The Middle East

Lebanon Misses Deadline to Establish Torture Prevention Committee

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon– According to a number of human rights organizations, Lebanon has not met a December 22 deadline to establish a national institution devoted to preventing torture.

Last year, Lebanon signed the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT).  As part of that signing, Lebanon’s government was required to set up a mechanism within a year that would prevent torture through regular visits to the country’s detention centers.

A committee was set up June 20 under the direction of Former Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar.  The committee drew up a draft proposal to implement a torture monitoring program, and they eventually sent their proposal to the Justice Ministry on September 30.  However, since that date the government has not taken any further steps.

Human Rights Watch and a number of other human rights organizations issued a statement saying that “the Justice Ministry took an important step when it created the committee, but now it has to finish what it started.  The next step is to send the proposal to the Cabinet.”  These human rights organizations believe it is imperative for the government to act on the draft proposal as soon as possible.

Additionally, the human rights groups have urged the Lebanese government to amend the country’s penal code to criminalize all forms of torture, not just physical violence, regardless of the objective of such torture, and to make the crime of torture punishable by a heavier sentence than the current maximum of three years.

The UN protocol is the first international human rights attempt to prevent torture and other forms of ill treatment by establishing a system of regular visits to detention centers.

In Lebanon, torture is prohibited by law.  However, despite the ban, a number of detainees, including suspected Islamists and suspected spies for Israel, have told various human rights groups that their interrogators beat them and tortured them.

For more information, please see:

The Daily Star- Lebanon Misses Deadline to Help Prevent Torture– 24 December 2009

United Press International- Beirut Lax in Torture Measures, Groups Say– 24 December 2009

Human Rights Watch- Lebanon: Government Misses UN Deadline on Torture Prevention– 23 December 2009

Bus Attacked in Northern Lebanon

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TRIPOLI, Lebanon–   A bus carrying Syrian workers came under fire Monday in northern Lebanon.  One person was confirmed killed and several others were reported injured by shattered glass during the attack.
The bus was transporting Syrian workers along one of the main highways between northern Lebanon and Syria near an army checkpoint in the Deir Emar district, approximately three miles north of Tripoli.

According to an eyewitness, the vehicle’s tires were riddled with bullet holes and several of the windows on the driver’s side were shattered by the shots.  The person killed was believed to be a seventeen year old migrant worker.

A Syrian police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that gunmen were responsible for the attack although he acknowledged that no motive was known.  In addition to the lone fatality,  three other people were wounded by flying glass on board the bus which was carrying twenty-five Syrian workers.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem described the attack as a criminal act and pledged to inform his Lebanese counterpart of the results of the investigation, the identity of the attackers, and who was behind the shooting without delay.

The attack came a day after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad met for two days in Damascus.  The talks between the two leaders were said to be positive according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.

At a press conference held at the Lebanese Embassy, Prime Minister Hariri told reporters that he was optimistic about the growing diplomatic relationship between the two countries.  “We want to have good relations with Syria based on openness and honesty,” Hariri was quoted as saying, conveying the hope that the two neighboring countries would come to a fresh start after decades of war and animosity.  President Assad echoed similar statements saying that he was optimistic about progress for the future.

For more information, please see:

Gulf Times- Lebanon Shooting Kills Syria Worker– 22 December 2009

BBC News- Bus Carrying Syrian Workers Attacked in Lebanon– 21 December 2009

The Jerusalem Post- Hariri, Assad Hold Second Meeting– 20 December 2009

Bus Attacked in Northern Lebanon

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TRIPOLI, Lebanon–   A bus carrying Syrian workers came under fire Monday in northern Lebanon.  One person was confirmed killed and several others were reported injured by shattered glass during the attack.
The bus was transporting Syrian workers along one of the main highways between northern Lebanon and Syria near an army checkpoint in the Deir Emar district, approximately three miles north of Tripoli.

According to an eyewitness, the vehicle’s tires were riddled with bullet holes and several of the windows on the driver’s side were shattered by the shots.  The person killed was believed to be a seventeen year old migrant worker.

A Syrian police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that gunmen were responsible for the attack although he acknowledged that no motive was known.  In addition to the lone fatality,  three other people were wounded by flying glass on board the bus which was carrying twenty-five Syrian workers.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem described the attack as a criminal act and pledged to inform his Lebanese counterpart of the results of the investigation, the identity of the attackers, and who was behind the shooting without delay.

The attack came a day after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad met for two days in Damascus.  The talks between the two leaders were said to be positive according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.

At a press conference held at the Lebanese Embassy, Prime Minister Hariri told reporters that he was optimistic about the growing diplomatic relationship between the two countries.  “We want to have good relations with Syria based on openness and honesty,” Hariri was quoted as saying, conveying the hope that the two neighboring countries would come to a fresh start after decades of war and animosity.  President Assad echoed similar statements saying that he was optimistic about progress for the future.

For more information, please see:

Gulf Times- Lebanon Shooting Kills Syria Worker– 22 December 2009

BBC News- Bus Carrying Syrian Workers Attacked in Lebanon– 21 December 2009

The Jerusalem Post- Hariri, Assad Hold Second Meeting– 20 December 2009

Numerous Bombings Kill Scores Throughout Iraq

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

HILLA, Iraq – A string of bombings in Iraq on December 24 have killed more than thirty four people. The bombs also injured over one hundred people. Among the bombings was a double explosion in the central Iraqi town of Hilla. Additionally there as a bombing in Sadr City, a predominantly Shi’ite district in Baghdad.

The bombings came three days before the climax of Ashura, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims converge on Kerbala to mourn the killing of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein. The forty day mourning period commemorates this 680AD event that sealed the split between Sunni and Shi’ite. Most of the individuals killed by the bombings were Shi’ite pilgrims attending mourning ceremonies.

The two bombs in Hilla, the capital of Babil province, targeted Shi’ite pilgrims who gathered at a bus station to mark Ashura.  The first bomb was in a car and exploded at 2pm. The second bomb came fifteen minutes later when police had arrived. According to Fadel Hassa, an eyewitness, “police came to disarm a bomb some twenty meters from the site of the first attack, and it exploded as they arrived, causing numerous injuries among passersby and the police.

The bomb in Sadr City appeared to target a funeral procession. The attack killed at least nine people and injured thirty three. The bomb went off in a tent where mourners were gathered. According to Ahmed Rushdi, a journalist in Baghdad, “they were not by the hand of al Qaeda – they were not suicide bombers, but mostly car bombs and bombs besides cars.”

Another bomb in Baghdad went off in the eastern district of Zafraniya, south of the city center, and killed three people. The Zafraniya bombing injured twenty people and was located near the area where a preliminary Ashura ceremony was taking place. Additionally, a bomb blast in the Shi’ite sacred city of Karbala, about one hundred kilometers south of Baghdad, killed two people and injured four others.

More than twenty five thousand security forces have been assigned by the Iraqi government to protect the Shi’ite pilgrims during the celebrations for Ashura.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Iraq Attacks Kill Scores on Eve of Christmas, Ashura – 24 December 2009

Al Jazeera – Scores Killed in Iraq Blasts – 24 December 2009

BBC – Iraq Bomb Explosions Leave 23 People Dead – 24 December 2009

Guardian – Iraq Sectarian Bomb Attacks Kills 26 – 24 December 2009

Iranian Police and Protesters Clash at Montazeri Memorial

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

ISFAHAN, Iran – On December 23 Iranian security forces clashed with opposition supporters demonstrating in the central city of Isfahan. The clashes occurred reportedly as large crowds gathered to mourn the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. Opposition websites claim that pro-reform protesters had been injured by the police in the clashes.

The violence erupted when thousands of Iranians attempted to gather for a memorial to Montazeri at a mosque. Security forces and hard-line militia men beat opposition protesters and fired tear gas into crowds. Alireza Ronaghi, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Iran, said that witnesses allege that they had not heard shots fired. Opposition websites report that over fifty opposition supporters had been arrested.

The government’s crackdown marked the first time that clerics who supported the opposition had been targeted. Basij militiamen surround the house and office of two prominent religious figures. They shouted slogans and broke windows, opposition websites reported.

The death of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri gave new push to the opposition protests. Montazeri was a sharp critic Iranian leaders, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He died December 20th at the age of 87 and a funeral held the following day in Qom  that drew tens of thousands of Iranians onto the streets.

Mehrad Khonsari, an Iranian affiars analyst in London and a former diplomat in Iran explains that “the government cannot allow for great celebrations of (Montazeri’s) life to be carried out given the fact that that would be counter the kind of policies they been making in the course of the last 20 years.” He says that in an increase in government pressure is inevitable as the opposition has been incrementally increasing their pressure.

The United States government expressed concern with how Iran’s security forces acted in the clash. State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley told reporters, “Iran is increasingly showing itself to be a police state.” Crowley explained that the Iranian government’s security forces are attempting to eliminate the fact that “clearly the aspirations of the Iranian people (are) for a different relationship with their government.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – Iran Behaves Increasingly Like a ‘Police State’: US” – 23 December 2009

Al Jazeera – Clashes Reported at Iran Protests – 23 December 2009

Associated Press – Police, Protesters Clash in Southern Iran – 23 December 2009

BBC – Clashes at Montazeri Ceremony – 23 December 2009