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The Middle East
Canadians Freed but Banned From Leaving Egypt
By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt – On Sunday, two Canadians were prevented from flying out of Egypt after their names appeared on a “stop-list” issued by prosecutors. Earlier that morning, the two were released from prison after being held for fifty-one days without charges.
John Greyson, a Toronto filmmaker and York University professor, and Tarek Loubani, a physician from London, Ontario, were arrested during a violent protest in Ramses Square in Cairo. The two Canadians claim that, during the violence, Loubani stopped to help wounded protesters while Greyson videotaped. The men have said they witnessed at least fifty demonstrators killed and after leaving the protest they were beaten and arrested.
On Monday, the Canadians’ lawyer Marwa Farouk filed an application with the Prosecutor General to have the travel ban lifted. The application claimed that the investigation lacks any substantial evidence and that Greyson and Loubani should be allowed to return home.
Greyson’s sister, Cecilla, was optimistic about the their release and said that Canadian consular officials were dealing the “red tape.”
“Until they are safely back in Canada we are just going to be a little bit on edge,” she said. “We’ve had contact with them throughout the day today. We’re relieved they are out of prison. We’re immensely encouraged by that.”
Despite the optimism, CBC Middle East Correspondent Saša Petricic reported that “it’s not just a question of red tape as we were led to believe originally.” The investigation of the two Canadians is considered on going and they will not be allowed to leave until it is over.
“If that needs to run its course, it could be a very long wait even though they are now in a hotel room instead of a jail cell,” added Petricic.
Greyson and Loubani have alleged that while in prison they were subject to physical abuse and degrading treatment at the hands of their Egyptian captors. The pair also said they were kept in cramped, filthy, and cockroach infested cells.
Spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Badr Abdelatty, has publicly denied that the Canadians had suffered any mistreatment. He also stated that it is standard penal procedure to prevent individuals under investigation from leaving the country. The ministry also added that the Canadians were formally charged under Egyptian penal code, but only the prosecution has the right to announce formal charges and has refrained from doing so.
For further information, please see:
CBC News – John Greyson, Tarek Loubani may not be free to leave Egypt – 7 October 2013
Daily News Egypt – Canadians banned from travel, case still open – 7 October 2013
Al Jazeera – Freed Canadians barred from leaving Egypt – 6 October 2013
Guardian – Egypt: released Canadians prevent from leaving the country – 6 October 2013
Three attacks target Egyptian Security forces after a bloody day of clashes with anti-government activists
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt–Ten people, mostly police offers and soldier, were killed in three separate attacks Monday in Egypt. An attack in the city of Ismailiya on the Suez Canal killed six soldiers when a gunman opened fire on a military patrol. Attackers allows fired rocket-propelled grenades in Maadi, a suburb of Egypt’s Capital. Four people were killed and 55 injured in a suicide car bombing attack on the security headquarters in the Sinai Peninsula city of El-Tor.
Attacks have escalated in the Sinai Peninsula during the months following the military coup that took President Mohamed Morsi out of power. The latest attack in El-Tor was one of the first attacks to occur in the Southern Sinai region which is a popular tourist destination in Egypt. A senior security official told the Associated Press that Egyptian authorities are “expecting worse” attacks in the future.
The attacks followed a bloody day of demonstrates in Egypt. At least 53 people were killed and 268 more were injured across the country on Sunday. Thousands of Egyptians celebrated the October 6 holiday commemorating the start of the October 1973 War, the Yom Kippur Warm, against Israel in the streets across the country. Anti-government activities organized counter-protests against the military and attempted to occupy Tahrir Square where protesters gathered calling for an end to the Mubarak regime. However, the square was heavily guarded by state security forces.
Egyptian authorities had issued a warning to potential anti-government demonstrates that would protest during the states planned commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the October 1973 War. Ahmed al-Muslimani, a spokesperson for the Egyptian interim president said that protests against the Egyptian state military would not be tolerated on the anniversary of the October War. He said the protesters would be viewed as “carrying out the duties of agents, not activists,” and that “It is not befitting to go from a struggle against authorities to a conflict with the nation.”
On Saturday security forces fired teargas to break up a crowd of an estimated 1,000 anti-government activist who had tried to reach Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque in northeaster Cairo. The Mosque was the site of the brutal military crackdown on a protest camp in August.
Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a statement that “evil elements” still posed a threat to the nation though they had lost most of their power; this appears to have been a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, on Monday panel of judges recommended the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood’s status as a political organization, the Freedom and Justice Party. The recommendation appears to be another crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist elements with Egypt that have been targeted by state authorities since the ouster of President Morsi on July 3.
For more information please see:
Al Jazeera – Multiple Attacks Target Egypt State Security – 8 October 2013
BBC News – Egyptian Soldiers Killed In Ismailiya And Sinai Attacks – 7 October 2013
New York Times – Egyptian Attacks Are Escalating Amid Stalemate – 7 October 2013
Al Jazeera America – In Egypt, Demonstrations, Death Mark Anniversary Of 1973 War – 6 October 2013
UN Experts Begin Destruction of Syrian Chemical Weapons
By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
DAMASCUS, Syria-Dismantlement of Syria’s chemical weapons has officially begun as a team of United Nations experts has moved into the country. The destruction of Syria’s arsenal is expected to be completed by mid-2014.
The experts, members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), are operating under the recently passed UN resolution, following international outrage at a chemical attack near Damascus in August.
Hundreds were killed in the August 21st attack in which it has been determined that the nerve agent sarin was used. The U.S. and Western allies accuse the Syrian government of being responsible, while Syria is blaming the rebels.
The UN resolution was achieved under a U.S.-Russian agreement for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to turn over its chemical weapons for destruction. Washington threatened military action, but was averted upon reaching the agreement with Russia.
Sunday was the fifth day that the team had been in Syria, and the first day of actually starting the destruction process. A team of 20 inspectors began the process of disabling and destroying the weapons and machinery.
“Today is the first day of destruction, in which heavy vehicles are going to run over and thus destroy missile warheads, aerial chemical bombs, and mobile and static mixing and filling units,” stated a member of the international mission.
Responsibility of actual physical destruction of the chemical weapons falls on the Syrians, while members of the OPCW are set to oversee the process, verifying that the weapons are actually being destroyed.
This is the first time that the OPCW has been called on to monitor the destruction of chemical weapons during a conflict, which makes destruction of the stockpile more difficult as many of the sites are located in combat zones.
An OPCW official in The Hague stated that “all expedient methods would be used to render Syria’s production facilities unusable.” He further went on to say that those methods will consist of explosives, sledgehammers, and pouring in concrete.
However, destroying combat-ready weapons will require more extensive methods. Experts will rely on incinerating the materials in sealed furnaces at extremely high temperatures, transforming precursor chemicals, or diluting them in water.
Damascus developed its chemical program in the 1980s and 1990s, building a stockpile believed to contain mustard gas and nerve agents sarin VX and tabun. Sunday’s expedition is just the beginning of the process of removing the estimated 1,000 tons of chemical weapons.
For more information, please see the following:
Al-Arabiya-Chemical investigators begin destroying Syria’s stockpile-October 6, 2013
Aljazeera-UN experts ‘begin destroying Syria stockpile’-October 6, 2013
BBC-Syria chemical arms removal begins-October 6, 2013
Washington Post-Weapons inspectors begin destroying Syrian chemical stockpile and machinery-October 6, 2013
Court Allows Palestine Farmers to Return to Former Israeli Settlement
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Middle East
RAMALLAH, Palestine – Palestinian farmers can now cultivate land that was the former site of the Homesh settlement in Samaria, after a ruling issued by the Attorney General’s office last week.
The ruling followed a June decision by the state to cancel the 1978 military land seizure order, which took land from residents of the Palestinian village of Burka for the creation of a Nahal Brigade, soon after the settlement of Homesh on the Samaria hilltop in the West Bank was created.
Since the disengagement, Homesh – and the former Samaria settlements of Sanur, Ganim and Kadim – have been closed military zones. Access had been blocked to Palestinians and Israeli settlers. Now, as a result of the court ruling, Palestinians can enter Homesh, but Israeli citizens are still barred from entering the site.
Settlers and right-wing Israeli activists and politicians have pressed to resettle the Homesh settlement over the past eight years. Over the past several years, Israeli settlers have received temporary permission from the IDF to hold certain events at the former Homesh settlement. For example, last Passover, settlers held a holiday festival. Politicians have also visited the site, including Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who visited in 2009 as vice premier, where he called for Homesh to be resettled.
The Israel government dismantled Homesh and three other West Bank settlements in 2005. The settlements were dismantled in connection with a wider withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. However, until the court ruling, the government refused to allow the original Palestinian landowners from the local farming community to reclaim their land.
The Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a petition by the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din requesting the closed military zone be ended and the land returned to the Palestinians. On Thursday, farmers from the village of Burka were allowed to return to their land for the first time. Some Palestinians were reluctant to attempt to return. “I’m afraid to go there because the settlers are armed,” said Hassan Ashqer, a middle aged man who owns land in the former settlement area.
Palestinian rights lawyers are optimistic that the ruling will set a precedent that shows that Israel’s settlement policy can be reversed and Palestinian landowners can reclaim their land. “Once the owners are able to take back possession of their lands…it will be the first precedent ever [in the West Bank] in which an area used for settlement activity is being cultivated again by the Palestinians.”
For more information, please see:
Al Jazeera – Palestinians Win Settlement Land from Israel – 3 October 2013
Fox News – After long legal battle, Palestinian farmers reclaim land they lost to a settlement – 3 October 2013
The Daily-Beast – Court Rules Settlement Land Belongs to Palestinians, But Victory is Hollow – 25 September 2013
Jerusalem Post – A-G: Palestinian farmers can return to Homesh – 16 September 2013