By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – The UN World Food Program (WFP), facing huge budget shortfalls, is being forced to reduce rations for over 250,000 Yemenis who have been displaced by the conflict in the northern part of the country.

On 28 April the Government of Yemen – represented by H.E. Minister Ahmed Al-Kohlani, Minister of Parliament Affairs and Head of Executive Unit for IDPs – and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) – represented by Gian Carlo Cirri, Country Director –will be holding a press conference. The aim is to appeal for urgent support to allow WFP and key partners including Islamic Relief Yemen – represented by Khalid Almulad, Country Director – to maintain life-saving monthly food support to more than 250,000 persons displaced by the Sa’ada conflict. These families are entirely dependent on food assistance for survival.

WFP has received less than 30% of the funding it requires in order to maintain vital food and nutrition activities to displaced families and can no longer maintain its assistance. In order to make the increasingly limited quantities of food last longer, WFP will be required to reduce rations to 50% of the planned May basket. This means that rather than receiving 2,100 kcal per person per day – which is the minimum amount of food required for a healthy life – families will receive only some 1,050 kcal per person per day. Before September, WFP will have to suspend activities entirely, including nutrition support to 50,000 children under 5 years of age.

The WFP said it needs more than 77 million dollars to overcome the shortfall in its 2010 funding and continue operations in Yemen.

In order to make the increasingly limited quantities of food last longer in the meantime, the WFP said it would reduce rations to 50 per cent of the planned May basket. These ration cuts “will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe,” the UN agency predicted.

A WFP document obtained yesterday reads, “Reducing rations is not the solution, but rather a last resort.  We have serious concerns about the impact that ration reductions will have on the nutrition and health status of families as they rely entirely on this assistance for survival.  At this point we have no other option but to reduce rations in order to make the limited food quantities we have last longer until we get additional support…”

The dire funding situation is not limited to the IDP operation alone. Overall in 2010 WFP is facing a shortfall of 75% of its requirements, meaning that more than US$ 77 million are required or the agency will be forced to suspend operations in Yemen. As a result, more than 3.4 million persons overall will not receive the food and nutrition support they require, including malnourished mothers and children, families who are unable to meet their food needs, school girls, Somali refugees, and IDPs.

For more information, please see:

NewsFlash – Hunger Crisis Escalates In Yemen, U.S. Needs To Show Leadership – 28 April 2010

Examiner – World Food Programme Appeals For Support To Stop Hunger Crisis In Yemen – 28 April 2010

Earth Time – UN Warns Of Humanitarian ‘Catastrophe’ In Yemen Amid Funds Shortage – 28 April 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian tycoon sentenced to death last year for killing a popular Lebanese singer has appeared in court in Cairo for a retrial.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa, a senior member of the ruling party in Egypt, and co-defendant Mohsen al-Sukkari were granted a retrial on a technicality. They were convicted of the killing of Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in 2008.The case has received much attention, as it involves a member of an elite often seen as being above the law.

Moustafa 50, was sentenced to death last May on charges of hiring Mohsen el Sukkary, 41, and paying him $2 million to kill 30-year-old Lebanese diva Suzanne Tamim in the United Arab Emirates.

Tamim rose to stardom in the 1990s after she won the Arab World’s equivalent of “American Idol.” She moved to Cairo and became involved with Moustafa in a love affair, which turned sour after Tamim fled to London and then to the glitzy Persian Gulf city-state of Dubai in the UAE, and found another lover. Dubai police found her in her apartment with her throat slit in July 2008.

“I swear to God I didn’t kill her,” el Sukkary shouted Monday in a courtroom packed with journalists, lawyers and family members of the defendants. Moustafa also denied the charges. “My son has been unjustly sitting behind bars for the past two years. But I am optimistic about the retrial,” el Sukkary’s father, Munir, said outside the court.

Many Egyptians were bitter about the decision to retry the case, taking it as a sign that Moustafa will walk away unscathed as a member of the elite in a country where cronyism is widespread and many people think rules are often bent for the rich and powerful. Those who thought the integrity of the Egyptian judicial system had been rescued felt let down by the retrial.

There’s a growing gap between Egypt’s rich and poor, and the country has been riveted in recent months by protests demanding higher wages. Legal experts, however, said that popular anger toward an unpopular regime shouldn’t reflect on the trial.

“I read the ruling that granted the new trial, and found it correct and very precise,” said Yehia al Gamal, a human rights advocate and law professor at Cairo University. “However, the image of the regime in people’s minds is a distorted and rotten one. This is why there is a deep distrust,” Gamal added.

If found guilty in this trial, the two defendants will be allowed to appeal the ruling and could face a third trial, Judge Ahmed Mekky told the Reuters news agency.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Egypt Tycoon Tried Again For Murder Of Suzanne Tamim – 26 April 2010

World AP – Egypt Retries Real Estate Tycoon In Lebanese Pop Star’s Killing – 26 April 2010

News 24 – Egypt Tycoon Retrial Begins – 26 April 2010

AJC – Retrial Begins For Egyptian Accused In Diva Murder – 26 April 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Shi’ite Muslim rebels have kidnapped a Yemeni man in the country’s north and also briefly held a group of Saudi citizens, the government said, incidents that threaten a fragile truce with Sanaa.

The northern rebels seized the man in the Harf Sufyan district and took him to an unknown location, Yemeni security services said in a statement.

“A number of Houthi rebels led by Mabghout Shatbouny abducted on Thursday two Saudi citizens in Hiasha area of the district of Harf Sufian in Amran province, north of the capital Sanaa,” said the ministry on its website, citing an unidentified security official of the Interior Ministry.

“The rebels held the Saudis several hours in Hiasha area before later setting them free,” said the security official. “While the Yemeni citizen, identified as Hammam Daris, is still held by the rebels in an unknown area of Harf Sufian district,” he added.

A Saudi diplomatic source at the Kingdom’s embassy in Yemen said that he has no information about reports that Saudi citizens were kidnapped and then released by Houthi rebels near Amran Province 30 km north of the Yemeni capital.

The source emphasized that the embassy has been following up these reports with the responsible authorities at the Yemeni Ministry of Interior in an attempt to verify them.

The Defense Ministry considered the kidnap as another confirmed breach by the Shiite Houthi rebels to the cease-fire truce that was struck on Feb. 11.

The new breach came a week after the Yemeni government accused Shiite Houthi rebels of opening fire on a military plane flying above the city of Saada while a number of top army personnel were on board, an accuse the rebels later denied. According to official Saba news agency, “the plane was not damaged.”

Yemen has witnessed sporadic battles since 2004 between government troops and the Shiite Houthi rebels, whom the government accused of seeking to re-establish the clerical rule overthrown by the 1962 Yemeni revolution which yielded the Yemeni republic.
For more information, please see:

The Washington Post – Yemen Says Rebels Kidnap Man, Briefly Hold Saudis – 24 April 2010

Saudi Gazette – ‘Reports Of Saudis Kidnapped In Yemen Lack Verification’ – 24 April 2010

People’s Daily Online – Yemeni Shiite Rebels Kidnap 2 Saudis, A Yemeni In Fresh Breach Of Truce – 25 April 2010

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

WASHINGTON DC, USA – A U.S. lawmaker is seeking to revoke the American citizenship of radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is known for his inflammatory anti-American teachings and his communications with Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspected shooter in the Fort Hood rampage in November.

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., introduced a resolution Wednesday urging the Obama administration to strip al-Awlaki of his American citizenship, arguing that the cleric voluntarily renounced his citizenship by recruiting terrorists.

“As recent reports highlight, the U.S. government views al-Awlaki as a proven threat, and will take him dead or alive,” Dent said in a written statement, referring to Obama’s approval of the targeted killing of al-Awlaki. “Being a citizen of the United States of America is more than a right; it’s a responsibility.”

”He’s an inspiration to many of these terrorists,” Dent said. ”This guy is a traitor. This man is a real threat to this country and it’s long since time to deny him his citizenship.”

Legal experts were skeptical of success.

Temple University law professor and international law expert Peter Spiro said the Supreme Court has ruled the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from terminating an individual’s citizenship against his will.

‘There have also been proposals with respect to other Taliban or other al Qaeda-associated Americans that their citizenship be revoked and those proposals have gone nowhere, and I expect the same thing to happen here,” Spiro said.

Similar efforts to strip so-called ”American Taliban” John Walker Lindh and Yaser Hamdi, an American captured in Afghanistan, of their citizenship failed, he said.

”Maybe that Dent some points politically, making him look like he is tough about terrorism, but this is going nowhere,” he said. Hamdi later surrendered his citizenship in exchange for being released to Saudi Arabia.

Rutgers School of Law constitutional law professor and citizenship expert Linda Bosniak said the Supreme Court has set a high bar for the government to withdraw citizenship from native-born Americans.

”It is considered a constitutional right that individuals should be able to maintain their citizenship unless the government can prove they affirmatively desire to renounce it,” Bosniak said.

Certain acts, such as treason or serving in a foreign army in conflict with the United States, are presumed to be ”expatriating acts,” she said. But to strip someone of his citizenship the government has to prove that the acts were committed and that they were done voluntarily and with the intent of relinquishing citizenship.

Dent said he’s heard those arguments but he contends that al-Awlaki is voluntarily a traitor. ”He has declared war on the United States,” Dent said. ”He has voluntarily revoked his citizenship by his own actions.” Al-Awlaki could appeal but would have to return to the United States, where he would face arrest.

For more information, please see:

Fox News – Rep. Introduces Resolution To Strip Radical Cleric Of Us Citizenship – 22 April 2010

Pennsylvania Ave. – Rep. Dent Takes Lead On Revoking Islamic Cleric’s Citizenship – 21 April 2010

The Morning Call – Dent Wants to Revoke U.S. Citizenship Of Radical Cleric – 22 April 2010