HRW to Israel: charge or free Palestinian hunger striker

 

An international NGO on Saturday called on Israel to “immediately charge or release” a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for the past 56 days.

 

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Israel should “immediately end its unlawful administrative detention” of Khader Adnan, who has refused food since December 18, and “charge or release him.”

 

Adnan, who was arrested near the northern West Bank city of Jenin on December 17, had served as a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, but Israel has not charged him formally or revealed any evidence against him.

 

His hunger strike, longer than any Palestinian prisoner before him, according to Palestinian officials, is in protest over what he calls his unjust detention and mistreatment by Israeli authorities.

 

On Saturday, hundreds of Palestinians held a protest outside the Ofer prison in the West Bank in solidarity with Adnan and hurled rocks at security forces, an Israeli military spokesman said.

 

The security forces used riot dispersal methods, and activists said 16 protesters were wounded by rubber bullets and tear gas.

 

In addition, two Israelis and two Palestinians were arrested in a separate rally for Adnan in the West Bank village of Beit Omar, the military and activists said.

 

Last month, a military court ordered that Adnan be held in administrative detention for four months, although with his condition frail and worsening, he has been held mostly in a string of Israeli hospitals since early January.

 

Under Israeli military law, a court can order an individual held for up to six months at a time without charge, although the order can be appealed.
 

DPC warns of protest if NATO supplies resumed

 

At a news conference, DPC leaders said they would stage a sit-in in front of the Parliament on Feb 20 in condemnation of restoration of NATO supply.

 

The restoration of NATO supplies would be tantamount to mocking national honour and sovereignty.

 

They also said All Party Conference (APC) would be held on Feb 23 on Balochistan issue.

 

They were speaking to the media after DPC session at a Karachi hotel on Saturday.

 

Those who attended the news briefing included Jamiat Ulema Islam (S) Chief Maulana Sami Ul Haque, Jamaat-e Islami (JI) Pakistan Chief Syed Munawwar Hassan, Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP) Chief Sahibzada Abu Al Khair Muhammad Zubair, Jamaat Ud Dawa Chief hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Ahl-e Sunnat Wal Jamaat Chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhyanvi.

 

While addressing, Maulana Sami Ul Haque said that the DPC leaders had discussed country’s situation in detail and decided to keep the decision of staging a sit-in at the Parliament on Feb 20.

 

The political and religious parties in DPC would join the sit-in. He said that DPC leaders’ conference would be held in Islamabad on Feb 19. DPC was extremely concerned on Balochistan issue and taking up Balochistan issue in the Congress of the United States was a direct interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs as she had done in Arab countries.

 

The statement issued by the US Defence Committee was provoking and serious. The DPC stands beside the people of Balochistan and would play their role to get the situation resolved. In this regard, APC on Balochistan issue would be held in Quetta on Feb 23 and Baloch nationalist leaders would be taken on board.

 

Speaking on the occasion, JI Chief Syed Munawwar Hassan said that people have welcomed the DPC across the country, which manifested their trust. The biggest challenge in the country was US interference.

 

He said that the war on terror was not Pakistan’s war and due to that war, issue of missing persons had terrorized the nation and led to military operation in the country.

 

The DPC’s agenda was clear that NATO supply should remain discontinued. NATO supply via Pakistan’s air routes was a matter of grave concern and the DPC protested vehemently on the statement of US ambassador.

 

He said that the incidents of targeted killings in Karachi had wreaked havoc on citizens and since the Karachiites had welcomed the DPC, the DPC would not leave them at the mercy of the target killers.

 

Sahibzada Abu Al Khair said that DPC would struggle for freedom from America.

 

Hafiz Saeed said that DPC had honoured those resolutions that the Parliament had discarded.

 

Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed refuted claims that a new political alliance on the pattern of IJI was in the making.

 

Iran vows to reveal nuclear achievement

 

Iran is “to inaugurate important nuclear projects in the next few days,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday, adding that his nation “will never yield” to Western coercion aimed at stopping its atomic activities.

 

Ahmadinejad, giving an anniversary speech in Tehran marking the 33rd year of Iran s Islamic revolution, gave no details of the nuclear projects.

 

But he railed against Western economic sanctions imposed to force Iran to give up its controversial nuclear programme, and at threats of possible Israeli and US military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.

 

“If the language of bullying and insult is used, the Iranian nation will never yield,” he said.

 

“The only path is to adhere to justice and the respect of Iran s (nuclear) rights and to return to the negotiating table,” he said. Otherwise, the West will continue to face “defeat” on the issue, he said.

Strike to mark Egypt anniversary

 

Activists in Egypt are set to mark the anniversary of the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak with a strike and day of civil disobedience.

 

Activists plan a day of civil disobedience in Egypt on Saturday to mark the first anniversary since they toppled Hosni Mubarak but left an increasingly unpopular but defiant military in charge.

 

The call for strikes in universities and workplaces comes after a series of protests pressuring the military to transfer power immediately to civilians, rather than wait for planned presidential elections later this year.

 

The military, headed by Mubarak s long-time defence minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, has said it will deploy additional troops across the country in response to the calls for a day of disobedience.

 

On Friday, thousands of protesters snaked through Cairo s streets to bypass military cordons and reach the defence ministry, chanting “Down with military rule”

 

In a statement read out on state television late on Friday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) said it would not bow to threats or plots against the state.

 

“We will never yield to threats, and we will never give in to pressure,” the SCAF said.

 

“We tell you quite frankly that our dear Egypt faces plans aimed at striking at the heart of our revolution.

 

“We are facing plots against the nation aiming to undermine the institutions of the Egyptian state, and to topple the state itself so that chaos reigns.”

 

The military, which has brutally quashed several protests in the past year, has played off the abundant suspicion in Egypt of foreign conspiracies.

 

Students in several universities have called for strikes for Saturday, with secular youth groups which spearheaded the revolt against Mubarak also taking part.

 

Tareq al-Khouly, an organiser of the April 6 youth group, said the plan was for a one-day strike which could be extended.
In a joint statement on Friday, the groups urged Egyptians “to support these strikes in order to end the unjust rule and build a nation in which justice, freedom and dignity prevail.”

 

The call for strikes and protests has divided the country s political forces, with the Muslim Brotherhood — the big winner in recent parliamentary elections — coming out against it.

 

Many Egyptians complain that the economy has been battered by the lack of security and deadly violence in the wake of the 18-day revolt that forced Mubarak to resign on February 11 last year.

 

Protests against the military, idolised immediately after the revolt for not siding with Mubarak, have heightened fears among many that the Arab world s most populous nation could veer towards chaos, as the military itself warns.

 

On Friday the SCAF said the nation was at “the most dangerous turning point on our road to liberty, democracy and social justice.”

 

Young activists who spearheaded the revolt against Mubarak believe the generals will try to exercise power through a pliant civilian government after presidential elections later this year.

 

The activists say the military should hand power to parliament, elected over three rounds in November and December, or to a civilian council ahead of presidential elections set to take place before the end of June.

 

The SCAF statement said it was determined to transfer power to an elected civilian body.

 

“We have kept the first promise and returned legislative power to the people s assembly,” it said, adding that the parliamentary election took place in an atmosphere of “liberty and integrity.”

 

“Presidential power will pass to the president of the republic after the election ending the period of transition, and your faithful army will revert to its original role,” the military statement said.

 

S Arabia: 1 killed, 3 injured in clash with forces

 

Activists and witnesses said the casualties came when security forces opened fire on a Shiite demonstration in the Qatif district of the kingdom s Eastern Province.

 

“A security force patrol came under heavy gunfire from masked men while it was carrying out its duties in Al-Shwaika neighbourhood in the Qatif district on Thursday,” SPA reported, quoting a police spokesman in the province.

 

Security forces “responded,” prompting “an exchange of fire that left four of the rioters wounded, one of whom died before reaching hospital,” it added.

 

Activists and witnesses said that security forces opened fire when a Shiite procession marking the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) — a celebration forbidden in ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia — turned into a demonstration for reform and the release of Shiite detainees.

 

“Munir al-Medani, 21, was wounded by a live bullet to his chest,” one activist said, requesting anonymity. “He was taken to hospital where he later died of his wounds.”
A number of other protesters were also wounded, the activists and witnesses said.

 

Witnesses said the shooting prompted groups of young protesters to burn tyres and police to set up checkpoints across the district.

 

Medani s death raises to six the number of protesters killed since demonstrations erupted in the Eastern Province last March against Saudi-led military intervention to help crush Shiite-led pro-democracy protests in neighbouring Bahrain.

 

Activists say that Saudi authorities have arrested nearly 500 people since the protests started. Many have been released but dozens remain in custody, among them human rights activist Fadel al-Munasif and writer Nazir al-Majid.

 

In January, Saudi authorities published a list of 23 men wanted on suspicion of involvement in the disturbances.

 

Later the same month, the interior ministry announced that security forces had arrested nine people suspected of involvement in the wounding of three policemen in the Eastern Province.

 

Most of Saudi Arabia s estimated two million Shiites live in the province, where the vast majority of the kingdom s huge oil reserves lie. They complain of marginalisation in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.
 

SC directs spy agencies to produce missing persons today

TrendPK.com
ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC) Friday directed the intelligence agencies to present to the court the people went missing from Adiala Jail.

Hearing a case relating the missing persons, the apex court directed Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) to bring to the court by 3PM today the persons, who went missing from Adiala Jail.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry said, “Bring the prisoners even on board helicopters. We are sitting today for the purpose.” TrendPK

US group rejects accusations of interference in Egypt

 

Accused of interference in Egypt s affairs, US pro-democracy groups whose staff are to be tried in Cairo reject charges they are working secretly for the US government, which largely finances them.

 

Barrie Freeman, director of the North Africa region for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), one of the US groups whose offices were raided in December, denied the NDI has a hidden agenda.

 

“We trained thousands of candidates, hundreds of them were from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist party,” Freeman told AFP, referring to Islamist groups that won a decisive majority in recent parliamentary elections.

 

“We don t favor any party over another. We don t fund parties directly. We don t fund revolutions. We trained poll watchers, we sent international election observers,” she said.

 

“The program components included bringing people who had been through transition in their countries at high level.

 

“We brought in a former general from Indonesia, we brought politicians from Chile and Poland to share their experiences,” Freeman said.

 

Since December, ties between the United States and Egypt s interim military rulers have become strained, and Washington has raised the possibility it could withhold military aid worth $1.3 billion a year.

 

“It s really puzzling,” says Charles Dunne, the Middle East and North Africa director at Freedom House, another US-funded group raided in November.

 

“There is a campaign to try to shut down or control completely the civil society in Egypt,” Dunne told AFP.

 

“We re involved in civic education,” he said.

 

Egyptian authorities disagree, accusing the groups of undermining the military-run government during a fragile transition following last year s ouster of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, once a close US ally.

 

Egyptian Judge Sameh Abu Zeid said in Cairo that the NGOs are operating “without license,” and that their work “constitutes pure political activity and has nothing to do with civil society work.”

 

But the US State Department said Thursday that it has not yet seen any document outlining the charges against the groups.

 

If convicted, the members of these organizations could be sentenced to five years in prison, according to another judge, Ashraf Ashmawi.

 

Activists opposed to Egyptian military rule see the accusations as an attempt to silence them under the banner of fighting “plots” from abroad.

 

The US-funded groups reject the charge they are secretly working for the US government.

 

“It s unfair,” said Eric Trager, a specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 

“If it s a foreign funding issue, these groups shouldn t be targeted exclusively, it should be the Salafist party, the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt is a poor country. Everyone receives money from abroad,” Trager said.

 

The NDI said it is financed up to 81 percent by the State Department and the US Agency for International Development. Its board of directors is chaired by Madeleine Albright, who was president Bill Clinton s secretary of state.

 

The NDI, which was present in Ukraine during the 2004 “Orange Revolution” and works on five continents, is not “affiliated” with the US government, said Kathy Gest, who is in charge of public relations.

 

John McCain, an influential senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, is the chairman of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute, also targeted by Egyptian authorities.

 

On its website the IRI says it is financed through subsidies from US government agencies.

 

For its part, Freedom House has a budget of $25 million for 2012, with $21 millions coming from the US government, according to communications manager Mary McGuire.

 

But for Thomas Carothers, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the question of financing is secondary.

 

“The same activities have been carried out in Belarus for at least 12 years and haven t produced very much,” Carothers told AFP.

 

“This idea that there is some kind of sinister technology that very quietly, the US or certain European actors go into countries and prepare them for revolution, is colorful and sounds like a good spy movie.”

 

11 militants killed Kurram Agency

 

Pakistani forces killed 11 militants and wounded 19 in the northwest on Friday, security officials said, in a crackdown in the Kurram tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.

 

The military fired artillery shells at three suspected hideouts in the Mamozai area of Kurram, where dozens of people have been killed in fierce fighting between Pakistani soldiers and insurgents in the last few weeks.

 

The death toll could not be independently verified and militants often dispute official accounts.

 

Pakistan s military has been conducting operations against militants in Kurram since the beginning of the year.

 

Kurram s harsh terrain limits the movement of ground forces, and gunship helicopters and bombers are often called in for support.
 

Israel rejects new Palestinian government: minister

 

Israel s foreign minister told the UN Security Council on Thursday that a new Palestinian unity government including Hamas was a setback to peace attempts, diplomats said.

 

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman briefed the 15 Security Council ambassadors on the Middle East peace talks and the growing confrontation with Iran in a meeting at a New York hotel.

 

Lieberman said an accord signed this week by the heads of Fatah and Hamas “does not contribute to the advancement of peace negotiations or the well being of the Palestinian people,” Israel s UN mission said in a statement.

 

The accord “reflects the personal interests” of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, the head of Fatah, and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, the Israeli minister added.

 

“Israel will not accept a Palestinian government that includes Hamas, unless it changes its current policies, recognizes Israel s right to exist and accepts all Quartet conditions,” Lieberman added.

 

Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since September 2010. The Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt settlement construction in the Palestinian territories. Israel rejects any conditions for talks to settle the Middle East conflict.

 

Lieberman, who is on a US tour which included meetings in Washington with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also demanded that the Security Council act on Iran, the statement said.

 

“Israel keeps all options on the table” if international sanctions do not convince Iran to halt its nuclear drive, Lieberman said. Western countries say Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb and many experts say Israel is planning for a military strike. Iran denies it is seeking a weapon.

 

Lieberman called on the Security Council to act on statements by Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who have made calls “to wipe Israel off the map,” the Israeli mission said.
 

Af-Pak Jihad attracting foreign fighters: Officials

 

The Afghan-Pakistan jihad is attracting fewer foreign fighters following the death of Osama bin Laden, the growing threat posed by US drones, and lack of funds, Western security officials say.

 

While no precise figure is available, it would appear that the number of would-be jihadists from abroad has been drying up, according to one security official who declined to be named.

 

However, more Pakistanis are willing to take up the fight and make up the numbers, he also warned.

 

“Over the past six months, young Frenchmen there have nearly all left Pakistan. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left,” he said.

 

“Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistan to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion — a drastic reduction over recent months,” he added.

 

The “Arab Spring” revolts also acted as a magnet, with a number of jihadists moving to Libya to join the fight to remove Moamer Kadhafi from power, he said.

 

“Fighting in Afghanistan is also less attractive because of the idea that the Afghan taliban want to concentrate more on home fighting and that world jihad is less and less their cup of tea,” he added.

 

For Frank Cilluffo, who co-authored “Foreign Fighters” for the Homeland Security Policy Institute, “first and foremost, military actions, including the use of drones, has made the environment less hospitable to foreign fighters traveling to the region, by disrupting Al-Qaeda s (and associated entities ) training camps and pipelines.”

 

Direct and indirect accounts by jihadists also speak of disarray within Al-Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan where activists avoid coming together for fear of being attacked and whose weapons training now takes place indoors because of aerial and satellite surveillance.

 

In a report, entitled “Militant Pipeline” describing the links between the northwestern Pakistani frontier and the West, researcher Paul Cruickshank quotes one Ustadh Ahmad Faruq, described as a Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda spokesman who recently acknowledged his network s difficulties.

 

“The freedom we enjoyed in a number of regions has been lost. We are losing people and lack resources. Our land is being squeezed and drones fly over us,” he reportedly said in an audio cassette.

 

“It s difficult to have reliable figures,” on the number of foreign fighters, according to Cruickshank, who is a fellow at New York University s Center on Law and Security.

 

“I think the drone strikes have been a major issue for the militants, the death of bin Laden is going to be a very big challenge as well. He was so important for a lot of these militants — he was the Al-Qaeda brand.

 

“By going over there they were joining his cause. The fact that he has been removed from the scene is likely to be a great recruiting challenge for Al-Qaeda,” he said.

 

“But the conflict is still going on in Afghanistan and in the radical circles it is still viewed as a very legitimate jihad. So it s likely that the number of volonteers is going to be diminished, but as long as there are US soldiers to fight, I don t think it s going to dry up entirely,” he added.

 

Hafiz Hanif, a 17-year-old Afghan who trained in northwest, recently told Newsweek magazine the number of foreign fighters there was dwindling.

 

“When new people came they brought new blood, enthusiasm and money. All that has been lost. Now leaders seem to spend all their time moving from one place to another for their safety,” he said.
 

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