By Sanjay Suri
Inter Press ServiceMarch 30, 2003
As Iraq faces some of the most grave violations of human rights, anti-war demonstrators around the world are also seeing a violation of their rights to protest, Amnesty says in a report released Sunday.
Amnesty is documenting instances of human rights abuses and the inflicting of war on civilians within Iraq in a report due to be released in a week or so. But it is pointing in the meanwhile to violations of the right just to speak against the war.
"People have been killed in demonstrations in Yemen, three students were killed in police firing in Khartoum in Sudan," Judit Arenas told. "We believe it is important to highlight this sort of thing so that it does not escalate."
Amnesty has looked at violation of the right to protest in 14 countries: Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Norway, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Turkey, the U.S. and Yemen. "Human rights abuses connected to the war on Iraq have not been limited to that country," says the report 'In the shadow of war: backlash against human rights.'"The war's impact on human rights has been seen in many countries around the world. Governments appear to be using the world's focus on the theatre of war to violate human rights shielded from public scrutiny."
"From Egypt to the U.S., from Belgium to Sudan, governments must respect fundamental rights and refrain from using the war in Iraq as a pretext for curtailing or abusing these rights," Amnesty International stated.
Many of the countries cracking down on demonstrations have a record of not allowing peaceful protests, Arenas said. "In Athens the police beat up a group of Iraqi protesters," she said. "That seems drastic and unethical." In Spain, she said, 34 formal complaints have been made to the courts against police action. "That seems rather a lot over just ten days of demonstrations."
Many demonstrators were beaten up, and three of them are still in hospital recovering from their injuries, the Amnesty report says. In Germany, she said, the police used water canons and excessive force on demonstrators in Hamburg. "In very strange action, the police in Belgium have detained 450 people just as a preventive measure. In one village a group of residents was arrested only because they had met to plan a demonstration."
Amnesty is also very concerned about measures taken against asylum-seekers particularly in the U.S. and in Britain. "They are trying to limit the access of asylum-seekers," Arenas said. "This is ironic, because they are the ones who are causing people to flee. They are creating the human rights crisis, and then refusing to accept the consequences."
Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK have frozen decisions on Iraqi asylum claims, the Amnesty report says. In the U.S., 'Operation Liberty Shield' mandates the detention of asylum-seekers from Iraq and at least 33 other, as yet unnamed, countries who arrive in the U.S. and seek asylum at the point of entry.
The Amnesty report says "anti-terrorism" legislation has been used to support these violations in several countries. "The Terrorism Act has been invoked in some areas in Britain to allow special police powers to 'stop and search' people without reasonable suspicion," the report says.
Amnesty is concerned also about police powers to stop and search in Britain, Arenas said. "Such moves have in the past tended to target the minorities, who have found it discriminatory, and complained of ill treatment," Arenas said. In one instance, she said, a person was arrested for filming policemen trying to restrain a child demonstrator.
In the U.S., two winners of the Nobel Prize for Peace, Joddy Williams who won it in 1997 for her work against landmines, and Mairead Corrigan who won the prize in 1976 for her campaign for peace in Northern Ireland were among the peace demonstrators detained, Arenas said.
In Turkey, riot police used batons to disperse about 5,000 people who had gathered after Friday prayers on March 21 to protest against the war outside a mosque. In Jordan, Fawaz Zurayqat, station manager of Arab Television and a leading activist in a local committee for the defense of Iraq, was detained on March 3 at his office. He remains held at the headquarters of the General Intelligence Department in Amman, Amnesty says. Ibrahim Alloush, a well-known anti-war activist, was arrested on March 24. At least 15 other anti-war activists have been arrested.
In Egypt, dozens of anti-war activists were beaten severely and hundreds injured when police used water cannons, clubs, and dogs against demonstrators, the Amnesty report says. Manal Ahmad Mustafa Khalid was severely beaten by security officers when she returned from a demonstration at Tahrir Square in central Cairo, leaving her with a serious eye injury. Journalists were among those injured by security forces as they were covering the anti-war demonstrations.
More Information on NGOs
More Information on Protests against Iraq
More Information US War Against Iraq
More Information on NGOs and Social and Economic Policy
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
