By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Mobile phone users and television viewers in Iran were notified on Sunday that their access to Google and Gmail would be censored for the foreseeable future.

Iranian officials have claimed that the block on the search engine, Google, and its e-mail service, Gmail, is in response to the anti-Muhammad film that has recently enraged Muslims across the Middle East. Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, a representative of Iran’s state run agency in charge of online censorship and computer crimes, states that many Iranians urged the agency to block the sites because they contain links to the film.

Many do not believe that the film had anything to do with the governments filtering measures. A popular sentiment expressed is that many in Iran are not as upset about the anti-Muhammad film as other neighboring countries, and that the government is using the film as propaganda. To those people, the true motive behind the recent actions instead has to do with Iran’s government’s urge to create a national intranet, separate from the worldwide internet.

“This is a pre-determined scenario to block Google in Iran, they wanted to do this since long time ago,” tweeted Hadi Khezriyan.

These restrictions are not the first that this Iranian regime has implemented. Google and Gmail were both blocked last February, just prior to parliamentary elections. YouTube has been blocked since mid-2009, after people used the tool to contest the validity of President Ahmadinejad’s re-election. Other sites routinely blocked and censored are the Guardian, BBC, CNN, Facebook, and Twitter. There are few countries that are censored more often than Iran.

Last year, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei set up the Supreme Council of Virtual Space to watch over the country’s internet. Since then, the group has been planning to create a national intranet. Experts believe that Iran is doing this to protect sensitive information like military and banking records from an outside cyber-attack. Others feel that Iran just wants to control the outside information that is coming into the country and pull out of the worldwide web all together.

Ali Hakim-Javadi, the country’s deputy communications and technology minister, said that, “[i]n recent days, all governmental agencies and offices have been connected to the national information network.” The fear is that the next step will be getting all the regular citizens onto the national intranet.

Many Iranians have taken to social networking sites to complain about the recent ban. Golnaz Esfandiari, who writes a blog for Persian Letters, a website run by Radio Free Europe, wrote, “By blocking Gmail/Google, #Iran government punishes its own people over anti-Islam movie.  Most Iranians have not seen it/don’t care.”

For some, anger about the prohibition is more a matter of principle than practicality. Iranians can still access Gmail by using virtual private networks (VPNs). Many already use these VPNs to gain access to blocked Western sites, despite government restrictions.

“[E]very schoolchild knows how to bypass restrictions by using VPNs, it’s very common in Iran,” said Mahmood Tajali Mehr, an Iranian telecommunications consultant.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Iran Blocks Access to Google and Gmail – 24 September 2012

BBC – Google Search and Gmail Censored in Iran – 24 September 2012

Guardian – Iran set to Block Access to Google – 23 September 2012

BBC – Iran’s Supreme Leader Sets up Body to Oversee Internet – 7 March 2012

 

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt — Fourteen reportedly militant Islamists’ death sentences were upheld by the Supreme State of Emergency Court on Monday for their part in a deadly attack on a bank and police station. The strike killed an army officer, five policemen, and a civilian in the North Sinai town of Arish last year.  The jihadists were originally sentenced to death on August 14 by a court in Ismailiya, northeast of Cairo. Four men received life sentences for their parts in the attack, while six were acquitted.

Those who were sentenced belonged to the “Tawhid wal Jihad” (Monotheism and Holy War) organization.  The group was accused of killing 34 people in a series of bombings that were carried out  against tourist resorts in South Sinai in 2004 and 2005.  Ever since the Mubarak era, North Sinai villages have dealt with many issues involving Islamic jihadists who seek an Emirate in Sinai.  After its founders were killed by police following the attack, the group kept a low profile, but experienced a resurgence after President Mubarak was overthrown.

Mohamed Zare’ a human rights lawyer who is also the head of the Arab Organization for Penal Reform, described the ruling as “deterrent, especially because of what is being carried out in Sinai.  It also is proof of fears the country has of Jihadists.”  Zare’ believes that the ruling is proof of the executive and judicial bodies’ awareness of the issues that Sinai currently faces.

Nageh Ibrahim, former fighter who is now an Islamist researcher, agreed with Zare’.  In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said that “[t]his court decision is a milestone.  It gives a strong message to the militant groups that the state, President Mohamed Morsi’s government, will not tolerate attacks on the Egyptian armed forces and police.”

Tarek Abdel-A’al, head of field work for the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights, disagrees, finding the sentence to be “very harsh,” especially considering the modern trend many countries are following in abandoning the death penalty.

Those convicted blame President Mohamed Morsi for the court’s decision.  After the verdict, one defendant was heard shouting that “Morsi is an infidel and those who follow him are infidels.”

Al Jazeera reported that the Egyptian government and Israel are currently coordinating on a security operation which involves hundreds of Egyptian troops with tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters in a joint operation with police to raid militant hideouts, arrest suspects, and seize weapons.  Yet there is still little information over whether this will be enough to bring Sinai back under government control.

For further information please see:

Al Bawaba — Egypt: Six Islamists to be Executed — 24 September 2012

Al Jazeera — Egypt Upholds Death Penalty in Sinai Attacks — 24 September 2012

Daily News Egypt — Over a Dozen Sentenced to Death for Deadly Attack in North Sinai — 24 September 2012

Egypt Independent — Egypt Condemns 14 to Death for 2011 Sinai Attack — 24 September 2012

By Emily Schneider
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – Daily life for citizens in war-torn Syria is getting harder every day as indiscriminate attacks continue. Although the reality of war affects every aspect of life for citizens, children are especially vulnerable to the instability caused by crisis. This week marked the beginning of the school year but for many of Syria’s children learning is a luxury only afforded in peacetime.

According to Syria’s Ministry of Education, more than 2,000 of the country’s 22,000 schools have been damaged or destroyed and are unusable. Leila Zerrougui, the United Nations’ envoy for Children and Armed Conflict, says that she has called on the Syrian government to make the evacuation of all schools a top priority. In smaller villages, citizens whose homes have been destroyed congregate in common buildings, such as schools, for safety. The Ministry estimates that about 759 schools are being used as sanctuaries for displaced persons. But according to Amnesty International, many of these schools have been the targets of air strikes or large-caliber bullet spray from helicopters in spite of the fact that their occupants are civilians.

The Ministry claims that most schools are still operational and handling the overflow by scheduling classes in shifts. The government said more than 5 million students attended school on Sunday. But according to Dina Craissati, UNICEF’s regional education adviser, at least 200,000 children within the country are having difficulty accessing education due to internal displacement. in an effort to off-set the lack of structured school activities, UNICEF was able to provide a small number of children with “recreational kits” for entertainment.

The unavailability of education extends outside of the country’s borders, following the flow of refugees. The U.N. Children’s Fund said that the Lebanese government was struggling to place an estimated 32,000 Syrian refugee children in school. In Jordan, UNICEF is currently building a school that will hold up to 5,000 students and workers were registering school-age children at the Zaatari refugee camp.

For most children, the inability to attend school is a secondary concern. Zerrougui said that she and her staff have “documented government attacks on schools, children denied access to hospitals, girls and boys suffering and dying in bombardments of their neighborhoods, and also being subject to torture, including sexual violence, sometimes for weeks.”  Non-state groups have also committed violations against children. According to Zerrougui, the Free Syrian Army “may have children associated with their forces.”

“The situation for children in Syria is dire,” she told the Security Council.

For further information, please see:

Al Arabiya News – U.N. Security Council Split over Children and Armed Conflict – 20 September 2012

CNN – Deaths Mounting in Syrian Towns; Children Being Tortured, U.N. Official Says – 20 September 2012

Huffington Post – Syria Bombardments, Air Strikes Terrorize Civilians, Amnesty International Says – 20 September 2012

CNN – Growing Jihadi Presence in Syria ‘Alarming,’ U.N. Investigator Says – 17 September 2012

Boston Globe – Civil War Keeps Many Syrian Children from School – 16 September 2012

Amnesty International – Indiscriminate Attacks Kill, Terrorize and Displace Civilians – 14 September 2012

UNICEF – As Population in Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan Soars, Focus is on Needs of Children – 14 September 2012

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen – Political upheaval, civil war, and the presence of al-Qaeda have all largely been problems for Yemeni adults. Make no mistake, the existence of such conflicts have surely had a negative impact on the lives of the youth of Yemen.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East. It has a weak infrastructure and a perpetually struggling economy. As a result, Yemen is facing a horrible humanitarian crisis where at least ten million people suffer from chronic hunger, making Yemen the country with the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world. Fifty-eight percent of the children there under the age of five experience chronic malnutrition. In an attempt to help, donors led by the British government met earlier this month in Saudi Arabia, where they pledged to donate a funding package of $6.4 billion.

While the children may not have much food, at least they have toys to play with. The truth is though that these toys could make the children just as sick as the malnutrition does. Children’s toys in Yemen have been linked to physical scarring, suffocation, and other invisible hazards that appear with the passage of time, like cancer.  Hazardous toys have infiltrated the Yemeni markets because the importers seek cheap toys and the government really can’t afford to monitor the process.

Abdullah Al-Sharfi, manager of the Identification Certifcate Issuance Unit and Brand in the Yemeni Standardization and Quality Control Organization explained, “The Yemeni importer buys from the Chinese market, contrary to other importers in the region. The Yemeni importer doesn’t directly deal with the manufacturer. The problem lies in lacking the test reports, health or chemical certificates.”

Most of the screening done on toys once they have entered Yemen involves making sure the toys do not offend the morals of Islam. Importers go out of their way to make sure the toys enter the market without being tested, because if the toys must travel to the labs, importers face paying a customs fee which defeats the purpose of buying cheap toys that are exempt from the fees. A “qualities official in Hodeida lost his post because he attempted to apply the law,” said Mustafa Nassar, chairman of Studies and Economic Media Center. Importers lobbied the local council until he was removed.

Although the youth do not get much to eat and their toys are not very safe, at least they can still go to school to learn and peacefully interact with their friends. That was generally true until the 2011-2012 uprising caused government forces and other armed groups to deploy troops into schools. Forces occupied Yemeni schools and used them as barracks, bases, surveillance posts, firing positions, a place to store weapons and ammunition, to detain prisoners, and to torture detainees often while students and teachers were present in the buildings.

These occupations were not going to help raise Yemen’s literacy rate which was the lowest in the Middle East or its low enrollment rates. Besides for inhibiting education, these armed forces regularly put children’s lives at danger. Priyanka Motaparthy, a children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch stated that, “when soldiers and rebels deploy in schools, children and their education get put in harm’s way.”

The occupations also forced children to see things that they shouldn’t yet have seen. Ahlam, a thirteen year old student remembers how scared everyone was as the soldiers tortured an old man at their school. He recalls that, “they beat him [and] electro-shocked him right in the courtyard of the school. It was during recess.”

Many of these armed groups claimed that by using these schools they were also able to better protect the buildings, teachers, and students. International humanitarian law, however, states that in times of war, all feasible efforts are to be made to avoid civilians and that a school or other civilian structure cannot be attacked unless it is being used for military purposes. Motaparthy concludes that, “the moment soldiers enter a school, it becomes a military target and stops being a safe place for students.”

When these children grow a few years older and start attending university, life is still not safer. Security forces in Yemen often target students who engage in peaceful political protests. Theses students are then arbitrarily detained and are often subject to torture and other ill-treatment.

Life is not easy for the youth of Yemen.

For further information, please see:

Yemen Times – Yemen Toy Market Poses Danger – 13 September 2012

Human Rights Watch – Classrooms in the Crosshairs – 11 September 2012

Human Rights Watch – Yemen: Troops Used Schools, Endangering Children – 11 September 2012

Guardian – Donors Pledge $6.4bn to Address Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis – 6 September 2012

Amnesty International – Yemen Must end Intimidation of Southern Activists – 30 August 2012