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

RFI correspondent in Niger was jailed last September. He was accused of having links with the Tuareg rebellion, and was charged with “complicity in undermining the authority of the state”. He could be sentenced to spend his life in prison.

Amnesty International considers him as a political prisoner.

Persons interested in the press freedom can follow his case on this site (French, English, Spanish) and sign a petition.

I have to say that I am quite upset by the difference in the treatment in the media between the case of Thomas Dandois and Pierre Creisson and the support, that was until recently rather weak, expressed to Moussa Kaka. It’s time for the press to stop discriminating between the local journalists and the reporters. We are all doing the same job. We don’t take greater risks than them. They deserve at least as much support as we do.

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.

Thomas and Pierre are two French reporters. Al-Hassane was their driver. On Dec. 17th, they were arrested as they were heading back to Niamey, after a report they have shot clandestinely (a previous official application was rejected) on the Tuareg rebellion movement, called MNJ, in northern Niger.

As well as Moussa Kaka, the RFI correspondent in Niger arrested three months earlier, they spent Christmas in jail. Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, another local journalist, was arrested last October, also for reporting on the Tuareg rebels.

Thomas and Pierre were wharged for attempt to the State security -a crime in Niger, for which they could face death penalty.

You can follow up the case on pierre.thomas.alhassane.info/.

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