Hebron's reality

A day is a long time in politics and today was quite busy for the UK and Tony Blair. He handed in his resignation, appeared before the house of commons for the last time waved his goodbyes and flanked by his wife and children left Downing street. But this is the age of TV personalities, celebrities and TonyBlairs ... therefore, due to immense success, this story does not come to an end, well not just yet perhaps, instead it is prolonged and stretched out just a little bit more... Blair, was named as Mideast peace envoy by the quartet, i.e. the EU,USA,Russia and UN.That's right, the person who failed during his 10 years in office to contribute to peace in the Middle east, instead did his part to inflame an already pain stricken region more as many might argue, today gets a chance to prolong this painful and tedious process a little bit further...

I wish to be proven wrong and do hope that I'm being overly pessimistic, but I don't see this one happening and I surely don't see it going anywhere... Then again, if anything it'll get Blair a few more chapters in his biography... that would probably be a few hundred thousand sterling more I suppose... oh well, there are the winners and then there are the even bigger winners in politics.

Unhappy world refugee day.

• UNHCR reports that world's refugees have increased for first time in five years
• By end 2006 1.5 million Iraqis sought refuge, particularly in Syria and Jordan
• World refugee count at 9.9 million as of end 2006, a 14% increase from 2005
• Largest group are Afghans, followed by Iraqis, Sudanese, Somalis

UNHCR's "2006 Global Trends" report said the current total is the highest since 2002, when there were 10.6 million refugees.

The largest group were the 2.1 million Afghans still living outside their homeland. The Iraqis were second, followed by 686,000 Sudanese; Somalis, 460,000 and people from Congo and Burundi, about 400,000 each.

The refugee total omits the 4.3 million Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, who are under the auspices of a separate agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. If added together, the total number of refugees under both agencies is more than 14 million.

The total also excludes some 24.5 million people who have had to flee conflict, but remain within their countries and thus are labeled "displaced" rather than refugees under international law.

source: AP

Iran: Amnesty International appeals against planned executions by stoning
Date: 06/20/2007 16:15:36

Meydaan

Public Statement

News Service No: 115
20 June 2007

Amnesty International today made an urgent appeal to the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, to prevent the executions of two people due to be publicly stoned to death tomorrow, 21 June 2007. The two – Mokarrameh Ebrahimi (f) and an unnamed man – are scheduled to be killed in a cemetery in the town of Takestan, Qazvin province.

According to activists involved in the ‘Stop Stoning Forever’ campaign in Iran, Mokarrameh Ebrahimi and the unnamed man were sentenced to death after conviction of adultery. Under article 83 of Iran’s Penal Code, execution by stoning is prescribed for adultery committed by a married man or a married woman. Under Iranian law, adultery can only be proved by the testimony of eyewitnesses (the number required varying for different types of adultery), a confession by the defendant (repeated four times), or the judge's "knowledge" that the adultery has taken place. In this case, the basis for the conviction of adultery was the judge’s “knowledge”, apparently on the basis that they had a child together.

Mokarrameh Ebrahimi and the unnamed man have been imprisoned for the past 11 years in Choubin prison. Qazvin province. Recently, they reportedly appealed to the Judicial Commission for Amnesty and Clemency to overturn their stoning sentence, but the appeal was rejected. The stoning was then scheduled for 17 June, but is now due to take place on 21 June – in public, and reportedly in the presence of the judge from Branch 1 of the Criminal Court in Takestan. It is reported that he will throw the first stone, following which those present at the public gathering will continuing stoning the two until they are pronounced dead. The pits in which Mokarrameh Ebrahimi and the unnamed man will be placed in order to be stoned are reported to have been dug already in Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in preparation for the executions.

Amnesty International is urging the Iranian authorities to intervene immediately to prevent the planned stonings and to commute the death sentences in both cases. The organization opposes the death penalty in all cases as the ultimate cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. Execution by stoning aggravates the brutality of the death penalty, being specifically designed to increase the victim's suffering since the stones are deliberately chosen to be large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately.

Amnesty International is also calling on the Iranian government to abolish altogether executions by stoning and to impose a moratorium pending the repeal or amendment of article 83 of the Penal Code All existing sentences of execution by stoning should be commuted.

Amnesty International also opposes the criminalization of consensual adult sexual relations conducted in private, and further urges the Iranian authorities to review all relevant legislation with the aim of decriminalizing consensual adult sexual relations conducted in private.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Execution by stoning is prescribed under Iranian law for adultery committed by a married man or a married woman. The Iranian Penal Code is very specific about the manner of execution and types of stones which should be used. Article 102 states that men will be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts for the purpose of execution by stoning. Article 104 states, with reference to the penalty for adultery, that the stones used should "not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes; nor should they should they be so small that they could not be defined as stones".

In December 2002 Ayatollah Shahroudi, the Head of the Judiciary, reportedly sent a ruling to judges ordering a moratorium on execution by stoning, pending a decision on a permanent change in the law, which was apparently being considered by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. However, in September 2003, a law concerning the implementation of certain kinds of penalties, including stoning, was passed, which appeared to undermine this moratorium. Also despite the moratorium, Amnesty International continued to record sentences of stoning being passed, though none of these were known to have been implemented until May 2006, when a woman and a man were reportedly stoned to death. The two victims- Abbas (m) and Mahboubeh (f) were reportedly stoned to death in a cemetery in Mashhad, after being convicted of murdering Mahboubeh’s husband, and of adultery - a charge which carries the penalty of stoning. Part of the cemetery was cordoned off from the public, and more than 100 members of the Revolutionary Guard, and Bassij Forces, who had been invited to attend, reportedly participated in stoning the couple to death.

On 21 November 2006, the late Minister of Justice, Jamal Karimi-Rad, denied that stonings were being carried out in Iran, a claim repeated on 8 December 2006 by the Head of the Prisons Organization in Tehran. The campaigners against stoning have since stated in response that there is irrefutable evidence that the Mashhad stoning did indeed occur.

In mid-2006, a group of Iranian human rights defenders, mostly women, including activists, journalists and lawyers, began a campaign to abolish stoning, having identified nine women and two men under sentence of death by stoning: Hajieh Esmailvand, Ashraf Kalhori, Parisa, Iran, Khayrieh, Shamameh Ghorbani (also known as Malek), Kobra Najjar, Soghra Mola’i, Fatemeh, Abdollah F., and Najaf. The ‘Stop Stoning Forever’ campaign aims to save the lives of the nine women and two men under sentence of stoning, and to abolish stoning in law and practice. Lawyers in the group undertook to represent them. Since the campaign began, three individuals have been saved from stoning, others have been granted stays of execution, and some of the cases are being reviewed or re-tried. Hajieh Esmailvand was acquitted on 9 December 2006 of the charge of adultery, for which she had been sentenced to stoning, and is now free from prison; Parisa was released on 5 December 2006 after receiving 99 lashes, following a Supreme Court ruling which changed her sentence of execution by stoning to flogging; the stoning sentence of Najaf - Parisa’s husband - was also changed to flogging by the Supreme Court.

URGENT ACTION ALERT



19 June 2007

Take Action Immediately!



You Only Have Hours to Oppose the Scheduled Public Stoning of Mokarrameh and Her Partner



The stoning of Mokarrameh Ebrahimi and her partner is scheduled to be carried out in public in the city of Takistan, Ghazvin, at 9:00 am on Thursday, June 21, for committing adultery and having a child out of wedlock. The decision to execute the couple by public stoning, and also to invite the public to participate in the stoning was made by the Ghazvin Municipal Security Council (Showraye Tameen of Ghazvin).



The news of the scheduled stoning was published by the campaign activists on June 19, 2007. (Please read more here)

The Stop Stoning Forever Campaign invites all citizens of the world to contact the Iranian officials by phone and/or fax and ask them to stop the public stoning of Mokarrameh Ebrahimin, the 43 year old mother of three children, and her partner, the father of her 11 year old child. Please note that email may not be effective.



Also, please note the time difference since the stoning is scheduled for Thursday, June 21, in the morning, Tehran time, which is Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning in the US and Europe. Please act now before it is too late!



Ghazvin State Government Office, includes Ghazvin Municipal Security Council.


Morehere

Amnesty International's Annual report 2007, the human rights index.

On the 23rd of May, Amnesty International released its annual report, which to many is a troubling, irritating, worrying piece of literature that makes many people all over the world pretty uncomfortable and basically disturbs them in their quest to violate as many human rights per person per capita as they can.

Powerful governments and armed groups are deliberately fomenting fear to erode human rights and to create an increasingly polarised and dangerous world, said Amnesty International today as it launched the Amnesty International Report 2007, an annual assessment of human rights worldwide.


SEE THE REPORT HERE



I'm not going to choose the horrors from Iraq, the tragedies from Saudi Arabia and the depressing catastrophes from Gaza and Lebanon, instead, I have decided to pin out my second country (second not in preference)the Czech Republic. A part of the civilised world, a member of the EU and NATO... you wonder about the impact all that may have on its minorities.

The Romas aka gypsies are an underprivileged, impoverished ethnic group, living amongst us and highly discriminated upon. Their children aren't sent to school like they should be and when they finally are, the authorities send them to "special schools" for the less intelligent and developmentally challenged, thus creating a vicious circle.

Lately however, things have been taking a turn for the better, we are a long way from having a Roma prime minister of course, instead our Vice prime minister is in my humble opinion a racist, alibist, who has based his political life and short lived success on the discriminatory, hurtful, offensive actions and statements directed towards the Roma population in our country.


At least people are talking about it and at least matters are being discussed now, the bigger the scandal the sooner will things get moving again. Unfortunately, our lovely racist politician who by the way prides himself on being a "good Christian" (and aren't they all from Bush to Cunek) hasn’t paid the price for his direction and politically incorrect rhetoric and actions, although he is currently up to his knees in a corruption and sexual harassment scandal from the days of his regional politics, before he shot to fame and became a hero to some and enemy to others. Serves him right, as the Czech proverb goes, God's windmills grind slowly but surely. Asians call it Karma.

For the Czech republic click here

Double standards and glass houses

I really cant get over the Bush visit, not just yet... During his visit the American president attended a conference,on democracy and security, for a few exceptions, the list of participants wasn't too impressive, if anything it was just about anyone who was for the war in Iraq. The interesting thing however was that during the speech, Bush criticised even the US allies, specifically mentioning the Egyptian politician and opposition leader Ayman Nour,serving a prison sentence for what seems to be a politically motivated charges. Egypt of course was quick to respond and object the U.S. interference in what it called its internal affairs. Rightly noting that the U.S. had better address the existence of the Guantanamo bay detention camp that serves as a place that is above the U.S. law and the by its existence violates human rights.

As president Bush spoke of freedom,(with many dissidents from all over the world and esp. the middle east in the audience) democratic values and principles and the violations of basic human rights around the world, he stood as the president of a country actively participating in the violations of these very rights... A befitting Arab proverb says : he who's house is made of glass, should not throw stones at people... The white house, made of marble seems to be built of glass and has many cracks.

Last week, we in this country were graced with President George W. Bush's visit.

It was ironic... the visit fell on the 3rd anniversary of Reagan's death as well as the 40th anniversary of the six-day war.

The country was divided, but in a style that is own to us Czechs,
almost everyone was complaining, those who got orgasmic (for bush) at
the historical happening and landmark event, complained over all the
anti Bush demonstrations, the anarchists, the horrible leftist (whom
they love to collectively call communist) anti war, anti defence
shield, anti radar and anti American speeches...

In a manner that omitted the loudest symbol of a democratic society, they
criticised the press,people's right to free speech and their freedom of
expression, some went as far as criticising news paper articles,
calling them bad manners.

Those who didn't care for the visit or for Bush, were just annoyed at all the
traffic restrictions that fell like a magic spell on the city, Murphy's
law popped up in the form of traffic accidents, that couldn't have come
at a worse time.

If only our politicians were composed and professional, what was a bad week, didn't have to turn into a week from hell.

It was a bad week for every Czech, eastern European, feminist, woman,
soldier and female politic an... yes for all of them at once.

You see, our professional, composed, outspoken, classy well educated and
experienced minister of defence, who BTW happens to be a politically
active woman and a pseudo amateur singer, sang a song, where she took
rectal alpinism to another level as she serenaded the American radar,the stars and stripes on the flag and in the process turned us into a laughing stock ... not to mention, she took care of our entry as the comic highlight of Dubya's trip.The song was a remake of another song that celebrated Jurij Gagarin, the soviet cosmonaut...hillarious! And to add insult to injury, she gave Bush a CD with the song... I am sure that every chauvinist will take this example and use it as a reason why women dont belong in politics.

In this particular case, I would have to agree with him.

As we negotiated our visa requirements to the U.S.,we tried not to appear
like we were at an oriental market... radar for visa... the whole time
insisting to keep calling him George WALKER Bush, which I BTW thought someone had
better told our dear politicians the American president wasn't too fond
of... he prefers Dubya...

The star of the day would just have to be our one and only foreign minister... whom btw I happen to hold in the highest regard,the man has class, nonchalance and character, I respect him because he makes me proud, forever the diplomat more about him next time.

Arab Democracy in the land of contrasts

Democracy a l'arabe, demokratiyeh bel 3arabee,democracy for the Arabs is but a myth.

You see in our part of the world, democracy has been reduced to a message,
a phone call, a pretty girl who throws seductive looks to those with
purchasing power (read mobile phones) or a handsome boy with a good
voice and a smile to die for.

Voting in the land of Arabia is for everyone who has a cell phone and a satellite TV,
we are so democratic that you're allowed to vote until you run out of
credit, we all get to vote, our lives are consumed by the voting, its the
"IN" thing these days, you may even call it an alternative to real,
serious voting in elections, you know the kind that actually affects
our day to day lives and has an impact on our countries, economies and
policies?

People have forgotten about their freedom, democracy
and the right to vote in independent elections, because they are
saturated with voting for the superstar, for the girl from star academy
who has fallen in love with her rival and has now put her hopes and
dreams aside, no longer wants to become a pop music Diva but a wife and
mother,preferably the wife of the HOT superstar (she even asks everyone
to vote for her loved one,please sawtoo la 7abibi please she pleads with her
fans). More about that in a different post, on how competing arab women arent good if they compete. People are fed up with voting actually... celebrity show biz
voting has pushed the real stuff out of the big picture, for most of our youth at least.

Political strife is dealt with on reality shows, where Egypt proves to Saudi
Arabia that a population of 80,000,000 can take on all the other Arab
countries, where in an appeal to win, an Iraqi woman pleads with her
fellow Iraqis to vote for her, so what if the proceeds go to the Saudi-Lebanese owned LBC...

In a part of the world, where words like elections,the right to vote and
choice of political parties seem to be almost science fiction, it is
ironic that almost anyone you ask has called into a TV program (often
to another country) to vote for a star or celebrity!

In a part of the world where a man and woman cant hold hands on the street, cant
kiss when in love and cant date in public, it is ironic that they send
sexually charged text messages, that appear on a news bar imitation,
like breaking news does on CNN.

Charlatans, fortune teller hijab clad psychics appear on TV
and foretell your future, diagnose your medical condition and advice
you on your investments in the stock market. The longer the call, the
more money they get, so be assured that those predictions are detailed
and the crystal ball is made to look as spooky as possible. Yes all that happens in a
country where life saving medicines are banned because they may contain
a pork product...

Women will no longer want the right to drive in Saudi Arabia, its enough that
they see their favourite video clip stars drive convertibles in bikinis, chasing sexy men with tanned torsos in torn jeans while the Good women of Saudi are expected to be satisfied with their remote controls and fatwas permitting them to marry (read date) for just the summer holidays.

The glimmers of hope are poor little flames that quiver in the wind... oh well.