The Middle East

Rouhani takes steps to improve Iran’s image ahead of visit to the UN General Assembly

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called upon world leaders to “seize the opportunity” that his election has created for leaders to engage with the Islamic Republic. In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Thursday ahead of next week’s meeting of the General Assembly at the United Nations, Rouhani described his approach to diplomacy as a foreign policy that “seeks to resolve these issues by addressing their underlying causes.” He called on international leaders to “work together to end the unhealthy rivalries and interferences that fuel violence and drive us apart.” Calling on leaders to “pay attention to the issue of identity as a key driver of tension in, and beyond, the Middle East.”

Nasrin Sotoudeh was reunited with her family after being released from prison in Iran ahead of the Iranian president’s trip to the United Nations. (Photo courtesy of the New York Times)

Rouhani’s call for international engagement came just a day after eleven prominent political prisoners, who were detained following the Green revolution protests against the disputed 2009 presidential elections, were released from prison, including Nasrin Sotoudeh. Nasrin Sotoudeh is an internationally renounced human rights layer known for taking on high-profile political cases, she is the winner of the European Parliament’s 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. While in prison she went on hunger strike to protest her prison conditions as the sanctions that were imposed on her family by the Iranian government.

Sotoudeh, who was serving a six year sentence for acting against national security, said “I don’t know why they released me. I don’t know under what legal basis they released me. But I am free.” She had been convicted of spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm the state after she was arrested by authorities in 2010.

The freed prisoners reportedly include eight women and three men including the reformist politician Mohsen Aminzadeh, who was the former deputy foreign minister under President Mohammed Khatami. During the 2009 elections, Aminzadeh was a prominent supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi, whom many Iranians believe won the popular vote in the disputed elections. Aminzadeh was arrested in 2010 for organising protests and allegedly spreading propaganda against the state system.

There has been no official comment on why the Iranian government made the decision to release these political prisoners. Iran denies that anyone detained in Iran is a political prisoner, and the government claims that all people jailed in Iran are done so in accordance with the state’s laws. However, the release of the prisoners comes just days before Iran’s new President, Hassan Rouhani, visits New York City to for his first speech before the United Nations General Assembly.

Since taking office, he has taken several steps to improve Iran’s global image and has reached out to the Obama Administration in an attempt to build diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States. President Rouhani recently tweeted that while visiting the United Nations, he would like to meet one-on-one with President Obama.

For more information please see;

BBC News – Iran: Nasrin Sotoudeh ‘Among Freed Political Prisoners’ – 18 September 2013

National Public Radio – Iran Frees Political Prisoners – 18 September 2013

The New York Times – Iran Frees Political Prisoners on Eve of President’s Visit to U.S. – 18 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Iran Releases Prominent Political Dissidents – 19 September 2013

The Washington Post – Hassan Rouhani: Why Iran Seeks Constructive Engagement – 19 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Rouhani Urges Leaders to Engage With Iran – 20 September 2013

 

Increasing Causalities Fuel Kerry’s Plea for UN Action in Syria

By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 DAMASCUS, Syria-Two bombings in Syria killed at least 39 people in the latest surge in violence, early Thursday morning.  Meanwhile al-Qaeda attacked a border town near Turkey after killing and expelling fighters from the main opposition armed group.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urges UN action against Syria’s chemical weapons (photo courtesy of Aljazeera)

Activists said 20 people were killed in a car bombing of a government building in the town of Zamalka, near the capital Damascus.  While another roadside bomb in a village near central Homs province killed 19 people.

Following these recent attacks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged the United Nations to push past the Syrian “stalemate” and act on the atrocities plaguing the country.  Kerry relied on the “definitive” UN report proving Syrian involvement in recent chemical weapons attacks.

“Now the test comes. The Security Council must be prepared to act next week,” Kerry said. “It is vital for the international community to stand up and speak out in the strongest possible terms about the importance of enforceable action to rid the world of Syria’s chemical weapons.”

Kerry has also turned to the international community, urging China to play a “positive, constructive” role at the UN on a resolution to strip Syria of its chemical weapons.  However historical proceedings are not on his side.

Both China and the U.S. have “disagreed sharply” on how to properly deal with Syria’s chemical weapons.  In the past Beijing, similar to Washington as a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, has blocked resolutions seeking to condemn the regime during the vicious civil war.

Further, Kerry stated, “I would say to the community of nations, time is short.  Let’s not spend time debating what we already know.  We really don’t have time today to pretend that anyone can have their own set of facts approaching the issue of chemical weapons in Syria.  This fight about Syria’s chemical weapons is not a game.”

According to UN reports, nearly 100,000 people have died due to the conflict while millions have fled the country or become homeless.  “Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side,” said Qadri Jamil, Syria’s deputy prime minister in referencing the current “stalemate”.

“We have to recognize that the world is watching to see whether we can avert military action and achieve through peaceful means the destruction of Syria’s chemical arms stocks,” stated Kerry in his final plea for the UN to issue a binding resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons next week.

For more information, please see the following: 

Aljazeera-Kerry urges UN to act on Syria chemical arms-September 19, 2013

BBC-Syria crisis: Minister says civil war has reached stalemate-September 19, 2013

Reuters-Putin sees hope in Syria deal; Kerry says it’s vital U.N. acts-September 19, 2013

Sky News-Kerry urges UN to act on Syria next week-September 19, 2013

 

UN Report Confirms ‘Large Scale’ Sarin Attack in Syria

By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – A team of United Nations chemical experts, led by Dr. Åke Sellström, has reported that there is “clear and convincing” evidence that sarin gas was used on a “large scale” during a 21 August incident outside of Damascus. The attack, which employed rockets equipped with sarin gas, killed many civilians including children.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses the media, on Monday, after briefing the Security Council on the confirmed use of chemical weapons in Syria. (Photo Courtesy of the UN)

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke to the media after briefing the Security Council on the team’s findings. Ban referred to the report as “chilling read” and stressed the significance of attack, the first of its kind “since Saddam Hussein used [chemical weapons] in Halabja in 1988.”

“This is a war crime,” the Secretary-General said, “The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare.”

The purpose of the report was strictly to determine whether a chemical weapons attack occurred, not to assign blame for the attack. Ban told reporters that whether responsibility for the attack is determined is “for others to decide”, but stressed that whoever was responsible should be brought to justice.

The inspectors interviewed more than fifty survivors, many of whom reported suffering from telltale signs of exposure to sarin gas. Symptoms of the survivors often included difficulty breathing, eye irritation, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, and loss of consciousness. First-responders reported suffering from similar symptoms and observed that a large number of people were either unconscious or deceased upon arrival.

In addition to personal accounts of the incident, the chemical weapons team discovered a great deal of physical evidence that supported the existence of a chemical weapons attack. Eighty-five percent of blood samples taken from survivors tested positive for sarin or sarin indicators. The majority of rocket fragments and environmental samples tested positive for sarin or sarin indicators as well.

The report concluded that the attack occurred during the “early morning hours of 21 August.” Based on weather reports during this time, the conditions were favorable for maximizing the effect of sarin gas. The temperature on the ground was falling and would have created a downward draft of air, effectively preventing the gas from dispersing upwards, and therefore increasing exposure.

“The downward movement of air would have allowed the gas to easily penetrate the basements and lower levels of buildings and other structures where many people were seeking shelter,” Ban said, referring to the report.

The opposition and the Assad regime continue to blame each other for the attack. Certain details, including the high quality of sarin gas and the advanced rockets used, point to the Assad regime. However, Assad maintains the rebels are responsible in an effort to encourage Western military involvement.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – UN: Evidence of Syrian chemical attack ‘indisputable’  – 16 September 2013

BBC – Syria Crisis: UN report confirms sarin ‘war crime’ – 16 September 2013

NBC – UN report confirms chemical weapons use in Syria – 16 September 2013

UN News Service – ‘Clear and convincing’ evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria, UN team reports –  16 September 2013

UN – United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic – 13 September 2013

Yemen’s Minister for Human Rights Calls for an End to Child Marriages

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan

Impunity Watch, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen – Yemen’s Minister for Human Rights, Huriya Mashhoor has called for child marriages to be outlawed in the country. She is attempting to revive a 2009 bill that would have set the minimum marriage age at 17; she is aiming to raise this age to 18. The 2009 bill was passed by Yemen’s parliament. However, conservative parliamentarians argued the bill violated Islamic law, which does not specify a minimum age of marriage. As a result of their protests, the bill was signed, but never entered into law. Yemini law still maintains an ambiguous definition of a “child”, which makes it difficult to set a minimum age requirement for marriages.

Hooria Mashhour, Yemeni minister of Human Rights, has called for Yemen to set minimum age for marriage at 18. (Photo courtesy of CNN International)

Mashhoor’s call for marriage reform was a direct response to the reported death of eight-year-old Rawan, who died last week on her wedding night of internal bleeding caused by sexual intercourse. The eight-year-old girl had been married-off to a man in his 40s.

“This isn’t the first time a child marriage has happened in Yemen, so we should not focus only on this case,” Mashhoor said of the incident. “Many child marriages take place every year in Yemen. It’s time to end this practice.” Mashhoor said that she personally spoke to the human rights coordinator for the ministry in Haradh, where the incident took place, and he informed her that nearly everyone he spoke to is denying that Rawan’s death was caused by intercourse. According to one resident of the area, “No one is talking about this story because it’s an embarrassment, but this is what poverty can do to people.”

According to the United Nations, about half of Yemen’s 24 million people lack sufficient food and access to safe water. Child marriages are common amongst poor families in Yemen. Impoverished families often marry-off under-aged girls in order to bring in extra income from the dowry of the under-aged girl. Marriage is often seen as a way to save on the cost of raising their daughters.

The international community has called for marriage reform in Yemen in response to Rawan’s death as well as other reported cases of child marriages in the country, including allegations made by an 11-year-old Yemeni girl named Nada Al-Ahdal in a video posted to YouTube, accusing her parents of attempting to marry her off for money. The video was viewed by millions of people around the world and has raised awareness about the ongoing problem of child marriages in Yemen.

Catherine Ashton, Foreign Policy Chief for the European Union urged Yemini authorities to investigate Rawan’s death “without delay, and to prosecute all those responsible for this crime.”

According to Human Rights Watch, “the current political transition and drafting process for a new constitution offer a unique opportunity for the Yemeni government to enact laws protecting the rights of girls.” Mashhoor’s calls for change may demonstrate the potential for reform offered by the transition process.

For more information please see:

BBC News – Yemeni Minister Seeks Law to End Child Marriage – 13 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Yemeni Minister to Seek Child-Marriage Ban – 14 September 2013

Associated Free Press – Yemen Rights Minister Wants Child Bride Ban – 14 September 2013

CNN International – Yemen Minister on Child Marriage: Enough Is Enough – 16 September 2013