Mysterious Death of African in Saudi Arabia haunts Saudi Police

JEDDAH, 6 October 2003 — Police are disputing a report in Al-Madinah Arabic newspaper yesterday that an African man was shot dead by police in the Al-Gholail district. According to the report, police were patrolling the area when they saw an African man staggering in the street in a manner that suggested he was drunk. Full Report

Iran: Stop Punishing Student Activists

(New York, October 3, 2003) -- Iranian authorities should stop using
university disciplinary committees as a means to punish students for
participating in political protests, Human Rights Watch said today.

University disciplinary committees (komiteh enzebati) throughout Iran are
reportedly holding hearings of students allegedly involved in pro-reform
protests over the last year. The committees have suspended some students
for one semester and expelled others.

"The punishment and intimidation of students for joining peaceful protests
is a serious violation of academic freedom," said Joe Stork, acting
executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa
division. "Students are being given a clear message: remain silent, or risk
being kicked out of school."

According to Iranian media reports, the disciplinary committee of Mazandaran
University in Babolsar expelled two students solely for participating in non-
violent political demonstrations, and other Mazandaran students are waiting
to hear the results of their hearings. Twenty-one students at Razi
University in Kermanshah have been suspended for two terms. At Ferdowsi
University in Mashhad, seven students have been suspended or expelled. The
disciplinary committee at Shahid Bahonar University in Kerman has reportedly
expelled two students. Disciplinary committees at universities in Semnan and
Tabriz have also reportedly begun holding hearings of students who were
allegedly involved in protests in November 2002 and June 2003.

In a statement released on September 26, the student body of Ferdowsi
University in Mashhad said that the university disciplinary committee seeks
to create "a cemetery-like quiet on campus."

The university disciplinary committees predate the 1979 revolution.
Generally controlled by university administrations, they were created to
address purely academic concerns such as cheating or disputes over school
credits. However, in some universities, especially outside Tehran,
hardliners in the government have pushed the committees to play an intrusive
political role.

Since the July 1999 protests at Tehran University, the Iranian judiciary and
security forces have repeatedly cracked down on student activists. The most
recent protests, which spread from university campuses to other parts of
major cities during June 2003, were violently suppressed by vigilante
groups.

On September 29, Gholamreza Zarifian, a deputy science minister in charge of
student affairs, reportedly said that only the Ministry of Science, Research
and Technology has the power to remove students, and that all judgments made
by the committees are subject to review. This came in the wake of a letter
from more than 120 members of parliament condemning the disciplinary
committees for their treatment of students and for their interference in
university life.

Human Rights Watch called for a moratorium on any further hearings or
judgments by the university disciplinary committees regarding non-violent
political activism by students. -keralamonitor.com