Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 2000 Issue No.510

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A human rights disgrace

PALESTINIANS confronting Israeli forces in the occupied territories are in a "bleak" situation that requires international intervention, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said Monday.

"I was to a very real extent shocked and dismayed and even devastated by the impact of the present conflict in the occupied territories in particular," Robinson told reporters.

She spoke after handing in to the United Nations a hard-hitting report on her visit earlier this month to the Middle East.

She urged the establishment of an international monitoring body, which Israel has so far rejected, and said countries that are part of the Geneva Convention on war should "assume their responsibility" regarding the conduct of forces in the occupied territories.

Robinson called for "measures to be taken to reduce the terrible violence." Robinson herself was subject to assault when Israeli settlers opened fire on her convoy during her visit.

"Those located in the midst of heavily populated Palestinian areas should be removed," she insisted.

Flying out of Baghdad

SYRIA has begun to release some 600 political prisoners on the orders of President Bashar Al-Assad amid calls for a national political debate which would include the opposition.

Officials told Reuters on Sunday that Al-Assad had also ordered the closure of Mazzeh Prison which previously held opposition politicians, former presidents and ministers who led or participated in failed coups or anti-government movements.

The prison, on a hilltop overlooking Damascus, had already been emptied and the remaining small number of prisoners freed, the officials said. Other prisoners, pardoned on Thursday by Al-Assad, were being freed in batches of 50 to 100 per day. They said they included Islamists, communists and others opposed to the country's ruling Baath Party, as well as some prisoners arrested only a few months ago after opposing the peace process with Israel. Political sources said earlier those to be released included some Lebanese prisoners but it was not clear whether any had been freed so far. No figure was available in Damascus on the number of Lebanese held in Syrian jails but Lebanese opposition parties put the number at 150.

Unofficial reports put the total number of political prisoners at around 1,500.

Al-Assad promised reform after succeeding his father Hafez Al-Assad, who died in June. His amnesty order followed unprecedented calls within the country for more political reform and the release of political prisoners, including a statement signed by 99 leading artists, writers and intellectuals.

The killing season

THIS WEEK two senior Iraqi officials flew from Iraq to destinations abroad in defiance of the UN air embargo imposed on Iraq since 1990. Previously, Iraqi officials used to first travel overland from Baghdad to Jordan or Syria to be able to fly anywhere. On Saturday Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Aziz flew to Syria and Moscow from Baghdad on his way to an official visit to China on the first direct flight by a cabinet minister since the sanctions.

"This is natural [to come by plane]... There is no ban on civil aviation travel. This is an American lie," Aziz said.

Aziz's flight to Damascus is also the first direct one from Iraq to Syria in nearly two decades, marking a milestone in Iraqi-Syrian relations. Syria and Iraq severed diplomatic ties after the outbreak of the 1988-89 Iraq-Iran war, in which Damascus sided with Tehran.

Aziz also flew to Moscow and China -- Iraq's two closest allies in the Security Council -- in an attempt to gain international support to end sanctions imposed on his country.

A day later, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan also left Baghdad for India aboard an Iraqi Airways plane. Ramadan, who was accompanied by Oil Minister Amer Rashid, briefed Indian officials on "the effects of the unjust embargo...and the continuing aggression carried out by American and British planes [in the imposed no-fly zones]," said the official Iraqi INA agency.

Blasted again

IN LESS than a week, a second bomb exploded in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, slightly injuring three Britons, and confirming fears that suspected militant groups in the oil-rich region will pursue their escalation of violence against American and British targets.

The first bomb, which blasted on 17 November, killed engineer Christopher Rodway and injured his wife, while two of the injured in the second blast were employed by Al-Salam Aircraft Company, a Saudi firm half owned by US aircraft giant Boeing Company.

However, no one has yet claimed responsibility for the two blasts. Britain has offered to help Saudi police in their investigations. However, the offer has so far been declined.

Correction:

In its issue of 2-8 November, Al-Ahram Weekly ran an item entitled "Deciphering ZNN." The item had been sent to the Weekly by e-mail, and was incorrectly attributed to the sender, a West Bank resident. We have since learned that the author is in fact Maan Abu Ghazaleh, a resident of San Francisco. We duly apologise for this unintentional error.

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