Posted on 11/13/2002 by Juan
Now the rumors are that the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (which is loyal to General Pervez Musharraf) along with several smaller parties, may make a coalition with the fundamentalist United Action Council to form a government. Earlier attempts to work something out with the Pakistan People’s Party fell through, perhaps because Musharraf is unwilling to amnesty Benazir Bhutto and cohabit with her as prime minister.
The alternative, of bringing the Islamists into the government, seems to me far worse, and if true this development cannot be good for the U.S.
In the meantime, a tape of Bin Laden has surfaced that may indicate he is still alive and plotting further destruction against the US. It is entirely possible that he is hiding out in the Northwest Frontier Province, controlled by the United Action Council, which in the past has denied that al-Qaida is responsible for 9/11 and tried to defend the Taliban and Bin Laden.
Then, the Iraqi parliament really did reject the UN Security Council resolution requiring further weapons inspections.
Not a day full of good news.
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Posted on 11/12/2002 by Juan
Iraqi Parliamentarians condemn UN Security Council Resolution in Opening Debate
Asharq al-Awsat says that the foreign affairs committee of the Iraqi parliament has recommended against accepting the UN Security Council resolution 1441 passed last Friday, insisting on the resumption of weapons inspections.
Yesterday, Saadoun Hammadi, the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, threw into doubt whether Iraq would accept the demands in the UN Security council resolution 1441 passed last Friday, calling many of them “impracticable.” He maintained that Iraq had complied with the past UN Security Council resolutions. (This is not in fact clear to us outside observers). He added, “Every fair observer sees this resolution as contravening the terms of international law. The ill intention of this resolution is loud and clear. There are many inciteful clauses that threaten the dignity of our people.” This in a report by James Drummond from Cairo for the Financial Times. Asharq al-Awsat says Hammadi charged that the resolution contained “lies” about Iraq.
The 250-seat National Assembly anyway would only make a recommendation to Saddam Hussein’s 8-member Revolutionary Command Council, which would make the final decision. Drummond wonders if Hammadi’s outburst signals that Iraq might reject the resolution. The report of the foreign affairs committee reinforces such a question. But this outcome seems unlikely to me, since surely the Baath high command knows that such a move would immediately embroil them in a war with the U.S. It is true that the Iraqi leadership is unpredictable.
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Posted on 11/11/2002 by Juan
Iraq is complaining about repeated Turkish incursions into its airspace, and is taking the matter to the Arab league.
Given that there is a no-fly zone in the northern, Kurdish areas near Turkey and that Iraq does not even control its airspace up there, this particular complaint seems bizarre on the face of it. But presumably it is part of a campaign to paint the pressure being applied to Iraq to comply with international weapons inspections as a non-Arab plot against the land of an Arab nation. The implication from the Iraq side is that Turkey may be planning to invade or to claim Iraqi territory. Of course, this implication is meant to scare Iraqi Kurds into not cooperating with the US invasion plans, either.
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Posted on 11/10/2002 by Juan
Amnesty International Appeal for Dr. Aghajari
PUBLIC
AI Index:MDE 13/022/2002; UA 330/02 – 7 November 2002
Threat of execution/medical concern
IRAN – Dr Seyyed Hashem Aghajari (m), aged 45, writer and academic
Prisoner of conscience Dr Seyyed Hashem Aghajari, a history professor at Tehran’s Tarbiat Modares University, is at threat of execution.
He was arrested on 8 August following a speech he gave on 19 June in Hamedan, western Iran. His speech, entitled “Islamic Protestantism” reportedly called for a “religious renewal” in which Muslims should not “blindly follow religious leaders”.
According to media reports on 7 November, Dr Seyyed Hashem Aghajari was sentenced to 74 lashes, eight years’ imprisonment – to be served in “internal exile” – and death following a closed trial in Hamedan, on 6 November. He faced vaguely worded accusations consisting of defamation and insult charges, notably of religious figures and leaders. Dr Seyyed Hashem Aghajari’s lawyer has indicated that he will appeal against the death penalty; he has 21 days in which to do so.
According to his family, Dr Seyyed Hashem Aghajari is in urgent need of medical attention to his right leg, amputated at the knee during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. His leg is apparently bruised and infected and he is reportedly unable to stand up, walk or use the prison’s hygiene facilities.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Vaguely worded laws, open to abuse, restrict freedom of expression and opinion and frequently do not amount to recognizably criminal offences. Prisoner of conscience, Hojjatoleslam Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari was sentenced to death in 2001 on similar charges following an unfair trial in a special court. It was reduced to two and a half years (please see Amnesty International’s Annual Report 2002 and UAs MDE 13/22/00, 9 August 2000 and MDE 13/016/2001, 21 May 2001); in October 2002, a sentence of seven years’ imprisonment was handed down in connection with separate charges.
To date, Amnesty International has recorded 97 executions in 2002, although the true figure may be much higher. In 2001 Amnesty International urged the authorities to urgently consider a moratorium on executions in line with UN recommendations (AI Index MDE 13/031/2001, 17 August 2001).
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 6 (4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party. It states that “Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence.”
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language:
- urging the death sentence and all other penalties passed on Dr Seyyed Hashem Aghajari be suspended immediately or commuted on appeal;
- urging the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to commute the death sentence passed, in line with Article 6 of the ICCPR;
- calling on the authorities to allow Dr Seyyed Hashem Aghajari to receive medical treatment;
- urging the judicial authorities to implement a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, which is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment prohibited under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Iran is a state party, with a view to its eventual abolition;
- calling for Dr Seyyed Hashem Aghajari’s conviction to be overturned and that, if he is charged with recognizably criminal offences, he be tried according to internationally accepted standards for fair trial;
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei,
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue,
Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency
Email: webmaster@wilayah.org; (on the subject line write: For the attention of the office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei, Qom)
President
His Excellency Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue
Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
E-mail: khatami@president.ir
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Faxes: + 98 21 879 6671 (unreliable; please mark “care of Director of International Affairs, Judiciary”)
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
His Excellency Kamal Kharrazi
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdolmajid Keshk-e Mesri Av
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Faxes: + 98 21 390 1999 (unreliable; please mark “care of the Human Rights Department, Foreign Ministry)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Influential Religious Leaders:
Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani
Fax: +98 251 772 3098
E-Mail: Fazel@Lankarani.com
Grand Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Sistani
Office of Grand Ayatollah Sistani
P.O.Box No. 3514\37185
Muallim Street, Qom
Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 251 222 3239 (please try +98 511 222 3239 if that does not work)
E-mail: Sistani@Sistani.org
Grand Ayatollah Saafi Golpayegani
Email: Saafi@Saafi.net
Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei
Email: Saanei@Saanei.org
and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 19 December 2002.
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Posted on 11/08/2002 by Juan
Jordan declines to Join in Iraq War (Again)
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Marwan al-Mu`ashir continued to maintain today that its territory could not be used in any U.S. attack on Iraq. He said that the US understands he constraints on his government.
He may have been referring to the anti-American fatwas issued at a recent gathering of Jordanian Muslim clerics in the capital of Amman, of the Islamic Action Front. This organization is a branch of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. The clerics called for jihad or holy war against the United States, which they branded an “enemy of God.”
Some splinter group of the Muslim Brotherhood is suspected in the recent assassination of Laurence Foley, a US AID diplomat in Amman.
Jordan is still extremely worried about the potential for massive disturbances throughout the Middle East that might ensue from a US Iraq campaign.
On other fronts, al-Mu`ashir called on the Palestinians to cease suicide bombings, so as to avoid strengthening the Israeli Likud party in the run-up to a new election early next year. He also expressed confidence that the Israelis would not, as some have feared, use a looming Iraq war as a cover to engage in ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, pushing them en masse into Jordan. He said American pressure was sufficient to forestall such a development.
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Posted on 11/07/2002 by Juan
Deal struck for Government in Pakistan?
Rumors are swirling in the Pakistani press (“informed sources say . . .”) that a deal has finally been struck under U.S. pressure that will allow the formation of a national unity government including both the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muslim League (QA) along with a number of smaller parties and groups. The PPP’s Amin Fahim would be prime minister, while the Muslim League (QA)’s Zafaru’llah Jamali would be Speaker of the House.
This arrangement would keep the fundamentalist United Action Council (MMA) out of power at the center (it controls the Northwest Frontier Province provincial government). The PPP had earlier been threatening to make a coalition with the MMA, which might have brought pro-Taliban figure Fazlur Rahman of the Jami`at Ulama Islam in as prime minister of the country (!).
Mayed Ali and Ziaullah Niazi of Jang/ The Nation maintain that the new coalition was announced after US Under Secretary of State Christina Rocca met with PPP leader Benazir Bhutto in Washington early this week, in which she conveyed the strong displeasure of the US with her party’s dalliance with the fundamentalists.
Bhutto clearly wanted a quid pro quo, and apparently part of it will be the release of her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, from prison (he has been in jail several years on corruption and other charges. When his wife was PM they used to call him ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ because he was alleged to take a cut of big gov’t contracts).
My guess is that the quid pro quo won’t stop there. All along, the PPP has wanted a political amnesty for Benazir herself (she is also facing corruption charges), and has wanted to bring her back to the country. It seems to me likely Gen. Musharraf will have to give in on this matter (he has been adamant in rejecting the idea of her return, representing himself as ‘cleaning house’ of the old corrupt civilian leadership).
If it is true that the US intervened, the situation reminds me of how the Italian Parliament used to go through contortions to keep the Communist Party from being in any coalition with the governing party there.
In the end, Musharraf’s attempt to permanently sideline the older, powerful parties such as the PPP has failed, since they appear likely to get the prime ministership. Whether he can retain his power and prerogatives in the face of an elected prime minister from such a party remains to be seen.
I continue to maintain that Musharraf’s high-handed amendments of the constitution last summer and the restrictions he put on campaigning had the effect of damaging the process of return to democracy, not to mention helping the fundamentalists take the Northwest Frontier. A national unity government will be extremely weak, could fall at any moment, and may well come into a fateful confrontation with Musharraf over issues like the fate of Benazir Bhutto.
Still, in the short term at least, the exclusion of the fundamentalists from a key role in the national government is a victory for the US and will help the war on terror continue to be prosecuted vigorously in the badlands and cities of Pakistan. The US, by the way, has also announced a billion dollars in debt relief for Pakistan.
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Posted on 11/06/2002 by Juan
Predator strike against al-Qaeda in Yemen
The strike on Abu `Ali al-Harithi and his companions near Marib was carried out by a Predator controlled from Langley because past attempts to use conventional forces in this regard had failed. Last December, the Yemeni government sent in its special forces to search for al-Harithi and others. The local tribesmen allied with him put up fierce resistance, killing 18 soldiers. Al-Harithi and his colleagues escaped in the confusion.
Although the government now has 80 tribal sheikhs working for it (“Sheikhs against Terrorism”) against al-Qaeda, the complexities of these clans and of local politics are such that I very much doubt that they can be trusted with information about a strike against someone like al-Harithi without it leaking. But if you don’t alert the sheikhs to an operation in Marib, you face the possibility of having to fight tribesmen guarding their turf. Moreover, al-Qaeda is trying to intimidate the sheikhs who are cooperating with the government. The leader of the Bakil had two of his mansions come under rocket fire last weekend.
The Yemeni government had the farm at which al-Harithi was staying under surveillance by agents on the ground, who tracked his movements in the Rub` al-Khali. They (perhaps in cooperation with US special forces personnel also on the ground) presumably called down the Predator strike on his vehicle. The Predator probably took off from Djibouti. They thus risked no Yemeni or US conventional forces, avoided possible further firefights with local tribesmen, and sent a very powerful message to the re-grouping al-Qaeda leadership that they cannot hide and could die at any moment.
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