Egypt’s Opposition Refuses Morsi’s Offer of Dialogue

Egypt’s Opposition Refuses Morsi’s Offer of Dialogue

By Emily Schneider
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Egyptian President Mohamad Morsi is still under attack for granting himself sweeping powers as protests continue. Now, the opposition has refused to open a dialogue with him.

Egypt’s Republican Guard has deployed a number of tanks to protect the presidential palace. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)

President Morsi invited all major political factions to meet Saturday to begin talks regarding the Presidential decree reducing the Judiciary’s power. In that decree, issued on 22 November, President Morsi stripped the Judiciary of any power to challenge his decisions until the new constitution is ratified. Since then, Egypt has been in political turmoil.

This past Thursday, President Morsi refused to withdraw his new powers and delay a referendum on the draft constitution. Instead, President Morsi confirmed that the referendum on a new constitution will go ahead as planned, on the  December 15. He says that if the constitution is  voted down at that time, another constituent assembly will be formed to write a new draft.

The current draft, drawn up by a body dominated by Morsi-supporting Islamists, did not receive a proper review by parliament, according to critics. Opposition to the current draft point out that it may not give enough protection to political and religious freedoms and dos not protect the rights of women.

The main opposition movement, the National Salvation Front, said on Friday it would not take part in Saturday’s talks.

“The National Salvation Front is not taking part in the dialogue, that is the official stance,” spokesman Ahmed Said confirmed in a statement.Nobel prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, the movement’s chief coordinator, posted a message on his Twitter account calling on political groups to not participate in any dialogues with President Morsi. He said,  “we [want] a dialogue not based on an arm-twisting policy and imposing fait accompli,” in his message on Twitter.

Other opposition groups, the liberal Wafd party and the National Association for Change, also claimed they are boycotting the talks.

The April 6 movement, an activist group that played a major role in last year’s revolt against former President Hosni Mubarak, said on its Facebook page that protests on Friday would deliver a “red card” to Mr Morsi.

Protests have taken place in Egypt since Morsi’s decree and the constitution draft has caused tension to heighten and divisions to widen. New clashes have been reported on Friday between supporters and opponents of President Morsi outside a mosque in the city of Alexandria.

US President Barack Obama called President Morsi to express his “deep concern” over the recent violent protests, the White House said. Although President Obama welcomed Mr Morsi’s call for talks, he stressed they should be “without preconditions.”

For more information, please see: 

Al Jazeera – Egypt Opposition Rejects Morsi Dialogue Offer – 7 Dec. 2012

BBC – Egypt Opposition Rejects President Morsi’s Call for Talks – 7 Dec. 2012

CNN – Opposition Demonstrators again Gather to Challegen Egypt’s Morsy – 7 Dec. 2012

USA Today – Egypt Opposition Calls for More Protests – 7 Dec. 2012

Amsterdam Plans to Move Nuisance Neighbors to Container Housing

By Madeline Schiesser
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Authorities in the Dutch capital city have announced plans to evict and rehouse families who have been a persistent nuisance to their neighbors or  police in container homes in  an isolated part of the city.

The purposed shipping container residences for nuisance offenders would be similar to those used as student housing pictured above. (Photo Courtesy of Daily Mail)

The plan has been defended by authorities as a means to prevent bullying of innocent neighbors and reduce anti-social behavior.  While innocent neighbors are often forced to leave due to trouble, the city council wants to reverse this trend.

Describing the current trend, Mayor Eberhard van der Laan had said “This is the world turned upside down.”

Council member Tahira Limon further explained: “Our plan is to combat bullying.  Usually people are scared to report problems for fear of intimidation. It’s an upside down world and we want to change it so the people who cause the problems are moved.”

Authorities further assert that the council’s rules would only be enforced against offenders in extreme cases, such as if gay people were being harassed or if police witnesses were being intimidated.

However, under the plans which would take effect in January, offenders identified as nuisances, including families, would be rehoused for a period of 6 months or more, in a residence made from an industrial shipping container, away from the public, under 24-hour watch of police and social workers.  There they would have access to only “minimal services.”

A special hotline and system for reporting complaints to the authorities is also planned.  On average, Amsterdam receives 13,000 such complaints of anti-social behavior every year.

Presently, Amsterdam has special squads in place to identify offenders for compulsory six month behavioral courses.  A special team of city hall officials is now being created to identify offenders who, if their behavior does not improve, will be subject to the rehousing program.  Social housing problem tenants who do not show improvement or refuse to move to the cargo unit residences face eviction and homelessness.

Mayor van der Laan had tabled the 1 million € (£800,000; $1.3 million) plan several past years.  However, some smaller scale, 10 shipping container residences have already been experimentally created for persistent offenders in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands.

The Amsterdam council denies that it is creating a ghetto, and assets that is the last thing it wants to do. A spokesman for the council told the BBC that a ghetto full of troublemakers would just become a “hotbed for more trouble.”

Some have observed that the city council’s plan bears a resemblance to a proposal last year from Geert Wilders, the leader of a populist, anti-Islam, Right-wing party.

In an interview, Wilders was quoted as saying: “Repeat offenders should be forcibly removed from their neighborhood and sent to a village for scum.  They will then be put into converted containers as homes. If juveniles are involved, their families should be moved too. Put all the trash together.”

Although a spokesman for the mayor has denied association with Wilders’ proposal, Wilders’ rhetoric has led to such rehousing projects being called “scum villages.”

Instead, the mayor’s spokesman explained that the cargo container residences would serve to enforce good behavior.  “The aim is not to reward people who behave badly with a new five-room home with a south-facing garden. This is supposed to be a deterrent.”

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Amsterdam Plan to Rehouse Serial Nuisance Neighbours – 4 December 2012

The Telegraph – Amsterdam to Create ‘Scum Villages’ – 3 December 2012

Dutch News – Amsterdam Plans Caravan Exile for Nasty Neighbours – 30 November 2012

Dutch News – Set up Special Villages Away from Normal Folk for ‘Scum’, Says Wilders – 10 February 2011

California Church To Host Muslim Convention Despite Hate Mail

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — Church leaders in California are not backing down from plans to host a Muslim convention despite receiving hate mail and threats from across the country.

Salam al-Marayati (podium), President of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and clergy at All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., address hate messages they have received about an upcoming Muslim convention at the church. (Photo Courtesy of the Pasadena Sun)

All Saints Church in Pasadena will host the 12th annual Muslim Public Affairs Council convention on Dec. 15.  The event is expected to draw about 1,000 people.

Officials for the church, known for its liberal positions, said the 25 messages they have received since Friday are unlike other criticisms the church usually receives.

One message called Muslims “Body Snatchers” and compared them to Nazis, said Rev. Susan Russell.  Another message warned the church was “[c]onsorting with the Enemy that is Killing Christians Worldwide.

Russell said the church’s rector described the messages as “some of the most vile, mean-spirited emails” he’d ever read, especially the ones about the church participating in terrorism.  But she said All Saints hoped that hosting the event would send the opposite message.

“We want to light a candle of hope as Christians this Advent season that people of different faiths can stand in solidarity against polarization and for mobilization around our common values,” Russell said.

MPAC, a Muslim civil rights group, is hosting its annual convention at a church for the first time.  The group’s president, Salam al-Marayati, said the reason for doing so was to promote an interfaith dialogue.

“When we approached Rev. Ed Bacon to have the convention [at All Saints Church], he opened this church, which to us is a safe space for conversations,” al-Marayati said.

Church leaders said the hate mail was prompted, in part, by an online posting from the conservative Institute for Religion and Democracy.  The Contra Costa Times published a criticism posted on the Institute’s website that said, “Yet again, the Islamists are taking advantage of naïve Christians with a desire to show off their tolerance.”

But organizers said they would not let opponents get in their way of holding the convention.

“This is what we have to say to the fear mongers: We want to convert you,” al-Marayati said.

“We don’t want to convert you to our religions, but we want to convert you so we can remove hatred and prejudice in your hearts and replace it with understanding and security,” he continued.

Church leaders said they were working with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security to make sure the convention is a safe place from the threats.

For further information, please see:

Contra Costa Times — Pasadena Episcopal Church Hosting Muslim Convention Gets Hate Emails — 6 December 2012

KTLA News — Pasadena Church Gets Threats over Muslim Convention — 6 December 2012

LAist.com — Hate Mail to Pasadena Church Hosting Muslim Event Calls Islamists ‘Body Snatchers,’ ‘The Enemy’ — 6 December 2012

Pasadena Sun — All Saints Church Receives Threats over Muslim Convention — 6 December 2012

Democratic Republic of the Congo Prepares Peace Talks with Rebels

By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo—A United Nation’s spokesperson said yesterday that the humanitarian and security situation in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to be fragile even as the United Nations continues to aid the country on both fronts.

M23 rebels walks out of Goma as the occupation came to an end. (Photo Courtesy of Voice of America News)

The province of North Kivu, in the eastern region, has been in a state of upheaval since the region’s capital city, Goma, has been occupied by the M23 rebel group. The group is composed of a number of soldiers who mutinied in April of this year against the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s own national army. The rebels have defeated the Congolese army in a number of battles earlier this year.

The insurgency of M23 rebels has lasted for eight months now and poses one of the biggest threats to the current Congolese President Joseph Kabila. Any new risks of this conflict developing into a war may even draw in armies from neighboring countries. Further, the fighting has displaced more than 100,000 people in the Congo’s North Kivu province, creating an even more unstable and serious humanitarian issue in the region.

As concerns were brought to the United Nations, the international organization began to send in its own peacekeepers to help with the stabilization of the region. Since the United Nation’s began its monitoring process, the M23 fighters withdrew from the city this past weekend—one of the requirements laid out by a local regional group, the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region. United Nations spokesperson Martin Kesirky told reporters that, “in North Kivu, the withdrawal of the M23 rebel group has continued. The Congolese army is deploying back to Sake, west of Goma.”

On another note, a panel of United Nations experts recently accused both Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the group. Both countries deny these allegations.

The United Nations is not the only group attacking this problem. The Congolese government and the eastern rebels are expected to get together later this week to being their own negotiation process, noted regional officials on Tuesday after the group finally withdrew from Goma.

 

For further information, please see:

Council on Foreign Relations – Congo’s Weak Peace Process – 6 December 2012

Voice of America News – Congo Government, Rebels Prepare for Talks – 6 December 2012

All Africa News – Situation in DR Congo’s Kivu Provinces Remain Fragile – 5 December 2012

The Telegraph – Peace Talks with Congo Rebels Expected This Week – 4 December 2012

Sri Lankan Police Arrest Student protesters suspected of terrorism

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – The Sri Lankan government arrested and detained multiple alleged terrorists last week after a clash between police security forces and student protestors at Jaffna University.

Sri Lankan police arrest students in Jaffna. (Photo courtesy of BBC)

Students at Jaffna University were organizing a celebration of “Maveerar Naal,” Martyr’s Day, to commemorate fallen Tamil Tigers, a separatist movement which was quashed in 2009.  The celebration of Maveerar Naal is seen as separatism which is illegal under the current Sri Lankan government’s anti-terrorism laws.

The separatist movement, the Tamil Tigers, fought with the present Sri Lankan government in a civil war in hopes of achieving an independent Tamil state in their northern and eastern homelands.  After their defeat in 2009, the Tamils have suffered systematic repression at the hands of the Sri Lankan government.

Four of the main student leaders organizing the event to commemorate fallen Tamil Tigers were brutally attacked, arrested and detained by police.  Around 400 peaceful, unarmed students were also attacked by police security forces for their demonstrations against the unfairness of the arrests and the government’s bar on their right to protest.

The police also broke into and ransacked the rooms of a women’s student hostel.  The violent actions of the Sri Lankan police security forces are viewed by many in the Tamil community as a continual strategy for intimidating and punishing the subpopulation for their prior separatist activities.

Although the civil war has ended and the Tamil fighters have long been disarmed, the central Sri Lankan government continues their assault on the civil rights of the Tamil population.  The government has gone as far as stripping the Tamil population of their Sri Lankan citizenship.

In addition to the four main student organizers who were arrested and labeled as suspected terrorists, official reports say that as many as 20-25 more suspects have been arrested and detained in connection with this outbreak of violence against student protestors in Jaffna.

The Sri Lankan police and government officials assured the public that their anti-terrorist activities and violent assaults and arrests of the alleged terrorists are entirely legal.  The police say they have followed proper procedures and have informed all of the suspects’ families of the proceedings and the specific locations of where the suspects are being held.

However, the families of some of the suspects say that they have been kept in the dark regarding the arrests of their family members.  One family says that they received information on the arrest of their son long after the arrest occurred and only after they alerted the local human rights officials.

For further information, please see:

BBC – Sri Lanka arrests: Jaffna police detain ‘terror’ suspects – 6 December 2012

Socialist Worker Online – Tamil students and lecturers strike in Jaffna against repression – 6 December 2012

Tamilnet – Sri Lanka intensifies terror campaign against Tamil students – 6 December 2012

Sri Lanka Internet Newspaper – Sri Lanka Tamil parties protest in Jaffna against arrest of students – 4 December 2012

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka – Jaffna student leader, three others arrested in midnight raid – 2 December 2012

The Washington Post – US expresses concern about attack on student demonstration in Sri Lanka’s former war zone – 29 November 2012