Digest of the U.S. State Department’s Daily Press Briefing February 5, 2009

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/05/18568479.php

Digest of the U.S. State Department’s Daily Press Briefing February 5, 2009

by al-masakin
Thursday Feb 5th, 2009 3:39 PM

Secretary of State to make first trip to South East Asia

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will depart Washington, D.C. on tour of Asia Feb. 15.

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The Secretary of State will visit Japan Feb. 16 – 18, Indonesia Feb. 18 – 19, Republic of Korea Feb. 19 – 20, and China Feb. 20 – 22.

North Korea

Secretary of State’s Asian tour to be part of the Six-party framework.

The ‘Six-party framework’ to pressure the DPRK to abandon its nuclear program will be on her agenda. The Six-Party Talks began in August 2003 as a multilateral approach to ending North Korea’s nuclear program. The member states of the Six-party framework are: the United States, North Korea, China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan.

Indonesia

Islam and the Peace Corps on the agenda.

Indonesia was placed on the agenda because it is “the largest Muslim country in the world and the Secretary feels it’s important that we need to reach out and reach out early to Indonesia,” Press Secretary Wood said this morning. Mr. Wood also indicated the Secretary of State will likely raise the question of reactivating the Peace Corps there.

China

In China the Secretary of State hopes to engage the help of China in resolving a number of humanitarian issues in the world. “We want to see how we can partner with the Chinese to try and help resolve some of these horrible and horrific humanitarian situations we have…the subjects of human rights and Tibet always come up in conversations with our Chinese counterparts…So I would suspect that those issues could very well come up,” Mr. Wood replied to questions from the press. Secretary of State to investigate whether or not Congress’ “Buy American” package wil violate WTO agreements between the two countries.

Afghanistan

Richard Holbrooke the point man.

Members of the press asked the Press Secretary why the Secretary of State had not chosen to make her first trip as Secretary of State to South Asia, particularly to India, in order to address the growing problems in Afghanistan. To this inquiry Mr. Wood replied, “Ambassador Holbrooke…will be on his way to the region from the Munich conference…she will eventually be going to the region, but the fact that we’ve got a very distinguished negotiator…Richard Holbrooke, going to the region, that’s very significant as well.”

Guantanamo Bay

State Department implies that intelligence sharing agreements between the U.K. and the United States have gagged British courts on releasing details of the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison.

Q. “There are communications between U.S. and UK intelligence agents that describe what happened – apparently describe what happened to this man when he was held in detention, which a UK court would like to make public, and the UK Government is preventing them from doing so, saying it is because the U.S. Government doesn’t want them made public. And it’s not clear to us whether or not the U.S. Government, under an Obama Administration, really does want these things to be kept secret.”

A. “President Obama has – as you know, through an executive order, has, you know, basically requested a review of the detention of, you know – or should I say the detention conditions at Guantanamo. But beyond that, I just don’t have anything more I can give you on it.”

Iran

Russia to help Iran activate N. plant at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf in southwestern Iran.

Kyrgyzstan

United States has not been officially notified that it must close the NATO air base at Manas near the capital Bishkek. Negotiations to keep the base open are ongoing.

Ethiopia

No details on Foreign Service officer allegedly killed there.

United Nations at Geneva

The United Nations mission at Geneva reviewing human rights records around the world, U.S. seat there has been empty.

Q. “Human rights organizations say that the United States seat has been empty this week, including during the review of Russia’s human rights record. And I gather this is one of the only forums in the UN context in which countries can be asked direct questions about their human rights records by other UN members… why has the United States not been present and participating… does the U.S. plan to participate?”

A. “We’re currently looking at what our policies are likely to be toward the UN Human Rights Council…taking a close look at the institution and its record. The President and the Secretary have made very clear that we want to fully engage and make reforms of the overall…international human rights system.”

Q. “The United States took a decision to stop participating in the commission’s work…any country can come and ask questions during the sort of UPR process. And the human rights groups are perplexed that the Administration and the U.S. Government, which has a longstanding policy on human rights around the world, wouldn’t participate, which it can do; even if it is not actively a part of the commission, any country can come and speak… has a policy decision been made not to take part in this process until you have decided the broader question of how and whether you will work with the commission?”

A. “We need to take a close look…at the Human Rights Commission…we want to make sure that we have a very coherent, cohesive policy with regard to engaging the UN and other actors in the international human rights system…We’re not trying to send any signals at this moment one way or the other.”

Although China’s record on human rights is scheduled to be on the agenda next week, when asked if the United States intended to participate in the review of China’s human rights record, or to speak on the issue of human rights in China, the spokesman for the State Department replied, “we don’t know.” The reporter then redirected the question to pertain to the scheduling of Ms. Clinton’s trip to China the week following the human rights review.

Q. “Review of the UPR that is for selected countries. China, I believe, is next week. Yeah. She’s going to China the week after that… And I’m just wondering if there will be a – if the decision – the review that you’re talking about will be completed in time… for you to participate or not participate… the President and the Secretary both campaigned on, you know, making human rights a priority, it’s just a little surprising that there hasn’t been anything – they haven’t made even the effort to show up.”

A. “When something’s a priority, you don’t rush to make a decision on it.”

Q. “I take it there’s been no decision yet on the Durban conference?”

A. “Not yet.”

The Durban Conference will be held in Geneva April 20-24. The Durban Conference is a follow-up to the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (WCAR). The UNCHR is responsible for organizing and convening the event. Israel and the United States condemned the First Durban Conference, calling it an instrument of racism itself for allowing the slogan “Zionism is racism” to be raised there, and for war crimes charges to be leveled against Israel, and for participants of the conference comparing Israel to South Africa under Apartheid rule.

Al-Qaeda

State Department confirms Al-Qaeda is active in a number of places besides Yemen.

Cyprus

State Department differs questions on the fate of an Iranian ship alleged to be laden with weapons and held at port in Cyprus to the Pentagon.

No clarification as to whether or not the Iranian ship that docked at the Port of Beirut Jan. 29 with humanitarian aid for Gaza is the same ship intercepted by the US Navy in the Red Sea Jan. 27 or a different ship.
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Al-Masakin News Agency
http://almasakinnewsagency.wordpress.com/

58 Yemeni MPs sign memo asking government to sever ties with Mahmoud Abbas

Yemeni parliament asks government not to receive Abbas

[ 01/02/2009 - 01:04 PM ]

SANA’A, (PIC)– Yemeni parliament members have tabled a memo with the government asking it not to receive the former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas in Sana’a since his term in office has expired and for siding against resistance in the Israeli aggression on Gaza. The memo, signed by 58 MPs, said that the Yemeni government should not deal with anyone who opposed resistance especially during the latest war on Gaza because they violated all heavenly and earthly rules that allowed any people under occupation to resist that occupation. The deputies also asked the government not to hand the assistance allocated for Gaza reconstruction to Abbas because his tenure had expired. MP Dr. Saleh Al-Sanabani said that Abbas’s term as president has ended and he was not fit to speak on behalf of the Palestinians or to represent them because he “sold the Palestine cause and conspired against resistance before the very eyes of the entire world”. He stressed that the assistance should be delivered to resistance leaders and to the government of Ismail Haneyya in Gaza. He proposed the formation of a parliamentary committee that would go to Gaza and help the Palestinian citizens there to overcome their ordeal.

IFJ protests conviction of Yemeni journalist for speading anti-government propaganda

IFJ Shocked by Ruling against Award Winning Journalist in Yemen

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has today protested at the Yemeni Appeal Court’s ruling confirming the conviction of the award winning journalist Al Khaiwani for the dissemination of anti-government propaganda.

“This shocking decision is a terrible indictment of the Yemeni justice system,” said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President. “Al Khaiwani was pardoned by the Yemeni Head of state and given assurances by senior justice officials that the case against him based on spurious charges was closed.”

According to reports, the Yemeni Court of Appeal on 26 January upheld the guilty verdict against Abdulkarim al Khaiwani who was accused of engaging in anti government propaganda with the intention of weakening the army’s morale and causing social unrest.

Al Khaiwani, former editor of the online magazine Al-Shoura, won the prestigious Amnesty International 2008 ” Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat” following his arrest and detention for allegedly conspiring with rebels fighting the Yemeni government in 2007.

He was sentenced on 9 of June 2008 to six years in prison without the prosecution providing any explanation of the crime that he had allegedly committed beyond the general charges of “terrorism.” No direct link was proved between him and armed groups beyond the pictures he obtained and used in his reports on security threats to Yemen.

The IFJ called for the case to be reviewed and allegations against him to be substantiated by evidence that can be tested in open court.  Al Khaiwani was pardoned by the Yemeni President three months later in September 2008.

When receiving the Amnesty International’s Award on behalf of Khaiwani, Boumelha paid tribute to his contribution to journalism saying “This award should go further than supporting the steadfastness and courage of one journalist battling against his tormentors. It should also be a recognition through him of all the struggles and all the sacrifices made by many journalists and others to advance freedom, justice, democracy and human rights in Yemen and the rest of the Arab World.”

The IFJ is concerned that this latest ruling serves as a pretext for the authorities to control Al Khaiwani’s life by restricting his liberty to travel and to take up employment.

He was unable to travel to London in November 2008 to attend the ceremony organised by Amnesty International UK at which he was to receive his prize.  

“The Presidential pardon must be given effect to and our colleague allowed to recover his freedom and to resume his career,” added Boumelha.

For more information contact the IFJ at +32 2 235 2207

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 123 countries worldwide

Yemen gives amnesty to former Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed

Yemen Grants Asylum to Ex-Somali President

Readers Number : 20

21/01/2009 Yemen has granted political asylum to former Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned in late December after a row with his prime minister, a Yemeni presidency source said on Wednesday.    “The president of Yemen granted Somalia’s president the right of political asylum last night,” the source said. The ex-head of state has been given a permanent home in Yemen, which faces Somalia on the other side of the horn of Africa.    Yusuf stepped down on December 29 after having tried and failed to sack Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. The president’s bid to push Hussein out of his job was thwarted when parliament backed the prime minister with a massive vote of confidence.    Yusuf clashed with Hussein over their approach to the opposition. During his time as president, Yusuf had poor relations with the opposition, who accused him of obstructing the peace process. Conflicts in Somalia and power struggles, which erupted since 1991, have hampered successive initiatives to restore any semblance of order to the country, where the government is facing a military campaign by militant fighters.

Arab Press Network (APN): Yemeni journalist Abdelkarim Al-Khaiwani kidnapped once, nearly killed twice, jailed four times, remains unbowed

Yemeni Editor Pays the Price of Freedom

Yemeni intelligence services dumped him in the desert. He has been imprisoned, harassed, threatened. His paper has been shut down by the authorities. But Yemeni editor Abdelkarim Al-Khaiwani refuses to give up, or to back down. “I am not going to ask for political asylum. I will not leave my country. That would be like admitting that the regime had won.” In an exclusive interview with APN, the former editor of Al-Shoura talks about the difficulties he has faced for years, but also of his determination to fight for free expression in his country, against a government equally determined to muzzle independent journalists. By Patricia Khoder Abdelkarim Al-Khaiwani began his career as a journalist in 1993 after obtaining a degree in political science and economics. Since then, he has been jailed four times, been kidnapped, and survived two murder attempts. Since 2000, he has been dragged repeatedly in and out of the courts by the government. On several occasions, he has been arrested at the airport and barred from leaving the country. And on 26 January, he will hear the appeal court’s decision on a case going back to June 2007 – one for which he was imprisoned on charges of terrorism, a measure commonly used by the authorities to attack independent journalists, according to Al-Khaiwani.   “I was tried in absentia, I was not able to defend myself. My lawyers were not informed of the hearing dates so they could not attend. [The authorities] told me the case was closed, that I was not to talk about it, and then I found out that the trial was still going on.” Al-Khaiwani was sentences to six years in prison, but was granted a presidential pardon after serving 109 days. Shortly after, however, he was informed that President Ali Abdallah Saleh had not, in fact, granted him a pardon, only a stay of execution… Indeed, since he became an editor in 1998, Al-Khaiwani has been covering subjects that seem to make his government very uncomfortable, such as corruption and the situation in Yemeni prisons. Al-Khaiwani has served as editor-in-chief for two independent dailies: Al-Oumma and Al-Shoura, the newspaper of the Popular Forces Party. He faced trial for articles he ran in Al-Oumma, most notably a series on nepotism within the administration. The case earned him an Amnesty International award in June 2008. In August 2004, when he was the editor-in-chief of Al-Shoura, Al-Khaiwani spent seven months in prison and the newspaper was suspended. Once released, he began publishing again. A few months later, however, the authorities took possession of Al-Shoura and “cloned” the paper. According to Al-Khaiwani, the “cloning” of newspapers is common in Yemen. “The government takes over an opposition paper and then starts publishing it under the same title, using the same layout, but completely changing its editorial line.” In the case of Al-Shoura, a security guard at the building housing the paper was appointed editor-in-chief in Al-Khaiwani’s place. But Al-Khaiwani did not give up and decided to launch an online newspaper, calling it Al-Shoura.net. Yemeni authorities immediately banned the site. Broken hand and jaw When asked about his time behind bars, the former Al-Shoura editor says that in the course of his seven-month sentence in 2004, during which time he was prohibited from receiving any visitors, he was twice the target of murder attempts. He escaped with a broken jaw, among other things. But his case also became the focus of a massive national and international campaign of support, in particular from the European Union. “After seven months, I was given a presidential pardon. I think the Yemeni government could no longer stand the international pressure,” he says. Al-Khaiwani could talk for hours about his run-ins with the regime. He recalls that morning in the summer of 2007 when the anti-terrorist unit barged into his home. His six-year-old daughter opened the door. She was shoved aside, and as his family watched, and still in his pyjamas, he was taken to the police station. “It was as if they had a blueprint of the house. They knew the layout of the bedrooms, the kitchen, the living room,” he says. He tells the story of his kidnapping too, in August of that same year, in broad daylight, in the capital, Sana’a. “State security agents forced me into a car, blindfolded me and took me 100 km out of the city. They wanted to cut off my hand, the one I use to write, but someone on the phone who must have been in charge talked them out of it. So in the end they only broke it,” he says. Bleeding and left in the desert, Al-Khaiwani walked for miles looking for help. At the hospital, he was questioned by police. A few hours after his kidnapping, the interior minister issued a press release saying, “Abdelkarim Al-Khaiwani is in Khoulan [the village where he was found] attending a friend’s wedding.” Embittered by the experience, he notes, “I feel like the authorities don’t even know what to say anymore, like they can no longer justify their actions. They don’t even know how to fabricate a credible lie anymore.” Al-Khaiwani says that he was also unable to travel to London last June to receive the Amnesty International award he had been awarded. “A sentence in one of the cases the authorities have brought against me was handed down just days before I was to leave for London. I was taken from the courthouse directly to jail. Jim Boumelha, the president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), wanted to come to Yemen to give me the prize himself, but the authorities denied him entry,” he recalls. “The regime holds you back” Al-Khaiwani is a journalist – he writes for a living – but it is increasingly difficult for him to work in his field. “Since Al-Shoura was seized and cloned the authorities have prevented me from working as a journalist,” he says. “First, they banned Al-Shoura’s online site. Now, I can’t even write in other papers. Some editors are willing to publish my stories, even at the risk of seeing their papers shut down, but others simply refuse to,” he says.   He is now in the process of trying to recover Al-Shoura. He also plans to apply for a licence to publish another independent paper, though he knows already that the application will go nowhere. “What other work do you expect me to do? I’m a journalist. I am practically under house arrest, I hardly ever leave my home. My phone is bugged. I’m followed wherever I go, threatened,” he says emphatically. “I don’t lead a normal life, but it’s my life, I have no other.” Al-Khaiwani, who is 43 years old, has developed various illnesses, including diabetes and heart disease. Married and the father of five children aged 2 to 17 years, Al-Khaiwani says that the authorities have also made threats against his family. “They threaten me especially with my eldest son, who’s 17,” he says. Has he not considered leaving his country, applying for political asylum in a European country? “I don’t want political asylum. I will not leave my country. That would be like admitting that they [the regime] have won. It would be like running away. I refuse to leave my family, my friends, my colleagues, to put them in danger. They’ve helped me, and it is they – not me – who will pay the price of my exile,” he says. “I have chosen to pay the price of freedom and democracy in my country.”