Iraq: Foreigners Fleeing to Jordan Former Refugees Become Refugees Again

(Baghdad, May 10, 2003) - Attacks and harassment amidst the security
vacuum in Iraq have forced refugees and other foreigners to flee the
country and become refugees again, this time in Jordan, Human Rights
Watch said today in a new report, "Flight From Iraq."

Some Iraqis believe that refugees in their country benefited from
preferential treatment under Saddam Hussein's government. More than 500
of some 1,500 new refugees who have made their way to Jordan are
Palestinians.

Based on research in Baghdad and Jordan, the 22-page Human Rights Watch
report details the abuses against refugees and foreigners in Iraq, as
well as their treatment upon arrival in Jordan.

"The lack of security endangers everyone in Iraq, but refugees and
other foreigners are especially vulnerable," said Senior Emergencies
Researcher Peter Bouckaert. "Now these people find themselves refugees
once again, without a lasting solution in sight."

Housing is frequently the pretext for the violence and harassment. Many
landlords, forced by the previous government to take Palestinian
tenants at discounted rates, are taking advantage of the breakdown in
law and order to evict Palestinian tenants from their homes or to
extort unrealistic rent increases from them. In other cases, violence
and threats have come from individuals who seem to have no legitimate
claim to the property.

Khairiyya Shafiq Ali and her family were threatened on four occasions
by small groups of three to five people armed with machine guns and
rifles. She told Human Rights Watch about the threats that made her
flee to Jordan: "They said, `Either you leave your home or pay 300,000
dinars a month' (about $150). They threatened they would empty their
guns in our head. They started after the fall of the government,
approximately a week after. .They shot bullets at our house. They told
us, `Saddam is gone, you are nothing here. You own nothing in Iraq. If
you want to leave, take only your clothes."

Nazima Sulaiman, age 50, fled Baghdad with her family after unknown
attackers threw explosive devices into her house, killing an infant
baby and injuring six others, including three of Nazima Sulaiman's
children. The attack came two days after fifteen armed men came to the
house and threatened the family. "They told us `This home is for
Iraqis, you own nothing. Saddam was protecting you. Now ask Saddam to
find you another home,'" Nazima Sulaiman told Human Rights Watch. "Had
we known they were serious, we would have gone."

"It's not just Palestinians who have become refugees twice over," said
Bouckaert. "Armed groups in Iraq are targeting other foreigners, some
of whom also may be refugees."

In Jordan, Human Rights Watch also interviewed victims from Sudan and
Somalia who fled threats and incidents of insecurity. One twenty-three
year old Somali man, wounded in a U.S. coalition strike on Baghdad on
April 9, was threatened in his hospital bed. When the government of
Saddam Hussein collapsed in Baghdad, angry armed civilians came to him
three times, asked how much money he had received from the Iraqi
government, and threatened to kill him. Other Iraqis intervened, but
when Muhammad's wound had healed, they advised him to leave Iraq,
because the situation became too dangerous for foreigners.

Iranian Kurds living in a refugee camp west of Baghdad also fled to
Jordan when police who had previously guarded the camp stopped coming
to work. After Baghdad was surrounded, police guards even told one
Iranian Kurd that looters would come for them.

Human Rights Watch criticized Jordanian authorities for limiting
refugees' entry to Jordan and for holding firm to a mid-June deadline,
originally proposed by the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, for their departure. To gain entry to camps inside the
Jordanian border, the Palestinians were forced to sign vaguely worded
documents permitting their repatriation to Iraq, whereas Iranian
refugees have been completely barred from entering Jordan.

"Coalition forces are doing little to ensure the security of anyone in
Iraq, let alone these vulnerable populations," said Bouckaert. "Jordan
has an obligation to protect refugees who flee to its borders."

Some non-citizens who fled Iraq to Jordan have already returned to their
countries of origin. Their treatment raises concerns under
international refugee law. In March, Jordanian officials and the
International Organization on Migration allowed Sudanese government
representatives access to a group of Sudanese who had been reluctant to
return to Sudan. Other non-citizens were sent home within a seventy-two
hour time limit after arriving in Jordan, raising concerns about
whether they had adequate time or information to decide whether going
home was safe for them and their families.

Over one thousand Iranian Kurds, refugees from a camp outside Baghdad who
fled after threats and raids by bands of threatening men, are still
stuck in a piece of desert that neither Jordan nor coalition forces are
policing near the Jordanian border. In this no-mans-land, battered by
sandstorms and with little shelter from the scorching desert heat, many
suffer from a variety of diseases due to poor sanitation and shortage
of clean drinking water.

Human Rights Watch urged the United States and its allies as the
occupying power to prevent human rights abuses against vulnerable
populations in Iraq, including refugees and other non-nationals.

Human Rights Watch also recommended that Jordan provide immediate
protection and assistance to all refugees, including those currently
trapped near the Jordanian border in accordance with international
refugee law standards.

To read the Human Rights Watch report, "Flight from Iraq," please see:
http://hrw.org/reports/2003/iraqjordan/

Saudi Arabia: Human Rights Groups Emerging

(New York, May 9, 2003)--The royal decree approving the
establishment of Saudi Arabia's first nongovernmental human
rights organization is a welcome initiative that holds a promise
of greater freedom of association, Human Rights Watch said today.
In addition, the government plans to launch its own national
human rights body.

Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal announced on May 6 that
the private rights group will be "completely independent,"
although its founders and proposed activities have yet to be
disclosed. Prince Saud also reported that the government was
moving ahead with the creation of its own national human rights
institution. He said that this entity would be responsible for
"implementing government decisions" regarding human rights, and
"reformulating local laws so they are consistent with the basic
system of governance, which is primarily based on human rights."

"A state-sponsored human rights group needs teeth to do effective
work," said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East
and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "We are hopeful
that this new organization will have real influence, but only
time will tell."

A Human Rights Watch delegation learned from Prince Saud during a
visit to the kingdom in January 2003 that a national human rights
institution was in the process of being formed. The delegation
discussed with the foreign minister the importance of such a body
having the ability to operate independently and the authority to
carry out its mandate effectively.

Human rights groups in Saudi Arabia should be permitted to
determine their own structure, mandate and membership;
investigate human rights abuses without government interference;
disseminate information freely inside the country and abroad; and
communicate and cooperate with regional and international human
rights organizations.

The United Nations Declaration on human rights defenders of 1999
should guide the government's policies toward nongovernmental
rights groups, and Saudi rights activists should be able to
exercise all the rights in it, Human Rights Watch said.

Article 5 of the declaration guarantees to everyone the right,
individually and in association with others, to meet and assemble
peacefully; to form, join and participate in non-governmental
organizations, associations or groups; and to communicate with
non-governmental or intergovernmental organizations. Article
12(1) provides for the right of everyone "to participate in
peaceful activities against violations of human rights and
fundamental freedoms," and article 12(2) requires the state to
protect human rights defenders from "any violence, threats,
retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure
or any other arbitrary action" resulting from the exercise of the
rights guaranteed in the declaration.

The government's planned national human rights institution should
be developed in accordance with internationally recognized
standards embodied in the U.N. Principles relating to the status
and functioning of national institutions for protection and
promotion of human rights (the Paris Principles). These were
endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly in 1993. The national group
should have as broad a mandate as possible; a representative and
pluralistic membership with specified terms; and the power to
examine any human rights violation, propose remedies, and respond
to government positions and reactions. It should also have the
right to communicate its opinions and recommendations directly to
the public.