Syrian Revolution Digest: Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Free for All!

The world, led by the U.S., waited until the water was muddy, now they want to do something! But most of their taboos remain unchanged: no no-fly zone, no peacekeepers, but some arms to some rebels. That’s a recipe for making things worse. A political process cannot take place without a no-fly zone, so, arming the rebels without imposing a no-fly zone will only lengthen the civil war and make it bloodier by drawing in more and more actors from abroad to join both sides of the Divide. Arming the rebels can help change the realities on the ground in their favor, and that is good, but only a no-fly zone can help jump-start a real political process. That process needs to take place inside the country, because it is not only about dialogue between regime and opposition, but also about internal dialogue within each camp, and about connecting with the grassroots. Should the world wait even longer before grasping the need for this, even a no-fly zone will become moot, because Syria as a viable state will have been made moot.

 

Today’s Death Toll: 103 martyrs, including 6 women and 5 children. 38 reported in Damascus and Suburbs, 26 in Aleppo, 15 in Homs, 9 in Daraa, 8 in Hama (including 6 who were slaughtered in Hamamiyat), 4 in Idlib, 2 in Deir Ezzor and 1 in Qunaitera (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 234 points. Aerial bombardments counted in 7 points. Scud bombing counted in 1 point. Shelling using Surface-to-Surface missiles counted for in 1 point. Shelling using cluster bombs was recorded in Kafarsajneh in Idlib. Artillery shelling counted in 95 points. Mortar shelling counted in 87 points. Rocket shelling counted for 41 points (LCCs).

Clashes: 114. Successful rebel operations include taking control over the National Hospital and the Blood Bank in Alboukamal City, Deir Ezzor Province, liberating the Military Housing Checkpoint in Khan Sheikh, Damascus Suburbs invading a loyalist checkpoint in Adra, Damascus Suburbs and liberating 14 checkpoints in Jose village on the Syrian-Lebanese border (LCCs).

 

News

Syrian troops and rebels open new battlefront near Damascus (Reuters) – Heavy fighting erupted in an area between Damascus and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday in what could be a new battlefront between Syrian troops and rebels, opposition sources said. Rebel fighters attacked an army barracks manned by elite Republican Guards and the Fourth Mechanised Division, headed by President Bashar al-Assad’s brother Maher, in Khan Sheih, 6 km (4 miles) from the outskirts of Damascus, civilian activists and an opposition military source said. Clashes intensified three days after Sunni Muslim rebels overran a missile squadron in the area, killing 30 soldiers, mostly from Assad’s minority Alawite sect, the sources said. The region also hosts a Palestinian refugee camp.

Conflict in Syria creates wave of British jihadists: Over 100 UK Muslims thought to have gone to fight in conflict Syria has replaced Pakistan and Somalia as the preferred front line where Islamist volunteers can experience immediate combat with relatively little official scrutiny, security agencies said. The worrying development has been taking place as extremist groups, some with links to al-Qa’ida, have become the dominant force in the uprising against the Damascus regime.

Syria’s Brotherhood calls for action amid escalating violence “We in the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria declare the week following March 15 a national week of solidarity with the Syrian people and their blessed revolution,” AFP quoted the exiled opposition group as saying. “We call on the heroic Syrian people to bring back to life all aspects of the uprising… inspired by the spirit of real national unity, speaking in one voice,” a statement added

Russia Condemns Talk of Arming Syria Rebels Russia’s foreign minister has condemned talk of arming the Syrian opposition, saying it is illegal under international law. Russia’s Sergei Lavrov spoke Wednesday in London following a meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Britain and some other countries have talked of lifting a European Union arms embargo to allow weapons to be sent to opposition forces.

Moscow flies more Russians home from Syria Moscow says it does not plan a mass evacuation of the thousands of Russian living in Syria, but government planes have now flown nearly 300 people to Russia this year to allow them to escape the civil war there. The ministry said the plane had 76 Russians on board as well as 27 citizens of neighboring countries, and that more such flights would be conducted as necessary.

Syria’s children: even their first words are now shaped by war – A Save the Children report released today states that children, some 2 million of them, are the ‘forgotten victims’ of Syria’s war. When Sham, born during Syria’s civil war, uttered her first word recently, it conveyed a great deal about how devastated her country is. “Enfijar,” the toddler said. Explosion. “That’s why we left, that’s why we ran,” said Sham’s mother Hamma in an interview with international aid group Save the Children. “My daughter’s first word is ‘explosion.’ It is a tragedy. We felt constantly as if we were about to die.” Sham (whose name was changed by researchers) is one of nearly 2 million children who have become “forgotten victims” of Syria’s brutal civil war, according to reports released this week by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children. Though accurate statistics are notoriously difficult to come by in war zones, the two reports together chart a slow march toward crises in education, health, and violence – both conflict-related and sexual – against Syrian children since the conflict began two years ago.

Child soldiers increasingly recruited in Syria: charity Save the Children said in a report marking two years of violence in Syria that two million children were innocent victims of the bloody conflict that the United Nations says has cost at least 70,000 lives. These children were struggling to find enough food to eat and were therefore under constant risk of malnutrition and disease, said the report, adding many were unable to go to school. Girls were being forced into early marriage in an effort to protect them from the perceived threat of sexual violence. “Children are increasingly being put directly in harm’s way as they are being recruited by armed groups and forces,” said Save the Children. “There is a growing pattern of armed groups on both sides of the conflict recruiting children under 18 as porters, guards, informers or fighters.

U.S. foreign policy toward Syria is complex, serious and troubling There is no doubt President Bashar al-Assad is a brutal dictator, and that the rebels are trying to remove him from power. But we must also consider that at least some of the rebel groups fighting to oust the tyrant are also radical Islamists.

Al Nusrah Front poised to take over last major city on Euphrates River The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda in Iraq’s affiliate in Syria, may be close to taking control of Deir al Zour, the last major city on the Euphrates River in the west. The al Qaeda group’s gains in the city take place just days after jihadists announced the formation of the “Sharia Committee for the Eastern Region” to govern areas under its control. The Al Nusrah Front has seized control of several government installations in Deir al Zour, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that closely track the civil war, reported on its Facebook page.

Saudi youth fighting against Assad regime in Syria: GlobalPost has learned that hundreds of young Saudis are flocking to Syria in a ‘holy war’ against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. With the tacit approval from the House of Saud, and financial support from wealthy Saudi elites, the young men take up arms in what Saudi clerics have called a “jihad,” or “holy war” against the Assad regime. Based on a month of reporting in the region and in Washington, over a dozen sources have confirmed that wealthy Saudis, as well as the government, are arming some Syrian rebel groups. Saudi and Syrian sources confirm that hundreds of Saudis are joining the rebels, but the government denies any sponsoring role.

Exclusive: Gaza Salafists Take Fight To Syria I managed to reach the house of one of the jihadist Salafist leaders in the Gaza Strip… he explained why the members of the movement had moved to Syria to fight, saying, “They moved to Syria because the jihad door in the Gaza Strip was closed, and the situation was not taken into consideration, contrary to Syria, where it is open to jihad and to fighting the enemy.” He refused to define what he means by enemy, and he noted that after he was locked up more than once in the aftermath of Ibn Taymiya Mosque incident, he sought to live a simple life and to keep his jihad mission and vocation as a member of the Salafist jihad between God and himself… Despite his reluctance to talk or to disclose the number of militants from Gaza in Syria, he ultimately provided some information about their presence and efforts against the regime in Syria, independent of the Free Syrian Army. The militants joined Jabhat al-Nusra, which was formed in 2011 in Syria and was classified by the US as a terrorist organization.

Syria anti-regime protesters demonstrate against Al-Nusra Anti-regime activists took to the streets of rebel-held Mayadeen in eastern Syria on Wednesday for a third straight day to demand that jihadist Al-Nusra Front fighters leave the town, a watchdog said. “For the third day in a row, protests erupted in Mayadeen calling on the Al-Nusra Front to leave the town,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Protests erupted after the Islamist Al-Nusra Front — blacklisted in December by the United States as a “terrorist” organization — set up a religious council in the east of Deir Ezzor province, where Mayadeen is situated, to administer affairs in the area.

Syria denies reports of mass conscription The latest rumors fueled fears all men 50 and younger could be drafted to help the government battle a rebellion that has taken a heavy toll on the military.

France’s Fabius says Europe must drop Syria arms ban French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius kept up his push on Wednesday for Europe to ditch a ban on supplying arms to Syria, saying stepping up help to the opposition was the only way to end the bloody two-year-old crisis. “We must go further and allow the Syrian people to defend themselves against this bloody regime. It’s our duty to help the Coalition, its leaders and the Free Syrian army by all means possible,” Fabius wrote in the daily Liberation newspaper.

UN must refer Syria war crimes to ICC: Amnesty “How many more civilians must die before the UN Security Council refers the situation to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court so that there can be accountability for these horrendous crimes?” asked Ann Harrison, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

UN cuts Golan patrols as Syria war dangers mount The Philippine government said it is reviewing its activities after the 21 troops were held for four days by Syrian rebels. Austria has also raised concerns to the UN, diplomats said. “There is a risk they will all leave. And if they all leave then the mission is in definite crisis,” said one senior UN diplomat. “There is a real danger of the total unraveling of the force,” added another senior Security Council diplomat. The UN has “decided to restrict the movement of UNDOF,” said the UN diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. “They are no longer doing patrols. They have closed down some of the observation posts.” Shots were fired at one observation post after the Filipinos were freed last Saturday, March 9.

Photo Essay”: Daily Life in Syria’s Civil War

 

Special Reports

Lebanon: Sibling of Syria – With war in Syria threatening to spill over into Lebanon, we examine the two countries’ shared history. “For the first time since 1970, when Hafez al-Assad came to power, up until now, Lebanon misses the spirit of the ‘big brother’. The oppressive spirit that also brings our people together. We can’t just wonder how the current situation in Syria would affect life in Lebanon. This is a serious issue. And we need to think more about it,” says Nahla Chahal, a researcher and journalist.”

How the Muslim Brotherhood Hijacked Syria’s Revolution: The shadowy Islamist group that was all but destroyed in the 1980s is ruining the uprising against Bashar al-Assad. No one in Syria expected the anti-regime uprising to last this long or be this deadly, but after around 70,000 dead, 1 million refugees, and two years of unrest, there is still no end in sight. While President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal response is mostly to blame, the opposition’s chronic failure to form a viable front against the regime has also allowed the conflict to drag on. And there’s one anti-Assad group that is largely responsible for this dismal state of affairs: Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood. Throughout the Syrian uprising, I have had discussions with opposition figures, activists, and foreign diplomats about how the Brotherhood has built influence within the emerging opposition forces. It has been a dizzying rise for the Islamist movement. It was massacred out of existence in the 1980s after the Baathist regime put down a Brotherhood-led uprising in Hama. Since then, membership in the Brotherhood has been an offense punishable by death in Syria, and the group saw its presence on the ground wither to almost nothing. But since the uprising erupted on March 15, 2011, the Brotherhood has moved adroitly to seize the reins of power of the opposition’s political and military factions.

Terrorism and freedom fighting along the Syria-Iraq border: When some rebel groups kill Syrian government soldiers, the US applauds. When others do the killing, it’s ‘terrorism.’ Why? …the killing of Syrian soldiers by rebels is good, right? Well, not exactly. Depending on who does the killing it can be labelled as terrorism or the actions of a people striving to be free… [Nuland] appeared to define terrorism as killing anyone not in the middle of an all-out battle. “We’ve been pretty clear about calling out attacks against folks who are not in the middle of a firefight all the way through this from both sides,” she said. By this definition, every drone assassination carried out by the Bush and Obama administrations has been terrorism, as have the frequent tactics of bombing or ambushing insurgents at home, in both Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s an absurd definition of terrorism. Usually governments say absurd things when the policy being discussed is filled with contradictions.

Hugh Segal: We must intervene in Syria to protect ourselves Syrian groups that sought liberalization and democracy have been annihilated for want of weapons and money, while the militias the West would never want to see take over Syria have become the best-armed, most effective elements within the rebellion. It is not too late to engage. A coalition composed of Arab and NATO countries could still intervene decisively with a targeted air campaign, reducing Assad’s military capabilities and giving the remnants of pro-democracy forces a fighting chance. Western special forces units could also enter Syria, link up with pro-democracy forces and provide an immediate counter to the superior firepower of the Islamist groups. Turkey, NATO’s only Muslim country, would be the logical leader for this operation (which would also suit U.S. President Barack Obama’s preference for “leading from behind”). What Bosnia, Afghanistan and Libya have taught us is not that interventions fail, but that imperfect and messy results are still better than the alternative of no engagement at all. The same countries that considered an al-Qaeda-controlled Afghanistan an unacceptable risk to the West cannot be blind to the much greater threat that an Islamist, unstable Syria would pose, not just to Israel, but the entire region. This is no longer only about our moral responsibility to protect Syria’s helpless civilians. It’s about protecting our allies, and ultimately, ourselves.

A Battle for Syria, One Court at a Time When members of a fledgling court system in Aleppo, Syria, refused to hand over newly refurbished offices to the head of a Shariah Board last month, four vehicles filled with heavily armed fighters promptly roared through the fence surrounding the five-story concrete building. The fighters, so-called Shariah Board police, knocked down one cleric who objected, then carted off some 20 lawyers and other employees, whacking some with rifle butts, according to four members of an Aleppo lawyers association who spoke with witnesses. More than a simple turf war, the confrontation was part of a secondary battle already playing out across Syria, even with its civil war unresolved. It is the fight over who will shape Syria’s future… “Syria right now is a jungle where everyone is competing to be the power,” said Faraj, a young fighter. In many places, someone who was a baker or a taxi driver now controls hundreds of men and uses them to run one or two villages at his whim, he said. “Another six months of that and people are going to want Assad back because they are fed up.”

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

Minorities, secularists, moderates and democrats have a right to fear from the rise of Jabhat Al-Nusra and affiliated groups. In recently liberated Raqqah City, members of Nusra circulated a pamphlet that described those who believe democracy as “infidels.” That does not augur well, but it does show to more and more people how dangerous this group is. The aura of saintliness and sanctity is being undermined, and the people are not afraid to tell Al-Nusra what they really think.

The problem is: it’s not just Al-Nusra, there are so many radicals now, and, then, the pro-Assad militias, then foreign fighters on both sides. Turf war is looming, and guns trump words.

Meanwhile, Jabhat Al-Nusra is taking control of the southern parts of the country as well, including the border with Israel:

Tanks operated by rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra take part in pounding loyalist positions in the town of Saida, Daraa Province http://youtu.be/Gf7fcgMlkFs , http://youtu.be/mdbAD8CFOVk The spokesman, who clearly identify that the tnaks belong to Al-Nusra, was the same one relating the massacre against imprisoned regime loyalists that took place in Al-Jamla region a few days ago, meaning that it was Al-Nusra who was responsible for perpetrating it all along, contrary to what I thought at the time. This also means that it was Al-Nusra who was holding the UN observers. It’s Al-Nusra that is now controlling areas along the border with Israel.

This is how I covered the massacre of Jamla at the time (March 4): After liberating a loyalist checkpoint in the village of Jamlah, rebels executed their prisoners despite heated protestations from some in their ranks http://youtu.be/T5Z0E1EIBbc The fighters, however, are not affiliated with Jabhat Al-Nusra or any other Jihadi groups, their rhetoric and their adherence to the independence flag indicate that they are the “moderate” Islamists we hear so much about. There are no more moderates in this fight. We have waited too long. http://youtu.be/Mly9pm9FeDA “Those who don’t defect, will be killed” http://youtu.be/W7_qUMqtjcg The incident took place on March 4.

The same man also shows us the havoc wrought by regime shelling of the town of Kateebah http://youtu.be/dbxmHdeaB6k And Khirbet Ghazaleh http://youtu.be/Ga1cHWj5uAs And Western Ghariyeh http://youtu.be/rgBoljG4yn4 And the International Highway connecting Damascus and Amman http://youtu.be/UDBX3Ee0tGs The significance of this is to note that now it is Jabhat Al-Nusra that is taking control of the southwest parts of Syria, after taking control of much of the East.

In volatile border region, fear grips Syria’s minority
(Reuters) – One hot night last summer, Rajaa Taher grabbed a few essentials and fled her home in the Syrian village of Saqarja with her husband and children, escaping across farmlands to Zayta just a few hundred meters away.

Taher, a Shi’ite, said she was threatened by Sunni Muslim rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad in the largely unmarked border region where Syria merges into Lebanon – an old smuggling area where Syrians and Lebanese, Shi’ites and Sunnis once lived together oblivious to national or sectarian boundaries.

Now the border region has become one of many flashpoints in Syria’s increasingly violent and sectarian conflict, which threatens more and more to drag in its tiny neighbor Lebanon, where many Sunnis back the revolt and many Shi’ites back Assad, a member of the Alawite offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

If the bloodshed seeps into Lebanon, where sectarian faultlines have been exacerbated by the nearly two years of crisis in Syria, the countryside around Taher’s village nestled just north of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley may be one of the gateways for the spread.

The area is of strategic importance for the rebels who would be able to link Homs province in Syria to Sunni areas inside Lebanon for weapons and fighters. It is important for Lebanon’s Shi’ite militants Hezbollah to stop the rebels from taking over these Shi’ites villages as they will be a stone’s throw away from Hermel, one of the group’s strongholds.

Already rebels accuse Hezbollah of sending forces into the area to fight alongside Assad’s army – a charge the group denies, although it says there are Hezbollah members living and fighting among the estimated 30,000 Lebanese nationals in two dozen religiously mixed villages but with Shi’ites in the majority just inside Syria.

Taher and other Shi’ite and Alawite villagers tell another story, saying Sunni rebels have intimidated, expelled and killed Shi’ites as they seek to control territory close to Syria’s third largest city, Homs.

“We were neighbors. We lived there together for years and years,” said the 39-year-old woman, dressed in black like many others displaced from nearby villages.

“Then they sent us a message…that we are Shi’ites and we have no right to own land or a house or anything and we have to leave. They burned the house. They took our cows,” she said.

“They took my brother-in-law and we don’t know what happened to him. We left the village when they started calling from the mosque speakers for Jihad. We left under bullets,” she said tearfully, adding that her nephew was recently killed.

“What do they want from us? We were all one family living together … Do they hate us just because we are Shi’ites?”

 

Video Highlights

In a response to the Grand Mufti’s recent call for Jihad, gets a death fatwa from a defected member of the Syrian Sunni religious established, Sheikh Anas Al-Suwaid http://youtu.be/gQCR3wf1SDs The sheikh says that if the call for Jihad led to an increase in the number of Shia fighters from Iran, Hezbollah going into Syria, then the blood of the Grand Mufti will be forfeit.

Rebels from Liwa Al-Islam shows a mortar round made in Israel claiming that it has confiscated it from the regular army, and using it to bolster their claim of a secret agreement between Israel and Assad. This is the kind of conspiracy theories now prevalent in rebel circuits http://youtu.be/ZQHT4jptJ9Y Rebels from the same unit take control of the headquarters of the loyalist militias, Jaish Al-Sha’bi, in the town of Adra, Damascus Suburbs, and confiscate the ammunition http://youtu.be/vHeIAeewn9Y Jaish Al-Sh’abi is a loyalist militias classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Liwa used its own confiscated tanks to pound the headquarters http://youtu.be/JvMXfooxNOI , http://youtu.be/m88fHJML_Tc

Loyalist troops from 113th Battalion in Deir Ezzor Province destroyed their stockpile of rockets before giving up the site to rebels http://youtu.be/fadHGGwwmqY

Relief workers from a local volunteer organization, Rawafid, distribute food rations in Deir Ezzor City http://youtu.be/wbpvMeC5uLQ , http://youtu.be/K3FvuBFwmn4

This fire in Baramkeh Neighborhood in Central Damascus City is the result of rebel pounding of the City by rebels. The rebels were aiming for the military security complex in the neighborhood but missed. Their rockets civilian targets: cars and dwellings http://youtu.be/IumCnj9qjkM , http://youtu.be/spN8oQf22aA Nearby Fahhameh was also targeted http://youtu.be/kigJzd7d2Ek

Meanwhile, regime forces keep pounding rebel stronghold in and around the city of Damascus: Jobar http://youtu.be/jm_PLGAihtE , http://youtu.be/NS-UxsYE0UE

Scenes from the battlefield that is the town of Daraya, Damascus Suburbs http://youtu.be/A318LFTA15g , http://youtu.be/_VVLnuXNi6c , http://youtu.be/m28K4hnpv6g , http://youtu.be/eHWR1dIGs68 , http://youtu.be/BNEK6u5vhlg , http://youtu.be/vFqtEZPKjYE

In Daraa City, rebels pound loyalist troops headquarters at the main Post Office http://youtu.be/2n34lIgmWyw  , http://youtu.be/FsNrtI7OVxo , http://youtu.be/i8HhYZTLKqc

Ecuadorian Preacher And Presidential Candidate Charged With Hate Speech

In what is being called a victory by Ecuadorian gay and lesbian rights activists, local preacher and former Presidential candidate Nelson Zavala was sentenced this week for making homophobic comments during his presidential campaign. An electoral court cited him for remarks after he insisted that gays were “immoral” and implied that he could “cure” gay people of this immorality.

Preacher Nelson Zavala was cited and charged with electoral malpractice  by using hate speech against the LGBT community. (Photo courtesy of El Comercio)

This is just the latest in a series of ill events for the former presidential candidate, he lost his bid for election last month against Rafael Correa. He placing eighth and last with just 1.23% of the vote, much lower than his projected 700,000 votes he expected to receive from evangelicals from the church. Zavala did not take the news lightly, and condemned the female judge who issued the verdict  “Those who judge me will be judged,” then insisted that “God will judge us all in the end,” before implying that the tribunal will be used against them when they stand at heavens gates.

 

The honorable judge Patricia Baca Mancheno found that Mr Zavala violated the electoral ethics, which “forbids candidates of publicly expressing any thoughts that discriminate or affect other people’s dignity or utilise symbols, expressions or allusions of a religious nature.”  Mr. Zavala had been cited and condemned for using hate speech before and according to the electoral law, the ” disregard of orders and judgments” of the electoral board “could lead to the suspension of political rights of the offender, as a candidate.” His statements concerning the homosexual lifestyle as sinners were found to degrade the LGBT’s rights to dignity.

 

Beyond the moral condemnation and ill response from local citizens, Ecuadorian Judge Baca deemed that Zavala would be banned from any political affiliation or government movement for a year, effectively ending any hope of spreading his homophobic message on any grand electoral scale. He had resigned from the Roldosista Ecuadorian Party (PRE) after the lack of turnout in his favor, stating that he will continue to denounce acts of corruption from within his church. The sentence includes a $3,000 fine and opening up liability against Zavala to be charged for a hate crime.

For further information, please see:

Huffington Post – Ecuadorian Ex Presidential Candidate And Preacher, Nelson Zavala, Penalized For Homophobic Comments – 12 March 2013

BBC – Ecuador Preacher Sentenced For Homophobic Comments – 11 March 2013

El Comercio – Zavala Announced His Resignation From The PRE – 22 February 2013

El Comercio – Begin In Ecuador Presidential Candidate Process Such Homophobic – 10 February 2013

I Am a Bearded Police Officer, and Proud of It

By Dylan Takores
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – A coalition of eighteen Egyptian police officers formed a group to protest the Ministry of the Interior’s refusal to allow the police officers to express their religious views by growing beards.

 

Bearded police protest at the Ministry of the Interior. (Photo Courtesy of Egypt Independent)

The Ministry’s code of conduct requires that all officers maintain a “presentable appearance.”  Officers must be clean-shaven to fulfill this requirement.  In response, the officers created a Facebook page entitled “I am a bearded police officer” and have since drawn attention and support from several Muslim groups.

The officers claim that the Ministry oppressed their right to engage in a traditional Islamic practice.  Captain Hani al-Shakeri, the group’s official spokesman, wrote on the Facebook page “many Egyptians are keen to see police officers in Egypt grow their beards and follow the example of their prophet.”  They also contend that wearing a beard would not interfere with their ability to perform police duties.

The Ministry of the Interior suspended the bearded officers for violating codes of conduct that prohibit police officers from growing beards.  On February 20, an Administrative Court ruled that the officers should be allowed to return to work.  However, the Ministry ignored the court’s decision and refused to allow the officers to return.

Many have protested the decision.  The officers have been engaged in a sit-in since the Ministry refused to implement the court’s decision.  On March 1, protestors at Abdeen Palace in Cairo rallied in support of the officers.  Last Friday, a large crowd of protestors gathered in Assiut as well.

Islamic scholars at al-Azhar, the world’s foremost Sunni Islam institution, debate the issue.  Abdel Hamid al-Atrash, the former head of al-Azhar’s Religious Edicts Committee, states that the protest is a waste of time and effort.  He asserts that the officers should “maintain the appearance that goes with the status of the police even if this would make them go against a preferred practice in Islam.”

Conversely, former head of al-Azhar’s Scholars Union, Mohamed al-Berri, reasons that capacity to perform official duties should be the primary concern for officers.  He believes the officers should be allowed to wear beards “as long as this does not affect their performance.”

Captain al-Shakeri wrote “[a]t last I get to regain my humanity which I had lost during the oppressive regime.”  Al-Berri echoed this sentiment, stating that the Ministry’s refusal to allow beards is a remnant of pre-revolution mentality.

The officers called for a march to take place in downtown Cairo on March 22.  The officers intend to use the slogan “We will not give up” during the march.

 

For further information, please see:

Ahram – Egypt’s bearded policemen call for march – 14 March 2013

Muslims Debate – Egyptian police officers requests to grow beards, right to religious appearance in workplace – 14 March 2013

Egypt Independent – Bearded policemen remain at loggerheads with Interior Ministry – 10 March 2013

Egypt Independent – Facebook pages call for allowing police, army officers to grow beards – 19 February 2012

Few Jews in Egypt, Even Less on its Silver Screen

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt –  A day before the film, The Jews of Egypt, was set to open in Egypt, it was banned by an Egyptian security agency. The film captures the lives of the sixty-five thousand some Jews who lived in Egypt prior to the bad blood that developed between Israel and Egypt during the late nineteen-fifties.

A still frame from the film ‘The Jews of Egypt’ which was banned just before its release date in Egypt. (Photo Courtesy of Ahram Online)

Producer of the documentary, Haytham el-Khamissy, has been very disappointed by this recent development. He claims that there is “no excuse for this except delay and obstruction,” and that the Egyptian security agencies seek to “terrorise thought and repress creativity.” Khamissy and director Amir Ramses’ anger is directed at multiple agencies including the culture ministry, the Supreme Council for Culture and the General Censorship Authority, as long as the interior ministry and the National Security apparatus.

The film had been cleared twice by the state’s official censorship body. Its script was approved back in 2010. Later, before it was viewed at film festivals it was granted a screening license by the same censorship body.

The Jews of Egypt was already viewed at the Panorama and Palm Springs International film festivals in Egypt last year. Additionally, it had been aired at festivals in the United States.

The documentary purports to show a heterogeneous society that got along really well together, without many problems. It begs the question in the mind of director Amir Ramses of “how did the Jews of Egypt turn in the eyes of Egyptians from partners in the same country to enemies.”

Because of tension that developed as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the creation of Israel as an independent home for Jews in nineteen-forty-eight, very few Jews remained in Egypt. Today, Jewish temples in Egypt are filled mainly with tourists.

The movie was set to open in three different venues before it was banned by local censors. The local censors took their actions after a security agency pre-viewed the documentary, on censorship committee director Abd El-Satar Fathi’s request. Fathi alleges that he never put the kibosh on the film, and that he has “supported the film all along.”

One possible reason that the film’s official premiere was delayed was because there was a fear that the documentary’s title could stir a commotion. This concern developed after Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam El-Erian’s controversially declared that all Israeli’s of Egyptian descent should come back to Egypt.

If the ban on the film is not soon lifted, its producer may take legal action against all relevant ministries. He will do so if he deems that the documentary’s delay has caused economic loss.

For further information, please see:

Guardian – Egypt Bans Film About Jewish Community – 13 March 2013

World Jewish Congress – Egyptian Authorities Stop Cinema Documentary on Jews – 13 March 2013

Abram – Egypt Security Apparatus Delays ‘Jews of Egypt’ Premiere: Producer – 12 March 2013

New York Times – Egypt: Film on Egyptian Jews is Blocked – 12 March 2013

Russia: Historic Magnitsky Trial Brings Corruption and Rule of Law Into Focus

Special Report – Reposted from the International Bar Association

Russia is set to make history as the country’s first modern-day posthumous trial gets underway in Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court.

Sergei Magnitsky. (Photo Courtesy of International Bar Association)

The case, involving deceased defendant Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in pre-trial detention in a Moscow prison cell in 2009, has attracted worldwide media attention and brought the issue of corruption in Russia and problems with the country’s judicial and penitentiary systems all firmly under the international spotlight.

Another quirk of the trial will see the other defendant, Bill Browder, the founder of investment fund Hermitage Capital and Magnitsky’s client at the time of his arrest, examined in absentia, making him one of the few foreigners ever to stand trial in absentia in Russia.

After several months of delayed proceedings, a judge ruled on 4 March that the trial should go ahead despite the tense political backdrop between Russia and the US. Browder, who has been instrumental in leading an international campaign to investigate Magnitsky’s death and bring those guilty to account (Russian lawyer’s death in pre-trial detention – one year on), succeeded in bringing his campaign to the US last year and in December President Barack Obama signed into law the Sergei Magnitsky Law of Accountability Act. Russia reacted strongly to the news by enforcing a ban on Americans from adopting Russian citizens.

In spite of the huge amount of international attention that the case has attracted, a recent study by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) suggests that the Russian public are not as aware of the Magnitsky case as might be expected, notes Alexander Nadmitov, managing partner of Nadmitov Ivanov & Partners. ‘According to the poll, on 15–16 December 2012, 35 per cent of Russians knew nothing about Sergei Magnitsky,’ he says. ‘53 per cent had only heard of his surname and knew nothing else about Sergei Magnitsky, six per cent said that he died in the preliminary detention jail, two per cent said that he was a fighter against corruption who exposed financial fraud, one per cent of respondents had heard about him in the connection with the Magnitsky List, two per cent said that he was a lawyer and an advocate of a foreign company and one per cent said that he was a public politician.’

Although the ordeal may have caused a relatively small stir among the Russian public, undoubtedly the court case will prove an important milestone in the local legal market. The preliminary hearing for the trial was initially postponed on 28 January after Magnitsky’s family and lawyers refused to take part, but on 18 February it was revealed that the state had appointed two lawyers to represent Magnitsky and Browder.

Bill Browder. (Photo Courtesy of International Bar Association)

The two lawyers in question, Nikolai Gerasimov for Magnitsky and Kirill Goncharov for Browder, respectively, practise at Law Office No5, which is located in the same district as the trial is taking place. The appointments have been made in spite of an urgent plea in January by Magnitsky’s mother Natalya Magnitskaya, to the chairman of the Moscow Bar Association Henri Reznik to ask its members not to take part in the trial.

However, as Nadmitov explains, under Russian law lawyers can be appointed to a trial at the court’s discretion. ‘While I don’t know the circumstances of a criminal case against Sergei Magnitsky and Bill Browder, nor am I acquainted with the case materials, as regards procedural matters, under Articles 49-51 of Russia’s Criminal Procedure Code, investigators or the court have a right to appoint lawyers for defendants in certain circumstances,’ he says. Moreover, according to the rules of the Moscow Bar Association, any lawyers appointed to the case face disbarment if they refuse to take part in the trial.

Meanwhile, Jana Kobzova, a policy fellow and wider Europe programme coordinator at the European Council on Foreign Relations, sees the Magnitsky trial as just the latest indication that rule of law is severely lacking in Russia. ‘The posthumous trial is sadly only the more visible example of the current reality of Russia which is that there’s no rule of law and the law is twisted, tweaked and mended as needed and required by the ruling elite,’ she says. ‘Strangely, the more absurd the trial is, the more they’ll press ahead with it.’

While Kobzova is hesitant to draw parallels with the Magnitsky trial and Stalin’s show trials, the general purpose behind the trial is all too similar, she says. ‘It’s of course not comparable at all, but as Ivan Krastev argues when one looks back in history, the show trials in the 1930s in Russia took place not to fool people into believing that the defendants admit their mistakes and wrongs, but to show to everyone that the state has capacity to break down each individual and force them into admitting things they never did, despite everyone knowing that what they confessed doing they’ve never actually done.’

Last December 2012, in the only court case related to Magnitsky that has taken place to date,  a Russian court cleared prison doctor Dmitry Kratov of negligence while Magnitksy was in his care. As for the verdict for Magnitsky’s own trial, it doesn’t bode well when you consider that the conviction rate for criminal trials in Russia is over 99 per cent.