Sri Lanka: Domestic Inquiry into Abuses a Smokescreen
(New York) – The Sri Lankan government’s proposal to create a committee of experts to examine allegations of laws-of-war violations during the conflict between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is an attempt to avoid an independent international inquiry, Human Rights Watch said today.
Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water
Amnesty International has accused Israel of denying Palestinians theright to access adequate water by maintaining total control over theshared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies.
These unreasonably restrict the availability of water in the OccupiedPalestinian Territories (OPT) and prevent the Palestinians developingan effective water infrastructure there.
“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the sharedwater resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while theunlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimitedsupplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already diresituation worse,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’sresearcher on Israel and the OPT.
In a new extensive report, Amnesty International revealed the extent towhich Israel’s discriminatory water policies and practices are denyingPalestinians their right to access to water.
Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the MountainAquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the OPT,while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent.
The Mountain Aquifer is the only source for water for Palestinians inthe West Bank, but only one of several for Israel, which also takes foritself all the water available from the Jordan River.
While Palestinian daily water consumption barely reaches 70 litres aday per person, Israeli daily consumption is more than 300 litres perday, four times as much.
In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres perday, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergencysituations.
Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have noaccess to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them fromeven collecting rainwater.
In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violationof international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens andswimming pools.
Numbering about 450,000, the settlers use as much or more water than the Palestinian population of some 2.3 million.
In the Gaza Strip, 90 to 95 per cent of the water from its only waterresource, the Coastal Aquifer, is contaminated and unfit for humanconsumption. Yet, Israel does not allow the transfer of water from theMountain Aquifer in the West Bank to Gaza.
Stringent restrictions imposed in recent years by Israel on the entryinto Gaza of material and equipment necessary for the development andrepair of infrastructure have caused further deterioration of the waterand sanitation situation in Gaza, which has reached crisis point.
To cope with water shortages and lack of network supplies manyPalestinians have to purchase water, of often dubious quality, frommobile water tankers at a much higher price.
Others resort to water-saving measures which are detrimental to theirand their families’ health and which hinder socio-economic development.
“Over more than 40 years of occupation, restrictions imposed by Israelon the Palestinians’ access to water have prevented the development ofwater infrastructure and facilities in the OPT, consequently denyinghundreds of thousand of Palestinians the right to live a normal life,to have adequate food, housing, or health, and to economicdevelopment,” said Donatella Rovera.
Israel has appropriated large areas of the water-rich Palestinian land it occupies and barred Palestinians from accessing them.
It has also imposed a complex system of permits which the Palestiniansmust obtain from the Israeli army and other authorities in order tocarry out water-related projects in the OPT. Applications for suchpermits are often rejected or subject to long delays.
Restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of people and goods inthe OPT further compound the difficulties Palestinians face when tryingto carry out water and sanitation projects, or even just to distributesmall quantities of water.
Water tankers are forced to take long detours to avoid Israeli militarycheckpoints and roads which are out of bounds to Palestinians,resulting in steep increases in the price of water.
In rural areas, Palestinian villagers are continuously struggling tofind enough water for their basic needs, as the Israeli army oftendestroys their rainwater harvesting cisterns and confiscates theirwater tankers.
In comparison, irrigation sprinklers water the fields in the midday sunin nearby Israeli settlements, where much water is wasted as itevaporates before even reaching the ground.
In some Palestinian villages, because their access to water has been soseverely restricted, farmers are unable to cultivate the land, or evento grow small amounts of food for their personal consumption or foranimal fodder, and have thus been forced to reduce the size of theirherds.
“Water is a basic need and a right, but for many Palestinians obtainingeven poor-quality subsistence-level quantities of water has become aluxury that they can barely afford,” said Donatella Rovera.
“Israel must end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all therestrictions it imposes on Palestinians’ access to water, and takeresponsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowingPalestinians a fair share of the shared water resources.”
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The day the bulldozers came… (Feature, 27 October 2009)
Saudi Arabia: King Overturns 60-Lashes Verdict Against Journalist
(San’a) – The swift action today by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to overturn a sentence of 60 lashes against a Saudi television producer sent an important message to the country’s courts, Human Rights Watch said today.
Colombia/Venezuela: Investigate Border Killings and Attack
(Washington, DC) – The governments of Venezuela and Colombia should thoroughly and promptly investigate the recent abductions and killings of ten men by an unidentified armed group on the Venezuelan side of the border between the two countries, Human Rights Watch said today.
Iran: Overturn Death Sentences, Other Unfair Convictions
(New York) – The Iranian Judiciary should immediately quash the convictions that have been handed down by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran since the end of September against defendants accused of inciting post-election unrest, Human Rights Watch said today. The convictions all stem from unfair trials in which the accused were denied access to lawyers.
Bearing Witness in Chechnya: The Legacy of Natalia Estemirova
PEN American Center, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, CUNY’s School of Journalism, and WITNESS present:
Bearing Witness in Chechnya: The Legacy of Natalia Estemirova
Featuring
Letter to Yuri Chaika, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Regarding Recent Disappearances in Dagestan
Yuri Chaika
Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation
Dear Mr. Chaika,
Mass arrests during prayer service for activists in Iran
The Iranian authorities must immediately release dozens of people arrested on Thursday during a prayer service in support of activists detained following protests after June’s presidential election, Amnesty International has said.
The prayer service was organized by the family of Shahaboddin Tabatabaei, a prominent supporter of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was jailed for five years earlier this week for state security offences relating to the post-election unrest.
According to media reports, up to 68 people were arrested on Thursday and, in most cases, taken to Evin Prison in Tehran. Some have since been released, but most remain in detention. Some are relatives of activists who were jailed over the protests after unfair trials.
“People peacefully gathering to protest unjust prison sentences should not themselves end up in jail,” said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.
“They should be released immediately and unconditionally, alongside Shahaboddin Tabatabaei and other political figures detained since the presidential election solely for their peaceful political activities.”
Among those believed to be still detained are Saeed Nour-Mohammadi, a young member of the Islamic Participation Front, a reformist political party, who was previously detained for a few days, and Amin Shirzad, son of another member of the party, Ahmad Shirzad.
Relatives of former government officials are among those said to have been detained. These include Nasrin Akbari and Mohadeseh Mohaymani, the wife and daughter of Mohammad Hashem Mohaymani, an Interior Ministry official and governor of Golestan Province under former President Mohammad Khatami.
They also include Sakineh Karimzadeh, the wife of Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, a former government spokesman who was himself arrested after the election and has been tried for allegedly fomenting post-vote unrest and Zohra Mojarradi, the wife of detained activist Mohsen Mirdamadi. All four have now been released.
Another of those arrested and since released, reportedly today, is Mohammad Reza Jalaiepour, who had previously spent 88 days in Evin Prison following the post-election protests and had been freed on bail.
Mehrak Mirabzadeh, the wife of Shahaboddin Tabatabaei, Masoumeh Khosh-Sowlatan, the wife of former Tehran mayor Morteza Alviri, and Faezeh Abtahi, the daughter of Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, are also reported to have been released shortly after being detained. Iman and Maryam Mirabzadeh, Mehrak’s brother and sister, are believed to be still in detention.
There has been no immediate comment from the Iranian authorities, but a reformist website said that the authorities believed those detained were planning further anti-government protests on 4 November.
The names of some of those detained are as follows:
Nasrin Akbari
Nasim Chalaki
Maysam Vareh Chehr
Mehdi Fatahi
Sohayl Gohari
Mahboubeh Haghighi
Zoya Hassani
Hadi Heidari
Mohammad Reza Jalaiepour
Sakineh Karimzadeh
Masoumeh Khosh-Sowlatan
Mohammad Hossein Khourbak
Saeedeh Kordinejad
Farideh Mashini
Somayeh Mehrjou
Iman Mirabzadeh
Maryam Mirabzadeh
Ali Mirdamadi
Reza Miri
Mohadeseh Mohaymani
Ashkan Mojallel
Amin Mosharraf
Amir Mohammad Mosharraf
Mehdi Mosharraf
Mehdi Mozaffari
Mohammad Javad Mozaffari
Saeed Nour-Mohammadi
Mohsen Panahi and his sister
Pouya Ali Panah
Saeed Qorayshi
Dr Kianoush Rad, and his wife and daughter
Esmail Sahabeh
son and daughter of Saeed Shirkvand
Amin Shirzad
Mohammad Shokouhi
Mohammad Soltani
Alireza Taheri
Reyhaneh Taremi
Ata Tehranchi
Bangladesh: Bring Paramilitary Unit Torturers to Justice
(New York) – The Bangladeshi government should investigate and prosecute the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers who on October 22, 2009, arrested and allegedly tortured F.M. Masum, a journalist at the New Age newspaper, Human Rights Watch said today.
Turkey must allow refugees to return without fear
Amnesty International has called on the Turkish authorities to allow Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin to return without fear of harassment and discrimination as refugees begin to leave the Mahmur camp in northern Iraq.
Twenty-six Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin returned to Turkey from the refugee camp in Iraq earlier this week and many others are expected to follow.
The UN-administered Mahmur camp is currently home to some 11,000 refugees, who fled Turkey during the 1990s to escape human rights abuses following armed clashes between the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish army.
Nearly half of the people living in the camp are children, many of whom were born following their families’ flight from Turkey.
"Everyone has the right to leave any country, including their own, and to return of their own free will. This right is guaranteed in conventions to which Turkey is a party,” said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s expert on Turkey.
“The Turkish authorities must not only guarantee the right, they must create the conditions so that people and their families, some of whom may not have lived in Turkey at all, feel welcome. They must be able to return with dignity.”
Amnesty International has called on the Turkish authorities to:
- allow its nationals to return without any fear of harassment, discrimination, arbitrary detention or prosecution on account of having left or remained outside the country
- create conditions conducive to the refugees’ voluntary return and reintegration;
- respect the leading role of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in promoting, facilitating and coordinating voluntary repatriation and ensure UNHCR’s direct and unhindered access to all returning refugees in order to monitor their situation;
- where refugees have lost their nationality, arrange for its restoration, as well as granting it to children born outside the territory;
- in the event of refugees wishing to visit Turkey to assess the conditions there in the context of possible repatriation, facilitate such visits in cooperation with UNHCR, and the relevant Iraqi authorities.