MIDDLE EAST: MIDDLE EAST: Weekly update of human rights violations in the region (17 Nov – 23 Nov
2006)
23 Nov 2006 12:44:35 GMT Source: IRIN
DUBAI, 23 November (IRIN) - EGYPT: Blogger's detention
extended for 15 days CAIRO, (IRIN) - The authorities in Egypt have drawn the ire of international press freedom group Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) for the second time in a
week. On 17 November, RSF condemned Egyptian security forces for physically intimidating journalists during a demonstration against sexual harassment that took place on 14 November. "It is
disturbing that in Egypt physical assaults on journalists have become systematic during this type of public demonstration," the report said. The group also criticised the continued detention of
Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer.Amer, who was arrested on 6 November in Alexandria, was officially detained for a further 15 days by a court order on 22 November. Local rights groups said that Amer was
being detained because of his secularist views, which he had expressed on his website. "The detention of any person simply for holding and expressing different ideas reflects the government's
hostility to freedom of expression," Gamal Eid, Executive Director of Human Rights Information Network (HRinfo), said in a statement.A spokesman for HRinfo, which is legally representing Amer, said
he thought Amer would only be released "if he pretends to change his mind and secular ideas". IRAQ: Gunmen kill journalist and comedian BAGHDAD, (IRIN) – On Wednesday, drive-by shooters
killed Raad Jaafar Hamadi, an Iraqi journalist working for the state-run al-Sabah newspaper in Baghdad's western neighbourhood of Washash, police Lt. Ahmed Abdul-Razzaq said.Al-Sabah is part of the
Iraqi Media Network, which was set up after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq to replace the state media that former president Saddam Hussein's government had tightly controlled.In another act of
violence, Walid Hassan, 47, a star of a popular Iraqi television show known for its dark humour about the country's many problems, was shot dead on Monday while driving through Baghdad.Hassan was
one of five actors in 'Caricature', a 45-minute comedy satire shown on Al-Sharqiyah TV channel that mocked US forces, Shi'ite militias, Sunni-Arab insurgent groups and Iraqi governments.In one
episode of the show, Hassan said, "Iraqi policemen in a convoy were firing in the air to make their way through my neighbourhood yesterday, and they used more ammunition than the Russians did to break
the siege on Stalingrad in World War II." Occ PALESTINIAN Terr: Rights violated in Gaza and Sderot, says UN rights chief GAZA, (IRIN) - Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights,
said human rights were being violated by Israelis and Palestinians on a massive scale as she toured the northern Gaza Strip and the nearby Israeli town of Sderot during a five-day visit due to end
Thursday."The violation of human rights I think in this territory is massive," Arbour said as she visited Beit Hanoun in Gaza. "The call for protection has to be answered. We cannot continue to see
civilians, who are not the authors of their own misfortune, suffer to the extent of what I see." Scores of Palestinians, including many civilians, have been killed during recent Israeli military
operations in Gaza while an Israeli civilian in Sderot was killed by a rocket fired from Gaza by militants.Israel says its military operations in the Gaza Strip are to prevent Palestinian militants
from firing rockets at its civilians inside Israel, while the Palestinians say the rockets are a form of resistance against Israeli actions against them. SYRIA: Rights activists jailed and Sufis
arrested DAMASCUS, (IRIN) - Syria's Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) sentenced on 19 November pro-democracy activist Nizar Restanawi to four years in prison, a human rights activist told IRIN. Restanawi, 48, was arrested by Syrian authorities in April last year and accused of "publishing false news and insulting the Syrian president [Bashar al-Assad]". He was transferred to the SSSC, which
operates under Syria's 43-year-old emergency laws, a few months later, according to Ammar Qurabi, Chairman of the National Organisation for Human Rights."The SSSC is an illegal court and its
sentences are illegal," said Qurabi. "The policy of the court shows no hope of reform."On 17 November, the authorities arrested a group of four Syrians who were returning from imprisonment in Libya
since 1990 on charges of belonging to an illegal Sufi [mystical Islamic] sect. The four were arrested on their arrival at Damascus International Airport, Syria's Human Rights Committee (SHRC) said in
a statement calling for their immediate release. YEMEN: Drug company workers protest oppression SANAA, (IRIN) - On 21 November, scores of workers at the Yemen Drug Company staged a sit-in before
the Cabinet office in the capital city, Sana'a, asking the government to intervene and stop all forms of oppression and arbitrary procedures against them. In their letter to Prime Minister
Abdul-Qader Bajammal, the protestors accused the company's administration of violating their rights as some workers were harassed or detained in the company's premises. jb/sm/mf/ts/hm/maj/ar/sz
