The Middle East

Yemen Rebels Reportedly Kidnap Man, Briefly Hold Saudis

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Shi’ite Muslim rebels have kidnapped a Yemeni man in the country’s north and also briefly held a group of Saudi citizens, the government said, incidents that threaten a fragile truce with Sanaa.

The northern rebels seized the man in the Harf Sufyan district and took him to an unknown location, Yemeni security services said in a statement.

“A number of Houthi rebels led by Mabghout Shatbouny abducted on Thursday two Saudi citizens in Hiasha area of the district of Harf Sufian in Amran province, north of the capital Sanaa,” said the ministry on its website, citing an unidentified security official of the Interior Ministry.

“The rebels held the Saudis several hours in Hiasha area before later setting them free,” said the security official. “While the Yemeni citizen, identified as Hammam Daris, is still held by the rebels in an unknown area of Harf Sufian district,” he added.

A Saudi diplomatic source at the Kingdom’s embassy in Yemen said that he has no information about reports that Saudi citizens were kidnapped and then released by Houthi rebels near Amran Province 30 km north of the Yemeni capital.

The source emphasized that the embassy has been following up these reports with the responsible authorities at the Yemeni Ministry of Interior in an attempt to verify them.

The Defense Ministry considered the kidnap as another confirmed breach by the Shiite Houthi rebels to the cease-fire truce that was struck on Feb. 11.

The new breach came a week after the Yemeni government accused Shiite Houthi rebels of opening fire on a military plane flying above the city of Saada while a number of top army personnel were on board, an accuse the rebels later denied. According to official Saba news agency, “the plane was not damaged.”

Yemen has witnessed sporadic battles since 2004 between government troops and the Shiite Houthi rebels, whom the government accused of seeking to re-establish the clerical rule overthrown by the 1962 Yemeni revolution which yielded the Yemeni republic.
For more information, please see:

The Washington Post – Yemen Says Rebels Kidnap Man, Briefly Hold Saudis – 24 April 2010

Saudi Gazette – ‘Reports Of Saudis Kidnapped In Yemen Lack Verification’ – 24 April 2010

People’s Daily Online – Yemeni Shiite Rebels Kidnap 2 Saudis, A Yemeni In Fresh Breach Of Truce – 25 April 2010

Palestinian Child Allegedly Forced to Drink Sewage, Vineyard Flooded by Israeli Settlement Sewage

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIT UMMAR, West Bank – In Beit Ummar, a Palestinian child was allegedly captured by Israeli soldiers on April 16. The child, fifteen-year-old Sabri Awad, was seized by the soldiers at the entrance to Beit Ummar after they suspected he was involved in stone-throwing. Awad told Al-Jazeera that the soldiers questioned him about the stone-throwing, which he denied, then the soldiers reportedly beat him for two hours. During the beatings, he was forced to drink fetid water, which Awad believed was sewage. Awad said that he vomited, after which the soldiers continued to beat him. Awad alleges the soldiers then threw him out of the Army jeep and sped away.

Media reports estimate that Israel is currently holding approximately three hundred Palestinian youth in custody, and that up to seven hundred Palestinian children and adolescents were detained by Israelis in 2009. Experts say that the full effects of such detentions are not fully known. Over 760,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned since 1967, which many experts say is one of the main sources of a trans-generational trauma that is pervasive throughout the Palestinian population, and one that will necessarily remain as long as there is occupation. Palestinian children who had at one time been in Israeli custody account for twenty percent of patients in the only torture victim center in the Palestinian territories. Even if the youth had not been tortured while in prison, mental health experts say that these young people tend to suffer more severe post-traumatic stress than adults who had been imprisoned.

In the same village where Sabri Awad was allegedly beaten, Israeli settlers from the Gush Etzion settlement opened their sewage pipe on April 21, flooding a Palestinian vineyard and destroying 70,000 square meters of prime agricultural land. Land experts who had surveyed the damage later said that both the land and the crops were effectively destroyed.

The Israeli Civil Administration later confirmed the incident, and said that compensation for the incident would have to be sought in court. A spokesman for the agency said that the sewage pump in the settlement had stopped working due to a power outage and that the resulting flood was a mistake.

The Israeli military has imposed a tight blockade on Beit Ummar and the surrounding areas since last week.

For more information, please see:

International Middle East Media Center – 58 Detained, One Wounded and 70 Dunams Drowned in Sewage – 23 April 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Vineyard Flooded with Settlement Sewage – 23 April 2010

Al-Jazeerah.info – Palestinian Child Reveals Abuse, Beating, and Drinking Sewage Water by Israeli Occupation Soldiers – 22 April 2010

Press TV – Palestinian Kid Forced to Drink Sewage – 22 April 2010

Al-Jazeera – Young Palestinians in Israeli Jails – 17 April 2010

Iraqis Allege Abuse at Secret Jail

By Bobby Rajabi

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – On April 19 it was revealed that an Iraqi security force that was direclty under the command of current Iraqi Prime Miniters Nuri al-Maliki held hundreds of detained from northern Iraq. The detainees were kpet in an undisclosed prison in Baghdad. It is alleged that dozens of the detainees were tortured. Iraqi and American officials have said that the torture ended after Iraq’s human rights minister and the United States intervened late in March.

According to Iraqi officials, Prime Minster Maliki order that the prison be closed, but said that he had already been aware that the prison existed. The move to close the prison brought about the release of over seventy detainees and the transfer of many others to other prisons. However, over two hundred detainees remain on the grounds of the Old Muthanna military airfield. All of the detainees are alleged to be Sunnis.

The minister of human rights, Widjan Salim, praised the Iraqi Prime Minister’s efforts in moving to close to prison. Ms. Salim commented that “he’s doing the best he can. The problem we have is not the prime minister, it’s with the judicial system.”

Iraqi officials have announced that they are investigating claims that the detainees at the secret jail were tortured by electric shocks and suffocated with plastic bags. Officials will also investigate claims that the prisoners were beaten by prison guards. Kamil Amin, the Deputy Human Rights Minister of Iraq, announced that three army officers have been arrested for their connection to the case.  The men detained were reportedly detained by the Iraqi army in October in sweeps targeting anti-government militias in Nineveh.

Al Jazeera obtained interviews with two men who claim to be tortured at the secret prison at the Muthanna air base. One individul claimed that “our hands were tied and eyes covered so we couldn’t see the torturers.” He explained that torture was dictated by the information provided by informants. The former detainee showed cigarette burns on his body and insisted that “we were all innocent.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Iraqis Allege ‘Secret Jail’ Abuse –  22 April 2010

Morning Star Online – Investigation into Iraq Brutality Launched – 22 April 2010

New York Times – Secret Baghdad Jail Held Sunnis From the North – 21 April 2010

Congressman Wants Yemeni Cleric Stripped of Citizenship

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

WASHINGTON DC, USA – A U.S. lawmaker is seeking to revoke the American citizenship of radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is known for his inflammatory anti-American teachings and his communications with Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspected shooter in the Fort Hood rampage in November.

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., introduced a resolution Wednesday urging the Obama administration to strip al-Awlaki of his American citizenship, arguing that the cleric voluntarily renounced his citizenship by recruiting terrorists.

“As recent reports highlight, the U.S. government views al-Awlaki as a proven threat, and will take him dead or alive,” Dent said in a written statement, referring to Obama’s approval of the targeted killing of al-Awlaki. “Being a citizen of the United States of America is more than a right; it’s a responsibility.”

”He’s an inspiration to many of these terrorists,” Dent said. ”This guy is a traitor. This man is a real threat to this country and it’s long since time to deny him his citizenship.”

Legal experts were skeptical of success.

Temple University law professor and international law expert Peter Spiro said the Supreme Court has ruled the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from terminating an individual’s citizenship against his will.

‘There have also been proposals with respect to other Taliban or other al Qaeda-associated Americans that their citizenship be revoked and those proposals have gone nowhere, and I expect the same thing to happen here,” Spiro said.

Similar efforts to strip so-called ”American Taliban” John Walker Lindh and Yaser Hamdi, an American captured in Afghanistan, of their citizenship failed, he said.

”Maybe that Dent some points politically, making him look like he is tough about terrorism, but this is going nowhere,” he said. Hamdi later surrendered his citizenship in exchange for being released to Saudi Arabia.

Rutgers School of Law constitutional law professor and citizenship expert Linda Bosniak said the Supreme Court has set a high bar for the government to withdraw citizenship from native-born Americans.

”It is considered a constitutional right that individuals should be able to maintain their citizenship unless the government can prove they affirmatively desire to renounce it,” Bosniak said.

Certain acts, such as treason or serving in a foreign army in conflict with the United States, are presumed to be ”expatriating acts,” she said. But to strip someone of his citizenship the government has to prove that the acts were committed and that they were done voluntarily and with the intent of relinquishing citizenship.

Dent said he’s heard those arguments but he contends that al-Awlaki is voluntarily a traitor. ”He has declared war on the United States,” Dent said. ”He has voluntarily revoked his citizenship by his own actions.” Al-Awlaki could appeal but would have to return to the United States, where he would face arrest.

For more information, please see:

Fox News – Rep. Introduces Resolution To Strip Radical Cleric Of Us Citizenship – 22 April 2010

Pennsylvania Ave. – Rep. Dent Takes Lead On Revoking Islamic Cleric’s Citizenship – 21 April 2010

The Morning Call – Dent Wants to Revoke U.S. Citizenship Of Radical Cleric – 22 April 2010

Lebanon Denies Having Received Scud Missiles

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon– Lebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, dismissed Israeli accusations on Monday that Syria had been providing Scud missiles to Hezbollah.

Hariri’s comments were the first public statements made by a Lebanese government official since accusations made last week by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres.  Hariri told a group of Lebanese citizens living in Rome that “At the start of the summer season, they (Israel) make such threats.  All this is similar to what was said previously about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that were never found.  Israel is trying to reproduce the same scenario for Lebanon. The rumors about Scud are only a pretext for threatening my country,” he said, calling the claims “false.”

Syria has also denied Mr. Peres’s accusations about the Scud missiles, which are warheads that can travel hundreds of miles and would make Israel vulnerable to an attack if carried out.

American officials have said that there is no definitive confirmation that any Scud missiles were delivered to Hezbollah militants.  Nonetheless, the Obama Administration on Monday summoned Syria’s top diplomat to Washington to discuss the matter further.

It is widely believed that Syria and Iran have replenished Hezbollah’s arms supply since their 2006 war with Israel.  The conflict, which devastated Lebanon’s infrastructure, left more than a thousand Lebanese dead and several Israelis dead.

Trying to quell fears of another Israeli-Hezbollah war, Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Israel has absolutely no intention of starting a war.  He did not, however, address the issue of reports that Scud missiles are being delivered to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Hariri, who has clashed with Hezbollah in the past, said the group had legitimately won elections in southern Lebanon and could only be disarmed via political dialogue. Hariri and his allies accused Syria of assassinating his father and former prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri, in 2005.  His disagreements with Syria’s ally, Hezbollah, threatened to plunge Lebanon into a new civil war, but he has since mended ties with Syria and formed a government that includes the group.

For more information, please see:

Reuters- Hariri Denies Syria Supplied Scuds to Hezbollah– 21 April 2010

National Post- U.S. Warns Syria After Scud Missile Allegations– 21 April 2010

The New York Times- Lebanon Rejects Israel Accusations About Scuds– 20 April 2010