Human rights conditions deteriorated across North Africa in 2009, with unfair trials in political cases the norm, and a narrowing space for independent journalists and associations to operate, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2010.
Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia are among the 15 North African and Middle Eastern countries, and more than 90 countries worldwide, covered in the 612-page World Report 2010, Human Rights Watch's 20th annual global review of human rights practices. The report argues that nations responsible for the worst human rights abuses have over the past year intensified a concerted attack against human rights defenders and organizations that document abuse.
"Morocco cracked down hard on those who broke the taboos against critical discussion of the monarchy, Islam, and Western Sahara," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The presidents of Algeria and Tunisia, both re-elected after the constitutions were amended so they could run yet again, showed no signs of allowing greater space for dissent."
The report says there was backsliding on human rights overall in Morocco, undermining progress earlier in the decade. The government imprisoned a magazine editor and a human rights activist for raising sensitive topics, increased politically motivated travel restrictions against Sahrawi activists, and convicted political activists in unfair trials.
President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, re-elected a fifth time with no real opposition, tolerated almost no dissent, using unfair trials and omnipresent plainclothes police to stifle the ability of Tunisians to speak and associate freely.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, also re-elected by a huge margin, maintained Algeria's state of emergency, under which civil liberties, such as the right to organize meetings and demonstrations, are tightly restricted.
MOROCCO
Repressive Legislation Punishes Government Critics
Morocco has a lively civil society and independent press. But authorities, aided by complaisant courts, use repressive legislation to punish and imprison peaceful opponents, especially those who violate taboos against criticizing the king or the monarchy, questioning the "Moroccanness" of Western Sahara, or "denigrating" Islam.
The government relies on laws providing prison terms for "defamatory" or "false" speech to prosecute critical reporting and commentary. Driss Chahtane, editor of al-Mish'al weekly, has been in prison since October for an article about the king's health. A human rights activist, Chekib el-Khayari from Nador, is completing the first year of a three-year sentence for "gravely insulting state institutions" because he accused state officials of complicity in illegal drug-trafficking. On November 14, Moroccan authorities summarily deported one Sahrawi activist, Aminatou Haidar, on the pretext that she had renounced her Moroccan citizenship by the manner in which she had completed a border entry form. The government allowed her to return home 33 days later under international pressure.
On July 28 the Rabat Court of Appeals convicted all 35 defendants in the so-called "Belliraj" case of forming a terrorist network, basing the verdicts almost entirely on the statements attributed to the defendants by the police, even though most defendants had repudiated those statements before the investigating judge and all repudiated the statements at trial. The court refused to investigate allegations of torture and falsified statements. The defendants included six well-known political figures, including two party leaders.
"Morocco's backtracking on rights became apparent to all during 2009," Whitson said. "Developments in 2010 will reveal whether authorities intend to reinforce this negative trend or put the country back on a path of progress on rights."
Human Rights Watch said that the two most significant steps Morocco could take to resume progress are to repeal laws that penalize nonviolent speech or protest that crosses the "red lines:" criticizing the monarchy, Morocco's claim to the Western Sahara, or Islam; and to implement King Mohammed VI's call for consolidating judicial independence by ensuring that courts respect the rights of defendants to challenge incriminating evidence, such as their statements to the police, and to present pertinent witnesses and other evidence in their own defense.
TUNISIA
No Space for Opposition Voices
President Ben Ali won a fifth term in a campaign that allowed no space for opposition voices on the critical issues. Authorities prevent Tunisian human rights organizations and independent journalists from operating freely, and the police impose heavy and arbitrary restrictions on the liberties of released political prisoners.
The country, which has one of the region's longest traditions of independent human rights activity, is today without a single human rights monitoring group that is allowed to operate both legally and freely. The year ended with journalists Taoufik Ben Brik and Zouhair Makhlouf behind bars for their critical reporting and commentary, and hundreds of young men serving prison terms on charges under the anti-terrorism law, even though they were never charged with preparing or carrying out specific acts of violence.
"Tunisia's intolerance for human rights dissent makes it a prime example of a worldwide trend among repressive countries to cover up abuses by trying to silence the messenger," Whitson said.
Tunisia's top priority for 2010 should be to strengthen judicial independence by ensuring that trials are fair, that defendants enjoy all their rights to present relevant evidence, and that judges issue verdicts based on the evidence presented before them in court, Human Rights Watch said.
ALGERIA
Restrictions Limit Civil Liberties
Algeria endured its 18th year under an emergency law that restricts civil liberties. Authorities banned public gatherings, such as outdoor demonstrations and even seminars organized by human rights organizations. The families of the thousands of Algerians whom state agents "disappeared" during the political strife of the 1990s received little or no information about the fate of their loved ones. Meanwhile, the 2006 Law on Peace and National Reconciliation provided a legal framework for the impunity enjoyed de facto by the perpetrators of "disappearances" and other atrocities committed during the 1990s, and for the penalization of criticism of the way the state handled political violence during that era. And, as in Morocco and Tunisia, journalists risked prison terms because of laws that chill free expression by providing penal sanctions for defamation.
"In Algeria, political violence is down compared to when President Bouteflika first took office in 1999," Whitson said. "But while Algerians are safer physically, they are less free when it comes to criticizing and challenging government policies."
Human Rights Watch urged Algeria to roll back the restrictions that muzzle independent media and civil society, and that criminalize questioning the state's handling of the political violence of the 1990s.
Showing posts with label Morocco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morocco. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Saturday, May 17, 1997
MOBUTU GIVES UP, LEAVING KINSHASA AND CEDING POWER
Ending nearly 32 years of rule in Africa's third-largest country, President Mobutu Sese Seko yielded power on Friday. He quietly slipped out of this besieged capital aboard a flight to his northern hometown, which diplomats described as a brief stopover en route to permanent exile. By early evening, there were unconfirmed reports here that Mr. Mobutu, 66, had already left his hometown, Gbadolite, presumably for Morocco, where the President maintains one of many luxurious palaces. Moroccan officials acknowledged that Mr. Mobutu's plane had been given landing rights, but would not confirm whether Mr. Mobutu was on his way there.
Mr. Mobutu's departure came as rebels who have fought a stunningly successful seven-month war against the Government drew within five miles of Kinshasa's international airport at the city's edge, Western diplomats said, and readied themselves to take over control of the capital. Mr. Mobutu, who had resisted entreaties to hand over power, finally did so after his top generals warned him in a series of nighttime meetings that they could neither defend him or the city of Kinshasa any longer.
Diplomats said on Friday that Zaire's generals were trying to make contact with leaders of the rebellion to arrange their peaceful entry into the city so as to avoid destructive fighting or a repeat of the devastating pillaging the capital has already seen twice this decade. Late Friday, however, reports reached here from the de facto rebel capital, Lubumbashi, that the rebel foreign minister, Bizima Karaha, had demanded the unconditional surrender of Zaire's military before hostilities are called off. In the first possible sign of an unraveling of the remnants of Zaire's Army, Zairian security officials reported Friday night that Gen. Mahele Lioko, the Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Staff, had been killed by officers opposed to talks with the rebels. Diplomats said they could only confirm that General Mahele had been detained at a military camp at the edge of town, where gunfire was heard Friday evening.
Zairian security officers said that on hearing the news, the Prime Minister, Gen. Likulia Bolongo, took refuge in the French Embassy. Late Friday evening, General Likulia's family was seen arriving at the Inter-Continental Hotel. Early this morning, a Western military analyst said that a rebel company traveling along the railroad tracks had entered central Kinshasa. ''Things are coming to a climax very quickly,'' he said. ''The situation is very dangerous now, but I expect it will all be over shortly.'' Mr. Mobutu delivered no message to a nation he has dominated almost since independence from Belgium in 1960. Instead, the first word that people here heard of the news came in foreign radio broadcasts.
Reading a Government statement before a hastily gathered assembly of journalists in Kinshasa on Friday afternoon, the Information Minister, Kin Kiey Mulumba, said that Mr. Mobutu acknowledged that negotiations with the rebels had failed. As a result, he said, the President had ''ceased to intervene in the conduct of the affairs of state.'' Mr. Mulumba said that Mr. Mobutu had not formally resigned from office and could not directly hand over power to the rebel leader, Laurent Kabila, because the country's laws forbade such a transition. People close to Mr. Mobutu said that the deliberate ambiguity allowed a famously vainglorious leader to depart believing that he had fulfilled an oft-repeated vow that he would never be known as the former President, but only as the late President. Given the advanced prostate cancer that has visibly weakened him in recent weeks, many foreign diplomats say that they expect Mr. Mobutu's health will soon fail him.
Mr. Mulumba added that the Government would continue discussions with the rebels over new political arrangements for the country, and said that the Constitution empowered the newly elected head of the National Assembly, Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo, to lead future negotiations. Even as Mr. Mobutu sought to put a good face on his departure, his army commanders made it clear Friday that they had no intention of fighting the rebels any longer. 'It is not military means that we lack,'' said a Defense Ministry official. ''But General Mahele does not want to sacrifice a whole people because of a battle for the power of a single man. That's finished.'' Besides being Chief of Staff and Deputy Prime Minister, General Mahele also served as Defense Minister. He was one of three top officers, including the Prime Minister, General Likulia , who visited Mr. Mobutu on Thursday evening to inform him that they could no longer defend the city or protect him. Western diplomats said the officers, also including Gen. Nzimbi Ngbale, the commander of Mr. Mobutu's feared Presidential Guard, then urged the President to leave the country. Zairian security sources said Friday night that General Nzimbi had crossed the Congo River to the Republic of Congo.
A member of Mr. Mobutu's entourage said the President sent the three generals away in fury when they first approached him about ending the war effort and leaving the country. A second meeting was held at midnight, this associate of the President said. Mr. Mobutu then said he needed time to reflect. At 4 A.M. Friday, Mr. Mobutu again summoned his generals and told them of his decision to leave the country. ''He left Kinshasa a very angry man,'' the presidential associate said. ''A man who could still not believe it was all over, and felt abandoned.'' On Friday, Western diplomats said that Zaire's top generals had already begun to make contact with the rebellion and were preparing ''to open the city'' to Mr. Kabila's forces.
News of Mr. Mobutu's departure spread slowly in Kinshasa on Friday, and for the most part life in the capital was virtually normal through most of the day. By late afternoon, however, there were isolated reports of soldiers firing off their weapons, intimidating people and stealing vehicles. In many districts of this city of five million people, neighborhood welcoming committees freely rehearsed songs and put the finishing touches on banners to greet the rebels. Meanwhile, the elite that had sprouted around Mr. Mobutu made haste to the exits. All day, private speedboats carrying the rich and until now powerful jetted across the Congo River to Brazzaville, the capital of Congo. Many carried with them whatever precious possessions they could, anticipating they may never return.
The end of Mr. Mobutu's rule opened a period of deep uncertainty for Zaire, first in a transition period that will now begin, and eventually, it is almost universally assumed here, under the rule of Mr. Kabila. Mr. Kabila has proved himself a deft political operator who succeeded in riding a localized ethnic rebellion in the country's eastern border region all the way to national power, but little is known of his intentions or abilities as a head of state. Diplomats who have met him recently say that the 56-year-old rebel leader, who has fought against Mr. Mobutu intermittently since the country's early independence period, speaks almost nostalgically of the kind of collectivized agricultural ventures and huge state projects that were in vogue in his Marxist youth.
More troubling, Western diplomats say, has been Mr. Kabila's human-rights record at the head of rebel forces that massacred Rwandan Hutu refugees. Similarly, Mr. Kabila has made a long string of contradictory public statements about the future of democracy in Zaire, ranging from warnings that opposition parties will be suspended to pledges that a consensus government will be formed with other anti-Mobutu parties. ''Kabila is like a jack-in-the-box on the question of democracy and elections,'' said a senior Western diplomat here. ''Now that he has arrived, we are all waiting to see which Kabila is going to pop out.'' The form that future negotiations with the rebels will take is equally in doubt. Mr. Kabila has repeatedly said that he will not accord any role to Archbishop Monsengwo, the head of the National Assembly, and will refuse to work with any politicians who have been allies of Mr. Mobutu.
Before the South African-led talks between Mr. Mobutu and Mr. Kabila broke down, diplomats had hoped to get both sides to accept a South African proposal for the formation of a new Government, led by Mr. Kabila, but allowing for broad representation of other political parties. Mr. Mobutu's quiet departure reflected the pain of a man who since early adulthood has known little but undisputed rule. Some diplomats and members of the President's entourage said that in recent weeks the Zairian leader had been angling for a ''dignified way'' out of power that would avoid the humiliation Mr. Kabila has publicly thirsted to give his enemy of three decades. The idea of an exit with dignity was tarnished by the news on Friday that a Swiss court had already placed a lien on one of the President's mansions, in Savigny, after a request by the public prosecutor of the rebel-held city of Lubumbashi.
Mr. Mobutu escaped Zaire with his family intact -- his wife, her twin sister, who is also his concubine, and their children -- but for the remainder of his life he will almost certainly be hounded by efforts by Zaire and private creditors to reclaim whatever is left of the estimated $5 billion fortune that he once accumulated. With help from neighboring countries, the insurgency of Laurent Kabila took only seven months to seize control of virtually the entire country and oust the longtime Zairian dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.
Timeline
Dec. 4, 1996 A month after the town of Goma became the rebels' first significant conquest, the area of rebel control has spread to other towns along Zaire's eastern border.
March 15, 1997 Kisangani, a key city at the head of navigation on the Congo River, falls to the rebels. Tens of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees are captured by the rebels, many of whom have scores to settle with the refugees. April 9, 1997 The rebels capture Lubumbashi, the country's second city, consolidating their control over Zaire's diamond, cobalt and copper mines. The Mobutu Government is deprived of its major source of income.
May 7, 1997 Driving toward Kinshasa, the rebel offensive takes Kenge, 120 miles from the capital. Thoughout the campaign, Government forces put up little resistance, fleeing rather than fighting.
May 16, 1997 With rebel forces in control of the entire country except for Kinshasa and Mobutu's hometown, Gbadolite, Mobutu flees the capital and gives up power.
Source: New York Times
Mr. Mobutu's departure came as rebels who have fought a stunningly successful seven-month war against the Government drew within five miles of Kinshasa's international airport at the city's edge, Western diplomats said, and readied themselves to take over control of the capital. Mr. Mobutu, who had resisted entreaties to hand over power, finally did so after his top generals warned him in a series of nighttime meetings that they could neither defend him or the city of Kinshasa any longer.
Diplomats said on Friday that Zaire's generals were trying to make contact with leaders of the rebellion to arrange their peaceful entry into the city so as to avoid destructive fighting or a repeat of the devastating pillaging the capital has already seen twice this decade. Late Friday, however, reports reached here from the de facto rebel capital, Lubumbashi, that the rebel foreign minister, Bizima Karaha, had demanded the unconditional surrender of Zaire's military before hostilities are called off. In the first possible sign of an unraveling of the remnants of Zaire's Army, Zairian security officials reported Friday night that Gen. Mahele Lioko, the Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Staff, had been killed by officers opposed to talks with the rebels. Diplomats said they could only confirm that General Mahele had been detained at a military camp at the edge of town, where gunfire was heard Friday evening.
Zairian security officers said that on hearing the news, the Prime Minister, Gen. Likulia Bolongo, took refuge in the French Embassy. Late Friday evening, General Likulia's family was seen arriving at the Inter-Continental Hotel. Early this morning, a Western military analyst said that a rebel company traveling along the railroad tracks had entered central Kinshasa. ''Things are coming to a climax very quickly,'' he said. ''The situation is very dangerous now, but I expect it will all be over shortly.'' Mr. Mobutu delivered no message to a nation he has dominated almost since independence from Belgium in 1960. Instead, the first word that people here heard of the news came in foreign radio broadcasts.
Reading a Government statement before a hastily gathered assembly of journalists in Kinshasa on Friday afternoon, the Information Minister, Kin Kiey Mulumba, said that Mr. Mobutu acknowledged that negotiations with the rebels had failed. As a result, he said, the President had ''ceased to intervene in the conduct of the affairs of state.'' Mr. Mulumba said that Mr. Mobutu had not formally resigned from office and could not directly hand over power to the rebel leader, Laurent Kabila, because the country's laws forbade such a transition. People close to Mr. Mobutu said that the deliberate ambiguity allowed a famously vainglorious leader to depart believing that he had fulfilled an oft-repeated vow that he would never be known as the former President, but only as the late President. Given the advanced prostate cancer that has visibly weakened him in recent weeks, many foreign diplomats say that they expect Mr. Mobutu's health will soon fail him.
Mr. Mulumba added that the Government would continue discussions with the rebels over new political arrangements for the country, and said that the Constitution empowered the newly elected head of the National Assembly, Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo, to lead future negotiations. Even as Mr. Mobutu sought to put a good face on his departure, his army commanders made it clear Friday that they had no intention of fighting the rebels any longer. 'It is not military means that we lack,'' said a Defense Ministry official. ''But General Mahele does not want to sacrifice a whole people because of a battle for the power of a single man. That's finished.'' Besides being Chief of Staff and Deputy Prime Minister, General Mahele also served as Defense Minister. He was one of three top officers, including the Prime Minister, General Likulia , who visited Mr. Mobutu on Thursday evening to inform him that they could no longer defend the city or protect him. Western diplomats said the officers, also including Gen. Nzimbi Ngbale, the commander of Mr. Mobutu's feared Presidential Guard, then urged the President to leave the country. Zairian security sources said Friday night that General Nzimbi had crossed the Congo River to the Republic of Congo.
A member of Mr. Mobutu's entourage said the President sent the three generals away in fury when they first approached him about ending the war effort and leaving the country. A second meeting was held at midnight, this associate of the President said. Mr. Mobutu then said he needed time to reflect. At 4 A.M. Friday, Mr. Mobutu again summoned his generals and told them of his decision to leave the country. ''He left Kinshasa a very angry man,'' the presidential associate said. ''A man who could still not believe it was all over, and felt abandoned.'' On Friday, Western diplomats said that Zaire's top generals had already begun to make contact with the rebellion and were preparing ''to open the city'' to Mr. Kabila's forces.
News of Mr. Mobutu's departure spread slowly in Kinshasa on Friday, and for the most part life in the capital was virtually normal through most of the day. By late afternoon, however, there were isolated reports of soldiers firing off their weapons, intimidating people and stealing vehicles. In many districts of this city of five million people, neighborhood welcoming committees freely rehearsed songs and put the finishing touches on banners to greet the rebels. Meanwhile, the elite that had sprouted around Mr. Mobutu made haste to the exits. All day, private speedboats carrying the rich and until now powerful jetted across the Congo River to Brazzaville, the capital of Congo. Many carried with them whatever precious possessions they could, anticipating they may never return.
The end of Mr. Mobutu's rule opened a period of deep uncertainty for Zaire, first in a transition period that will now begin, and eventually, it is almost universally assumed here, under the rule of Mr. Kabila. Mr. Kabila has proved himself a deft political operator who succeeded in riding a localized ethnic rebellion in the country's eastern border region all the way to national power, but little is known of his intentions or abilities as a head of state. Diplomats who have met him recently say that the 56-year-old rebel leader, who has fought against Mr. Mobutu intermittently since the country's early independence period, speaks almost nostalgically of the kind of collectivized agricultural ventures and huge state projects that were in vogue in his Marxist youth.
More troubling, Western diplomats say, has been Mr. Kabila's human-rights record at the head of rebel forces that massacred Rwandan Hutu refugees. Similarly, Mr. Kabila has made a long string of contradictory public statements about the future of democracy in Zaire, ranging from warnings that opposition parties will be suspended to pledges that a consensus government will be formed with other anti-Mobutu parties. ''Kabila is like a jack-in-the-box on the question of democracy and elections,'' said a senior Western diplomat here. ''Now that he has arrived, we are all waiting to see which Kabila is going to pop out.'' The form that future negotiations with the rebels will take is equally in doubt. Mr. Kabila has repeatedly said that he will not accord any role to Archbishop Monsengwo, the head of the National Assembly, and will refuse to work with any politicians who have been allies of Mr. Mobutu.
Before the South African-led talks between Mr. Mobutu and Mr. Kabila broke down, diplomats had hoped to get both sides to accept a South African proposal for the formation of a new Government, led by Mr. Kabila, but allowing for broad representation of other political parties. Mr. Mobutu's quiet departure reflected the pain of a man who since early adulthood has known little but undisputed rule. Some diplomats and members of the President's entourage said that in recent weeks the Zairian leader had been angling for a ''dignified way'' out of power that would avoid the humiliation Mr. Kabila has publicly thirsted to give his enemy of three decades. The idea of an exit with dignity was tarnished by the news on Friday that a Swiss court had already placed a lien on one of the President's mansions, in Savigny, after a request by the public prosecutor of the rebel-held city of Lubumbashi.
Mr. Mobutu escaped Zaire with his family intact -- his wife, her twin sister, who is also his concubine, and their children -- but for the remainder of his life he will almost certainly be hounded by efforts by Zaire and private creditors to reclaim whatever is left of the estimated $5 billion fortune that he once accumulated. With help from neighboring countries, the insurgency of Laurent Kabila took only seven months to seize control of virtually the entire country and oust the longtime Zairian dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko.
Timeline
Dec. 4, 1996 A month after the town of Goma became the rebels' first significant conquest, the area of rebel control has spread to other towns along Zaire's eastern border.
March 15, 1997 Kisangani, a key city at the head of navigation on the Congo River, falls to the rebels. Tens of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees are captured by the rebels, many of whom have scores to settle with the refugees. April 9, 1997 The rebels capture Lubumbashi, the country's second city, consolidating their control over Zaire's diamond, cobalt and copper mines. The Mobutu Government is deprived of its major source of income.
May 7, 1997 Driving toward Kinshasa, the rebel offensive takes Kenge, 120 miles from the capital. Thoughout the campaign, Government forces put up little resistance, fleeing rather than fighting.
May 16, 1997 With rebel forces in control of the entire country except for Kinshasa and Mobutu's hometown, Gbadolite, Mobutu flees the capital and gives up power.
Source: New York Times
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