This Week in Syria, Deeply: Thursday, 28 November 2013
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Scottish Government Releases Plan for an Independence From United Kingdom Ahead of 2014 Referendum
by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
GLASGOW, Scotland – Scotland’s “white paper”, a legal argument for the country’s independence, was unveiled earlier this week in Glasgow.
The 670-page document, released by Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond, set forth the democratic, social, and economic reasons for Scotland to leave the United Kingdom. The white paper arrives a year before a referendum on the issue to be held next year.
“Scotland’s future is now in Scotland’s hands,” Salmond said on Tuesday, during the launch in Glasgow. “It won’t be decided by me, it won’t be decided by our opponents, it won’t be decided by the media. It will be decided by the people.”
Salmond stated that the much-anticipated white paper will enable the dismantling of the United Kingdom. Under the plan, Scotland would continue using the pound as its currency, would retain the queen as its head of state, and the country would retain its membership in the European Union. However, Scotland would have its own defense force and collect its own taxes.
The white paper also sets out detailed plans for currency, taxation, childcare, welfare and other issues that may face an independent Scotland. Salmond stated that there would be no need to increase taxes once Scotland seceded from the U.K. Salmond also said that Scottish taxes would not be spent on nuclear programs and the United Kingdom’s nuclear missiles, currently stored in Scotland, would be relocated elsewhere.
“We know we have the people, the skills and resources to make Scotland a more successful country. Independence will put the people of Scotland in charge of our own destiny,” Salmond stated. He added that he wanted to tackle a “legacy of debt” stemming from Scotland’s union with England.
The plan calls for Scotland’s oil and gas reserves to presumably boost Scotland’s economy for the next 50 years, but the country will look to renewable energy thereafter.
Meanwhile, the UK government is campaigning to retain the more than 300-year-old union between England and Scotland. The referendum is to be held on September 18 of next year, 2014.
For more information, please see:
The Scotsman – As it Happened: Scottish Government’s White Paper Launch – 27 November 2013
Al Jazeera – Scottish Nationalists Launch Independence Bid – 26 November 2013
BBC News – Scottish Independence: Voter’s Views on White Paper – 26 November 2013
The Guardian – Scotland: Assertions of Independence – 26 November 2013
Human Rights Group Says 6,000 Women Raped During Syrian Conflict
By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
DAMASCUS, Syria – A report issued by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network estimates that 6,000 women have been raped since the beginning of the Syrian conflict. The report adds that women are being targeted by snipers and used as human shields.
The report states the capture, torture, and rape of women is used as strategy to leverage prisoner exchanges and exact revenge on the opposition. Often times women will be abducted in effort to force their male relatives to surrender.
“They are being used as privilege, not in the sense that they are favored, but because sometimes of their relationship to opposition members or government-related members,” EMHRN spokeswoman Hayet Zeghiche told the BBC.
Many of the rape victims are socially stigmatized and forced to leave their families or fear returning to their families because of possible retribution. The social stigma attached to rape victims leaves them alone and isolated.
“Syrian women exposed to sexual abuses subsequently found themselves victimized not only by the crime itself, but also by enduring the silence that surrounds the crime and the social pressure related to it,” the report said.
The findings were backed up by Lauren Wolfe, an award-winning journalist who has focused on rape in conflict for several years. She is currently the director of Women Under Siege, a group that has been mapping reports of sexual violence in Syria over the past year.
“The general rule that I go by, and a lot of public health researchers go by, is for every one woman who speaks out, there are up to 10 more that remain silent,” Wolfe said.
Seventy-percent of the documented rape victims report that they were raped by government or pro-government forces. This is not uncommon in scenarios where, like in Syria, rebel fighters rely heavily on civilian support.
The report said rape was documented in seven provinces, including Damascus, mostly “during governmental raids, at checkpoints and within detention facilities.”
On Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that first peace talks during the conflict would begin on January 22. He added that it would be “unforgivable not to seize this opportunity to bring an end to the suffering and destruction.”
For further information, please see:
BBC – Syria conflict: Women ‘targets of abuse and torture’ – 26 November 2013
Global Post – 6,000 cases of women raped during Syrian conflict, human rights group says – 26 November 2013
Gulf News – ‘Rape used as women of war against Syria women’ – 25 November 2013
Reuters – Syrian women suffer inside their country and out – 11 November 2013
Saudi Court Sentences US Jeddah Consulate Attacker to Death
By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Saudi court has sentenced one man to death and nineteen others to jail in connection with the 2004 US Consulate attack in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The nineteen others received sentences ranging from eighteen months to twenty-five years.
The lone man sentenced to death was one of the attackers that stormed the building in the December 6 attack. The others were convicted of being part of a “deviant group” (Al-Qaeda) and supporting the Jeddah attack and another attack on a petrol facility that same year.
In the Jeddah attack, five militants attacked the US consulate with bombs and guns, managing to make their way inside while taking hostages at gunpoint. The whole ordeal last three hours and resulted in the death of five locally hired consulate workers. Three of the five attackers were killed by Saudi security forces in the raid and two were captured, but one later died of his injuries.
The attack was one in a series that year, perpetrated by Al-Qaeda in an effort to oust the ruling Al-Saud family. They were aimed at Western targets and left dozens of foreigners and Saudi citizens dead. The Al-Saud family, who previously had not thought much of Al-Qaeda, changed their attitude as the attacks mounted. The campaign to overthrow the Al-Saud family was crushed in 2006 and resulted in the detainment of more than 11,000 people.
The detainment and retaliation against Al-Qaeda resulted in controversy as many of the detained and their family claimed unfair treatment the hands of the regime. Some of the claims in include indefinite detention without charges and torture.
The Saudi Press Agency has reported that after the execution the body of the attacker will be put on public display to demonstrate the folly of such actions. This is the ultimate form of punishment in the Saudi kingdom.
Thirty-five more men will face hearing later this week and are also charged with being part of the same “deviant group.” All those convicted are given thirty days to appeal.
For further information, please see:
Al Jazeera – Saudi court sentences man to death – 26 November 2013
BBC – Saudi Arabia sentences US consulate attacked to death – 25 November 2013
Fox News – Saudi Arabia order execution over 2004 attack on US consulate – 25 November 2013
Reuters – Jeddah US consulate attacker sentenced to death, others jailed – 25 November 2013
Egypt Passes Law Restricting Public Protests
By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Impunity Watch
CAIRO, Egypt-A new restrictive “protest law” requiring Egyptians to seek approval days in advance before organizing demonstrations has been signed by Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mansour.
Rights groups tried to encourage Mansour to reject the law with a joint statement from 19 Egyptian organizations. The statement read, “The draft law seeks to criminalize all forms of peaceful assembly, including demonstrations and public meetings, and gives the state free hand to disperse peaceful gatherings by use of force.”
The law has undergone numerous revisions, but may rights groups are claiming that the latest version requires protesters to obtain approval from police three days in advance of holding a protest. The interior ministry is also allowed to block rallies that could “pose a serious threat to security or peace.”
The widespread latitude to use force that the police will have could give the government a pretext for a widespread crackdown. The law will take effect later this week upon the final text being published in the official state register.
The law distinguishes between types of protests requiring that election campaign event have a 24-hour notification period and processions of more than ten people are only allowed for “non-political purposes. Violators could face fines of up to $4,360.
“They could have stuck to earlier versions, where if the interior ministry wants to ban a protest, the onus is on them to go to court and seek a ban. Instead they’ve done the opposite. The end result is that we could see an increase in violent crackdowns on peaceful protests,” said Heba Morayef, the Egypt director for Human Rights Watch.
Other restrictive laws are being brought to the table for discussion and debate. One such law would criminalize “abusive graffiti” while another less descriptively worded would deal with “anti-terrorist” to further clamp down on peaceful political activism.
The cabinet claims that these restrictive laws are needed to help regulate near-daily protests in Cairo and across the country, especially those protests with the potential to turn violent.
Last week, authorities removed a three-month state of emergency and night-time curfew imposed following a clearing of two Cairo sit-ins which were filled with supporters of overthrown president Mohamed Morsi. The following two days resulted in the death of more than a thousand people.
For more information, please see the following:
Al Jazeera-Egypt passes law restricting public protests-24 November 2013
Deutsche Welle-Egypt passes new laws restricting protests-24 November 2013
Reuters-Egypt’s interim president signs law restricting protests-24 November 2013
Voice of America-Egypt’s Interim President Signs Law Restricting Protests-24 November 2013