Miliband Should Press Syria on RightsBBSNews 2008-11-17 -- London (HRW) The UK foreign secretary, David Miliband, should use his visit to Syria to raise human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said today. In particular, Miliband should urge the Syrian government to release activists detained solely for exercising freedom of expression and association. He should also urge the Syrian authorities to make public all information about the violent suppression of a riot at Sednaya prison in July 2008.Miliband will be the first high-level British official to visit Damascus since then-Prime Minister Tony Blair held talks with President Bashar al-Asad in October 2001. Miliband said at a news conference on November 13 that he had accepted the invitation after what he called "an important change in approach by the Syrian government, and notably the historic decision to exchange ambassadors with Lebanon." He also said he had been pressing Syria for cooperation on counterterrorism, Lebanon, Iraq, and Middle East peace efforts."Syria may be changing its approach to the region, but it still has not changed the way it treats its people," said Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch. "Miliband should insist that it improve its human rights record as a condition of warmer relations with the UK and European Union."Syria continues to operate under emergency rule imposed in 1963, and Miliband's visit comes at a time of increased repression. On October 29, a Damascus criminal court sentenced a dozen leading democracy advocates to 30 months in prison on charges of "weakening national sentiment" and "spreading false or exaggerated news that would affect the morale of the country". The authorities had detained the activists, including a former member of parliament, Riad Seif, after they participated in a meeting in December 2007 of the National Council of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change, an umbrella group of opposition and pro-democracy groups. Two other prominent activists, Michel Kilo and Mahmud `Issa, are serving prison terms for having called in May 2006 for improved relations between Lebanon and Syria -- one of the benchmarks Miliband has cited as an example of Syria's progress.In several recent speeches, Miliband has emphasized the UK's support for human rights and said that the UK should be on the side of what he called "civilian surges," those pushing for greater freedom and democracy in authoritarian states. Yet, at his news conference on November 13, Miliband did not mention any of the Syrians detained for pursuing greater freedom and democracy. Instead, he said the talks would focus on regional politics and counterterrorism."Michel Kilo and Mahmud `Issa are in prison for seeking the same thing that Miliband says the Syrians are supporting," Porteous said. "The foreign secretary should be true to his words and get behind the ‘civilian surge' in Syria."Syria's security services continue a system of forced disappearances -- detaining people arbitrarily and frequently refusing to disclose their whereabouts for weeks.The Syrian authorities still restrict freedom of expression, and there is no independent press. The government has extended to online outlets restrictions it has traditionally applied to print and televised media, detaining and trying a number of journalists and activists for posting information online.Karim `Arbaji, 29, the moderator of www.akhawia.net, a popular online forum for Syrian youth covering social and political issues, is facing trial before the State Security Court, charged with "spreading false information that may weaken national sentiment." The Syrian government's censorship extends to popular websites, such as www.facebook.com and www.youtube.com.The authorities' control of information in Syria is reflected in the complete blackout on any information concerning the prison riot that occurred at Sednaya prison in July. On the morning of July 5, Syrian military police opened fire on inmates at the military-run prison in an attempt to quell a riot that began following an aggressive prison search.Four months after the incident, there is still no information about how the prison standoff ended, or the exact number and names of those killed and wounded. Human Rights Watch obtained the names of nine inmates who were believed killed. Syrian human rights organizations reported that as many as 25 may have been killed. The families of inmates have been unable to obtain any information about their relatives.Human Rights Watch said that the British foreign secretary should urge his Syrian counterpart to order an independent investigation into the police's use of lethal force at the prison and to make public immediately all information about the riot, including the names of those wounded or killed.For more of Human Rights Watch's work on Syria, please visit: HRW Syria Homepage.###
HRW Calls on Obama Administration to Adopt Fair and Effective Policy Reforms Barack Obama Image Courtesy: Senate.gov More BBSNews images are available in BBSNews Photos. BBSNews 2008-11-17 -- Washington, DC (HRW) Upon taking office, President-elect Barack Obama should decisively repudiate the abusive counterterrorism practices of the past seven years and adopt fair and effective policy reforms, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.The Human Rights Watch paper, "Fighting Terrorism Fairly and Effectively: Recommendations for President-elect Barack Obama," outlines 11 steps that Obama should take to reform US counterterrorism practices. Closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, requiring the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to abide by the humane interrogation rules that apply to the military, and putting an end to renditions to torture are chief among them."For far too long, the United States has undermined its ability to fight terror by adopting short-sighted policies that allowed torture and indefinite detention without charge," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "The United States urgently needs President-elect Obama to live up to his commitment to right the wrongs of the last seven years, and to regain the moral high ground in the fight against terrorism."The 28-page briefing paper urges Obama to prosecute Guantanamo detainees suspected of terrorism in federal civilian courts and to release or transfer the others. To start this process, he should designate a high-level interagency task force to review the detainees' files and decide who should be brought to trial and who should be released.Human Rights Watch also called on the incoming administration to admit into the United States some of the Guantanamo detainees who have already been slated for release but cannot be returned home because of concern that they would be subject to torture, and to step up negotiations with US allies around the world to find solutions for the others.The new president should reject calls to create a preventive detention system in the United States as a way to "solve" the Guantanamo problem. Such a system would have the same major defects as the Guantanamo system, as detainees would be held without charge and without a meaningful chance to contest the evidence against them. Preventive detention would be based on assumptions about future behavior that are impossible to rebut.Human Rights Watch cautioned that any attempt to create a preventive detention system in the United States would almost certainly embroil the administration in controversy over detainee policy and undercut gains made by closing Guantanamo.Within the first days or weeks of taking office, Obama should take a number of additional steps to signal a major shift in US counterterrorism policy, Human Rights Watch said. Among his first acts, he should issue an executive order requiring the CIA to follow the humane interrogation rules adopted by the US military, announce an end to the CIA secret detention program, and sign the Convention against Enforced Disappearances.Human Rights Watch also called on Obama to work with Congress to create a non-partisan investigatory body (a truth commission) with subpoena power to investigate abuses related to US counterterrorism policies and practices. This commission should specifically address who should be held accountable for these abuses and how such accountability can be achieved. It should also make recommendations regarding what steps should be taken to ensure that these abuses do not happen again."The United States must examine and account for the abuses of the past seven years in the fight against terrorism to understand what went wrong, and ensure that this ugly chapter in American history is never repeated," Roth said.The following is a full list of Human Rights Watch's recommendations to President-elect Obama on counterterrorism issues: - Close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay;
- Abolish the military commissions and prosecute terrorist suspects in federal court;
- Reject preventive detention (detention without trial) as an alternative to prosecuting terrorist suspects;
- Reject the "global war on terror" as the basis for detaining terrorist suspects;
- Issue an executive order to implement the ban on torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment;
- End the CIA detention program;
- Prohibit renditions to torture;
- Account for past abuses;
- Provide redress for abuse;
- Repudiate Justice Department memos and presidential directives that permit torture and other abuses; and
- Protect innocent victims of persecution abroad from being defined as terrorists.
The Human Rights Watch briefing paper, "Fighting Terrorism Fairly and Effectively: Recommendations for President-elect Barack Obama," is available online. For a broader list of recommendations to the new administration, please see the October 2008 Human Rights Watch briefing paper, "Human Rights Agenda for the New Administration," is available online. ###
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