Bahrain has extended its amnesty deadline for illegal workers to January 31, 2008.  The purpose of the extending the deadline is enable illegal workers to stay in Bahrain or leave the country without having to pay high penalties for violating their contracts.  The amnesty was issued as a response to the reported abuses of migrant workers.

The government stated that the amnesty has been successful and that 80% of the illegal workers have benefited from the amnesty.  Around 12,000 workers have already left the country and 22,000 workers legalized their stay.  However, the government is committed to helping the remaining 20%  of illegal workers through amnesty and has promised to launch an “inspection campaign next week to ensure that no one is working in Bahrain illegally.”

For more information, please see:

Gulf Daily News- New deadline for amnesty seekers- 31 December 2007

By Kevin Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RABAT, Morocco – Human Rights Watch on Friday urged the Moroccan Ministry of Justice to investigate the police beating and intimidation of two human rights activists in Western Sahara. More importantly, the New York-based rights organization expressed “concern that the action is part of a broader attack on human rights monitoring by the authorities in the Western Sahara region.”

Police allegedly detained Dahha Rahmouni and Brahim Alansari, members of two nongovernmental human rights organizations in El-Ayoun, on December 14 and beat them while in custody. Two days later, the authorities released both without charge, but threatened to use statements they were compelled to sign if they continued their activities. Rahmouni is a member of unrecognized organization based in El-Ayoun called the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations. Alansari is a member of the legally recognized Moroccan Association of Human Rights.

Rahmouni and Alansari are known as sympathizers of the independence movement Polisario Front in Western Sahara. In 1976, Morocco annexed the northwest African territory of 260,000 people after Spain withdrew from what is known as “Spanish Sahara.” Although the Moroccan government has offered it autonomy, Polisario Front movement is calling for full independence.

Currently, talks between the two sides are at stalemate. Two rounds of talks to resolve the 32-year-old dispute were held in June and August this year, but each side had stuck to “rigid position.” January 7 negotiation is impending, but many believe the outcome is not hopeful based on past history.

Human Rights Watch said “the Moroccan authorities tightly restrict independent human rights activities in the contested Western Sahara region on the pretext that several rights organizations there violate Moroccan law by espousing independence for Western Sahara,” and added that “authorities frequently keep activists in these organizations under police surveillance and subject them to various forms of harassment.”

The Morrocan government denies all allegations of mistreating independence activists.

For more information, please see:

The Washington Times – Endless conflict in West Sahara – 30 December 2007

Reuters – Morocco urged to probe beating of rights activists – 29 December 2007

Human Rights Watch – Investigate police beating of rights activists in Western Sahara – 28 December 2007

By Kevin Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – A prominent human rights activist jailed since October was rushed to a hospital after collapsing in a prison shower.

Emadeddin Baghi, 45, suffered a “double heart attack” in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where he has been held for the past 74 days. He was taken to a private hospital when a prison official found him unconscious in the shower. He had collapsed twice in his cell earlier in the morning due to high nervous pressure.

Baghi, a reformist journalist who is in jail for the second time, has reported been held in solitary confinement ever since he was first taken to Evin, and his health deteriorated steadily during the past two months. His lawyer believes his poor health was mainly due to appalling prison conditions and harassment he has been subjected to during interrogations.

Baghi was arrested in October on charges of violating national security. Iranian authorities said that due to his ongoing activities, he had to serve the remaining year of an earlier prison sentence he had received back in 2003. In 2003, he was sentenced to three years in prison on similar charges of threatening national security, but he only served two years of the term. Authorities have accused Baghi, who campaigns for the humane treatment of prisoners and against the death penalty, of using his activism as a guise to cover anti-regime efforts.

In 2005 Baghi was awarded a top human rights prize by the French government for his work campaigning against the death penalty. Since his jailing, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the US State Department have both called for his release.

In Iran, capital offences that results a death penalty include murder, rape, armed robbery, serious drug trafficking, and adultery. Iran is reportedly the second most prolific applier of the death penalty worldwide after China.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune – Media advocacy group RSF worried about health of jailed Iranian activist – 28 December 2007

AFP – Jailed Iranian rights activist hospitalized – 27 December 2007

The New York Times – Human rights activist, jailed in Iran, is transferred to hospital – 27 December 2007

Associated Press – Jailed Iran rights activist in hospital – 27 December 2007

By Vivek Thiagarajan
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

The Turkish military has attacked the northern Kurdish region of Iraq.  The Turks have claimed that the attacks have killed hundreds of PKK militants, including up to 175 rebels killed on December 16 alone.  (BBC-Turkish jets in fresh Iraq strike)

The attacks have destabilized the region and forced those who live in the area to seek safety.
“Since 16 December when Turkish warplanes renewed their bombing of the borders, nearly 700 families, about 4,000 people, have fled their villages, leaving everything behind,” said Mohammed Khalil, a spokesman for the Regional Displacement and Immigration Directorate.  (IRIN)

The instability has forced many Iraqis to sell their homes and possessions in order to relocate during the attacks.

However, since many Iraqi Kurds in the northern mountainous region were farmers and shepherds, many of the people relocated have been forced to find new livelihoods.  They have been forced to find the shelter from relatives while seeking to begin a new life from scratch.

For example in a phone interview, 65 year-old father of eight, Hama Numan Jalil, a relocated farmer from the border region explained his plight from his cousin’s home.  “I lost all my animals last week: nine cows, 18 sheep and 14 goats which we depend on for a living . . . We left everything behind – our home, which is partially damaged, and our land, and now we have ended up here at my cousin’s home in the city; my cousin has 10 sons to feed already,” Jalil said.  (IRIN) Jalil stated that he would probably have to remove his children from school to make sure that they could be able to survive.

The Turkish attacks have been condemned by leaders of Iraq’s northern Kurdish region.   However, these condemnations seem to not have dissuaded the Turks who seek to eliminate all strongholds of the PKK.

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Turkish jets fresh in Iraq- 26 December 2007

BBC News- Iraq Kurds warn Turkey over raids- 25 December 2007

IRIN News- IRAQ: Newly displaced in north considering alternative livelihoods-26 December 2007

The bill would pardon prisoners who have been wrongly detained. There are an estimated 50,000 Iraqis that have been jointly arrested by the US military (26,000) and the Iraqi security forces (24,000).  The number prisoners has spiked since the increase in the military strength by the US military, which has cut down on insurgent violence.

The main target of the bill is to free uncharged prisoners who have not been linked to dangerous terrorist activities and yet have been held indefinitely.   Most of the prisoners are Sunni prisoners, which has caused rising tension.  A main hope by the drafters is that the release of the prisoners will limit some of the hostility among the rivaling Sunnis and Shiites factions.

For more information, please see:

All Headline News- U.S. Optimistic Over The Release Of Thousands Of Iraqi Detainees In 2008- 26 December 2007

Jurist- Iraq cabinet approves pardon of ‘innocent’ detainees: report – 26 December 2007

PBS News hour- New Law Could Pardon Thousands in Iraq- 26 December 2007

YAHOO! News (Reuters)- Iraqi cabinet approves draft general pardon law- 26 December 2007