By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – According to an United Nations official, insurgent groups in Iraq are recruiting children as suicide bombers.  Ending a week-long visit to Iraq, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, said children there are the silent victims of the ongoing violence in the country, with approximately 1,500 “known to be held in detention facilities.”

“Since 2004, an increasing number of children have been recruited into various militias and insurgent groups, including as suicide bombers,” she said.

Coomaraswamy said that many Iraqi children no longer attend school and are either recruited for violent activities or are detained in custody.  She said that many children lack access to the most basic services and “manifest a wide range of psychological symptoms from the violence in their everyday lives.”

According to Coomaraswamy, only 50 percent of primary school children are attending school.  That number is down from 80 percent in 2005.  Only 40 percent have access to clean drinking water and there is a continuing possibility of outbreaks of cholera.

Coomaraswamy’s statements come three months after the U.S. military released videos of suspected al Qaeda in Iraq members training children as young as 10 to kidnap and kill.  She urged “religious and community leaders of Iraq to send one clear message to Iraqi children: Stay out of the violence and go back to school.”

She called on all sides in the Iraqi conflict to follow international humanitarian standards for the protection of children and to release without delay any children under the age of 18 associated with their forces.  She also asked all sides to adhere to international human rights standards pertaining to juvenile justice provisions.

“Let peace in Iraq begin with the protection of children” Coomaraswamy said.

For more information, please see:
BBC – Militias ‘Recruit Child Bombers’ – 25 April 2008

Inquirer.net – Iraqi Children Recruited for Suicide Attacks – UN – 25 April 2008

The Press Association – Child Recruits for Suicide Attacks – 25 April 2008

UN News Center – Iraqi Children are Silent Victims of Ongoing Violence, Says UN Envoy – 25 April 2008

USA Today – U.N.: Iraqi Children Recruited as Suicide Bombers – 25 April 2008

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

GAZA CITY, Gaza – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warned that its fuel supplies will run out on April 24 unless it receives fresh petrol supplies.  UNRWA chief in Gaza, John Ging, said that Israel must supply gasoline to Gaza immediately or the UN will not be able to distribute necessary food aid to Gaza residents.

Ging said that the supply of fuel from Israel to Gaza has been “totally inadequate” for 10 months until it was finally halted two weeks ago. “The devastating humanitarian impact is entirely predictable,” he said.

“Neither UNRWA nor the World Food Programme… will be able to resume food distribution until they receive diesel for the trucks involved in transporting the food,” Ging said.  A shortage of diesel and petrol means UN food assistance to 650,000 Palestinian refugees will stop today, and aid from the World Food Programme for another 127,000 Palestinians due in the coming days will also be halted.

It addition to affecting the distribution of food aid, the blockade also creates a health care crisis.  According to the lack of fuel, 20 percent of ambulances out of commission and another 60 percent with less than a week’s worth of fuel.  The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, operating on limited fuel reserves, has reduced its services to emergency cases.

Ging added that “laundry services at the largest hospital, Shifa, have been cut by 50 percent and we all know what that means in terms of public health.”  In addition, doctors and health care professionals face difficulties getting to work because of the halt of public transportation.

The Israeli-imposed blockade, following the Hamas takeover of Gaza, prevents exports and allows in only limited supplies of food, fuel and aid.  A complete petrol blockade began on April 9, following a Palestinian attack on the main fuel terminal at Nahal Oz.

On April 22, the deputy head of the energy department in Gaza, Kanaan Obeid warned that Gaza’s sole power plant would shut down within the next 30 hours.  On April 23, Israel permitted one million liters of diesel fuel to be delivered directly to the power plant, averting its closure.  The fuel will be sufficient to power the plant for three days.

Commenting on the blockade, Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East, said “the collective punishment of the population of Gaza, which has been instituted for months now, has failed.”  He added that the recent Palestinian attacks against crossing points into Gaza, saying they were “deeply disturbing.”

Serry appealed to Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups to end these attacks.  “These attacks endanger both international and Israeli civilians, and cannot possibly contribute to Palestinian efforts to ease the blockade of Gaza. On the contrary, they serve only to deepen and prolong it,” he said.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Gaza Fuel Embargo “Block UN Aid” – 24 April 2008

Guardian – Fuel Shortage Forces UN to Halt Food Handouts in Gaza – 24 April 2008

AFP – Fuel Shortage Could Halt Gaza Food Distribution: UN – 23 April 2008

BBC – Israel Resumes Gaza Fuel Supplies – 23 April 2008

Human Rights Watch – Gaza Fuel Cuts: Civilians Pay the Price – 23 April 2008

International Herald Tribune – UN Warns that Food Distribution will Halt Unless Israel Supplies Diesel – 23 April 2008

UN News Centre – Gaza: UN and Partners Set to Meet on Critical Humanitarian Situation – 23 April 2008

Yedioth News – UN: Collective Punishment of Gazans has Failed – 23 April 2008

By Christopher Gehrke
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, South America

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A female suicide bomber blew herself up north of Baghdad yesterday, killing six and wounding twelve others.

The bombing took place outside a police station in the Diyala province, where several other attacks have occurred recently.

Most of the dead were policemen, according to a police source.  There have been several attacks by female suicide bombers in Iraq in recent weeks.  Diyala is one of the northern provinces where al Qaeda has sought sanctuary after being driven out of Anbar province in the west and Baghdad.

On Monday, a female suicide bomber detonated near the office of an anti-al-Qaeda group in Baquba, killing three of its members.

The bomber activated her vest, filled with explosives, in the Al-Mafraq neighborhood north of Baghdad.

Ahmed Alwan, a doctor at Baquba hospital, said three anti-al-Qaeda group members were killed and four other people wounded in the attack.

“The woman attacker tried to get inside the office that lies in the middle of the market.  The guards at the first checkpoint stopped the woman and asked her to open her robes to check if she wore an explosive belt, but at this moment she exploded herself outside the office,” said Abu Talib, a Sons of Iraq commander.

Al-Qaeda has been targeting groups who have sided with the US military to fight them in recent months.  These groups are made up of mostly Sunni Arab former insurgents, using women as a way to carry out attacks with an element of surprise.

For more information, please see:
Reuters – Female suicide bomber kills six north of Baghdad – 22 April 2008

AFP – Female suicide bomber kills three in Iraq city – 21 April 2008

Los Angeles Times – Female suicide bomber kills four in Iraq – 22 April 2008

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – On April 22, the Saudi Interior Minister announced that Hamoud al-Ansi, convicted of murder, was beheaded in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran.  Ansi was convicted for stabbing another man to death during a conflict about land.  According to the Associated Press, his execution brings the total to 48 in 2008.

In addition, on April 18, two Syrian nationals, Firas Faycal Al-Aghbar and Firas Hussein Maktabi, were beheaded in the northwestern city of Tabuk.  They were convicted on drug trafficking charges for receiving a shipment of hallucinogenic drugs.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, under which those convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape or armed robbery are executed in public with a sword.

According to an Amnesty International report on capital punishment, Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of people in 2007.  China, who executed at least 470, was first; followed by Iran (317).  In 2007, Saudi Arabia executed 143 people, which was a drastic increase from the total in 2006 (37).  The report also notes that Saudi Arabia was one of three countries who executed child offenders in 2007.  Also, in 2007, at least 76 of the 143 people executed were foreign nationals.

For more information, please see:

FoxNews.com – Saudi Arabia Executes Convicted Murderer in 48th Beheading this Year – 22 April 2008

Kuwait Times – Syrian Protesters Stage Sit-in Against Saudi Executions – 22 April 2008

Amnesty International – Death Penalty: World Trend Down but Secrecy Surrounds China Execution Figures – 14 April 2008

By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

LONDON, England – An April 21 report released by Human Rights Watch alleges that Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship of women and sex segregation policies prevent women from enjoying their basic rights.  The 50 page report, “Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia,” documents the effects of these discriminatory policies and draws on more than 100 interviews with Saudi women.

Human Rights Watch said that the Saudi government treats adult women as legal minors who are not in control of their own well-being.  The group said that Saudi women must often obtain permission from a guardian (a father, husband or even a son) to work, travel, marry or even access health care.

“The Saudi government sacrifices basic human rights to maintain male control over women,” said Farida Deif, women’s rights researcher for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch. “Saudi women won’t make any progress until the government ends the abuses that stem from these misguided policies.”

The report claims that Saudi women are prevented from accessing government agencies without a male representative unless the agency has established a female section.  According to the report, the need for separate office spaces provides a disincentive to hiring female employees.

The report also alleges that even when no permission from a guardian is required, some officials will ask for it.  Despite national regulations to the contrary, some hospitals require a guardian’s permission to allow women to be admitted, agree to medical procedures for themselves or their children, or be discharged.

Male guardianship over adult women also contributes to their risk of exposure to violence within the family as victims of violence find it difficult to seek protection or redress from the courts. The report says that social workers, physicians and lawyers say that it is nearly impossible to remove guardianship from male guardians who are abusive.

“It’s astonishing that the Saudi government denies adult women the right to make decisions for themselves but holds them criminally responsible for their actions at puberty,” Deif said.  “For Saudi women, reaching adulthood brings no rights, only responsibilities.”

For more information, please see:
ABC  – Saudi Women ‘Kept in Childhood’ – 21 April 2008

BBC – Saudi Women ‘Kept in Childhood’ – 21 April 2008

Human Rights Watch – Saudi Arabia: Male Guardianship Policies Harm Women – 21 April 2008

Human Rights Watch Report – Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia – 21 April 2008