By Ahmad Shihadah

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’DA, Yemen – Yemen told international donors at a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday that it urgently needs to receive their pledged financial aid to combat poverty and unemployment.

“The need is increasingly urgent for the mobilisation of (financial) resources” promised at a London conference in 2006, Deputy Planning Minister Hisham Sharaf Abdullah told the Friends of Yemen meeting.

He said the billions promised were needed to “reduce poverty and unemployment” in Yemen, a poor neighbour of the oil-rich Gulf Arab monarchies.”The government has undertaken reforms … but the road is still long and requires a combination of efforts to meet the challenges that hinder development and undermine the foundations of security and stability,” he added. Abdullah emphasized the importance of the active partnership between Yemen and the international community to make available the amount needed, in addition to coordination and consultation in this respect.

Representatives from about 20 Arab and Western countries met for the workshop co-chaired by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosts and Germany to address economy and good governance issues in Yemen.

The Yemeni government made a similar request last month, during a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Riyadh. Gulf countries pledged roughly $3.2 billion, almost none of which has been delivered — much like the billions promised during a similar international conference in London in 2006. GCC countries have met just 15 percent of their 2006 promises, according to Abdullah, who said the Yemeni government hopes they will deliver another 15 percent this year.

Khaled Ghanem al-Ghaith, the UAE’s deputy foreign minister, said Gulf countries would meet their commitments to Sana’a, but also seemed to link foreign aid to tougher military actions against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Yemeni government receives takes in 70 percent of its annual budget through oil revenues, and the country’s reserves are declining rapidly.

For more information, please see:

The Majlis – Yemen To World: We Still Need $44 Billion – March 30 2010

Yemen Post – Yemen Says Needs $44 Billion As Friends Meet In Abu Dhabi – March 30 2010

AFP – Yemen Urges Donors To Honor Aid Pledges – 30 March 2010

SABA NET – Yemen Needs $44 Bin To Implement 4^th Five Year Plan, Says Sharaf – March 30 2010

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates– Seventeen laborers from India were sentenced to death on Sunday for killing a Pakistani man during a fight that broke out in Sharjah, an Emirate just north of Dubai, in January 2009.  The death took place after a dispute over control of an illegal alcohol business.

Approximately fifty people were involved in the deadly attack in which the Pakistani man was stabbed several times.

According to court officials, it is the largest number of defendants sentenced to death at one time in the Emirates.  The death sentence comes just a week after Sharjah Police arrested a gang of eighteen Indians allegedly involved in the illegal alcohol trade on suspicion of kidnapping and killing rivals.

In the court session held on Sunday, a panel of judges ruled that the seventeen men, ranging in age from 22 to 30, had all played a role in killing the Pakistani man through a combination of stabbing him and beating him with metal bars.  The police report has said that the Pakistani man died from his injuries before police arrived at the scene.  Blood tests taken shortly after their arrests showed that the defendants had been drinking alcohol.

The federal penal code in the UAE says that a death sentence automatically goes to appeal.  If the appellate court upholds the verdict, the case will then be referred to the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi.  If the three judges there uphold the verdict, federal prosecutors will then submit an execution order.

A police spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the judge’s decision to issue the death sentence would undoubtedly send a strong message to bootleg gangs who start disputes with rival gangs that lead to instances of violence.

The spokesperson said that “Almost every week a case of bootlegging is now reported from Sajjia and other industrial areas.  All cases involve the use of alcohol that is illegal in the emirate.  A serious warning needs to be passed to these workers to stop the habit.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Death Penalty for Indians in UAE– 29 March 2010

The National- Seventeen Sentenced to Death for ‘Bootleg’ Murder– 29 March 2010

Indian Express- 17 Indians get Death Penalty in UAE for killing Pak National– 29 March 2010

Haleh Esfandiari was prevented from returning to the US in December 2006, arrested on May 8, and recently accused of working to disrupt Iranian sovereignty.  Esfandiari, who holds both Iranian and American citizenship, works as the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, in Washington DC.  Part of her job includes planning conferences for Iranian leaders, civil, academic, and governmental, in the US on issues involving Iran.  Last December, while en route to the Tehran airport, her luggage, which held both passports, was confiscated; effectively preventing her from leaving the country.  Since December 2006 and her arrest in early May 2007, Esfandiari was repeatedly interrogated and denied access to legal counsel.  In addition to Dr. Esfandiari, two other Iranian-Americans (Ali Shakeri and Kian Tajbakhsh) are in currently in Iranian prison and a fourth, Parnaz Azima, had her passport confiscated and as a result she is prevented from leaving Iran.

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East Desk

 SA’NA, Yemen – Pirates seized a ship with 24 crew members off the port of Aden on Monday and Mogadishu traders said seven additional vessels headed for the Somali capital had been hijacked over the past two days.

The Kenyan-based Ecoterra maritime monitoring agency said pirates had taken control of a roll-on, roll-off ship called the MV Iceberg 1 on Monday.” The owners reported to NATO that pirates boarded the ro-ro vessel MV Iceberg 1 today just 10 miles outside Aden Port in the Gulf of Aden,” Ecoterra said. “The vessel with her 24 member crew is now commandeered toward the Somali coast.”

The EU Naval Force Spokesman Cmdr. John Harbour says the Monday attack took place 10 miles from Yemen against the Panama-flagged Iceberg I. Harbour says the pirates then sailed the ship across the Gulf of Aden toward Somalia. Harbour says the last communication from the vessel was a mayday call from the captain saying pirates were boarding the vessel. The 24 crew came from Yemen, India, Ghana, Sudan, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Sea gangs have acquired millions of dollars in ransoms and defied a flotilla of foreign warships that are trying to monitor the region’s busy sea lanes.

They have plagued the busy shipping lanes off Somalia for years. As well as holding some ships for ransom, pirates also hijack vessels to use as ‘motherships’ which ferry the gunmen and their speedboats far out to sea.

The seven ships cited by the traders did not include a Seychelles fishing vessel and an Iranian boat that were also taken in the waters off east Africa but later freed, according to the Seychelles coast guard. The Seychelles president’s office said the fishing vessel, called the Galate, was captured 90 miles off the coast of the archipelago’s main island before later being freed. All six crew members were safe.

Seychelles said its coast guard had also rescued 21 crew from the Iranian boat in the same operation. Separately, the U.S. destroyer McFaul rescued 30 Africans stranded in the Gulf of Aden after their vessel developed engine problems, the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

Last year 50,000 people, many from Somalia, took rickety smugglers’ ships across the Gulf of Aden, seeking jobs in the Middle East or fleeing political turmoil at home. “The 30 men, women and children onboard had been stranded with no food and very little water for nearly four days since departing the Somali coast,” the Navy said.

For more information, please see:

AP – Somali Pirates Hijack Ship, 24 Crew Near Yemen – March 29 2010

VOA News – Somali Pirates Hijack Merchant Ship With 24 Crew – March 29 2010

Reuters – Pirates Seize Somalia-Bound Ships, Others Rescued – March 29 2010

Xinhuanet – Yemeni Fishing Vessel Hijacked By Somali Pirates: Report – March 29 2010

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Israeli police detained several Palestinians on Palm Sunday, March 28. The Palestinians were protesting Israeli restrictions on Palestinian Christians, not allowing them to celebrate Holy Week and Easter religious observations in Jerusalem. It is unclear exactly how many Palestinians were arrested, reports range from eleven to fifteen protestors detained. The Palestinian News Network reports that an Associated Press photographer was also arrested.

The protests were held on Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Christian Holy Week, remembering the death of Jesus and ending the following Sunday with the celebration of Easter. While Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Christians follow different ecclesiastical calendars, this year, the calendars have aligned and all Christians will be observing Holy Week and Easter at the same time.

Between one hundred and two hundred Palestinians began the day’s protests after Sunday prayers and morning services at the Church of the Nativity. The protestors reached Gilo, the checkpoint through which Palestinians may enter Jerusalem only after receiving Israeli permission. The protestors gave speeches, and several of the protestors reportedly made it through the checkpoint without permission. One report said that at this point the border guards began an “unprovoked” attack on the protestors, and arrested several protestors.

Regardless of the exact details, many Palestinian Christians viewed the protest as a remembrance and a witness for Palestinian Christians. The Palestinian Christian population, primarily Greek Orthodox, has steadily dwindled in recent years, as many choose or are forced to emigrate. Approximately 50,000 Palestinian Christians live in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, or East Jerusalem, while there are four million Muslim Palestinians in these same areas. Another 123,000 Palestinian Christians live in Israel, making up about eight percent of the Arab Israeli population.

The protest was the latest in a series of Palestinian protests in opposition to the Israeli government’s plans to allow Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is predominantly Palestinian, and Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israelis insist that Jerusalem is their undivided capital.

For more information, please see:

Palestinian News Network – 15 Arrested During a Non-Violence Demonstration on Palm Sunday – 29 March 2010

The Associated Press – Christian Pilgrims Mark Palm Sunday in Jerusalem – 28 March 2010

Ha’aretz – Christian Pilgrims Flock to Jerusalem to Mark Palm Sunday – 28 March 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Palm Sunday Detainees Still in Israeli Custody – 28 March 2010

Ynet News – Palestinians, Leftists Detained for Entering Israel Illegally During March – 28 March 2010