Nicolas Henin, a reporter’s blog

Reporters without borders (RSF) seems to be too busy these days (the Tibetan issue and the Olympics in Beijing –what’s the link please with the advocacy for the press freedom?!) to pay attention to the last developements in the detention of our AP colleague, the Pulitzer prize winner Bilal Hussein.

Last weeks, an Iraqi judicial panel met twice and dismissed all the criminal allegations against the Iraqi photographer. It ordered it release from the US-run military custody where he has been kept for more than two years.

Photo courtesy AP.

AP writes that “the panel ordered a “halt to all legal proceedings” and said Hussein (…) should be “released immediately” unless he is wanted in connection with something else”.

Bilal’s case enlights the problem of dozens of thousands of Iraqi detainees who should benefit from an amnesty law enacted last February, aiming at moving the country towards national reconciliation (a law US officials commented as a major achievement).

The US say that they intend to review the Iraqi judicial panel’s orders before deciding on releasing the prisonners from custody, and stupulate that their U.N. Security Council mandate allows them to detain anyone in Iraq deemed a security risk to coalition or Iraqi forces, even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered that prisoner freed.

Like most of the detainees, Bilal was never brought to trial, nor Iraqi or US, nor civilian or military.

To follow the case :
The AP’s site on Bilal Hussein
www.freebilal.org

This is the ad that sparked heated comment on many US conservative blogs and web sites. It belongs to a campaign that promotes ‘absolut scenarios’ under the slogan ‘In an Absolut world’. This one, dedicated to the Mexican market, shows a 1830s-era map when Mexico included several Southwestern US states, including California and Texas. An AP wire writes that ‘Mexico still resents losing that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence.

But this ad ignited heated comments, like : “In an Absolut world, a company that produces vodka fires its entire marketing department in a desperate attempt to win back enraged North American customers after a disastrous ad campaign backfires,” on web sites like Malkin.

Absolut said the ad was designed for a Mexican audience and intended to recall “a time which the population of Mexico might feel was more ideal.”

“As a global company, we recognize that people in different parts of the world may lend different perspectives or interpret our ads in a different way than was intended in that market, and for that we apologize.

The very same US activists who gained the withdrawal of this campaign by Absolut are probably today demonstrating for the ‘freedom of Tibet’.

Maybe could they consider just for a minute the Chinese stance and understand what it means to have part of what you consider your own territory, based on historical facts, amputated.

The integrity of a national territory is among the most sensitive issues in the international law. This question can not be highjacked by a public relations campaign like the one we are witnessing.

The question is not if I’m advocating for the Chinese or promoting the oppression of the Tibetans. The question is that the future of a territory (and consequently the relationship between two people) should not been adressed through a world opinion campaign that seems better marketed than an ad for Absolut.

Where are the Chadian opponents arrested in the aftermath of the attempted coup initiated by the rebels in early February ? The cases of Ngarlejy Yorongar and Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh are especially worrying.

Last Friday, Chadian foreign and justice ministers assured in a press conference in Paris that Yorongar reappeared “in his neighbourhood in N’Djamena’. The two officials accused him of disappearing voluntarily and playing ‘hide and seek’ with the authorities.

Monday 25th Feb., French Foreign minister Bernard Kouchner was interviewed on the parliamentary station LCP-Sénat, and declared that Yorongar was actually hiding. ‘Mr. Yorongar (…) was found. He is still hiding, but quite reliable witnesses have seen him and he is alive,’ he said.

The problem is that these ‘quite reliable witnesses’ quoted by the French FM must be Chadian governemental officials. This assertion contradicts independent sources.
Meanwhile, Chadian human rights activists and the US-based Human Right Watch denied these statements, saying that the opponents were last seen in army custody.

“The government says it doesn’t know how Yorongar and Ibni disappeared,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Our inquiry leaves little doubt that it was the government which took them, and we hold the government fully responsible for their well-being and safe return”, the organization writes in its statement.

The question is : did Bernard Kouchner know about the opponents’ whereabouts when he said they were hiding ?

It would be a major blow for the French African diplomacy if it eventually happens that these opposition leaders do not reappear alive. But the French diplomacy is too busy working for the release of Ingrid Betancourt to do something for Déby’s opponents…

I heard recently several human rights activists campaigning for the release of jailed opponents in Syria. Those who have signed the «Beirut-Damascus declaration», appealing for a renewal of the Syrian-Lebanese relationship, have been particularly targeted in the last weeks by the Syrian security services.

I had the chance to meet some of the key leaders of this Syrian opposition (namely Riyad Seif and Anwar al-Bunni) during one of my trips to Damascus some time ago. They are deeply Syrian –not traitors or spies- and they want nothing but the improvement of the political life in their country. They constitute a rich ground for a modern civil society.

But talking about political prisoners, what about Syrian Arab neighbours ?

I found old but very interesting figures on Syriacomment.com, a comprehensive blog written by Joshua Landis and dedicated to the Syrian politics, history and religion.
This blog reports that the Syrian human rights defenders themselves estimate to around 200 the number of political detainees. Around 180 of them are Kurdish militants (territorial integrity is a key issue in Syria as well as in many countries in the region).

Yesterday, I read in the news that Egypt arrested another 70 persons charged to be linked with the muslim brotherhood, a body that is officially prohibited under the Egyptian state of emergency rule, even if it is somehow tolerated. In total, up to 30,000 opponents are reported jailed for political purposes in Egypt. Landis elaborates: ‘Amnesty International claims: “Torture is systematically practised in detention centres throughout Egypt, and victims of torture and their relatives continued to report harassment by security agents. The death penalty continued to be used extensively by criminal courts”.’
Landis reviews the neighbouring countries (most of them allies to the West) – Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia. All of them hold many opponents in prison. And all of them practice torture.

This said, yes, I ask the Syrian governement to release the political prisoners it keeps in the country, especially in this infamous jail in the outskirts of Palmyra. But the human rights of a Syrian are the same as the human rights of an Egyptian or an Iraqi. Human rights campaigners must not be the tools of an unbalanced international politicy.