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

GAZA CITY, Gaza – Human Rights Watch condemned Israel on Saturday for the death of a Reuters cameraman and three others in an Israeli strike in Gaza. The New York-based rights group believes an Israeli tank crew fired either recklessly or deliberately at Fadel Shana and three others standing near him.

Human Rights Watch believes Israeli soldiers failed to make sure they were aiming at a military target before firing. Shana’s final video showed a tank on a distant hilltop open fire. Shana was wearing a bullet proof jacket marked with “Press” at the time and his vehicle was also marked with “TV” signs. His final video turned black immediately after the shots were fired.

The tank fired flechette shells, which rights groups consider inappropriate for densely populated areas like the Gaza Strip. The flechette shell is an anti-personnel weapon generally fired from a tank, which explodes in the air and releases thousands of small metal darts, which disperse in a conical arch of approximately 300 by 90 meters. Use of flechette shell usually results in indiscriminate firing, thereby endangering innocent civilians in violation of international humanitarian law.

Shana was the first Gaza journalist to be killed in the territory in the past eight years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

For more information, please see:

Associated Press – Rights group: Israel must investigate cameraman’s death – 20 April 2008

Jerusalem Post – Israel must probe cameraman’s death – 20 April 2008

Human Rights Watch – Investigate death of Gaza civilians – 19 April 2008

AFP – Media Watchdog IPI condemns killing of Reuters cameraman – 19 April 2008

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

GAZA CITY, Gaza – On April 16, at least 20 Palestinians and 3 Israelis were killed as violence between the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Palestinian militants quickly escalated.  Fighting began shortly after midnight when IDF raided northern Gaza in an operation to keep militants away from the border fence.

According to Ha’aretz, IDF soldiers exchanged gun fire with armed Palestinians, mostly members of Hamas.  During the exchange, four Palestinians were killed and one Israeli soldier was injured by sniper fire.  The military stated that Palestinian gunmen open fire from a mosque used to store explosives.  IDF returned fire and later blew up explosive devices found in the mosque; causing the building to sustain heavy damages.

Later, three IDF soldiers were killed and two others wounded when Hamas ambushed an IDF unit.  The 12 person IDF unit crossed into Gaza to pursue militants who approached the border near the Nahal Oz crossing.  A second group of Hamas gunmen fired on the unit; killing Sgt. Matan Ovdati (19), Sgt. Menhash Albaniat (20), and Sgt. David Papian (21).  The fighting also resulted in the deaths of four Hamas gunmen.

Violence escalated later in the day, as the Israeli Air Force (IAF) launched four missiles at the Bureij refugee camp in the centre of Gaza City.  The strike killed at least eight Palestinians; some media sources report that 12 were killed.  Of these, at least two were children, under the age of 16, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry.  The BBC reports that of the 11 individuals killed in the strike, five were children.

Another strike in Gaza City killed a Reuters cameraman and two by-standers.  Fadel Shana’a, 23, a Palestinian cameraman, was reporting on the violence when an Israeli tank shell struck his vehicle, which was clearly marked with “Press” on the roof.  Two other journalists were wounded in the strike.  David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of the news agency, called for an investigation by the Israeli military.

While Israel expressed regret over Shana’a’s death, a military spokesman said that “it must be pointed out that there’s a war going on against armed terrorists who are extremists and dangerous.”  The military official told Reuters that “the presence of media, photographers and other uninvolved individuals in areas of warfare is extremely dangerous and poses a threat to their lives.”

The increase in violence occurred one week after members of the Islamic Jihad and two smaller militant groups attacked a fuel depot at the Nahal Oz crossing, killing two Israeli civilians.  Since the attack, no fuel had passed through the crossing, resulting in a fuel shortage.  On April 15, two universities in Gaza were forced to shut down because students were unable to travel to class due to the lack of petrol.

On April 16, Israel permitted necessary fuel deliveries to Gaza’s only power station.  Earlier, the station warned that it only had enough fuel supplies to run the plant for a few more days.  The fuel shortage is exacerbated by a strike of Gaza petrol station owners in protest to the delivery reduction.  Israel accuses Palestinians of preventing distribution in order to create a fuel crisis.

For more information, please see:
The Guardian – 20 Die in Gaza Clashes after Fire Fight at Fuel Crossing – 17 April 2008

Ha’aretz – 20 Palestinians, Including Reuters Man, Killed in Heavy Gaza Clashes– 17 April 2008

The Independent – Cameraman among 20 Dead as Violence in Gaza Escalates – 17 April 2008

International Herald Tribune – A Bloody Day of Fighting in Gaza – 17 April 2008

Jerusalem Post – Some 20 Gazans Killed in IAF Strikes – 17 April 2008

The Times (London) – Cameraman among at Least 22 Dead as Violence Returns to Gaza – 17 April 2008

Al Jazeera – Children among Israeli Raid Dead – 16 April 2008

Al Jazeera – Palestinians Killed in Israeli Raids into Gaza (video) – 16 April 2008

BBC – Day of Gaza Unrest Leaves 22 Dead – 16 April 2008

Reuters – Israel Kills 17 in Gaza after Troops Die in Clash – 16 April 2008

By Christopher Gehrke
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, South America

BAQUBA, Iraq – Blasts in the Iraqi cities of Baquba, Ramadi, Mosul, and Baghdad killed more than 70 and injured more than 100 yesterday.

At approximately 10:50 a.m., a vehicle filled with explosives detonated outside a restaurant in Baquba, killing 53 and injuring 90.  The Baquba police estimated that nearly 1,400 pounds of explosives were packed into the vehicle.

A suicide bombing in Ramadi outside a kebab restaurant killed thirteen; three were killed and twelve were wounded in another car bombing in Mosul; and three were killed and eight were injured in Baghdad in a car bomb blast that targeted police patrol.

BCC reports that Sunni Islamist groups inspired by al-Qaeda are likely suspects.

The death toll in Baquba is expected to rise, said police.  There were still burnt bodies inside the cars at the scene.  Most of the bodies were burned beyond identification, and most of the dead appeared to be women and children.  Baquba is known as an insurgent stronghold.

One physician described the scene in Baquba:  “Some of the bodies that came to the hospital were, let’s say, not bodies, but only a hand or a torso.”

The Baquba attack was one of the most deadly in Iraq in months, where it appeared the U.S. surge strategy was successful in preventing civilian deaths.  This week, however, has seen several attacks.  Seventeen were also killed in two bomb attacks near Mosul Monday, among them 12 members of the Iraqi army.

American and Iraqi forces were backed by Awakening Councils in Baquba and Ramadi, which are mostly Sunni organizations that oppose Sunni extremists.  Baquba residents said that the attacks were probably retaliation for their decision to fight these groups.

Rear Adm. Greg Smith – the chief spokesman for the U.S. military there – told the New York Times that the attacks show that al-Qaeda could regenerate and strike, despite not controlling the territory as it had.

“They no longer possess the capability to terrorize and intimidate the major population centers or large swaths of Iraq’s countryside, but they certainly maintain both the will and the capacity to indiscriminately kill and maim innocent Iraqi citizens with vehicle and suicide bombs,” he said.

Authorities are no sure if the triple car bombing was coordinated or not.

For more information, please see:
BBC News – Dozens dead as Iraq cities bombed – 16 April 2008

New York Times – Dozens killed in Bombings in Four Iraqi Cities – 16 April 2008

Times Online – Dozens killed in car bombs across Iraq – 15 April

Agence France Press – Iraq bombings, clashes kill 62 – 15 April 2008

Gramma International – Lethal day in Iraq, 69 dead – 15 April 2008

San Francisco Chronicle – Explosions kill dozens in 2 cities – 16 April 2008

Daily Dispatch – Car bombs rip through Iraqi lull – 16 April 2008

Guardian – Bomb attacks kill at least 50 people as new wave of violence hits Iraq – 16 April 2008

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian military court convicted 25 members of the Muslim Brotherhood on various charges including money laundering and supporting terrorism.  Specifically, they were alleged to have financed a banned organization and provided students with weapons and military training.

Of the 25 sentenced, five received ten year sentences, two received seven years, five were sentenced to five years and the remaining thirteen received three years sentences. 15 individuals were acquitted of the charges but are not yet released.

Among those convicted were the Muslim Brotherhood’s chief strategist, Khayrat al-Shater, and its prominent financier, businessman Hassan Malik.  Shater and Malik were each sentenced to seven year imprisonment.  Malik and six other convicted men were tried absentia.

The group’s lawyer, Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsud, told Daily News Egypt that “it is a harsh sentence and there was no case in the first place.”  “This was a politically-motivated case tried in a court which guarantees no rights to those standing trial.”

Amnesty International spokeswoman Nicole Choueiry stated, “The sentences handed down against 25 members of the Muslim Brotherhood today are a subversion of justice in Egypt.”  Amnesty International claimed that the trial was politically motivated from the beginning: “Today’s sentences leave no doubt that the Egyptian authorities are bent on continuing their relentless campaign to undermine at all levels the main opposition group in the country.”

Even though all 40 defendants on trial were civilians, they were tried before a military court.  Under the framework of a military court, Egypt was able to exercise more control over the trial.  For example, when the verdict was announced, defendants’ lawyers were not present, nor were family members permitted into the court.  In addition, independent observers, some sent by Amnesty International, were not permitted to attend the sentencing.

Another important difference between military court and civilian court is the defendant’s ability to appeal the verdict.  In a military court, the defendants are able to appeal to the Supreme Court of Military Appeals, but that court is only able to examine procedural matters, not the merits of the case.

The political aspect of the trial is evidenced by the fact that the accused were referred to a military court by presidential decree.  Earlier, a civilian criminal court threw out charges against 17 of the accused.

Additionally, 34 individuals were arrested during scuffles between demonstrators and state police outside the court building.  The incident began as relatives of the accused tried to force their way into the closed sentencing.

For more information, please see:
Al Jazeera –  Egypt Jails Brotherhood Leaders – 15 April 2008

Amnesty International – Perversion of Justice – 25 Face Jail in Egypt – 15 April 2008

Associated Press – 25 Egypt Opposition Members Sentences – 15 April 2008

BBC – Egyptians Jail 25 Brotherhood Men – 15 April 2008

Daily News Egypt – Brotherhood Trials Ends in Prison Terms as Trouble Erupts Outside Court – 15 April 2008

Middle East Times – Egypt Jails 25 Islamists in “Political” Trial – 15 April 2008