Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 2000, pages 38-41

Issues In The News

Compiled by Delinda C. Hanley

ARABIAN PENINSULA

Amnesty Official Invited:

A Saudi official has accused Amnesty International of trying to tarnish the image of Islam with its report on alleged human rights violations in the Kingdom. “The organization knows full well that the penal system in the Kingdom is inspired by Islamic shariah,” Prince Turki Bin Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, undersecretary at the Information Ministry, told Al-Jazira newspaper on April 22. Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, minister of the interior, has invited Amnesty International to send a representative to visit and examine the facts.

World’s First Uterine Transplant:

Four Saudi doctors carried out the world’s first successful transplant of a uterus and both fallopian tubes at King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah on April 6. Dr. Wafa Mohammed Faqeeh, the head of the surgical team, said the 15-hour operation was performed on a 26-year-old Saudi woman with a donation from a 47-year-old. Dr. Faqeeh explained that her patient had had her uterus removed during a Caesarian section when her first baby was born six years ago. While Dr. Waffa emphasized that there is no guarantee of success, she has high hopes for a future pregnancy.

Aramco Reunion Held in Saudi Arabia:

The first reunion in Saudi Arabia of retired employees of the Arabian American Oil Company, or Aramco, predecessor of today’s Saudi Aramco, was held in April in Damman, Saudi Arabia, instead of in the U.S. as usual. The Saudi Gazette reported 250 Aramco veterans took photos, enjoyed slide shows and photo exhibits, and toured, marveling at the many changes to what was once a fierce desert land they called home. “Some of them just broke down in tears when they landed,” said Hadi F. Eid of Elfrahhi Travel and Tourism, which handled the tour with Saudi Aramco. He predicted that as Saudi Arabia opens up to tourism, drawing an expected two million visitors a year, the hundreds of thousands of former expatriates who used to live there will be first in line for a holiday.

Bahrain Won’t Buy U.S. Missiles:

Bahrain does not intend to buy a proposed regional anti-missile early warning system called the Cooperative Defense Initiative (CDI) offered by the United States to its Gulf Arab allies, Bahraini Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Khalifa bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa told U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen during the latter’s May 2 visit to Bahrain. Cohen offered the Cooperative Defense Initiative to all six GCC states—Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates—during his regional tour. Cohen said installing the system would mainly involve software upgrades and intelligence collection. Other expenses could include protective clothing and equipment. General Al-Khalifa said if the GCC decides to adopt the system collectively, it could be “beneficial for all of us because missile systems owned by countries like Israel, Iran and Iraq can reach anywhere in our area and threaten our countries and peoples.”

Kuwait Introduces Expat Health Plan:

Kuwait introduced a controversial annual health insurance charge for expatriate workers and their families on April 10, the Arab News reported. The premiums are set at $165 for the head of the family, $132 for a wife and $100 for every child, with a lower fee of $66 for domestic laborers, stateless Arabs know as “bidoons,” foreign wives of Kuwaitis and foreign children of Kuwaiti women. Expatriates will continue to pay $3.30 for each visit to a clinic and $6.60 for every hospital visit. Those charges have already cut patient numbers by almost 30 percent and reduced medical costs to the state by $19.8 million since their introduction in August 1999.

Oman To Build Pharmaceutical Plants:

Oman’s National Pharmaceutical Industries (NPI) has begun the construction of an 11 million riyal ($28.6 million) pharmaceutical plant in Muscat, and production of medicine is due to start in 2001, a top official said on April 25. The Ajay Group previously announced in March plans to build a 10 million riyal pharmaceutical plant in the southern city of Salalah. A spokesman from the Ministry of Health said local production would reduce the amount of pharmaceuticals the government needs to import for its 47 hospitals and 117 health clinics.

Qatar Airways Starts Direct Bahrain Flights:

Qatar Airways on April 24 began direct flights twice-daily to Bahrain for the first time amid improved relations between the two Gulf Arab states, strained for years over a border dispute. Qatar’s Communications and Transport Minister Sheikh Ahmed bin Nasser al-Thani arrived in Manama on Monday aboard the first Qatar Airways flight to the Bahraini capital. The new route should not only help facilitate the development of strong commercial ties between Bahrain and Qatar, but also help bring the people of the two countries closer.

UAE Sees End to Censorship:

A Gulf information minister has forecast that censorship in the Arab world will crumble in the next few years as a result of increased use of the Internet. Abdullah bin Zaid al-Nahayan and other top officials of the United Arab Emirates upbraided Gulf Arab media for not being critical enough of local government and policymakers. “I foresee the collapse of these [censorship] laws in our countries after five years,” Sheikh Abdullah, son of UAE President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan, said in a speech to editors of newspapers and magazines in a Dubai meeting of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council members. He also criticized Gulf English-language publications for carrying several pages of news from Pakistan, the Philippines and India but failing to carry much local community news. Sheikh Abdullah said the number of people using the Internet in the Arab world was expected to rise to 25 million over the next five years from the current 1.5 million.

UAE Court to Rule on E-mail Divorce:

A United Arab Emirates court is to rule soon in a case where a Muslim man divorced his wife by just sending her an e-mail, a newspaper reported on May 5. Under Islamic law, a man can divorce his wife by simply telling her “I divorce you,” if certain conditions are met. The daily Gulf News said the court in Dubai would have to rule if the notification of divorce through the Internet was valid under the Gulf Arab emirate’s Islamic laws. The ex-husband, a U.S. citizen of Arab origin, has since registered at a court his decision to divorce his Saudi wife, the newspaper said.

Yemeni President Visits U.S.:

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh met with President Bill Clinton on April 4 in Washington, DC, for a half-hour discussion on a wide range of topics, including Yemen’s democratic reforms and constitutional guarantees for Yemeni women to have the right of full political and economic participation. Saleh has held power for 21 years, the last 10 of which saw the unification of North Yemen and South Yemen that ushered in constitutional government and a commitment to democracy and economic reform. In New York the previous week, Saleh reiterated that Israelis of Yemeni descent might visit Yemen as tourists but not as official emissaries, and only with travel documents issued by Yemen, not Israeli passports.

FERTILE CRESCENT

Jordan Tries Suspected Terrorists:

Jordan’s military prosecutor accused 28 Arabs, 15 of whom have been in custody since Dec. 15, and the rest of whom are in hiding, of having links to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden and conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets in Jordan during New Year’s celebrations. Some of the defendants may face the death penalty if found guilty by a three-judge Jordanian security tribunal, according to an April 21 Arab News report.

Jordan’s King Sees Dual Capital for Jerusalem:

Jordanian King Abdullah II sailed across the Gulf of Aqaba to Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat for a four-hour visit—his first to Israel since assuming the throne—accompanied by his Palestinian wife, Queen Rania. Abdullah urged a dual-capital solution for Jerusalem in an Israel Television interview broadcast on April 23 after his return, saying, “When we look at Jerusalem, I believe on the political levels that Jerusalem has enough room for a Palestinian and an Israeli capital. On the religious side, I believe that Jerusalem should be a city for all of us—an open city.” Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and claims the entire city as its capital. The PLO wants East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state, either on a shared basis with Israel or redivided between Israelis and Palestinians as before 1967.

SLA Wants Israel’s Lebanon Zone:

Colonel Antoine Lahad, head of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), Israel’s proxy Lebanese militia, said in a May 8 interview with Reuters that he will continue to hold a strip of south Lebanon along the entire Israeli frontier after Israeli forces withdraw. Lahad said the new zone, run solely by his militia, would stretch from Mount Hermon (Jebel as-Sheikh), where it meets Israeli-occupied Syrian land, to the Mediterranean at Naqoura. Lahad’s vow to fight on raises questions for the U.N.’s 4,500 peacekeepers in the south, who are supposed to help Lebanon re-establish its sovereignty as Israel ends its 22-year occupation of the 15 km (nine miles) deep zone by July, with or without peace with Lebanon and Syria.

Israeli Warplanes Bomb Lebanon:

Israeli jets launched a massive attack May 5 on two of Lebanon’s power stations, plunging Beirut and northern and eastern Lebanon into darkness for the second time in three months. Israel also bombed a Hezbollah arms depot and the main highway between Beirut and Damascus, leaving a crater that made the road impassable. The cycle began 28 hours before Israel’s massive air strike as Israel shelled and bombed Lebanese villages three separate times, killing two women and injuring six people, including an elderly woman and a baby. This prompted Hezbollah to retaliate on May 4 by firing 40 rockets into the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shimona, in what was Hezbollah’s biggest attack on northern Israel in a year, killing an Israeli soldier and injuring 20 other people. Israel’s May 5 bombing was in response to the Hezbollah rockets fired on May 4.

Lebanese Bargaining Chips Freed:

Israel released 13 Lebanese detainees on April 19, many of whom were imprisoned without charges or trial for over a decade, some since they were teenagers. The men and boys were held as bargaining chips for information about Israeli pilot Ron Arad, shot down over Lebanon in 1986, and three other Israeli soldiers missing since a 1982 tank battle. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the continued detention of the Lebanese illegal and ordered their release. The detainees received heroes’ welcomes from more than 1,500 relatives and supporters upon their return to Lebanon. Israel has since drafted new legislation to allow it to hold “illegal fighters” as hostages to retrieve missing or captured Israeli soldiers. Israel held back two additional long-term Lebanese hostages.

Arab Ministers Back U.N. Role:

Three key Arab foreign ministers said on May 4 that they wanted the U.N. to take control of security in south Lebanon following Israel’s planned withdrawal from the area. It was the first time that the three, Farouq al-Charaa of Syria, Amr Moussa of Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Saud al-Faisal, had voiced support for such a U.N. role. The ministers, winding up talks in the Syrian city of Palmyra, also stressed that Israel should withdraw from Lebanon’s land, sea and air space to internationally recognized borders in compliance with U.N. Resolutions 425 and 426.

The Arab League on May 6 called for convening an international criminal court to try Israelis responsible for a massacre of 100 Lebanese civilians who took refuge at the U.N. compound at Qana on April 18, 1996, equating it with Israeli demands for justice for Holocaust victims. The 22-member body demanded in a resolution that Israel be held accountable and forced to pay compensation for the “human losses and financial and economic harm resulting from its attacks on Lebanese lands.’’

Syrian Troops Lower Profile:

Syrian troops have pulled back from some outposts and roadblocks around Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley, leaving responsibility for the positions to Lebanese forces, a Lebanese official said on April 29. The troops, part of Syrian’s 35,000-man force in Lebanon, have been redeployed because Damascus feels Lebanese security forces are strong enough to take over. The Lebanese official said the Syrian army had left checkpoints and some smaller positions, regrouping forces in camps and barracks that already house most of Syria’s military presence in Lebanon. The Syrian troops would still be in a position to move in to support the Lebanese security forces if necessary, he added.

Israel Bombing Model Syria Airports:

The Israeli air force trains its pilots by having them bomb life-sized models of Syrian airfields, according to a report in the Internet edition of the Hebrew-language Air Force Mouthpiece, a journal published by the Israeli military. Two mock Syrian air bases constructed in southern Israel include runways, outdated Skyhawk fighter jets and underground hangars.

Durrell’s Cypriot Character Shot:

A Turkish Cypriot businessman who figured as “Tahir,” a loveable rogue, in Lawrence Durrell’s book Bitter Lemons was shot dead on May 8 in Cyprus. The alleged killer, a 24-year-old former bodyguard for the victim, walked into a hotel run by Sabri Tahir, and shot him to death. The 76-year-old victim had been wheelchair-bound since an earlier shooting attack in 1996.

IRAN /IRAQ

Iranian Jews Admit Spying Charges:

Four of 13 Iranian Jews being tried on charges of spying for Israel confessed to the charges and asked for forgiveness. Hamid “Danny” Tefileen told Reuters in an interview on May 3 he spied for Israel out of religious conviction and financial need. He denied that his confession to espionage had been made under duress. Asked why he had risked his life for what officials say was a $500 per month stipend from Israeli intelligence, he said: “There was financial need [but]...there were religious issues as well, because of the promised land, because over there they told me the promised land, Israel, was my real country.” Tefileen said he had made two trips to Israel, each of about three months, and had received training from Israeli intelligence.

A second suspect, Shahrokh Paknahad, said he too had spied out of religious conviction, but he criticized Israeli authorities for misleading him into believing they would come to his aid if he was captured. “We were told by Israeli intelligence that if any of us under any circumstances were arrested, we must deny everything and they would help to get us out by bringing to bear international pressure,” Paknahad told reporters.

Iran Parliamentary Election Update:

Iran’s much-delayed second round of elections took place on May 5, just barely soon enough to permit the new parliament to convene on schedule on May 28. The hard-line Guardian’s Council has thrown out the victories of a dozen reformers, though this will have little impact on the overall balance of power in the new parliament. Turnout for the first round was lower than first reported, perhaps being 70 percent rather than over 80 percent as first reported.

Conservatives Try to Silence Media:

Conservative forces in Iran closed over a dozen reformist newspapers in their most serious effort to regain control of the society. In the days before the closures, there was an increasing crescendo of threats directed against reformers, including open talk of using violence to stop them. Some feared that a conservative coup was planned against moderate President Mohammad Khatami, or that conservatives would refuse to seat newly elected moderate members of parliament or might even suppress the new parliament. An attorney, a student leader and three journalists were arrested over the course of three weeks: Akbar Ganji (who has written about political killings in Iran); Latif Safari (who has written about the death penalty and is head of a banned newspaper); Hamid Reza Jalai-pour (who was released on bail); and journalist Emadeddin Baghi (who went on trial for writing “falsehoods” and criticizing the death penalty). A total of 17 newspapers were closed on April 23, 27, and 29. President Khatami appealed for calm amid protests.

Iraqi Civilians Killed By Jet Attacks:

Baghdad said 15 people were killed and 19 injured in the southern provinces of Wasit (Kut) and Basra by Western planes when they attacked “civilian installations” on April 6. It was the heaviest toll reported since Aug. 17 last year when Iraq said 19 civilians were killed. The official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said the jets, based in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey, flew 202 sorties over the southern “no-fly” zone and 58 sorties over the northern “no-fly” zone in the first week of April. Almost 200 people were killed in such raids last year, according to Iraqi reports.

Iran Returns Nearly 2,000 Iraqi POWs:

Iran completed the repatriation of 1,999 prisoners captured during the 1980-88 war with Iraq, Red Cross and Iraqi officials said on April 12. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which supervised the releases over several days, said it was the biggest repatriation of Iraqi POWs since 1998, when more than 5,000 were freed. Upon their return, thousands of Iraqis lined roads to greet the returning prisoners, chanting, ululating and showering the men with roses. Relatives often had difficulty recognizing the freed prisoners, some of whom had spent up to 18 years in Iranian captivity. The return of the prisoners was nearly derailed when President Saddam Hussain, after reading a novel written by an Iraqi prisoner who was recently released by Iran, accused Iran of torturing Iraqi prisoners “in a manner which was not even used by Nazis.”

ISRAEL/PALESTINE

Israel To Sell AWACS System:

Despite U.S. pressure to cancel Israel’s controversial $2 billion planned sale of the Phalcon airborne surveillance system to China, Prime Minister Ehud Barak remained resolute to go ahead and sell at least one. The United States has said the plane would upset the military balance in Asia and pose a threat to U.S.-backed Taiwan. Israeli officials have said the plane is defensive in nature. China has an option of ordering three to seven more planes, but Israel has not said whether it would sell the additional planes. Israel Aircraft Industries president and CEO Moshe Keret told the Jerusalem Post April 14 that Israel also wants to increase its sales of military equipment to India, despite American fears about exacerbating tensions in South Asia.

Israeli Cabinet Approves Tax Reforms:

A wide-ranging tax reform plan was approved by Israel’s cabinet and sent to the Knesset for a June vote. The most important change was the introduction of a 25 percent capital gains tax on local stock sales, as well as on earnings of interest from securities and savings accounts. Inheritance taxes will also be reintroduced after a 20-year lapse, though they will only apply to estates of $500,000 or more. Overall tax payments for most Israelis will decline under the new rules, if passed, with the threshold for the highest tax rate—50 percent—to be raised from about $55,000 to slightly more than $100,000.

Ethnic Cleansing Near Jerusalem:

Israeli occupation forces attacked the Palestinian village of Issawiya in the occupied West Bank near Jerusalem, destroying at least six houses and 48 tents without advance warning in the middle of the night, and leaving 80 people homeless, on April 23. The soldiers also uprooted some 150 olive trees in the operation. The Palestinian homeowners say this is part of the ongoing Barak government effort to ethnically cleanse the area east of Jerusalem in order to expand the illegal Jewish-only settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. They have documents to prove the land is theirs but they do not have permits to build on it since these are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain.

7,000 Homes Rising in Settlements:

More than 7,000 homes for Israeli settlers are being built in the West Bank and Gaza, according to Israeli Peace Now reports. The Israeli Housing Ministry announced that it had interrupted a recent freeze on new West Bank construction for “an exception” to build 200 new units in Ma’ale Adumim on the West Bank near Jerusalem. The announcement soured “final status” peace talks in Eilat on April 30.

Settlers’ Sewage Creates Big Stink:

Israeli and Palestinian soldiers and civilians scuffled on April 24 as Palestinian residents tried to block the flow of foul-
smelling waste they say is being emptied onto their land from the Jewish settlement of Kefar Darom in the central Gaza Strip. Palestinians have complained for years that the stream of sewage is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and disease. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers tried to stop the Palestinians from using bulldozers to pile soil on top of the roadside channel and Palestinian soldiers joined in to protect the Palestinian demonstrators until a compromise was reached to allow Palestinians to fill in only part of the ditch.

NORTH AFRICA

Most Algerians Support Bouteflika:

About two-thirds of Algerian voters support President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, crediting him with improving security since his election a year ago, an opinion poll showed on April 16. The poll, conducted by the Acom Agency and published in the El Watan newspaper, showed that 79.3 percent of 1,583 adult respondents believed the security situation had improved since Bouteflika’s election.

Amnesty Hunts for Missing Algerians:

An Amnesty International team is trying to compile full lists of thousands of people reported missing in eight years of political violence. “We carry files of 4,000 missing people...Our mission here is to prepare full lists by checking names and other details,” Amnesty spokesman Roger Clark told a May 3 news conference. Algerian human rights activists say more than 22,000 people have been reported missing by their relatives, many of them “kidnapped” by government security and paramilitary forces waging a relentless campaign to quell an Islamist rebellion.

Egypt Behind Nuclear Condemnation:

Egypt has headed an Arab bid to draw Israel into talks on a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Israel, along with India, Pakistan and Cuba, is one of the four nations not to have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which is under review at the U.N. Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh called Egypt’s position “antagonistic and unfriendly. It [Egypt] is trying to break our policy and we hope that the United States, according to tradition and according to the friendly relations we share, will act” to protect Israel from U.N. condemnation, Sneh said. Israel is widely believed to have some 200 nuclear warheads, despite an official policy that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.

Egypt To Restore Ancient Aqueduct:

Egypt plans to restore one of Cairo’s key Islamic monuments, an aqueduct that carried water from the Nile to the Citadel of Saladin, the Muslim ruler who fought the Crusaders to recapture Jerusalem. The $11 million restoration of the 12th century aqueduct is part of a much larger project to renovate the old Islamic quarter of Cairo, said Egypt’s chief archeologist, Gaballah Ali Gaballah. Area residents, mostly low-income families crowded in huts, are to be relocated, and the surrounding plots to be turned into public gardens. Egyptian archeologists recently completed a year-long restoration of the largest of five third century A.D. Roman baths found near the Mediterranean coast in the northern Sinai, 80 miles northeast of Cairo.

Lockerbie Trial Begins in Netherlands:

Defense counsel for Libyans Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, began trying to incriminate Palestinian groups for the killing of 270 people in December 1988. The defense also began slipping into proceedings suggestions of sinister involvement by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies, implying key Lockerbie evidence could have been spirited away to American agents or even planted at the crash scene.

Morocco Debates Plan for Women:

The Moroccan government said on May 3 it would set up a body including Muslim scholars, sociologists, government officials and women’s groups to seek a compromise on a controversial plan to give more rights to women. The draft plan, unveiled last year, triggered a heated debate between liberal activists and Islamic fundamentalists. In particular, the Islamists rejected proposals to ban polygamy, raise the legal age for marriage from 14 to 18 and allow a woman half her husband’s wealth in case of divorce or death. The plan also put the right to divorce in the hands of a judge rather than the husband.

Tunisian Journalist Ends Fast:

Tunisian journalist Taoufik Ben Brick, correspondent for the French daily La Croix, ended his hunger strike on May 11 in Algeria. His fast started more than a month earlier to draw international attention to Tunisia’s withdrawal of his passport last year. Tunisian authorities lifted a travel ban and dropped charges of defamation against Ben Brick, who had criticized Tunisia’s human rights record.

Tunisia Restores Ties with Sudan:

Tunisia and Sudan have agreed to resume diplomatic ties a decade after they were severed, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said on May 4. Tunisia is the latest Arab country, after Egypt and Algeria, to repair ties with Sudan after President Omar Hassan al-Bashir effectively dismissed powerful Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi in December from his position as speaker of parliament. Bashir dissolved Sudan’s parliament in a three-month state of emergency announced on Dec. 12, which has since been extended to the end of 2000. Parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled for October.

CENTRAL ASIA

Turkey’s Human Rights Commission Reports:

The head of Turkey’s parliamentary human rights commission said on May 9 that police had used wind-up telephones to electrocute suspects in cellars equipped with an array of torture equipment. The commission recently released a report that said torture was widespread in Istanbul police stations, where prisoners were beaten and sprayed with high-pressure water in dirty cells. While the report shows Turkey is still far from meeting European Union human rights standards, some see the fact that such gruesome evidence is coming to light at all as evidence of a will to reform.

THE SUBCONTINENT

Drought Hits Pakistan, Afghanistan and India:

A three-year drought has claimed the lives of more than 100 people, and thousands more are on the verge of starvation, in Pakistan’s westernmost province of Baluchistan. Southeastern Pakistan has been ravaged by its worst drought in 100 years, causing thousands of people to flee the region. Daily temperatures have been hovering around 129 degrees in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Large parts of western and central India, particularly Gujarat and Rajasthan states bordering Pakistan, have also been affected by severe drought, raising the specter of acute hunger that could affect an estimated 50 million people. This is the worst drought in a century and the problem will likely worsen this summer, as little rain is forecast.

Family Among 11 Killed in Kashmir:

Four members of a security officer’s family were among 11 people killed in a rash of separatist violence in India’s insurgency-plagued state of Jammu and Kashmir on May 9. A police spokesman said militants barged into a special police officer’s house and fired indiscriminately at his family.

Meanwhile, at Srinagar airport thousands of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) supporters welcomed separatist leader Yasin Malik, who on May 9 was released from an Indian jail after nearly six months of detention. The JKLF, which declared a cease-fire in 1994, is fighting “politically’’ for Kashmir’s independence from both India and Pakistan, which have gone to war twice over the Himalayan territory.