over-arching armed conflict – ظلال الصراع المسلح فى الشرق الأوسط

Amnesty International has just released its Annual Human Rights Report for 2007 [link]. Some statistics:

TORTURE AND TERROR IN 2006
144 states have ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
102 countries had cases of torture and ill-treatment by security forces, police and other state authorities documented in the Amnesty International Report 2007
”War on Terror”
400 detainees from more than 30 nationalities were still held at Guantánamo Bay – the public symbol of the injustices in the “war on terror” – at the end of 2006
200 have staged hunger strikes since the camp opened
40 have attempted suicide
3 died in June 2006, after apparent suicides
An unknown number of detainees are held in other, secret, detention centres or “black sites” around the world

The Report also states that armed conflict overshadowed everything else in the Middle East. Amidst this chaos, governmentas behaved with impunity:

n many countries, security forces were allowed virtual carte blanche to detain, intimidate and torture political opponents and criminal suspects. By failing to hold them to account, the governments to whom these forces reported betrayed their own willingness to condone or acquiesce in such abuses. In Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen, political and terrorism suspects were tried before special and military courts. In many cases they were convicted on the basis of contested confessions by judges who rarely showed any inclination to investigate allegations that defendants had been tortured in pre-trial detention. Such courts were intended to provide a veneer of legitimacy, but the abusive systems of which they formed a part – based on prolonged incommunicado detention, torture or other ill-treatment and the extraction of confessions – were fundamentally rotten. They delivered convictions, long sentences and even, in some cases, the death penalty, but they did not deliver justice.

صدر تقرير حالة حقوق الإنسان فى العالم لعام 2007 لمنظمة العفو الدولية. وصلة وقد قدم التقرير بعض الأرقام والإحصاءات من أهمها

 

التعذيب والإرهاب

 

144دولة صدقت على “اتفاقية مناهضة التعذيب وغيره من ضروب المعاملة أو العقوبة القاسية أو اللاإنسانية أو المهينة”

 

102دولة وقعت بها حالات تعذيب ومعاملة سيئة على أيدي قوات الأمن أو الشرطة أو غيرها من السلطات الحكومية، وهي موثقة في تقرير منظمة العفو الدولية للعام 2007.

 

“الحرب على الإرهاب”

 

400معتقل ينتمون إلى ما يزيد عن 30جنسية لا يزالون محتجزين في معتقل غوانتنامو، الرمز الواضح للمظالم في سياق “الحرب على الإرهاب”، بحلول نهاية 2006.

 

200معتقل أضربوا عن الطعام منذ بدأ استخدام المعتقل

 

40معتقلاً حاولوا الانتحار

 

3أشخاص تُوفوا في معتقل غوانتنامو، في يونيو/حزيران 2006، في حوادث انتحار، على ما يبدو.

 

؟؟ (عدد غير معروف) من المعتقلين في مراكز اعتقال أخرى سرية أو “مواقع سوداء” في شتى أنحاء العالم

كما قال التقرير عن الشروق الأوسط أن الصراع المسلح أخذ يتمدد بشكل طغى على كل شىء آخر, وقال أن الحكومات العربية بدأت تتعامل بلامساءلة

 

فقد مُنحت قوات الأمن في بلدان كثيرة ما يقرب من الحرية المطلقة في احتجاز وترهيب وتعذيب الخصوم السياسيين والمشتبه فيهم جنائياً. وكان تقاعس الحكومات التي تتبعها هذه القوات عن مساءلتها يشي باستعداد هذه الحكومات للتسامح عن هذه الانتهاكات أو قبولها. ففي الأردن وتونس وسوريا ومصر واليمن، كان المشتبه فيهم سياسياً والمشتبه في ممارستهم للإرهاب يُحاكمون أمام محاكم خاصة ومحاكم عسكرية. وكثيراً ما أُدينوا استناداً إلى اعترافات كانت مثار خلاف، وأصدر هذه الأحكام قضاة نادراً ما أبدوا أي ميل للتحقيق في الادعاءات القائلة إن المتهمين تعرضوا للتعذيب في الحجز قبل محاكمتهم. وكان المقصود بهذه المحاكم أن تقدم مظهراً خارجياً للشرعية. بيد أن النظم القائمة على الانتهاكات والتي تنتمي إليها – أي القائمة على الاحتجاز بمعزل عن العالم الخارجي فترة مديدة، وعلى التعذيب أو غيره من ضروب المعاملة السيئة، وعلى انتزاع الاعترافات – كانت نظماً فاسدة في جوهرها. فقد أصدرت أحكاماً بالإدانة، وعقوبات بالسجن مدداً طويلة، بل وأحكاماً بالإعدام في بعض الحالات، ولكنها لم تحقق العدالة.

a commentary on insanity

I know I have not written in a while. I am just too overwhelmed right now. There is so much I want to write about and don’t even know where to start. Lebanon on Palestine? or Palestine on Palestine? or Israel on Palestine? or Sudan on Sudan? or Yemen on Yemen? Or Iraq on Iraq? or America on Iraq? or Iraq on America?

I am just overwhelmed. The needless senseless deaths.. the domino effects of the dual madness: the Bush administration/Israeli administration.

are you deaf????

Haaretz reports that “warning sirens alerting Sderot residents of incoming Qassam rockets and the accompanying barrages are taking a heavy toll on the residents’ ability to hear” [link]. Apparently the Qassam rockets themselves, as well as the alarm sirens warning of their attack are causing hearing loss to some of the Sderot residents.

Hmmm… let’s see. So daily helicopters and shooting and bulldozing and F16s and louds speakers telling people to leave their homes in the middle of the night.. all this is causing what exactly to the Palestinians? Let’s see… trauma? poost traumatic stress disorders? children urinating in their sleep haunted by nightmares? deaths? loss of limbs?

It is not the residents of Sderot that are losing their hearing. It is the world that has lost its hearing a long time ago when it abandoned the Palestinian rights to their own land.

please don’t shoot me!

Mohammed from Rafah sent me this email yesterday:

I’m scared. I was almost killed or at least left bleeding to death. Three militants were closing all roads and they suddenly said to me ‘Stop!’ during the curfew. I stopped and then the masked-men opened fire under my feet hitting the ground under my feet. I thought I was going to get killed, and I could not explain or scream as the
shooting was louder than my screams. I kept saying: “No, don’t do that, stop stop, please.” I was in tears. This is the first time I beg someone not to kill me. And then the other guy who was also militant was standing at my side and said “we don’t want to kill him, let’s shoot him in his legs and leave him bleed.” I said “what? why?” and then he said, “your ID”. I showed it with the press card and then they let me go. I was scared that they would shoot me once I turned my back, but alhamdulellah this didn’t happen. I was scared,
scared, scared to death.
I was stuck and could not find transportation back home, so I was walking aimlessly in the streets. I was scared to death. Those are just evil and terrible people. I don’t wish to be in that position again. I can’t stand on my feet anymore. I feel pain and I am scared.
They are working for preventive security, which is working closely with the Israelis. I was wearing my bullet proof vest, but this did not protect me enough. Today, more than 10 were killed and tens were injured, many by Israelis, but still some by Palestinian clashes between Hamas and Fateh.
They don’t want this to be reported. I didn’t tell about this to my mother. She will be scared again!

Need I say anything more? Why is Mohammed being targetted by Palestinian gunmen? Why are they fighting each other? why is this little boy in the picture below so miserable and afraid, gathering the remains of his burnt school books? why has the world gone mad?

But this again … is just another day in the life of Palestine.

democratic censorship

The Pentagon has decided two days ago to block soldiers’ access to several websites including MySpace and YouTube. While soldiers at war follow very closely news from home and communicate via MySpace and watch videos of the war on youtube, their bosses decided that this was too much for the soldiers. After all, soldiers should be killing machines who obey orders, not informed citizens.

The government says that the idea behind the ban is to leave bandwidth available to more critical operations, instead of simply having soldiers play online. However

Under the policy, troops will still be allowed to access the sites from non-military computers. But few soldiers in combat areas carry private computers. They will continue to have access to the sites through Internet cafes that are not on the military computer network, officers said. [link]

The banned sites are the followingL MySpace, YouTube, Photobucket, Metacafe, MTV, iFilm, Hi5, Pandora, Live365,  BlackPlanet, 1.FM, StupidVideos, Filecabi

كدمات وحروق الوطن

ضربوا بعض علشان قطعة أرض ومسألة ملكيتها – هل هى ملكية كنسية أم مسجدية. وتم حرق منازل وضرب وهيصة وزمبليطة فى العياط بالجيزة وتم نقل 9 مصابين بحروق وكدمات حسب جريدة المصرى اليوم

هى حروق وكدمات الوطن لأن الوطن جريح ومصاب بسرطان أدى إلى طاعون ينتشر مثل النار ليحرق الكل

تطرف ثم تطرف ثم تطرف. لو هى مسألة أرض مملوكة لأفراد لكنا قلنا أنها ربما خناقة شخصية. أما كونها مسألة كنيسة ومسجد بهنا نفهم أن المسألة ليست شخصية بل أن نار التطرف مستمر فى أكل أسس المجتمع وسوف يلتهمه

كيف يلتئم جرح الوكن وكلنا مذنبين ومتسببين فى جراحه؟

تقرير الفساد فى العالم العربى

العراق أكثر الدول العربية فسادا. بالذمة دى مش نكتة؟ احتلت دولة هاييتي في أمريكا الوسطى المرتبة الأولى من بين الدول الأكثر فسادا وجاء العراق في المرتبة الثالثة والسودان في المرتبة الخامسة. صدر هذا فى تقرير منظمة الشفافية العالمى لعام 2006, ويقول التقرير أن الدول الأكثر نموا لا يؤثر فيها الفساد مثل الدول النامية – بمعنى أن الفساد فى الدول النامية لا يؤثر على الفقر أو التنمية مثلما يفعل فى دول العالم الثالث. والطريف أن الفساد فى إزدياد فى أمريكا أيضا. وكانت منظمة الشفافية العالمية قد حذرت فى العام الماضى من تفاقهم الفساد فى ما يسمى إعادة إعمار العراق وقالت ان الولايات المتحدة لم تكن أفضل مثال لإزالة الفساد

Transparency International published its annual report and claims that Iraq is at the top of the countries whose officials are corrupt. In fact, it is 3rd now after Haiti. The Sudan came 5th. The report also says that while corruption does not affect poverty and development in developed countries, it has a large impact on developing nations. It also states that corruption has increased dramatically in the United States.

It should be mentioned that in its report last year. Transparency International had warned about the increased level of corruption in the ‘reconstruction’ of Iraq and warned that ‘urgent steps were needed to ensure that corruption did not become endemic’ [link]. The report had stated then that the US has been a poor role model in how to keep corrupt practices at bay . Well apparently it has become endemic now.

To read the report, click here [link]

the mortality rate of infant democracies

According its 8th annual report entiteld State of the World’s Mothers Report by Save the Children,

Iraq’s child mortality rate has increased by a staggering 150 percent since 1990. Some 122,000 Iraqi children died in 2005 before reaching their fifth birthday. More than half of these deaths were among newborn babies in the first month of life. [link]

Afghanistan also ranks among the highest ten countries for child mortality rates because of conflict and violence. The good news is that Egypt has made the most progress since 1990 in saving the lives of children under 5.

Well it is not only Iraqi children who are dying and have been dying for the past 20 years because of sanctions, but Iraq itself is dying. The question is, what are Iraq’s survival chances, let alone its children? And what is the ‘infant democracies’ mortality rates for countries invaded by the Bush administration?

We have this saying in Arabic: the operation succeeded but the patient died. All that matters to Bush is ’success’ – the human cost to others and to his own people matter very little. The patients are either dead or dying.

speak for my blood is spilled on the ground – تكلمي فها أنا علي التراب سائل دمي

تكلمي بالله باللعنة بالشيطان
لا تغمضي عينيك، فالجرذان
تلعق من دمي حساءها .. ولا أردها

بشرى برجيس بنت فلسطينية عمرها 17 سنة قتلت فى غرفة نومها وهى تذاكر لآخر إمتحان لها فى اليوم التالى. قتلت بشرى بطلقة واحدة فى رأسها. قتلها قناص إسرائيلى

كتب عنها يورى أفنيرى بصدقه المعتاد ورحمته المعتادة فى جريدة هآارتس الإسرائيلية

يوم آخر من حياة فلسطين

Bushra Burgiss, a 17 year old Palestinian child, murdered by a sniper shot to her forehead as she paced her room studying for her grammer exam the following day. Avnery writes:

The blood also spilled on her grammar workbook, staining it. Her green pen was also covered with blood; it’s still there, amid the bloody pages. The grammar book of Bushra Bargis (Al-Wahsh), the study material of a girl who was preparing for the Magen pre-matriculation exam, her last exam. Among the pages of the workbook, which has become a kind of memorial book, the family has inserted the death picture: a twisted smile, eyes half-closed and a small hole in the forehead. [link]

Amazing, isn’t it that news of her shooting and details of the criminality of the IDF is published inside Israel, while there is no mention of any of those incidents in US media?

Well.. this is just another day in the life of Palestine.

 

it makes me happy to talk to the land

Initially the Israeli government tried to buy Hani Amer’s cooperation, offering excessive amounts of money for his property. But Hani Amer refused all offers. He once explained to an Israeli officer, ‘Your understanding of life is different. It makes me happy to talk to the land, live with the land and the trees. There is no price for it’.

Acts of bravery and heroism that do not make it to the news – the ‘little’ heroes who stand individually and face the occupation. Hani Amer’s story is one such story of heroism. He lives with his wife and six children in the village of Mas’ha in Qalqilya. The land had for the most part been occupied and in its place the Israelis built the illegal Jewish settlement of Elkana. Amer had been repeatedly threatened and intimidated in an attempt to force him out of his home.

when [he] refused to leave his land ‘voluntarily’, a new strategy was introduced. An Israeli officer came to Hani Amer and threatened that he could not stay. According to Hani Amer, he said, ‘We will break you, if you don’t accept our good offers. We could send someone to shoot at the settlement and we will have already prepared the charge against you. Then your house will be bulldozered because you are known as a terrorist.’
Shortly after the wall was erected the Israeli military closed the gate when a son was still outside. They were separated from each other for one week. Friends threw food and other supplies over the gate.

The situation today is far worse because Hani’s home is now surrounded by walls and fences.

The settlers live in their posh houses within twenty metres of Hani Amer’s house, on the land of the villagers of Mas’ha. They also have their share in threatening Hani Amer’s family. At night they throw stones at the house and keep the family awake. Sometimes the solar power panels for hot water on the roof are damaged. Sometimes, when the children play outside in the garden, the settlers start to throw stones. With both his hands on his heart Hani Amer says, ‘I am most of all fearful for the safety of my kids. However, I am not going to give up my resistance. If the entire globe stands on one side and want to fight me, they will not break me. It is easy to kill me, but to break my will to stay is impossible’.

Yes indeed, Amer is correct – because Amer’s view of life is very different from his occupiers.

The report on Amer’s story was written by Adri Nieuwhof and Amer Madi writing from Mas’ha, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, 3 May 2007. Image by Amer Madi.