Four Indonesian maids were gravely injured by their employers.  According to the attackers, the women practiced witchcraft on the employing family’s eldest son.  Reportedly, the family’s 17 year old son whipped the women with his igal, which is a ropelike cord used for the traditional Saudi headdress.  In all, seven family members attacked the four women.  Two of the women were killed while the other two women were severely injured.  One of the survivors has recovered from the hospital and been removed by police to an undisclosed place.  The police are also protecting the woman in critical condition.  However, the police have also barred the women from having visitors, including representatives from the Indonesian Embassy.  The Saudi authorities are hoping to question the injured maids to investigate the employers’ attack of the maids.  Saudi authorities detained the employers accused of the attack for interrogation. 
   
    The Saudi government must respond quickly and decisively in this action since the problem of employers abusing foreign migrant workers plagues Saudi Arabia.  Human Rights Watch reports that many Saudi employers and employment agencies have been accused of raping and impregnating their maids or physically and verbally assaulting their workers.  For example, in 2005 an Indonesian maid suffered from gangrene, because her employer locked her up.  The employer also withheld food from the woman and verbally and physically abusing her.  When the maid complained to the authorities, she was given 79 lashes for making false accusations against her employer.  Recently, maid was awarded a monetary judgment by the court and allowed to return to Indonesia, however, the employer has not yet been forced to give her a settlement.

    Although over 24 million migrant workers live in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government has not taken an active role to protect its large contingent of foreign workers.  The workers are rarely given either legal protection or a translator when interrogated by the police for accusations involving employers.  Subsequently, the workers are not treated fairly by the Saudi authorities.  For example Human Rights Watch reported that an Indonesian maid was recently sentenced to death for practicing witchcraft.  However, her sentence was reduced to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes.  Furthermore, the Indonesian Embassy was only informed of the woman’s accusations a month after she received her sentence, which barred the Embassy from defending the woman in trial. 

    The Saudi Arabian government must act decisively to protect the foreign born workers.  The problem has plagued the Saudi Arabia and can only be resolved through the implementation of harsh consequences against employers for abusive actions.  If the Saudi Arabian government does not respond quickly, then it must quickly alert foreign embassies to allow them to protect their citizens.  However, if Saudi Arabia does not enact stringent punishments against abusive employers nor alerts foreign embassies of abusive practices against its citizens, then the appalling behavior of abusive employers will continue indefinitely.

 

Human Rights Watch.  Saudi Arabia: Migrant Domestics Killed by Employers.  17 August 2007.

 

Arab News.  Battered Indonesian Maid Held for Questioning.  22 August 2007.

 

Reuters India.  Saudi should do more to stop maid abuse- watchdog.  17 August 2007.

On August 19, many Iraqi children in Jordan began school for the first time.  In 2006, it is estimated that only 20,000 of the 200,000 Iraqi school-aged children in Jordan attended school and only 6,000 completed the school year.  These low numbers are attributed to Jordan’s policy of only allowing Iraqis with proper residency or who could pay, to attend school.  However, this year Jordan officials agreed to allow Iraqi children to attend school regardless of their legal status, allowing a greater number of children to go to school. 

Many of these children are refugees from Iraq, fleeing the violence of the war and sectarian fighting.  Since 2003, about 2 million Iraqis fled the country, with the majority going to Syria, Jordan and Egypt.  It is thought that 750,000 Iraqi refugees currently reside in Jordan, a country of 5 million people, making it the highest per capita ratio of refugees to citizens.  The large number of refugees and the number of services that Jordan provides puts a strain on the government.  One year of elementary or secondary education will cost $1400 per pupil.  UNHCR and UNICEF recently appealed for $129 million dollars to help several host countries, including Jordan, to finance the costs of these additional students.

Other obstacles include how to accommodate this influx in enrollment.  It is estimated that 50,000 Iraqis children will attend Jordan’s already crowded schools, resulting in classes of over 50 students.  Education Ministry official, Mohammed Okour, stated that if schools become too crowded that a shift-system of morning and afternoon classes will be introduced. 

For more information please see:

Reuters:  “UNHCR hails decision to let Iraqi children attend school in Jordan”  20 August 2007. 

BBC:  “Iraqis enrol in Jordan’s schools”  19 August 2007. 

France14:  “Back to school for Iraqi children… in Jordan”  19 August 2007. 

International Herald Tribune:  “Iraqi refugee children in Jordan finally have first day of school”  19 August 2007. 

Human Rights Watch:  “Jordan:  Government pledges to grant Iraqis education, health rights”  16 August 2007. 

UNICEF:  “UNICEF welcomes Jordan’s offer of education to Iraqi children”  10 August 2007.

An Egyptian and a Turk hijacked a Turkish passenger plane.  The Atlas Jet airplane departed from Northern Cyprus and was headed to Istanbul, Turkey.  Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the hijackers approached the cockpit and threatened the crew with a knife and an alleged bomb.  In reality, the alleged bomb was only modeled clay with wires attached to it.  Upon the threat, the crew members responded immediately.  Also, the hijackers claimed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda and tried to redirect the flight to Iran.  However, the plane did not have enough fuel to fly to Tehran.  Thus, the hijackers allowed the crew to make an emergency crash landing in Antalya, Turkey to refuel the plane.  Immediately after landing, many of the crew and passengers escaped through initial negotiations with Turkish security forces.  However, the hijackers kept six of the passengers as hostages in a four hour holdout.  Eventually these hostages were also freed.  All 136 passengers and six crew members escaped basically unharmed. 

The hijackers’ motives were unclear.  The Gulf Daily News reported that Turkish Cypriot authorities believed that the hijackers were Iranians protesting American polices.  The Egyptian, Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, was known to have contact with Al-Qaeda.  He was a Saudi Arabian prison mate of an organizer of the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.  Talikh also was trained at an Al-Qaeda camp.  Less is known about the Turkish kidnapper.  The hijackers gave themselves up and are in the custody of Turkish Security forces, along with another passenger who the police believe was involved in the hijacking.

People’s Daily Online.  Many of passengers manage to flee from hijacked plane in Turkey (2).  18 August 2007.

People’s Daily Online.  Turkish aircraft hijacked en route from northern Cyprus to Turkey: TV.  18 August 2007.

People’s Daily Online.  Some passengers injured as escaping from hijacked plane in Turkey.  19 August 2007.

People’s Daily Online.  Many of passengers manage to flee from hijacked plane in Turkey.  18 August 2007.

Gulf Daily News. Turkish plane hijack bomb ‘block of clay’.  20 August 2007.

Gulf Daily News. Hostages freed in hijack dilemma. 19 August 2007.

Reuters.  Turkish plane hijack hostages freed.  18 August 2007.

On August 14, suicide bombers drove trucks into two Yazidi communities, al-Qataniyah and al-Adnaniyah, in northern Iraq.  The Iraqi Army reported the death toll to be over 400, making it the most deadly attack of the Iraq war.  However, casualty estimates range from 150 to as high as 500.  Estimates of those injured range from 200 to 350 people.  The attack also left 600 homeless.

The majority of the deaths and injuries resulted from mud houses collapsing on their inhabitants.  Rescue teams used bulldozers, shovels, and hands to remove the fallen debris to uncover survivors and bodies.  In these poor communities, as many as 30 family members live in a single house.  So the destruction of a single home may result in many losses.

While no group claimed responsibility for the bombing, it is believed that members of the al-Qaeda (AIQ) in Iraq were the perpetrators.  The US military stated that the attack bore resemblance to other AIQ attacks.  It also stated that it expected an increase in violence in the region prior to a report on the Army’s troop surge due in mid-September.  In addition, targets such as these are seen as soft (easy) targets by insurgents driven out of large cities as a result of this recent surge.

The Yazidi are a religious minority in the Kurdish region of Iraq.  They are an isolated community, due to their religious beliefs and years of persecution by Muslims and Christians.  The main reason for their continued persecution is that the Yazidi revere an angel, in addition to a god, which Muslims and Christians equate to Satan.  Recent violence against the Yazidi includes an attack by gunmen in April, which resulted in 23 deaths.  It is believed that a stoning of a Yazidi girl who converted to Islam and eloped with a Sunni man sparked the earlier attack.

Many have condemned the attacks and Major-General Mixon, the commander of US forces in northern Iraq described the attacks as acts of genocide.  As many individuals in the Yazidi community lost family members in the attack, members fear annihilation.  Members of the Yazidi community have talked with Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih and asked for more security.  Other members have threatened that unless Iraq provides them with sufficient security that they will form their own security to protect their community.

For more information please see:
BBC:  “Fears over rising Iraq bomb toll”  16 August 2007. 

The Economist:  “No one is safe”  16 August 2007. 

International Herald Tribune:  “Iraq’s intolerance”  16 August 2007. 

London Times:  “Al-Qaeda bombing kills and maims 600”  16 August 2007. 

St. Petersburg Times:  “Once more, Yazidis find themselves as targets”  16 August 2007. 

Telegraph:  “Iraq bombs:  500 die in worst terror attack”  16 August 2007. 

Washington Post: “Toll in N Iraq Passes 400; Attack is deadliest of war”  16 August 2007. 

Washington Post:  “Yazidis fear annihilation after Iraq bombings”  16 August 2007. 

Reuters:  “Factbox: Who are the Yazidis?”  15 August 2007.

Yemen is facing an impending water shortage.  Saana, the capital, is most prone for disaster because of its rapid growth.  The water shortage is further compounded because of the contamination in the nation’s limited supply of drinking water.

Yemen is a dry land.  The country estimates that it only obtains about 2,500 million cubic meters (MCM) of fresh water a year.  However, the country’s demand for freshwater is 3,200 MCM a year creating a 700 MCM yearly deficit.  This deficit makes the nation vulnerable to drought and possible famine, because of the inaccessibility of drinking water.  For example, a well in the Yemen must be from 600-1200 meters deep, whereas wells in other gulf nations are only 200 meters deep. The limited water supply creates a looming problem.

Sanaa’s rapid growth exacerbates the shortage.  The capital city’s population is growing at a rate near 7-8% per year.  In 1975, the city only had 175,000 residents in 1975.  Currently, two million residents live in the city.  The city’s infrastructure, especially regarding water, has not adjusted to the city’s growth.  For example according to IRIN, only 15-25% of the city households get drinking water from the public water supply network and use the public sanitation system.  The rest of the households rely on private vendors for their water supply. 

Another problem is contamination.  The World Health Organization believes that only 50% of the Yemen’s water supplies are safe.  According to the Yemen Observer, over 75% of the 20 million Yemenis are exposed to water borne diseases because of contaminated water.  A Yemeni parliamentary report stated that 20,000 children die from water related illnesses every year in Yemen, which is 50% of all child related deaths in Yemen.  The most common causes of death from water related diseases are diarrhea, malaria or typhoid.  The contamination is usually caused by the human and factory waste. 

This problem has not been adequately addressed by the Yemeni government.  The nation is facing an impending shortage of water where Yemen will have to rely heavily on imported water.  This will place undue pressure on an already struggling people, which may force many to choose to drink contaminated water because they cannot afford clean water.

IRIN.  YEMEN: Rapid urbanisation threatening capital’s water supplies.  14 August 2007.

Yemen Times.  Water in Yemen …….Reduction and pollution. 29 June 2005. 

Yemen Observer. Contamination continues to plague Yemen’s drinking water.  28 July 2007.