A Voice for the Voiceless

By Ann Flower Seyse   
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

EGYPT– In July 2009, the Assyrian International News Agency reported four Coptic Christian girls missing. There has been an increase in abductions of Coptic Christian girls the past year. Often Coptic girls that go missing, are reported but are not found until months later, after they have converted to Islam and married to Muslim men. This leads many Coptics to believe that their girls are being abducted and converted to Islam. Many families believe their girls are being raped as well.

The problem of abduction and forced conversion was first recognized by Coptic Pope Shenouda Ill in 1976. He stated at a conference in December of 1976 that “there is pressure being practiced to convert Coptic girls to embrace Islam, and to marry them under terror to Muslim husbands.”

While Coptic human rights organizations often report on the abductions, the mainstream media avoids reporting on them. The mainstream media typically only reports on the abductions after a marriage has occurred, and at that time the couple is portrayed as happy elopers. The parents of the missing girls that have gone through this do not believe this story. Most parents believe that their daughters were kidnapped, raped, and then forced to convert to Islam against their will.

On July 15, 2009 fifteen year old Marian Bishay was abducted when she left home to pick up dinner for her mother and young brothers from a local restaurant. When her family reported Bishay’s abduction to the police, the police shrugged their shoulders and told them that there was nothing that the police could do, according to the Free Copts agency in Cairo.
The Family, along with help from the Free Copts agency began the search for Bishay on their own. After the police refused to file a report, Bishay’s father has filed a complaint himself with the Attorney General against the men he suspects of abducting his daughter, after the police would not file a report for him. In Egypt kidnapping a minor is punishable by 15 years imprisonment, or longer if the victim was raped.

Unfortunately Bishay’s story is just one of several this month. Irene Hanna Labib (AINA 7-18-2009), Amira Morgan and Ingy Basta (AINA 7-30-2009) were all abducted in July 2009, and are still missing. Pharmacy student Rania Tawfik Asaad was reported missing on June 27 2009, however her family learned of her whereabouts and was able to bargain for her return after just one week. Asaad’s father learned that she was forced to marry an officer in the Egyptian Military, and her release was arranged in exchange for keeping things quiet.

Dr. Waheed Ala, Coptic activist and researcher at the Observatory of Religions in Switzerland, commented, “It is strange that the State agencies abide by silence and protect the criminals who kidnap the girls, and that they put pressure on us so that we do not even call for the State to play its role in protecting its citizens. We have noticed that when the kidnapped girl is a Muslim, the security agencies get active and work hard and arrest the kidnappers who then face trials and get imprisoned, but this does not happen when the kidnapped girl is a Coptic Christian. This is especially true because in the majority of cases, the State Security is the one who masterminds the kidnapping plans.”

The tensions between Coptic Christians and Muslims are becoming increasingly visible in daily life in Egypt. In the famously liberal and artistic city of Alexandria, bathing suits are disappearing, and being replaced by long-sleeve shirts and ankle-length black caftans topped by head scarves. Many Muslims think that Coptic women wearing less than full coverage is an insult to Islam, and on Alexandria’s beaches today, western bathing suits have disappeared. It is not clear whether this kind of difference has motivated Muslims to convert Coptics to Islam more forcefully.

For more information, please see:

AINA – Abduction and Forced Islamization of Christian Coptic Girls Continues in Egypt – 11 August 2009

NY Times – On Beaches, Intolerance Wears a Veil – 11 August 2009

AINA – Muslims Abduct Two Christian Coptic Girls in Egypt – 30 July 2009

Free Copts – Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom  – 23 July 2009

AINA – Egyptian Security Refuses to Return Abducted Christian Coptic Girl – 18 July 2009

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel – On August 5 the international human rights watch dog Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report that condemns the Palestinian Organization Hamas for rocket attacks that occurred predominantly between November 2008 and January 2009.

The report accuses Hamas, as the ruling organization of Gaza, of war crimes for these rocket attacks.  The report also implicates other militant groups in Palestinian territories.  However, HRW states that, as the governing group in Gaza, Hamas is responsible both for the attacks that it carried out, and for the attacks of other groups which could have been prevented by Hamas. Hamas has previously used its influence to stop rocket attacks by other groups in Palestinian territories.

The rockets used in the attack were made in Gaza with simple materials like pipes and fertilizer. Due the home-made nature of the rockets, they are nearly impossible to aim with accuracy. Using a rocket that is more likely to inadvertently harm citizens is more likely to violate the Geneva Conventions ban on the use of indiscriminate weapons.

The rocket attacks violate the first additional protocol to the 1977 Geneva Convention (Protocol I), and the 1907 Hague Regulations, as the attacks intentionally or indiscriminately targeted civilians.  According to HRW, these laws apply to non-governmental groups like Hamas, just as the rules apply to other nations. Intentionally targeting civilians is prohibited by both of these covenants, as well as general human rights principles. The 1977 Geneva Convention Protocol I Article 48 requires militants to distinguish combatants from civilians, and to avoid civilians while targeting only military objectives and other combatants if possible. Civilians can lose their immunity but only for the time which they participate directly in the hostilities.

The rockets unlawfully struck populated areas up to 40 kilometers inside Israel, placing roughly 800,000 Israeli civilians at risk. Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel killed two girls and wounded others in Gaza during this period. Palestinian armed groups that launched rockets from densely populated areas also unlawfully put Gazan civilians at risk of Israeli counterstrikes.

“Hamas forces violated the laws of war both by firing rockets deliberately and indiscriminately at Israeli cities and by launching them from populated areas and endangering Gazan civilians,” HRW Program Director Iain Levine said.

HRW recognizes the much larger number of Palestinian casualties because of Israeli attack. However, they emphasize that one human rights e violation or war crime, does not justify another for retaliation.

HRW recommends that all such rocket attacks being conducted by Hamas should be stopped, and Hamas should prevent other organizations from continuing the attack. Additionally, Hamas should publicly denounce the attacks and conduct an investigation on the attacks, and stop perpetrating the acts from densely populated areas in Gaza which thereby put Palestinian civilians at greater risk. 

For more information, please see:

Haaretz – Human Rights Watch slams Hamas rocket fire as war crime – 9 August 2009

AFP – Hamas Rockets a War Crime: Human Rights Watch – 6 August 2009

Human Rights Watch – Gaza/ Israel: Hamas Rocket Attacks on Civilians Unlawful – 6 August 2009 

VOA News – Human Rights Watch Says Hamas Rocket Attacks are War Crime – 6 August 2009

Human Rights Watch – Rockets from Gaza Harm to Civilians from Palestinian Armed Groups’ Rocket Attacks – 5 August 2009