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Babylon & Beyond

Observations from Iraq, Iran,
Israel, the Arab world and beyond

LIBYA: Dutch marines captured in Libya appear headed to Athens

Thanks to a deal brokered by Greek officials, the Libyan government has agreed to allow three Dutch marines captured after a failed evacuation mission in Libya last month to leave Tripoli for Athens Thursday, according to the Associated Press, quoting a Greek defense ministry official.

The official, who was not identified, said a Greek military transport plane had landed in Tripoli and was expected to depart with the Dutch troops on board, the AP reported.

The handover deal was reportedly sealed during a meeting in Athens between Libyan envoy Mohamed Tahir Siala and Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Dollis, according to the AP, relaying information from the defense official.

Armed forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi seized the Dutch marines and their helicopter on Feb. 27 after they landed near the town of Sirte to help evacuate people from the country as the uprising against Kadafi started to rage, the AP said.

The longtime Libyan leader has warned Western powers against intervening in the turmoil engulfing his country. He vowed to turn Libya into “another Vietnam,” and said any foreign troops coming into his country “will be entering hell and they will drown in blood,” according to the AP and other news outlets.

 -- Ann M. Simmons


LIBYA: International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor willing to hear Kadafi's side of story

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, who is investigating Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and members of his inner circle for possible war crimes, told the Reuters news agency Thursday that he would welcome hearing Kadafi’s version of events as part of his probe.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the United Nations Security Council needed to start thinking about how it would proceed if the case against Kadafi moved forward, for example how it would go about arresting people if warrants were issued. Moreno-Ocampo was scheduled to advise the Security Council of the progress of his investigation on May 4, Reuters reported.

Thousands of people are feared dead as a result of fighting between Libyan security forces and rebels who demonstrated against Kadafi and took control of parts of the country in February, Reuters reported.

Last week the BBC reported that Moreno-Ocampo had identified at least nine incidents that could constitute crimes against humanity.

The most serious claim was that 257 people were killed by authorities in the eastern city of Benghazi between Feb. 15 and 20, the BBC said, citing information from the prosecutor’s office. Also under investigation are charges that 26 people were killed in three other towns in the region; the alleged killing by security forces of 14 protesters in the town of Misrata; and allegations of illegal detention, the BBC reported.

Up to 15 people could face charges, including Kadafi, his sons, and the heads of the various security agencies and military organizations, the BBC said. Also last week, the international police agency Interpol issued a security alert for Kadafi and 15 of his relatives and associates.

“I would welcome any information from Kadafi and others who are on notice on how they are punishing past crimes and preventing new crimes,” Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters during the interview at his office in The Hague.

Reuters reported that once the chief prosecutor had collected sufficient evidence, he would present his case to judges of the International Criminal Court. It would be up to the judges to decide to issue arrest warrants, Reuters said.

“If the judges then issue an arrest warrant, the U.N. Security Council will plan for its part,” Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters. “The real challenge for the Security Council and states is how to implement arrest warrants.”

Libyan government officials have reacted with scorn to news of Moreno-Ocampo’s investigation. 

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim has been quoted as calling Moreno-Ocampo’s case "close to a joke," based solely on media reports, the British news agency reported. And Kadafi, who has ruled Libya for 41 years, has vowed to fight to the death rather than cede power. 

Moreno-Ocampo was clearly not joking.

“There are no exit strategies for anyone who commits massive crimes,” Reuters quoted the chief prosecutor as saying. “The new rule is: No leader can commit massive crimes to retain or gain power.”

-- Ann M. Simmons

 


LIBYA: Ras Lanuf still controlled by anti-government forces, rebel leaders say

The oil port of Ras Lanuf in eastern Libya was under heavy bombardment Thursday but remained in the hands of anti-government forces, according to leaders of the rebels, who were quoted by the Reuters news agency.

The information contradicts reports that Reuters said had aired on Libyan state television claiming that Kadafi loyalists had cleared Ras Lanuf of “armed gangs.” But Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel National Libyan Council, told Reuters that “this is not accurate.”

“All we are seeing there is bombardment with heavy artillery from the sea and the air,” Ghoga said.

Another man who spoke to Reuters by phone from Ras Lanuf said the rebels had “total control of the city” and “the situation is fine, thank God.” The source noted that “light clashes” were continuing just west of Ras Lanuf.

The National Libyan Council was also keen for a no-fly zone to be imposed in order to prevent Kadafi from using warplanes to attack anti-government strongholds, primarily in the eastern part of the country, Reuters said.

“The Libyan people are facing genocide, the annihilation of an entire population through the use of air power and heavy artillery,” Reuters quoted Ghoga as saying. “This does not just threaten the security of Libya but that of the whole region.”

The rebel leader called on the United Nations Security Council to take necessary steps to stop “the carnage." He demanded a strike on camps where Kadafi’s mercenaries are said to be housed, and the bombing of roads used to transport military and security forces to the fighting.

While Britain and France favor a resolution authorizing a no-fly zone, Reuters reported that diplomats noted that the U.S. “had made clear they were not ready to press ahead with the measure.”

The rebel leader remained optimistic about the prospects of a no-fly zone eventually being imposed.

“We do expect that such a measure will be agreed in the coming days,” Ghoga said. “There are certain steps needed to secure it.”

-- Ann M. Simmons


LIBYA: Government forces preparing for full-scale attack on rebels; West should butt out or face defeat, Kadafi's son says

Seif Islam Kadafi, son of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi , said Thursday that forces loyal to the government were preparing for a full-scale attack on anti-government forces and that Western countries would face defeat if they chose to support the uprising, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

In a news conference in Tripoli broadcast on the British television network Sky News, the younger Kadafi said the troops were ready to die to defend the country and that the offensive was getting underway, the Bloomberg report said.

Seif Kadafi also said that two Dutch soldiers who had been captured would be released and warned to stay away, Bloomberg reported.

-- Ann M. Simmons


LIBYA: Aid agencies hindered in attempts to get medical supplies to areas most in need

Ongoing insecurity continues to hinder aid agencies from reaching areas of western Libya that are in urgent need of medical supplies and assistance, officials from Doctors Without Borders said Thursday.

Teams of the agency’s medical staff have managed to reach health facilities in Ajdabya and Brega, but were unable to proceed to Ras Lanuf, about 270 miles west of the eastern city of Benghazi, according to Anne Chatelain, an emergency medical coordinator currently based in Benghazi for Doctors Without Borders.

According to information provided by the agency, the medical aid group has so far provided about 22 tons of medical supplies, including surgical sets, burn kits, dressing materials, anesthetics and antibiotics. An additional 11 tons of medicines and medical materials are en route to Benghazi, officials with the medical aid agency said.

They added that supplies are being channeled to areas where violent clashes and increased aerial bombardments have created the most need. One such location is Benghazi’s central pharmacy, which is supplying the entire network of medical facilities in eastern Libya but is facing increasing risk and challenges in getting the aid to besieged regions, Doctors Without Borders officials said.

Pharmacy doctors have told the medical aid agency that health facilities from Ajdabya to Brega were all dependent on the supplies from the pharmacy, and staff at the facility was working around-the-clock.

--Ann M. Simmons


LIBYA: BBC crew reportedly detained, beaten up by Kadafi forces near strife-torn Zawiya

_51604505_bbc640-1 Members of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's security forces hauled a team of BBC reporters into custody, beat them up and subjected them to mock executions before releasing the trio 21 hours later, the broadcaster said on Thursday.

The crew's ordeal began on the outskirts of the strife-torn West Libyan city of Zawiya on Monday, where they were stopped at an army checkpoint.

The men -- all working for the BBC's Arabic service -- showed their identification documents and say there were subsequently detained and driven off to a massive military barracks in Tripoli.

Upon arrival there, the men claim they were blindfolded, handcuffed, and beaten with fists, knees and guns by Kadafi's security force. Then the mock executions began.

"We were lined up against the wall," the BBC quoted one of the three, British Chris Cobb-Smith, as saying. I was the last in line -- facing the wall. I looked and I saw a plainclothes guy with a small submachine gun....Then he walked up to me, put the gun to my neck and pulled the trigger twice. The bullets whisked past my ear. The soldiers just laughed."

Another member of the team, Feras Killani, a reporter of Palestinian origin who holds a Syrian passport, says he was beaten and accused by his captors of being a spy.

"They hit me with a stick, they used their army boots on me, and their knees," he was quoted as saying in a transcript from the BBC. "It made it worse that I was a Palestinian.... and they said you’re all spies."

The cameraman Goktay Koraltan -- a Turkish citizen -- said they all were convinced they were going to die in the end.

Peter Connors of the BBC World Service's press office told Babylon & Beyond in an e-mail that the men have left Libya and that they're not giving interviews.

The BBC has denounced the attack on its reporters in a statement.

"The safety of our staff is our primary concern especially when they are working in such difficult circumstances and it is essential that journalists working for the BBC, or any media organisation, are allowed to report on the situation in Libya without fear of attack," Liliane Landor, languages controller of BBC Global News, was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to the broadcaster, a senior Libyan government official later apologized about the BBC crew's ordeal.

Media reports also surfaced on Thursday about an alleged Iraqi national disappearing in Zawiya along with a Brazilian journalist.

--Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: The BBC's Goktay Koraltan and Feras Killani were reportedly detained and beaten by Kadafi forces earlier this week. Credit: BBC


SYRIA, LEBANON: Critics of Syrian regime disappear in Beirut; rights group calls for independent probe

Syrian-embassy-beirut-021609034133 Human-rights groups are becoming increasingly concerned about the fate and whereabouts of three Syrian brothers who disappeared in the Lebanese capital about two weeks ago after they distributed fliers calling for demonstrations for democratic change in Syria.

On Thursday, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch called on Lebanon in a statement to immediately launch an independent probe into the matter.

The circumstances of the brothers' disappearance are murky. According to Human Rights Watch research, agents from Lebanon's Military Intelligence took at least six members of the Jasem family into custody on Feb. 23 and 24 after they handed out pamphlets calling for more democracy in Syria, a country ruled by the Assad family for decades.

One of them, construction worker Jasem Mer`i Jasem, then disappeared in the early hours of Feb. 25 along with his two brothers, who had gone to pick him up from a police station in Beirut's Baabda district, according to the rights group.

Family members worry that the brothers might have been sent back to Syria, where, rights groups say, authorities regularly arrest political and human-rights activists, block websites and detain bloggers.

Meanwhile, over in Lebanon, the country’s Internal Security Forces have said they will open an investigation into the case, but so far officials have not made any information public or given any information to the family of the men who disappeared, says Human Rights Watch.

The organization's Lebanon and Syria researcher, Nadim Houry, has criticized the handling of the  case by  Lebanese authorities.

The case has "all the factors of what's really rotten these days in Lebanon," he told Babylon & Beyond. "Frankly, Military Intelligence needs to explain why it went about detaining these people. Internal Security Forces need to come clean on what they know and what they don't know. On the ministerial level, the ministry of interior, justice and defense need to ... explain what efforts have been taken to reveal the state and whereabouts of these three men."

Earlier this week, in Arabic media reports, Syrian opposition sources accused Lebanese security official Salah Hajj of kidnapping the three brothers. Hajj was said to have been tasked with protecting the Syrian Embassy. The Syrian Embassy reportedly has denied having any role in Jasem's disappearance.

According to Houry, the missing men had been handing out fliers calling for protest outside the Syrian Embassy in Beirut.

The disappearance case is not the first time critics of the Syrian regime have gone missing in Lebanon. Rights advocates say there is a long history of Syrian dissidents being hauled into detention in Lebanon and then illegally transferred to Syria, where they're never heard from again.

But Jasem was in no sense a known Lebanon-based Syrian opposition figure like Nawar Abboud, who disappeared in the Lebanese city of Tripoli in 2008. Jasem was a poor construction worker who'd been earning a living in Lebanon for a couple of years.

Houry says the case of the disappearance of the Syrian brothers raises concerns about a continued lack of oversight of Lebanon’s security agencies and brings into question the extent of the level of cooperation among security agencies outside the law.

"There is a question mark ... about the cooperation between security services outside the realm of the law," he said. "It has always been a concern because even after Syrian security services pulled out of Lebanon, there was never any process to question that practice." 

Lebanon's caretaker, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, said in a statement Wednesday that the case of three Syrians who allegedly were abducted in Lebanon had been transferred to the judiciary after the Internal Security Forces did its investigation.

Houry called on Lebanon's decision makers to step up efforts in the case and for perpetrators to be held accountable.

"This is a priority case for decision makers. They all need to be concerned with shedding light on what happened and to ensure that this doesn't happen again," he said. "And whoever ordered this arrest needs to be sanctioned."

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: A Syrian flag flies over the Syrian Embassy in Beirut. Credit: Ramzi Haidar / Agence France Presse


GAZA STRIP: Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh shakes up Cabinet

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday he has overhauled his Cabinet, replacing seven ministers and creating two new positions, including his government's first female minister, who will oversee a new ministry for women's affairs.

The move comes as rival Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank is also reshaping his Cabinet. Though Fayyad had expressed interest in including Hamas officials in his new government, so far there are no signs that Hamas will take part.

The two Palestinian factions split in 2007, with Hamas taking control of Gaza and the Fatah Party-dominated Palestinian Authority running the West Bank. Both reorganizations are seen as attempts by Palestinian leaders to respond to rising unrest in the Arab world by reforming their governments.

The Hamas reshuffling did not include participation from other Gaza factions or independents. All of the seven new ministers are either Hamas lawmakers or leaders. In December, Haniyeh made an offer to Gaza-based political factions to join his new government but none accepted.

In addition to being head of the government, Haniyeh is also the minister of finance, foreign affairs and education. Hamas officials described the shakeup as an “administrative change that aims to improve the performance of the Cabinet."

"This reshuffle will not harm the efforts to restore unity" with the Palestinian Authority, said Salah al-Bardwail, a Gaza-based Hamas leader.

During a government meeting Thursday, Haniyeh said his government would resign if a reconciliation deal between his movement and Fatah is achieved. Fatah officials in the West Bank rejected the reorganization, describing Hamas' government as illegitimate.

-- Ahmed Aldabba in Gaza City


YEMEN: President Saleh tries again to appease protesters

Opposition leaders in Yemen rejected a third attempt by embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh to appease their demands Thursday.  

Speaking at a large pro-government rally, Saleh proposed new concessions but defied their key demand when said he would transfer executive powers to a newly elected parliamentary government “by the end of this year or early next year,” but remain president until scheduled elections in 2013.

The president’s plan offered to form a national committee to draft a new constitution that would transfer power from the president to an elected parliament in a year’s time. A referendum to approve the new constitution would be held at the end of this year, according to a statement by the president’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress.

The plan also proposed to implement new electoral laws and establish a new independent Supreme Committee for Elections and Referendum.

“The president’s plan does not address the problems of the country, or the demands of the people on the street,” said Yassin Said Noman, president of Yemen’s opposition coalition, the Joint Meetings Party. “His plan offered a way for him get out of this crisis himself, but not to solve the crisis in the country.”

In an attempt to quell growing public anger since early February, Saleh has announced that he will not run for president again in 2013 or support the succession of his son. He has also promised sweeping economic, political and electoral reforms. Last week, the president offered to form a “unity government” that would allow key opposition leaders to rule alongside the ruling party.

All the president’s conciliatory initiatives have been rejected by both opposition leaders and by growing crowds of anti-Saleh demonstrators across Yemen’s cities and provinces calling for Saleh’s immediate departure.

Late Tuesday, two protesters were killed when the army fired live ammunition and tear gas into a demonstration in front of Sana University, according to medics on the scene. More than a hundred demonstrators were also injured Tuesday by tear gas and bullets.

More than 30 protesters have been killed in Yemen since protests began early last month, according to Amnesty International.

-- Haley Sweetland Edwards in Sana, Yemen


YEMEN: Economic roots of social unrest in Yemen

Editor's note: Analysts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace are included among contributors to Babylon & Beyond. Carnegie is renowned for its political, economic and social analysis of the Middle East. The views represented are the author's own.

Social unrest is growing in Yemen as prominent tribal leaders and members of parliament join protesters in urging President Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave office. In response, Saleh — who has held office for 33 years — promised not to seek reelection in 2013 or hand over power to his son.

6a00d8341c630a53ef0147e2190b46970b-800wi The government also passed a series of economic measures to improve Yemenis’ livelihood. The package — expected to raise the 2011 budget deficit to $3.75 billion — includes a 25% increase in civil and military servants’ wages, a 50% cut in the national income tax and additional food subsidies. However, these measures fall short of expectations and fail to address the key structural issues behind the turmoil.

Yemen remains the poorest country in the Arab world, with a per-capita income of $1,300; almost half of the population lives on less than $2 a day. The country also holds the region’s worst human development records: a 54% literacy rate, a 62-year life expectancy, and high levels of maternal mortality and child malnutrition.

In addition, only four in 10 people have access to electricity and one in four people have clean drinking water. The situation may grow worse as Yemen’s population is expected to double to 40 million people by 2030.

A weak and oil-dependent economy aggravates the country’s poverty and demographic challenges. Petroleum accounts for roughly 25% of GDP, 70% of government revenue, and more than 90% of Yemen’s exports. While the government has implemented reforms recently to improve the investment climate — especially in the non-oil sector — Yemen represents a risky business environment given its political instability, weak rule of law, ineffective government and widespread corruption. The country ranked 146 of 178 on Transparency International’s 2010 corruption index.

Yemen’s high unemployment rate, which stands officially at 16.5% but is estimated to be much higher, is another challenge; almost half of youth are unemployed. Even those few people with university degrees lack the right skills to meet market demand. And leading job sectors — such as agriculture, the public sector and tourism — suffer from factors such as scarce water resources and political turmoil.

As a result, it’s not surprising that Yemen has failed to achieve political legitimacy and establish a productive economy. That’s why Yemen must begin developing a roadmap for the future now.

First, Yemenis must ensure a smooth political transition when Saleh leaves office and build strong institutions to enforce the law and fight corruption. Second, they must create sound economic policies to address poverty, unemployment, and mismanagement of public resources that are backed by institutions accountable to Yemenis. Otherwise, Yemen’s future may be severely constrained by reduced government revenue, weak state capacity and internal conflicts.

Finally, the regional Gulf Cooperation Council must identify ways to improve economic and employment prospects for Yemenis, including opening labor market access to job seekers and investing in Yemen. Each of these steps will help resolve the issues feeding Yemen’s unrest and ensure the country is more secure in the future.

--Lahcen Achy in Beirut

Lahcen Achy is a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle Center in Beirut who specializes in the political economy of the Middle East.

 


UAE: Activists petition ruler for direct elections

Ap_uae_protests_480_09Mar11 The popular demands for change and reform that are currently sweeping the Arab world appear to  have reached the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, where a group of Emirati activists and intellectuals have sent a petition to the president of the seven-sheikhdom federation, urging him to allow direct elections and grant legislative powers to the parliament.

The petition, posted on the Internet and sent to President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan on Wednesday, reportedly called for "comprehensive reform of the Federal National Council (FNC), or parliament, including demands for free elections by all citizens."

The UAE parliament currently lacks both legislative and regulatory powers and serves only as an advisory body to the government. Petitioners are demanding a free election process that would provide all voters in the UAE with a chance to choose their parliament.

Media reports say more than a hundred people signed the petition, including journalists, academics, and activists, and that organizers are trying to rally more people to sign online.

But the environment for political activism in the UAE is far from ideal. All sorts of political parties and demonstrations are apparently banned in the sheikhdoms. Migrant workers complain of bad working conditions and activists say they're subject to harassment.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch warned in its World Report 2011 that human rights conditions in the UAE were doing downhill.

"The human rights situation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) worsened in 2010, particularly for migrant workers....Other pressing human rights issues include torture, restrictions on freedoms of expression and association, and violations of women's rights," said the study. "Authorities continue to prevent peaceful demonstrations and to harass local human rights defenders."

The UAE, a federation that includes the glitzy business hub and boomtown Dubai and neighboring emirate Abu Dhabi, held indirect elections for the first time only five years go.  Rulers of the various emirates appointed members of electoral colleges, who then voted in half of the 40-member body.

The voters, numbered at 6,500 people, represented less than 1% of the UAE's 800,000 citizens, according to the Reuters.

The rest of the members were appointed by President Al-Nahayan, also the ruler of Abu Dhabi.

The Al-Nahayan family reportedly controls the UAE's vast oil resources and occupies most government positions.

Elections are expected to be held in the UAE later this year.

--Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: A giant image of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, UAE prime minister and ruler of Dubai, left, and Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, UAE president, plastered on a tower in Dubai in March 2011. Credit: Voice of American website. 


IRAN: Opposition website says opposition leader is still under house arrest, retracts claim he was sent to jail

20090530-205924-pic-204220554_s640x430In the latest twist in the mystery over the whereabouts of Iranian opposition leaders Mir Houssein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and their wives, Mousavi's website Kaleme.com has published a report saying the reformist leader and his wife Zahra Rahnavard are, in fact, under house arrest at their home and have not been jailed, which was previously reported by the site.

"In recent days it has become evident to Kaleme.com that Mrs. Rahnavard and Mr. Mousavi... are under house arrest and so the news of their transfer from their home to a detention centre needs to be corrected and we [apologize] to our readers," said the report.

Kaleme said the couple's continued house arrest is an "unethical and illegal" practice.

"Given the complete cutting off of their communications with the outside world... it does indeed constitute house arrest, something which so far no one in the judiciary has officially acknowledged," said the article.

Mousavi and Karroubi have not been seen in public since they called for public rallies in solidarity with the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions in mid-February. Since then, a flurry of contradicting reports about the reformist leaders and their wives' whereabouts have surfaced.

Opposition websites and family members claimed that the two men and their wives were transferred from house arrest to a jail at one point -- claims sternly denied by Iranian authorities.

The mystery deepened when Mousavi's daughters a few days ago claimed that they had been barred from visiting their parents despite high-ranking Iranian judicial officials saying Mousavi was at home and hadn't been sent to prison.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Karroubi and his wife Fatemeh still appear to be unknown. His website Sahamnews.org reported this week that it had "no new information" about the opposition leader and said it was likely he had been taken into custody. 

"According to strong evidence, we believe he is not at home and that he has been transferred to an unknown location," said the site, adding that it had spoken to one of Karroubi's relatives.

--Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Photo: Iranian opposition leader Mir Houssein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard campaigning in 2009. Credit: Associated Press




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