From MATHRICH%UMCVMB.bitnet@DARTCMS1.DARTMOUTH.EDU Mon Feb 25 14:56:19 1991 Return-Path: <@DARTCMS1.DARTMOUTH.EDU:ACTIV-L@UMCVMB.BITNET> Date: Sun, 24 Feb 91 18:27:10 CST Reply-To: Rich Winkel UMC Math Department Sender: Activists Mailing List From: Rich Winkel UMC Math Department Subject: Amnesy Int'l: Human rights in the ME To: Multiple recipients of list ACTIV-L /** mideast.gulf: 116.0 **/ ** Topic: Important - Amnesty International ** ** Written 7:03 pm Feb 22, 1991 by gn:aldopacific in cdp:mideast.gulf ** The following statement appeared as a full page advertisement in The Guardian newspaper (London/Manchester), p. 11, 21 Feb. 1991, placed by the British Section of Amnesty International, London. WITH ALLIES LIKE THESE, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES? A man is half-suffocated, tortured, beaten senseless and his bruised body is dumped in the desert. Is this Iraq? Occupied Kuwait? No, the venue is Saudi Arabia and the victim is a citizen of neighbouring Yemen. His crime is his government's pro-Iraqi stance. A woman is tortured to death because she owns a Shi'a prayer book and a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini. The victim, Zahra Habib Mansur al-Nasser, has been killed by the Saudi police. But when we call for an inquiry into her death the authorities do not even reply. Now what we're about to say may upset you, so before saying it we had better make our position clear. We are neither pro-war nor anti-war. We neither support nor oppose any of the governments involved in this conflict. We are solely concerned with protecting human rights. And human rights are under attack from all sides. Amnesty has evidence that Saudi Arabian security forces have tortured and ill-treated hundreds of Yemeni nationals since the Gulf crisis began. Common Saudi tortures involve falaqa, beating the soles of the feet; tas-hir, sleep deprivation: and ta'liq, hanging by the wrists and beating all over the body. Syria, another member of the anti-Iraq coalition, systematically tortures political prisoners. Methods include rape, forcing objects into the anus and threats to sexually abuse prisoners' families. Turkey, also a coalition member, has a repellent human rights record. Favoured tortures include hosings with ice cold water and electric shocks to the genitals. Turks who oppose the government's Gulf policy have been jailed. Some have fared worse. Nevruz Turkdogan was arrested in Ankara for distributing a journal of the Women's Association for Democracy. Despite pleading with the police that she was pregnant, she was severely beaten and thrown into a dark cell with a wet, concrete floor. She lost her baby in the prison toilet. In Egypt, Magdy Ahmed Hussain, who spoke out against the war, has been imprisoned without trial. Nor are western countries beyond criticism. Amnesty believes that Britain has broken international law by detaining 50 Iraqis and Palestinians without giving them a fair trial or specific reason. In the USA a soldier was jailed for refusing to prepare supplies for the troops in Saudi Arabia. In bringing these abuses to light Amnesty may be accused of hounding "friendly" governments. Especially during a war, people would rather turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of their allies. It is not a good idea. The Gulf War might have been prevented had many governments not consistently failed to stop the human rights abuses of their one-time "friend", Saddam Hussein. When Saddam was fighting Ayatollah Khomeni's Iran, many countries competed to sell him weapons and to provide the technology he said he needed for making "fertilizers". Warnings that he would use his fertilizer plants to manufacture poison gases were dismissed. In March 1988, Saddam Hussein "fertilized" a Kurdish town called Halabja with cyanide and mustard gas. He reaped a cruel harvest - five thousand men, women and children who drowned in their own blood as the linings of their lungs dissolved. As other attacks followed, a Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, made a desperate appeal to the British Government. Here is an extract: "The Kurds have no official access to the United Nations to whom our numerous appeals and memoranda have gone unanswered ... One of our few remaining hopes is that democrats and those who cherish values of justice, peace and freedom will voice their concern for the plight of the Kurds. That is why I am making this direct appeal to you ..." This letter was dated the 16th September 1988. On the 5th October the Independent reported: "The United Kingdom has a credit line to Iraq worth approximately $300 million, expected to double when reconstruction starts." During the 1980's, Amnesty reported human rights abuses not just >from Iraq but from every country in the Middle East. The world's governments had the opportunity to deal with these issues, but they did not. They paid no attention to the human rights records of countries to which they gave military, security and police assistance, despite the facts that such aid was being, or could be, used to commit further violations. Must realpolitik - each nation's selfish political, military and economic considerations - always take precedence over morality? The answer is yes. Until the day that you, and people like you care enough to do something effective about it. (Input by SCAWD GulfWatch News Service, Scotland) ** End of text from cdp:mideast.gulf **