By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria — To the utter shock and repulsion of much of the world, other Arab nations included, the bloody onslaught against Syrian protesters by the Syrian government continues to grow.

On Sunday approximately 102 people were killed throughout Syria, 76 of them from the city of Hama.  Rights activists report that the Syrian military brought a tank-based assault that included large amounts of shelling, which caused the fatalities.

The troops were not able to reach the city center, which has been under the control of protesters since mid-March, a fact that has made Hama a beacon of hope to the anti-government movement.

Hama is also of historical note due to its role in previous violent governmental attacks.  It was the site of the infamous 1982 massacre in which the military of then President Hafez al-Assad, father of current President Basar Assad, crushed an uprising by killing over 10,000 people.

This history has created a resiliency in the residents of Hama, a resiliency that has shown itself during the many months of this current uprising against Assad’s authoritarian regime, and one that may be partly responsible for the ramping up of violence by the government against the protesters.

Monday marked the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.  Some hoped that its coming would put a halt to the violence, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.  At least 9 people were killed throughout Syria on the first day of Ramadan, and military movements suggest that there is more to come.

Ramadan could be a critical period for the Syrian protests.  It is traditional for Muslims to gather outside for nighttime prayer during the holy month, and protesters are planning to shift their rallies around this schedule.  In response to this threat the government has already begun stepping up its mass arrests of protesters.

Rami Nakhle, a Syrian activist, says that the protesters have “burned their boots,” an Arabic saying that means there is no going back.  He fears that if they stop now the military will arrest every activist in Syria.  They can either win or sacrifice all those who are fighting.

Arabs around the world are reacting strongly against Assad’s brutal attacks, but most Arab governments have remained silent.  This is likely because they do not wish to stir up trouble in their own backyards, fearing the power of the protest, a fear that does have some basis in fact.  The United States and European Union have also condemned the attacks, but any Western involvement is both unlikely and imprudent due to its current campaigns in Libya against Muammar Qaddafi.

Despite the nearly universal condemnation of Assad’s actions there appears little want to apply pressure to his ousting as president.  The international community is concerned that his departure could leave a power vacuum in Syria, triggering nationwide instability and civil war.

For more information, please see:

Boston Globe — Syria steps up attacks, seeking to crush revolt in city of Hama — 2 Aug 2011

NPR — Syrian Opposition Echoes Cry for Liberty or Death — 2 Aug 2011

Al Jazeera — No Ramadan respite for Syrian protesters — 1 Aug 2011

New York Times — In Middle East, a Restive First Day of Ramadan — 1 Aug 2011

Reuters — Arabs angry over Syria crackdown but governments silent — 1 Aug 2011

By Zach Waksman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – The continued protests against Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) suddenly changed their tone on Friday.  Tens of thousands of Islamists flooded Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the center of the African kingdom’s continued push for democracy that has spanned past several weeks, and recited anthems calling for a country governed by Islamic Sharia law.

The impressive demonstration was the largest to take place since the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak from power in February.  Originally advertised as a peaceful rally dubbed the “Friday of unity and closing ranks” that was meant to reiterate the revolution’s demands, it was instead dominated by Islamic groups, including fundamentalist Salafis and the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood, two of the demonstration’s organizers.  Some secular activists who attended claimed to have been silenced, leading twenty-eight secular organizations to withdraw from the square in protest to the event.  The famed April 6th group, one of the leading secular groups, denied that report.

After years of suppression by Mubarak, the demonstration marked a resurgence of religious organizations as a political force in Egypt.  The clearest sign of this development was the chants heard Friday, many of which played off of those said during prior demonstrations.  Instead of “Hold your head up high, you’re Egyptian,” nationality was replaced by religion, using “Muslim” as the final word in the slogan.  To participants, the rally was a signal of how efficiently Islamists could organize themselves.  “We’re showing today — to both the people and to the military leadership — that we’re the majority of the population,” Haithem Adli, a participant who held up a banner that read in part, “Together on the path to heaven,” told the New York Times.

“If democracy is the voice of the majority and we as Islamists are the majority, why do they want to impose on us the views of minorities — the liberals and the secularists?” asked Mahmoud Nadi, a student who built off of Adli’s comments. “That’s all I want to know.”

Among secular activists who witnessed the spectacle, reaction was mixed.  Some of them believed that the performance would have little overall effect.  One such activist, Mohammed Deraz, accepted the Islamists’ presence, but felt that they were only trying to capitalize on the momentum created by people like himself in starting and continuing the revolution.  “We made this revolution and we will continue,” he said.  “…[N]obody will steal my revolution. I made it by myself and I will continue to the end or I will die.  Give me liberty or give me [death], that’s what I’m doing.”  Another secular protester believed that this rally was a one-time event, and that the Islamists would leave the square and let the ongoing sit-in continue.

In the aftermath of the rally, top analysts believe that the demonstration was a show of power that could not be exceeded.  Emad Gad, a political analyst with the Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, said that it “represent[ed] the full capacity of the Islamist forces[.]”  Additionally, the different groups would need to be treated differently, according to Rabab Al-Mahdi, a professor of political science at the American University in Cairo.  “There are different trends, the Salafis, former militant groups like the Gamaa Islamiya, the Muslim Brotherhood and they all have different ideas on how to conduct politics and what they mean by an Islamic state,” she said.

And because of how the event quickly became an Islamist demonstration, the overall impact for the organizers could be a negative one.  Such a result is already proving true.  The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party rejected the slogans vocalized on Friday.  Party Vice Chairman Essam al-Erian wrote on the Party’s website that it had previously rejected such demands and did so again after participants attempted to impose their views.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s role in Egypt’s transition to democracy appears to be critical.  But what that role is remains unclear, leading to continued speculation.

For more information, please see:

Agence France-Presse — Egypt rally not harbinger of Islamic state: analysts — 31 July 2011

Australian Broadcasting Corporation — The growing power of Egypt’s Islamists — 29 July 2011

Al-Masry Al-Youm — Freedom and Justice Party rejects Islamist slogans in Tahrir — 29 July 2011

New York Times — Islamists in Egypt Flood Square in Cairo in Show of Strength — 29 July 2011

Voice of America — Islamists Show Solidarity in Massive Egypt Rally — 29 July 2011

Al-Ahram Weekly — The Islamists are coming — 28 July 2011

By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A Yemen — The rise in violence in Yemen, ignited by the protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, has led to a subsequent rise in the recruitment of child soldiers.

Currently, there are three main military units fighting each other throughout Yemen, the pro-government Republican Guards and Central Security, and the pro-opposition First Armored Division.  Each group has increased its efforts to recruit children into their ranks as tensions within the conflict flare.

The exact number of child soldiers currently engaged in the conflict is unknown due to reluctance by the military units to release such statistics, but it has been estimated to be in the thousands.

The United Nations estimates that 20 percent of the rebel fighters and 15 percent of the government affiliated militia are children. In its annual report, the UN added these groups to its “list of shame,” 57 groups around the world that recruit children to fight in armed conflicts, or do other war time harm to their youth populations.

Human Rights Watch has previously noted the presence of numerous soldiers under the age of 18 fighting in the Yemeni conflict, with some as young as 14.  Many of these child soldiers have already served for two years.

Yemeni law does require that individuals be 18 to enlist, but recruiters find ways around this.  The use of forged identification cards is rampant.

“Two months ago, my 14-year-old cousin got an ID card showing he is 18 and he joined the Republican Guards,” Hamid al-Ghurbani, a high school teacher in Sana’a told the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN). “Last week, I saw him carrying a gun.”

The Yemeni Ministry of Defense admits that it is aware of the problem, but notes that the IDs are “the only reliable document for determining the age of an applicant.”  Most child soldiers have the permission of their parents to join the military, and in some cases the parents are even complicit in the forging of the IDs.  The families are in dire need of the extra income.

A few weeks ago the UN unanimously adopted a resolution against the recruitment of child soldiers. The signatories “call upon member states concerned to take decisive and immediate action against persistent perpetrators of violations and abuses committed against children in situations of armed conflict, and further call upon them to bring to justice those responsible for such violations.”

The challenge, while admirable, is daunting.  Approximately 300,000 children are being used as child soldiers with the numbers constantly in flux do to ever changing conflicts.  Once a child soldier turns 18 they are no longer identified as such.  Their years spent as a child soldier become invisible.

For more information, please see:

Middle East Online — Yemen conflict generates more child soldiers — 22 July 2011

IRIN — Yemen: Conflict generating more child soldiers — 20 July 2011

World Tribune — Unthinkable horror: The targeting of children in 21st century warfare — 19 July 2011

The Times of India — UN adopts resolution against recruiting child soldiers — 13 July 2011

Human Rights Watch — Yemen:  Stop using Children in Armed Forces — 14 April 2011

By Zach Waksman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – The Tahrir Square protests against Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) that have been ongoing since July 8 took a violent turn yesterday.  Military forces, supplemented by army loyalists who threw stones and Molotov cocktails, opened fire on demonstrators as they made their way toward the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Cairo’s Abbasseya district.  As many as 231 were injured, and two protesters are alleged to have been kidnapped.

At least 4,000 people were marching in order to request a clear schedule of plans to fulfill the goals of the revolution that drove former president Hosni Mubarak from power in January.  They are calling for limits on the SCAF’s power and a purge of all government and state institutions, including banks and the media, of corrupt members of the previous regime, among other demands.  But right now, the concern among those present is that the revolution has stalled.

“The military council is against the revolution, and we’re here to put pressure on them to stay with the revolution,” said Ahmed Al-Sharawi, who has been camping out in a traffic circle for over two weeks. “If we go home, the revolution will fail.”

The activists were unable to reach their destination after the army set up barricades of troops, barbed wire, and tanks to block Abbasseya Bridge.  The military surrounded the area, doing nothing to interfere and also making departure impossible. While the army fired live rounds in an effort to disperse the crowd, civilian loyalists climbed onto the roofs of nearby buildings to throw rocks, broken bottles, and Molotov cocktails at the assembled crowd.  Others, some of whom were armed with knives and machetes, made direct attacks on the protesters.  This march, unlike prior, peaceful protests, soon turned into a melee that lasted two hours before riot police fired tear gas into the fray.  Once the activists scattered, a new demonstration began within an hour.

The incident comes on the aftermath of statements made by the SCAF on Friday.  The military council accused the April 6 group, one of the larger protest organizations, of creating a scism between itself and the public.  “The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces urges the public to exercise caution and not to be drawn into this suspicious plot that aims to undermine Egypt’s stability,” the statement said.

But statements such as these are not taken seriously by the protesters.  One participant, Ahmed Hassan, considered the SCAF to be the problem by acting as an instigator of violence.  “How should I trust this army to protect our country when they are turning our own fellow Egyptians against us with statements like these?” he asked.

Despite the recent bloodshed, protesters remain strong.  “We don’t want food or money,” said Al-Sharawi.  “If we get all of our demands, Egypt will be richer than America. The National Association for Change (NAC), another protest organization, has called for a one million man march on August 12.

For more information, please see:

Egyptian Gazette — Egypt’s protesters still camped in Square –24 July 2011

Egyptian Gazette — 1m-man march in Egypt on Aug 12 –24 July 2011

Al-Masry Al-Youm — 143 hurt at clashes in Cairo, two activists reportedly kidnapped — 23 July 2011

Daily News Egypt — Armed men attack thousands marching to ministry of defense; 55 injured — 23 July 2011

Daily News Egypt — Protesters march on defense ministry — 23 July 2011

New York Times — March against Egypt’s Military Collapses into Violence — 23 July 2011

Impunity Watch — Protests continue as new government takes shape in Egypt — 17 July 2011