwise.” The White House released these 1999, speech by Secretary of State Madeleine remarks as part of the official transcript of the Albright to human rights defender Nizar Nayuf press briefing. being “near death after years of solitary In a May 8 speech in Washington to the confinement, torture, and neglect,” the Clinton Anti-Defamation League, Assistant Secre- administration did not raise Syria’s human tary for Near Eastern Affairs Edward Walker rights practices publicly and expressed satis- made clear the U.S. and Israeli approach to the faction at the peaceful transition to power of negotiation. He stated: “Despite difficulties, Bashar al-Asad. Asked before she departed we have not given up on the Syrian track. But for Hafez al-Asad’s funeral if she would raise negotiating the future of the Golan Heights is human rights concerns, Albright suggested risky business for Israel. We recognize that that such a message would be inappropriate. only an agreement that enhances Israel’s “I think that it’s important for Dr. Bashar security will be acceptable to Israelis and the Asad to ... take on the mantle and for the United States. At the same time, a way must transition process to be pursued,” Albright be found to meet the needs of the Syrian side said. “From what we’ve seen in the past as well. It would be a great mistake to assume twenty-four hours ... it looks like a peaceful that the Syrians do not, in their own way, face transition. It is important that it be peaceful.” significant risks in approaching peace. There- Albright did, however, comment about fore, as long as both Israelis and Syrians are the continuing Syrian military presence in still interested in finding a way forward, and Lebanon in the wake of the Israeli withdrawal we believe that continues to be the case, the in May. For example, on June 7 in Cairo she United States will persist in our efforts to noted the “bold move Prime Minister Barak help them.” took in withdrawing his forces from Lebanon There was evidence that Israel was pre- and doing it according to [U.N. Security paring to lobby for U.S. aid to Syria if a peace Council] Resolution 425,” and said it was treaty was concluded. The diplomatic corre- “very important for all parties involved in spondent for the respected Israeli daily that to carry out their obligations vis-à-vis Ha’aretz reported on March 26 from Geneva 425. I would hope very much that the Leba- that the Israeli embassy in Washington was nese army would begin to move into Southern “exploring the possibility of U.S. aid to Syria Lebanon and that the Lebanese would take following the signing of a peace agreement control over their own territory and all foreign between Syria and the Jewish state.” He said forces would depart.” She added that Leba- 415 non would be discussed in her meeting that driving code and the potential it offered for day with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq increased arbitrary abuse and extortion of Shara’: bribes by the police under the guise of enforc- “We’re going to talk about Lebanon and ing the new system. The following week, I think about making sure that everybody secondary school and university students fulfills their obligations according to 425. As and unemployed youths demonstrated on the I’ve said, the Syrians have been cooperative streets of several southern cities and towns, and I think it is very important that all parties including Gabes, Jebeniana, El Amra, do in fact follow through on their obliga- Medenine, Jerba, Douz, Gafsa, and Sfax, tions—these are international obligations— amid rumors that bread prices were to rise. the Israelis have lived up to them, I think it For more than a week, they demonstrated would be good if everybody else did also.” against the rise in basic food prices and unemployment, and government corruption. Police arrested hundreds of demonstrators, many of whom alleged that they were ill- TUNISIA treated in custody, but most were released uncharged or received suspended sentences. Human Rights Developments More than forty, however, were sentenced to The struggle of Tunisian activists to between three and eight months in prison. exercise their rights to meet and speak about On November 7, following President human rights abuses in the country was in the Ben Ali’s reelection and on the twelfth anni- forefront of developments this past year. versary of his assumption of power, the Public confrontations, including several high authorities released more than 1,000 prison- profile hunger strikes by political prisoners ers, including some 600 political prisoners, on and by activists under judicial restraints, certain conditions as part of a reported am- contributed to the release of some prisoners nesty. Many of those freed were sympathiz- and a government decision to restore pass- ers or low-ranking adherents of al-Nahda ports and the right to travel to leading human (Renaissance), a proscribed Islamist move- rights lawyers and activists after years of ment, who had been imprisoned for offenses denial. The government, however, remained such as attending meetings of an “unautho- hostile to any public criticism and criminalized rized” organization or making donations to “unlicensed” political activities. The lack of the families of imprisoned members. The political pluralism was evident from Presi- authorities also released five accused mem- dent Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s reelection for bers of the banned Tunisian Communist a fourth term on October 24 with 99.4 percent Worker’s Party (Parti Communiste des of the votes and by the ruling Democratic Ouvrier Tunisiens, PCOT)–Ali Jellouli, Nejib Constitutional Rally’s (Rassemblement Baccouchi, Noureddine Benticha, Chedli Constitutionnel Democratique, RCD) cap- Hammami, and Taha Sass–who they had ture of 94 percent of the vote in the May 28 sentenced in July 1999 after an unfair trial on municipal elections. The increase in protests political charges. A sixth, Fahem Boukaddous, during the year reflected not any increase in who had been badly tortured in 1999, re- official tolerance but rather a new defiance mained in prison until June 2000. All senior spurred by frustration over the lack of basic imprisoned al-Nahda members continued to rights. be held, serving long terms under harsh con- There was also dissatisfaction with the ditions. government’s performance on the economic Released political prisoners faced a range front. The first serious breakdown in labor of punitive measures, some court sanctioned, relations for a decade occurred in early Feb- such as “administrative controls” requiring ruary, when taxi and truck drivers held a three- them to present themselves, often daily, at day strike to protest the introduction of a new local police stations and others arbitrary, 416 TUNISIA

including restrictions on travel and having human rights lawyer Nejib Hosni, Mustapha their telephone communications cut. Some Ben Jaafar, secretary general of the Demo- were dismissed or excluded from their public- cratic Forum for Labor and Liberties, another sector jobs and private sector employees “unauthorized” association, and PCOT ac- were pressured not to hire them. Most were tivist Mohamed Hedi Sassi. subjected to heavy and intimidating police The government demonstrated particu- surveillance. On August 28, Hamadi lar intolerance when those associated with the Romdhane was arrested for refusing to sub- CNLT refused to submit to official efforts to mit to administrative controls. A former pris- silence them. The security forces in Decem- oner, the authorities first told him that admin- ber 1999 twice ransacked the offices of Edi- istrative controls on those released in accor- tions Aloés, a publishing house established dance with the November 1999 amnesty, had by CNLT founding member Sihem Ben been released but later that they had been Sedrine, wife of the CNLT’s secretary-gen- reinstated. He was required to sign in on a eral Omer Mestiri, and seized computers and daily basis at a police station twelve kilome- archives. On January 13, Editions Aloés’ co- ters from his home. Fearing that he could not founder and literary director, Jean-Francois earn a living under these circumstances, he Revel, a French national, was summarily refused to comply. dismissed from his position as assistant pro- The authorities remained determined to fessor of philosophy at the Institut des Sci- quash efforts aimed at developing associa- ences Humaines in Tunis. On February 13, he tions that might be independent and critical of was ordered to leave the country after he the government. They continued to deny legal traveled with Ben Sedrine and journalist status to the nongovernmental Rally for an Taoufik Ben Brik to document the February International Development Alternative demonstrations in the south of the country. (Rassemblement pour une Alternative Ben Brik, also a founding member of the Internationale de Developpement, RAID) CNLT, began a hunger strike on April 3 to and National Council on Liberties in Tunisia protest the government’s confiscation of his (Conseil Nationale pour les Libertés en passport a year earlier, repeated police ha- Tunisie, CNLT), a human rights monitoring rassment of his family, and Tunisian media group, thus rendering these associations’ blacklisting of his work. On April 10, he was supporters liable to arrest and imprisonment charged with “spreading false information” on charges of belonging to “unauthorized” and “defaming the authorities.” The charges, organizations. In April, police detained Fathi which carried a penalty of up to nine years of Chamkhi, president of RAID, together with imprisonment, were brought in response to RAID member Mohamed Chourabi and pho- Swiss newspaper articles he had written, tocopy shop owner Iheb el-Hani, for pos- including one on police harassment of Ben sessing RAID and CNLT documents and Sedrine. Also on April 10, police forcibly charged them with “spreading false informa- evacuated and closed down Sihem Ben tion liable to disturb public order, defamation Sedrine’s Editions Aloés publishing house, of the authorities, inciting fellow citizens to where Taoufiq Ben Brik was conducting his violate the laws of the country, and belonging hunger strike, on the grounds that a meeting to an unauthorized association.” The two held there the previous day to discuss free- were released on bail on May 8 but their files dom of the press, and attended by foreign remained open, leaving them vulnerable to journalists, had constituted “a threat to pub- future harassment. lic order.” On April 26, police detained and Throughout the year, local human rights badly beat Ben Sedrine, Ben Brik’s brother activists were summoned before prosecutors Jalal Zoughlami, and 70-year-old lawyer Ali or judges, or detained for brief periods and Ben Salem after a confrontation in which then released. As of mid-October, those un- police prevented foreign journalists and Tu- der investigation and facing trial included nisian supporters from visiting Ben Brik at TUNISIA 417 home. On May 3, a court convicted Zoughlami nonviolent political activist, had suffered of “verbally and physically abusing” a police torture and ill-treatment during previous officer who was kicking Ben Salem and sen- prison terms and remained in hiding after he tenced him to three months of imprisonment. was convicted in his absence and sentenced in The authorities shortly afterwards dropped July 1999, to more than nine years in prison the charges against Ben Brik and returned his on several charges, including “defamation of passport, allowing him to travel to France the public order,” “spreading false informa- were he continued his hunger strike in protest tion,” and “holding unauthorized meetings.” at his brother’s imprisonment. An appeal Nadia ended her hunger strike after 13 days on court reduced Zoughlami’s sentence to take the advice of doctors. Najoua Rezgui, whose account of time served awaiting trial and he husband was also in hiding after he received was released on May 15. a similar sentence in the same July 1999 trial, In a televised cabinet meeting on May had herself been arrested on several occa- 15, President Ben Ali defended “the inalien- sions. Rezgui ended her hunger strike after 20 able right of every citizen” to a passport and days. travel abroad. Despite the welcome return of Prisoners conducted hunger strikes de- passports to a number of well-known activ- manding improved treatment and prison con- ists, however, the authorities continued to ditions. Most of the approximately 1,000 deny them to less prominent critics as well as political prisoners in Tunisia were serving to family members of political prisoners and sentences for “membership of an unlicenced expatriate activists. Other forms of harass- organization,” mostly al-Nahda, or related ment, including routine and intensive police nonviolent offenses such as distributing tracts surveillance and house searches at all hours, or attending meetings. Reports by the CNLT continued unabated. Mehdi Zougah, a dual in October 1999 and by the nongovernmental French/Tunisian national, returned to Tuni- International Federation of Human Rights sia in August after his Tunisian passport was (FIDH) and the Committee for the Respect of restored after six years. Despite receiving Liberties and Human Rights in Tunisia apparent assurances that he could return (CRLDHT) in June 2000 documented over- safely, he was arrested upon arrival and held crowded prisons with poor hygiene, inad- in secret detention for twelve days. It was equate medical care, cruel and degrading dis- then revealed that he had been convicted in his ciplinary measures, and regular beatings of absence in 1998 for membership in an illegal prisoners by guards. Several al-Nahda leaders organization and sentenced to twelve years had been held in solitary confinement for imprisonment. As of this writing he remains months or years. On April 9, prisoners Fahem in detention and is due to appear in court on Boukaddous and Abdelmoumen Belanes, both January 8, 2001 on the charge of membership convicted of membership of the PCOT and in an illegal organization. suffering from medical conditions, began hun- For a number of political activists and ger strikes. They were joined in May by their families the year saw no respite. On June Sadok Chorou , Samir Diallo, and Fathi al- 28, seventeen-year-old Nadia Hammami and Ouraghi, all convicted of links with al-Nahda, Najoua Rezgui, daughter and wife, respec- to demand adequate medical care. Lawyer tively, of convicted PCOT activists Hama Taoufik Chaieb, imprisoned since 1996 for Hammami and Abdeljabbar Maddouri, links with al-Nahda, began a near two-month launched hunger strikes to demand an end to hunger strike on July 11. After his condition state harassment. Nadia and her sisters, deteriorated seriously, President Ben Ali re- Oussaima, eleven years old, and Sarah, eleven leased him under a presidential amnesty on months, continued to be denied passports, September 5. presumably because of the political activities At least three persons died in custody in of their father and their mother, human rights suspicious circumstances. On May 10, El-Id lawyer Radhia Nasraoui. Hama Hammami, a Ben Saleh was reportedly attacked and killed 418 TUNISIA

by fellow detainees in Gafsa prison. On July year, the government had restored the pass- 22, Chaker El-Azouzi was reportedly beaten ports of most prominent activists, but main- to death by police in Hammamet after being tained travel restrictions on some. taken into custody. On September 17, Ridha The experience of CNLT spokesman Jeddi died in Menzel Bourguiba police sta- Moncef Marzouki was typical. In November tion; his body reportedly bore marks of 1999, following publication of several torture when returned to his family. The communiqués by the CNLT, the authorities independent Tunisian League for Human brought him before an investigating judge to Rights (LTDH) called for investigations into answer charges that included maintaining an all three cases but at this writing there was no “unrecognized” association and “spreading information that they had taken place. false information aiming to disturb the public In a meeting with private newspaper order.” In May, his passport was returned to publishers on May 3, International Press him and his phone line restored after a four Freedom Day, President Ben Ali told the year interruption, but in July, following a media: “Write as you wish. Be critical as long short trip to Paris and Washington, he was as what you say is true,” stating that, “If dismissed from his post as professor of somebody bothers you about this you have community medicine at the University of only to contact me.” There was no noticeable Sousse on grounds that he had traveled with- change, however, in the deferential tone of out permission. On October 19, The authori- Tunisia’s privately-owned print media, which ties prevented him from leaving Tunis airport continued to ignore domestic human rights to attend a meeting in Spain. issues and contributed to the climate of in- Marzouki’s university dismissal fol- timidation by printing scurrilous attacks on lowed by one day a speech by President Ben persons in disfavor with the government. On Ali to cadres of the ruling RCD party in which May 23, Riad Ben Fadel, editor of the Arabic- he threatened to prosecute unnamed citizens language edition of the Paris-based monthly whose criticisms of Tunisia while abroad Le Monde diplomatique, was wounded by “amount[ed] to treason.” In an unmistakable gunfire two days after he criticized the au- reference to the CNLT, Ben Ali said, “It is out thorities’ handling of the Ben Brik affair. of the question that in the name of public President Ben Ali met with Ben Fadel after liberties illegal structures are set up claiming the shooting and promised an investigation. for themselves the status of associations, In June, President Ben Ali took Tunisia’s organizations, or committees.” The CNLT state-run television service to task for not continued to issue strongly-worded critiques “being more responsive to the preoccupa- of human rights abuses despite the tions and expectations of citizens” and for not government’s steadfast rejection of its appli- promoting “pluralism of thought and diver- cation for legal recognition. In October 1999, sity of opinion.” Radio, also state-run, and it published a report on prison conditions and television remained government mouthpieces, in March 2000, a detailed overview of human however, and gave no air time to political rights violations in the country. critics or human rights activists. The Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), the Young Lawyers’ Association, Defending Human Rights and the Tunisian Association of Democratic Human rights activists faced restric- Women (AFTD), all legally recognized, also tions ranging from no coverage of their activ- spoke out against rights violations despite ism in the government- controlled press and government pressure and obstacles to holding banned gatherings to job dismissal and judi- public meetings. cial proceedings with the threat of imprison- In April, police prevented the Tunisian ment. Surveillance extended to phone tap- section of Amnesty International (AI) from ping, disconnecting phone lines, and inter- holding a public meeting on the human rights ception of mail and faxes. By the end of the situation in Saudi Arabia. Security officers 419 prevented Mahmoud Ben Romdhane, chair ger strike of journalist Taoufik Ben Brik (see of the organization’s international board, and above). Swiss Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss other members and guests, including foreign said in Tunis on May 2 that he had handed his diplomats, from approaching the Tunisian counterpart a memorandum “that organization’s Tunis office, and lawyer contains Switzerland’s hope for a solution to Hachemi Jegham, former president of AI’s this question in accordance with the prin- Tunisia section, was physically dragged from ciples of law that are defended by our two the building. In July, Donatella Rovera and countries.” French Foreign Minister Hubert Hassina Giraud from AI and Patrick Baudouin Vedrine, in a speech the same day to the from the FIDH were barred from entering the French National Assembly, said that “we country at Tunis-Carthage airport. attach a great value to press freedom” and that “we have asked the Tunisian authorities a The Role of the International number of times and in different ways to find Community a humane and rapid end to this deplorable situation.” Ben Brik continued his hunger United Nations strike in Paris after the Tunisian government The United Nations special rapporteur returned his passport on May 1. on freedom of opinion and expression visited The European Parliament on June 15 Tunisia in April 1999 and issued his report on adopted an emergency resolution urging Tu- February 25, 2000. The report concluded that nisia to “establish a true multiparty system” Tunisia “still has a long way to go to take full and “guarantee the exercise of fundamental advantage of its favourable economic context rights and freedoms.” The resolution called on and adopt measures designed to strengthen the E.U.-Tunisian Association Council, set the protection of human rights and, in particu- up by the E.U.’s Association Agreement lar, the right to freedom of opinion and expres- with Tunisia, to conduct a “joint evaluation sion.” It expressed particular concern over the of respect for human rights in Tunisia,” and reported punishment and harassment of fami- asked the European Commission to report to lies of persons under arrest, state control of parliament “on the evolution of the human broadcasting and major print media, and “in- rights situation in Tunisia.” adequate” government efforts to remove “un- necessary constraints” on journalists. The United States special rapporteur recommended revision and A visit by President Ben Ali to Washing- amendment of laws governing the press, po- ton, D.C., scheduled for mid-July was post- litical parties, and associations, and called on poned because of President Clinton’s engage- the government to abolish “all direct and ment in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at indirect forms of censorship” and “to put an Camp David and was not subsequently re- end to the alleged intimidation and harass- scheduled. ment of persons seeking to exercise their right U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for to freedom of opinion and expression.” The Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Harold report also called on the government to re- Koh, made a three-day visit to Tunisia in spond positively to the standing requests of June, where he met with human rights advo- the special rapporteur on torture and the cates, journalists, and government officials. special rapporteur on the independence of At a press conference on June 14, Koh com- judges and lawyers to visit the country. mended the government’s record on social and economic progress and said that “this is European Union an important moment to match those steps The confrontation between the Tuni- with steps in the area of civil and political sian government and human rights groups rights.” He identified greater political plural- received considerable media coverage in France ism, judicial transparency and independence, and other E.U. countries, especially the hun- and media censorship as key concerns. He 420 TUNISIA/YEMEN

also said that “further progress would be Relevant Human Rights Watch welcomed” in government steps “to ensure Reports: the ability of all Tunisians to travel freely, to The Administration of Justice in Tunisia: speak openly, and to gather together indepen- Torture, Trumped-Up Charges and a Tainted dent associations, including human rights Trial, 2/00 organizations.” Assistant Secretary Koh’s candid as- sessment of Tunisia’s human rights record was not matched elsewhere in U.S. public YEMEN diplomacy over the year. In the State Department’s official Congressional Budget Human Rights Developments Justification released on March 15, Assistant Yemen’s poor human rights record Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs showed little improvement in 2000. While the Edwin S. Walker, Jr. characterized Tunisia, government set up several committees to without qualification, as “a stable, demo- monitor abuses, it signally failed to imple- cratic country.” The administration requested ment basic human rights protections in most U.S. $2.5 million in military aid and almost areas. There were credible reports of torture U.S. $1 million for military training for Tuni- in state prisons as well as in private jails and sia for fiscal year 2001. Tunisia was invited illegal detention facilities, and the courts con- to participate in the Community of Democ- tinued to impose death sentences and cruel racies ministerial conference in Warsaw, Po- punishments such as floggings for a wide land, in late June, a meeting that enjoyed high- range of offenses. The authorities detained level U.S. support. The Tunisia chapter in the political opponents and ignored court orders State Department’s Country Reports on for their release or trial, and threatened to Human Rights Practices for 1999 provided a dissolve a main opposition party. Govern- comprehensive overview of the human rights ment harassment of the independent press situation, but the introductory paragraphs and restrictions generally on freedom of ex- muted this criticism by characterizing the pression worsened. Women continued to face government’s human rights performance as institutionalized discrimination, especially “uneven,” a term it appeared to justify by in personal status and criminal law. Yemenis referring to the October presidential and leg- and foreign nationals remained prey to kid- islative elections as “mark[ing] a modest step naping by criminal or disaffected groups, toward democratic development.” Assistant provoking government responses that were Secretary Koh’s introduction to the Country often marked by excessive and indiscriminate Reports was inappropriately indulgent to use of lethal force by security forces and the Tunisia. It failed to mention that country in imposition of collective punishment. A draft discussing repression of dissidents and hu- law presented to parliament in April would man rights defenders by Middle Eastern gov- allow police to open fire at any “dubious” ernments, and went on to commend the gov- gathering of more than five persons. ernment for releasing on early parole Tunisian Investigations into the October 12 bomb- Human Rights League Vice-President ing of the USS Cole, a naval destroyer refuel- Khemais Ksila, repeating uncritically and ing in the port of Aden, were conducted on the without qualification the government’s bo- Yemeni side by the Political Security Organi- gus charges that kept Ksila in jail for two years zation (PSO), an agency that reported di- in the first place. rectly to President Ali Abdallah Salih and operated without any judicial or other formal authorization. According to press reports, some 1,500 persons were picked up for questioning and about sixty were reportedly being held at the end of October. The U.S. YEMEN 421

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) dis- private jail. patched several score of agents to assist in the In a move to crack down on private jails investigation, but were not allowed to partici- and prisons, the government dispatched forces pate in interrogations. The PSO contributed to a number of districts in Ibb governorate in to a general atmosphere of political intimida- late October 1999. Facilities in al-’Udain tion through its routine recourse to harass- were blown up, and twenty-four detainees ment, beatings, and arbitrary detention. PSO were transferred to state facilities for inves- plainclothes agents in past years infiltrated tigation. In general, however, the government the independent press, syndicates, and civic seemed reluctant to take legal measures against organizations, in some cases forcing those those operating private prisons, most of organizations to cease their activities. Per- whom were prominent tribal and regional sons seeking to work for government institu- leaders. tions, including the university, required PSO Although a presidential decree issued in clearance. 1998 made kidnapping of foreigners a capital Yemeni human rights activists told Hu- offense and set up a special court in Sana’a to man Rights Watch that torture and ill-treat- try those accused of the crime, Yemenis, as ment of detainees was less frequent than in well as foreign tourists and diplomats, contin- recent years, but the local press did carry ued to be kidnapped by diverse groups, often reports of abusive treatment of detainees and inhabitants of marginalized northern and east- prisoners by the authorities. Muhammad Ali ern regions seeking economic or political Talib of Lahj governorate, for example, was concessions from the government. Most vic- arrested several times without warrant and tims were released unharmed after payment severely beaten, according to the Aden-based of a ransom, but on June 10, Norwegian Organization for the Defense of Human Rights diplomat Gudbrand Stuve and his nine-year- and Democratic Liberties, and the Yemen old son were victims of a kidnap attempt on Times reported on April 24 that police offic- a busy street in Sana’a. Stuve, however, was ers had beaten to death detainee Amin Abdullah killed in a shoot-out between the four kidnap- al-Samti in al-’Udain district, Ibb governor- pers, tribesmen from al-Jawf, and the occu- ate. pants of another car, apparently members of According to local press reports and the security forces. human rights organizations, mistreatment and On several occasions, the government torture occurred in private as well as in official deployed military and paramilitary units to detention facilities. On April 1, the governor areas where kidnappers were suspected of of al-Hodeida removed the al-Mansuriya dis- hiding with their captives and used excessive trict security director, Ahmad Ali Naji, and force against local inhabitants. In early July, had him charged with using the district’s for example, according to the London-based detention facilities to mistreat prisoners and al-Sharq al-Awsat daily, government forces extort bribes. In July, lawyer and parliamen- surrounded the Sirwah area in the eastern tarian Muhammad Naji al-Alaw discovered a governorate of Mareb after six Republican freight container at Sana’a University’s law Guard officers were kidnapped by people faculty being used by administrators as a seeking the release of a man convicted of detention facility for holding students and hijacking a car. Even after the release of the employees accused of minor violations. On hostages, government troops continued to April 11, three people died of suffocation and bombard the area, killing at least three people thirst after being detained in a container in and injuring others, and destroying houses, Jabal al-Sharq in Dhamar governorate. Their according to Sana’a’s English-language weekly deaths were widely attributed to two tribal Yemen Times. leaders but in a letter to the Aden-based In September, security forces surrounded independent daily al-Ayyam, one of these Kud Qarru village, near Aden, where citizens denied allegations that his family operated a had prevented a contractor from extracting 422 YEMEN

gravel and stones from what they regarded as Mohammed Abdulwali that they alleged was their properties, and put down the protest by blasphemous. In July, al-Yusufi was brought force, injuring several people and detaining to trial on charges of apostasy before the 135, according to al-Ayyam. Lawyer ‘Arif criminal chamber of a Sana’a court. According Ahmad al-Halimi, detained in this incident on to local human rights defenders, the judge September 9 and released on September 26, handling the case, Mohammed Mahdi al- alleged that the security forces carried out Raimi, had been among those involved in the further detentions, used torture, and refused campaign against al-Yusufi. Al-Raimi pro- to comply with judicial orders to release hibited all reporting about the trial, and sum- detainees. In mid-October, fifteen people moned to court two newspapers, al-Nas and from the area were brought to trial for “form- al-Ihya’ al-’Arabi, for violating this order. At ing an armed gang to appropriate state prop- this writing, the Supreme Court was deliber- erty,” charges they denied. ating on the question of whether the Sana’a Several journalists were questioned by court’s jurisdiction covered a Ta’izz-based security forces and detained without charge, newspaper. and opposition or independent newspapers The authorities detained persons sus- were the targets of defamation suits brought pected of possessing publications banned in by the Ministry of Information. In Septem- Yemen, among them bookshop owner Ayoub ber 1999, the appeals court in Sana’a ordered Nu’man and Faisal Sa’id Far’a, director of al- the suspension of al-Shura, the weekly news- Sa’id Cultural Establishment in Ta’izz. paper of the opposition Union of Yemeni Jarallah ‘Omar and Ali Salih ‘Ubbad, leaders Popular Forces; the paper remained sus- of the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party, pended for nearly a year and only resumed were briefly held on the same charge at Sana’a publication in August 2000. On February 22, airport in late April. The government sus- a Sana’a court suspended al-Wahdawi, pub- pended international and mobile phone ser- lication of the opposition Nasserist Unionist vice and pagers for a number of days at the Party, for thirty days and fined journalist time of the tenth anniversary of Yemen’s Jamal ‘Amer YR 5,000 (U.S. $30) in connec- unification in May. Internet access, available tion with an article on Yemeni-Saudi rela- only through a government company, contin- tions. Also in February, the head of security ued to be extremely slow and expensive, and forces in Aden threatened Hisham Basharahil, access to some websites containing political editor of the independent thrice-weekly news- content was reportedly blocked. paper al-Ayyam, with arson or physical harm Academic freedom came under attack on for an article published in 1999 reporting the December 3, 1999, when the Sana’a Univer- destruction of a Aden synagogue by security sity administration closed its Empirical Re- forces. On May 10, Basharahil was charged in search and Women’s Studies Center. Despite an Aden court with spreading false informa- a complaint by students, the closure was tion about the government, instigating the use upheld in court. This followed conservative of force and terrorism, and threatening the outrage over certain presentations made at a republican system in Yemen by publishing an September 1999 conference on “Challenges interview with a London-based militant, Abu for Women’s Studies in the 21st Century.” In al-Hamza al-Masri, on August 11, 1999. particular, al-Sahwa, the Yemeni Congrega- Assaults on freedom of expression came tion for Reform’s (al-Islah) weekly newspa- from sources outside the government as well. per, criticized the conference, the center’s Mosque preachers and conservative political curriculum, and its staff. So fierce was the groups in Sana’a, Aden, Tai’zz, and al- condemnation from this and other quarters Hodaida waged a campaign in June against that the center’s executive director, Ra’ufa Samir Rashad al-Yusufi, editor of the Ta’izz- Hasan al-Sharqi, felt obliged to employ per- based weekly al-Thaqafiya, over its serializa- sonal bodyguards. In April 2000, a new tion of Sana’a is an Open City, a novel by Center for the Study of the Woman was YEMEN 423 opened at the university but gender studies until 2013. This proposal would also em- had been purged from the curriculum. power the president to dissolve parliament, The autonomy of the university was and to amend aspects of the constitution also violated by the regular presence of secu- without holding a referendum, and grant the rity personnel on campus, leading some fac- president-appointed Consultative Council ulty members to request the parliament to ban legislative powers, thus marginalizing the role the security forces from campuses. of the elected parliament. Such changes would In late April, the authorities closed the significantly offset the impact of the pro- Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) center in Ja’ar, posed abolition of the president’s authority a town in Abyan governorate, and detained to make law by decree when parliament is in between fifty and one hundred supporters recess, and were expected to be passed by the and party members who they suspected of parliament, which is dominated by the planning a rally to commemorate two victims president’s party, before the end of 2000. At of police killings in April 1998 in Mukalla. In this writing, however, it was not clear whether late August, five leading YSP members were the government would submit the proposed detained in Aden on charges of meeting with- amendments to a national referendum, as out a permit. Delegates to the YSP’s Fourth required by the 1994 constitution. General Congress, held in Sana’a from August Despite the president’s stated commit- 30 to September 1, decided to reinstate to the ment in September 1999 to stand down as central committee forty-two exiled leaders, chair of the Supreme Judicial Council, the four of whom had been sentenced to death in parliament had not passed the necessary 1998 in their absence. The authorities claimed amendments to Law 1/1991 on Judicial Au- that this proved the party’s “separatist” thority as of this writing. leanings. In an interview in al-Sharq al-Awsat Although women enjoyed the same “gen- on September 9, Foreign Minister Abd al- eral rights and obligations” as men under the Qadir Ba Jammal suggested that the YSP constitution, they faced discrimination in “should be given the coup de grace.” Al-Sharq national legislation. Under Law 20/1992 on al-Awsat reported on September 21 that the Personal Status, as amended in 1998 and government had set up a special committee to 1999, women were required to sue for divorce consider the legal aspects of the possible although men could divorce at will, and di- dissolution of the YSP, although Sultan al- vorced mothers, unlike fathers, lost custody Barakani, a leading member of the ruling of their children upon remarriage. Sisters and General Peoples’s Congress (GPC), repeat- daughters inherited half the share of brothers edly denied this possibility, calling it “incon- and sons. In 1999, the minimum marriage age ceivable.” At this writing, YSP members of fifteen for women, rarely enforced, was claimed that some U.S. $14-18 million in abolished; the onset of puberty, interpreted party funds remained frozen by the govern- by conservatives to be at the age of nine, was ment. set as a requirement for consummation of President Saleh and a group of 144 marriage. The law was silent on procedures to members of parliament put forward two sets enforce this provision. Penal legislation for- of proposals for constitutional changes on bade the testimony of women in criminal August 23. The president proposed length- matters and compensation to be paid for ening the parliamentary term from four to six assault or murder of a woman was half that of years, and so postponing elections planned a man. Prison conditions for women and their for April 2001. The parliamentarians pro- children were harsh. Children were report- posed extending the presidential term from edly detained in facilities with adults, and five to seven years, effectively paving the women prisoners were vulnerable to sexual way for Saleh, in power since 1978 but exploitation by prison guards. Without any directly elected for the first time in September basis in current legislation, women prisoners 1999, to remain in office, subject to reelection, who completed their sentences were only 424 YEMEN

released to the custody of a male guardian who counter-terrorism skills over the past year. agreed to take responsibility for them, with The administration’s budget request to Con- the result that many women remained incar- gress for fiscal year 2001 included $4 million cerated after their terms had expired. in economic support funds and $1.6 million According to a United Nations for training a small number of officers in the Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study released in U.S. as well as for demining and counter- 1999, there were four hundred so-called honor narcotics programs. killings in 1997. This was probably a conser- President Salih visited the United States vative assessment, since such crimes often in April and August. On the occasion of his went unreported and uninvestigated. Only meeting with President Clinton in Washing- since 1999 have the Yemeni press and human ton in April, the U.S. commended Yemen “for rights and women’s groups reported on vio- its democratic achievements, including guar- lence against women on a regular basis. anteeing through its constitution women’s Law 12/1994 imposed the death penalty right to full political and economic participa- for murder, kidnapping, adultery, apostasy, tion.” The United States also publicly wel- and a range of other crimes. These sentences, comed the degree of religious tolerance in as well as flogging for premarital sexual rela- Yemen, and “the right accorded to Yemeni tions and consumption of alcohol, were often Jewish communities....including those in Is- carried out in public. At least twenty-two rael, to visit Yemen.” Yemen was among more executions of persons convicted of murder than one hundred countries invited to the were reported between January 1999 and U.S.-supported Towards a Community of April 2000. Democracies ministerial conference in War- saw on June 25-26. Defending Human Rights The State Department’s Country Re- Local human rights groups were able to ports on Human Rights Practices for 1999 operate, but were under some pressure from assessed the government’s human rights record the Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs. as “poor,” citing the PSO’s “broad discretion On April 9, the ministry ordered all nongov- over perceived national security issues,” pro- ernmental organizations to submit reports on longed pretrial detention, and restrictions on their activities and budgets as well as general freedom of expression as among the most information and details of their internal elec- serious problems. tions, as required by Law 11/1963 on Chari- table Societies, passed by by the former Arab Republic of Yemen. Except for the Aden- based Organization for the Defense of Human Rights and Democratic Liberties, which regu- larly publicizes human rights abuses, most human rights organizations concentrated on training or awareness-raising workshops for journalists and legislators. Local chapters of Amnesty International operated in the major cities. International human rights monitors were able to visit Yemen.

The Role of the International Community

United States The U.S. reportedly trained Yemeni special forces in small-unit combat and 425 426