By Emily Schneider
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon – After the funeral of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan this Sunday, a throng of protesters took to the streets of Beirut to demonstrate their anti-government rage.  Police fired warning shots and tear gas into the crowd, but dozens of dissidents rushed towards police lines as the mob circled the Prime Minister’s office.

A large crowd gathered in Beirut’s center square after the funeral to listen to a series of political speeches. At the addresses’ conclusion, the assembled mass began a push towards the prime minster’s office. According to reports, people in the horde were hurling sticks and stones and carrying flags. Protesters chanted for the dismissal of Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

They believed that the Syrian government was responsible for the bomb that caused Hassan’s death. According to CNN, Mikati is a “billionaire supported by Syrian ally Hezbollah.”  Although Syria condemned the blast immediately after it happened, many Lebanese remain skeptical about the neighboring regime’s role in the bombing.  Some saw Hassan’s death as an assassination mirroring those that took place in 2005, when the assassinati0n of then-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri sparked the end of Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. His demise was soon followed by the deaths of several more high-level Lebanese officials, most of whom were known to have anti-Syrian sentiments.

Mikati offered to resign from his position on Saturday. But after President Michel Suleiman asked him to stay place for the good of the nation, he rescinded the offer.

“I have always respected and admired al-Hassan, who has done great things for Lebanon,” Mikati explained to reporters on Saturday. “To hold me personally responsible for the assassination is unfair.”

Other officials disagreed with him, including former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.  “This government is responsible for the assassination of [a] martyr [al-Hassan] and his companion martyrs, therefore, this government must leave,” Siniora told the crowd on Sunday.

A prominent opposition Minister of Parliament, Ahmad Fatfat, told the BBC’s Newshour programme that the possibility of the situation in Syria spilling into Lebanon is a real danger.

“What Mr. Assad is trying to do now is transfer his problem to all the countries around Syria – to Turkey, to Lebanon, to Iraq, to Jordan, and Lebanon is the most fragile in this story,” Fatfat said.  “And maybe Assad will do what he can to transfer Lebanon into a hell situation so he can think later on that what is going on is a general war in the Middle East and not a revolution in Syria.”

Many attendees of Hassan’s funeral waved the light blue flag of the Sunni-based opposition Future Party, while others carried Lebanon’s national flag.  These visible differences symbolized internal tensions that are mounting within the Lebanese public. Those allied with Sunni coalitions have been critical of what they believe is the Lebanese government’s closeness with the Syrian regime.

“We came for Lebanon’s future to show that we will not be scared,” said one of the mourners.

For further information, please see:

Al-Arabiya – Angry Protestors Storm Lebanese Government HQ, Call for PM to Quit – 21 October 2012

BBC –Beirut funeral for Wissam al-Hassan Followed by Clashes– 21 October 2012

CNN – Violence Erupts After Lebanese Intelligence Chief’s Funeral – 21 October 2012

The Daily Star – Calm Returns After Police, Protestors Clash in Beirut – 21 October 2012

The Daily Star – Siniora Demands Cabinet Resign at Hassan’s Funeral – 21 October 2012

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen – Most people who have been shot will check into a hospital to seek treatment and recovery. Rarely ever does one enter a hospital anticipating that he will end up shot. At present day, such is not the case in Yemen as Central Security Forces’ storming of hospitals threatens to shut down hospitals and weaken the overall health care system.

Yemeni security forces have been raiding hospitals and taking alleged militants from their beds to arrest them. These patients have been suspected of being engaged in illegal activities like armed robbery and attacks against state security. While there is no prohibition against hospital patients being lawfully arrested, international law mandates that they retain their rights to health care. When these patients are forcibly removed, not only is international law violated, but the their lives are put at risk.

The raids pose additional dangers to people other than the patients. A recent Central Security Forces attack on al-Naqib Hospital, in search of two alleged militants, left two hospital guards injured after they were beaten with Kalashnikov assault rifles and a gurney. The Central Security Forces also confiscated cell phones from both patients and staff and ripped out the hospital’s telephone landlines. Gunmen connected to the two men the Central Security Forces were seeking, opened fire on the hospital from the outside. A similar raid at MSF Hospital earlier this month led to shootings inside of the hospital when gunmen tried to prevent the arrests of patients. The shootings forced the MSF hospital to evacuate all of its patients and shut down the facility.

“Gunfights in hospitals put patients and medical workers at grave risk and threaten to shut down health care in Aden,” said Letta Tayler, a senior Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch.

In addition to the incursions themselves, the security forces’ actions of have had other negative implications on hospitals. A few days ago, security forces began shooting live rounds at unarmed anti-government demonstrators in Sana’a. One hospital received more than one hundred injured people and eventually ran out of beds. It tried to transfer the injured to other nearby hospitals, but the checkpoints set up at almost every intersection by security forces made those efforts difficult.

“Sana’a is a very tense place to be at the moment. This was a huge protest that took place…and I think it just completely overwhelmed the security forces,” said Tariq Norman, the chief surgeon at a field hospital in Sana’a.

For further information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Yemen: Security Forces Raiding Aden Hospitals – 20 October 2012

Al Jazeera – Deadly Fighting Engulfs Yemen Protests – 16 October 2012

Doctors Without Borders – Yemen: MSF Hospital in Aden Shuts Down due to Violence – 7 October 2012

Doctors Without Borders – Yemen: Violence Forces Closure of Hospital – 5 October 2012

By Emily Schneider
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon – At least three people were killed and over eighty injured by a car bomb in East Beirut’s Ashrafiyeh district during Friday afternoon’s rush hour. Wissam al-Hassan, the Internal Security Forces’ (ISF) intelligence chief, was among the dead.

Hassan had long been known for his anti-Syrian sentiment.  He was one of several intelligence officers who proved invaluable to the uncovering of a recent bomb plot that led to the arrest of Michel Samah, a Lebanese politician close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Samah was accused of trying to help smuggle explosives into Lebanon.  Hassan was also involved in pursuing those responsible for a series attacks and assassinations in Lebanon between 2005 and 2008, including the murder of Rafik al-Hariri.

Saad Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister, was who he thought was responsible for Friday’s bombing. His reply: “Bashar Hafez al-Assad. Who killed Wissam al-Hassan is as clear as day. Certainly the Lebanese people will not be silent over this heinous crime and I, Sadd Hariri, promise that I will not be silent.”

Others were not so quick to give their opinions on who was responsible. Ziad Baroud, another former Lebanese interior minister, said that it was too soon to tell who was behind the car bombing.

“High-ranking officials have not said anything so far, and therefore neither can I,” Baroud told Al Jazeera. “We have no indication whatsoever [of who is behind this]. We know this is a strong and sad message, and we know this could destabilize the whole country.”

The incident gives credence to fears that the civil war in Syria is spilling over into the country, which shares a border. Tensions between Lebanese factions caught on opposite sides of the conflict are heightening. Just two days ago, Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab envoy peace to Syria, warned that “you cannot expect the Syrian crisis to remain within Syrian borders.”

The explosion occurred in a predominantly Christian area on a street lined with shops, churches, and office buildings. There is usually a significant number of police in the area. According to Aram Nerguizian, a teacher at a school around the block from the attack site, the area is “among the safest” in Beirut.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Lebanon Intelligence Official Assassinated – 19 October 2012

CNN – Anti-Syrian Official Killed When Car Bomb Rocks Beirut – 19 October 2012

The Daily Star – Top Security Official Killed in Beirut Bombing – 19 October 2012

The Daily Star – Hariri Accuses Assad of Assassinating Lebanese Security Official – 19 October 2012

Washington Post – A Car Bomb in Beirut: Photos of Lebanon in Shock – 19 October 2012

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Eman Abu Bakar, a teacher in the Luxor province of Egypt, recently cut the hair of two schoolgirls as punishment for not covering their heads. Abu Bakar has since been transferred to another school and been docked a month’s payment. The father of one of the girls has filed a complaint against the teacher with the prosecutor’s office in Luxor. Zakaria Abdel Fatah, head of the state’s Education Directorate in Luxor, has also referred the teacher for administrative prosecution.

While Abu Bakar wore a niqab, a garment that covers everything but the woman’s eyes, all she required out of her students was a hijab, or headscarf. According to Berbesh Khairi el-Rawi, father to one of the girls, she made the girls stand in class with their hands above their heads for two hours. During that time, she would repeatedly warn them to cover their heads. Eventually a student would reach into his bag for scissors and would urge Abu Bakar to “implement” her threats. The teacher claims that her cuts “did not exceed two centimeters.”

“Whether in schools or outside schools, the general sentiment is that any abusive action, if it is justified as protection of Islam, is tolerable,” says Ziad Abdel Tawab of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights.

In Egyptian public schools, girls are not required to wear some kind of Islamic veil. Education Minister Ibrahim Ghoneim insists that wearing such a garment is a personal choice. Nevertheless, corporal punishment still occurs quite frequently, and Ghoneim supports it as long as it is not too severe. Such actions were not uncommon under “[f]ormer president Anwar Sadat [who] allowed Islamists to delve freely in the cultural and social arenas in return for confronting leftists and Nasserists,” said Kamal Moghith, an expert at the National Center of Education Research and Development. “Since then, the Muslim Brotherhood have been trying to intervene in education, both in syllabi and administration,” he claimed.

This incident arose during a time of serious debate about the role religion will play in Egypt’s new constitution. The panel tasked with drafting the constitution is largely Islamic, which has scared many liberals and Coptic Christians. At this time, there has also been a great increase in the amount of Christians who have been brought to trial for allegedly showing contempt for religion.

One such Coptic Christian on trial is twenty-seven year old Alber Saber Ayad. He was arrested after his neighbors told the authorities that he posted the “Innocence of Muslims” film to his Facebook page. While he was detained, he was beaten and cut with a razor blade. Despite the accusations against him, investigators were unable to find any trace of the video. Nevertheless, Saber faces a six-year prison sentence and a fine of five hundred Egyptian pounds for the charge of “defamation of religion.”

“Criticism of religions and other beliefs and ideas is a vital component of the right to freedom of expression,” claims Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International.

For further information, please see:

Al Arabiya – Egypt Teacher Cuts Hair of Schoolgirls for not Wearing Muslim Headscarf – 17 October 2012

AnsaMed – Egypt: Teacher Cuts off Students’ Hair for not Wearing Hijab – 17 October 2012

Egypt Independent – Update: Teacher Faces Discipline for Cutting Unveiled Pupils’ Hair – 17 October 2012

Guardian – Egyptian Teacher ‘cut Hair of Schoolgirls who Refused to Cover Heads’ – 17 October 2012

Amnesty International – Egypt Must Release man on Trial for Criticizing Religion – 16 October 2012