Pakistan: Release French Journalists, Pakistani Assistant

(New York, December 23, 2003) -- The Pakistani government must immediately
release two French journalists, Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau, and
their Pakistani assistant, Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, who were arrested in Karachi
on December 16, Human Rights Watch said today.

The French journalists, who had press visas for Pakistan, have been charged
with violating visa restrictions by visiting Quetta without having a special
visa for the western border region with Afghanistan, where the city is
located. Their assistant is likely to be charged with "sedition" since, as a
Pakistani citizen, he cannot be charged or held for visa irregularities.

"These arrests and the possible criminal charges mark a new low in the
growing assault on press freedoms in Pakistan," said Brad Adams, executive
director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "Foreign journalists
have now fallen victim to the same tactics of intimidation and harassment
that the Pakistani government often uses against the local press."

Epstein and Guilloteau, who work for the French newsweekly L'Express, face up
to three years in prison after their bail plea was rejected on December 20
amid reports that the Pakistani government was considering filing further
charges against them, including "fabricating false evidence with a conspiracy
to defame Pakistan." The Pakistani government confirmed that it is examining
"all possibilities."

Rizvi, a local journalist who worked as a local assistant and interpreter for
the French team, reportedly is being held secretly in Karachi and regularly
"interrogated." In 2001 Epstein received the Diplomatic Press Prize for a
report he and Rizvi produced on the situation in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Rivzi has worked extensively with the French press, including Le Monde,
Lib‚ration, TF1, France 2 and Arte.

Human Rights Watch pointed out that journalists have the right to freedom of
movement to seek information, and it urged the Pakistani government to act in
accordance with the Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of
Expression and Access to Information-standards drafted by international law
and global rights experts in 1995 and endorsed by the United Nations special
rapporteurs on freedom of expression and on the independence of judges and
lawyers.

Johannesburg Principle 19, which addresses access to restricted areas,
provides that, "governments may not prevent journalists from entering areas
where there are reasonable grounds to believe that violations of human rights
or humanitarian law are being, or have been, committed. Governments may not
exclude journalists or representatives of such organizations from areas that
are experiencing violence or armed conflict except where their presence would
pose a clear risk to the safety of others."

"If Pakistan were acting to protect the security of these journalists, it
could simply have removed them from danger and then released them," said
Adams. "But the government's clear purpose is to prevent journalists from
reporting on politically sensitive topics. This is unacceptable."

The arrests come in the wake of a domestic crackdown on the Pakistani press.
Since General Pervez Musharraf's 1999 coup, the Pakistani government has
systematically violated the fundamental rights of members of the press
through threats, harassment and arbitrary arrests. Many have been detained
without charge, mistreated and tortured, and otherwise denied basic due
process rights. The government has sought to, and in several cases succeeded
in, removing independent journalists from prominent publications. Meanwhile,
the arrest of editors and reporters from local and regional newspapers on
charges of sedition is becoming increasingly commonplace.

"General Musharraf should break with this pattern and demonstrate a
commitment to genuine press freedom by releasing these three journalists and
their Pakistani assistant and by ordering an end to government coercion and
intimidation of the media," said Adams. (keralamonitor.com)

19 December 2003

Syria: Fourteen prisoners of conscience must be released

Amnesty International is calling on the Syrian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release 14 men detained solely for expressing their opinion in a peaceful manner, on the eve of their trial on December 20.

"These men were exercising the basic human right of freedom of expression when they were arrested," said Amnesty International. "Therefore, they are prisoners of conscience and thus should not stand trial in the first place."

The 14 men were arrested by the Syrian police on 23 August 2003 as they were heading for a lecture on "the state of emergency" imposed by the authorities in Syria since 1963. The men include Fateh Jamus and Safwan 'Akkash, both members of the Party for Communist Action and former prisoners of conscience who in 1983 were sentenced to 15 years in prison after grossly unfair trials. The other twelve are 'Abd al-Ghani Bakri, Hazim 'Ajaj al-Aghra'i, Muhammad Deeb Kor, 'Abd al-Jawwad al-Saleh, Hashem al-Hashem, Yassar Qaddur, Zaradesht Muhammad, Rashid Sha'ban, Fuad Bawadqji, Ghazi Mustafa, Najib Dedem and Samir 'Abd al-Karim Nashar. The 14 men were due to be tried on Monday, 8 December 2003, but the court was adjourned because one of the defendants had not been notified.

The men are charged with "affiliation to a secret organisation and carrying out acts that could incite factional conflict within the nation". Human rights groups in Syria have called the trial "another juncture in the continuing deterioration of human rights status in Syria, and another form of the increasing human rights abuses by the authorities".

"By detaining these men, the Syrian authorities are violating the international treaties and conventions to which Syria is a signatory, and that guarantee the protection of basic human rights," said Amnesty International.

Amnesty International also calls on the Syrian authorities to bring all legislation in line with the principles of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that guarantees the right to freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association and the right to exercise these freedoms without undue interference. Syria is a signatory to ICCPR.

Amnesty International is extremely concerned at the long duration of the State of Emergency and calls on the Syrian authorities to seriously consider alternative measures in line with common international standards and practices.

In addition, Amnesty International is gravely concerned at the extremely long duration of the state of emergency in Syria, which has remained in force since being declared in Syria on 8 March 1963. A state of emergency is by definition a temporary legal response to an exceptional and grave threat to the nation. The organization is also concerned that the imposition of the state of emergency is not consistent with the requirements of human rights law, particularly Article 4 of the ICCPR. In April 2001, the Human Rights Committee, the body that monitors states' implementation of the ICCPR, expressed concern over the existence of the state of emergency legislation that "does not provide remedies against measures limiting citizens' fundamental rights and freedoms".