North Lebanon Update
Support to displaced Syrians – 18 – 24 February 2012

Highlights of the week Numbers The number of displaced Syrians currently registered with UNHCR and the High Relief Commission (HRC) in North Lebanon is 6,916 persons. Since the
previous week, there has been an increase of 311 newly registered persons, mainly in the Wadi Khaled, Akroom, Bire, Halba, and Old Akkar areas. Most of these (200 persons) arrived in Lebanon since the beginning of the year. The others arrived earlier but only came forward to register this week. Additionally, there were 85 persons who previously registered but were taken off the active list because they could not be verified as still residing in North Lebanon. We understand that some went back to Syria while others moved elsewhere in
Lebanon.

The HRC postponed registration in Tripoli a few weeks ago. UNHCR is in discussions with the government with the hopes that it will resume soon. In the meantime – assistance is being provided to persons in need.

There are also concentrations of Syrians displaced residing in other parts of Lebanon. UNHCR’s latest estimates with partners indicate that there are between 3,000-4,500 persons in need in the eastern Lebanon and south of Beirut.

Protection and Security
During the week, 27 wounded Syrians were admitted to hospitals and 2 wounded persons passed away.

Registration certificates to persons registered with UNHCR and HRC remain on hold and circulation permits have yet to be issued. Many in the north report feeling frustrated by their lack of mobility and consequent inability to find temporary work.

Assistance in North Lebanon

Fuel and Water
UNHCR and the HRC began the monthly distribution of fuel coupons: 2,714 fuel coupons were distributed to 358 families. In addition, in an effort to facilitate access to potable water, this week, UNHCR and partners installed a water pump into the well in Al Rama Collective Shelter. This shelter houses 98 displaced Syrians. …more

Arab League chief says fueling violence will not help Syria
01 March, 2012 – Reuters – The Daily Star

CAIRO: Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said on Thursday he was opposed to violence as a way to end the Syrian crisis after Gulf states called for arming the rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have led the Arab charge to isolate Syria, although other leading Arab states outside the Gulf such as Egypt, Algeria and Iraq have taken a more cautious approach.

Kuwait’s parliament on Thursday joined calls for arms to be sent to Syrian rebels.

“I am against using violence and the Arab League has no link to arming,” Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told a news conference at the League headquarters in Cairo.

The League passed a resolution in February calling for Arabs to “provide all kinds of political and material support” to the opposition, a statement that Arab diplomats confirmed at the time could be interpreted as permitting arms shipments.

However, they said some Arab states who backed the resolution opposed the idea of sending weapons, a move they saw as pushing Syria closer to civil war.

Elaraby said he hoped for a ceasefire that would allow humanitarian aid to enter Syria, where protests flared up almost a year ago and were confronted by troops and heavy weaponry.

“What is happening in Syria, the abuses, killings and sometimes starvation, is a very bad situation,” he said. “We hope that this stops so that it doesn’t turn into a civil war.”

The League will host a conference in Cairo for the Syrian opposition within two weeks to help them unify their ranks, Elaraby said. Arab diplomats say divisions in the opposition are preventing Arabs from any move to formally recognize it.

“What is demanded now from the (Syrian) National Council (SNC) and all the opposition is to unite their ranks and this is something that the League is asked to do,” he said.

The United Nations says Assad’s security forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians since the revolt began last March. Syria’s government said in December that “armed terrorists” had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police during the unrest.

…more

Psychologists and Torture, Then and Now
By Laura Melendez-Pallitto and Robert Pallitto – 1 March, 2012 – FPIP

History repeats itself, Marx famously warned, first as tragedy and then as farce. In the case of U.S. torture psychologists, the ” tragedy” occurred half a century ago when CIA-funded psychological research on electroshock treatment, sensory deprivation and the like found its way into the Agency’s counterintelligence interrogation manual. The 1963 KUBARK Manual and its later iterations were used widely by U.S. intelligence and disseminated to other governments in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

The “farce” was played post-9/11, as psychologists became involved once again in aiding counterintelligence interrogators. Although some of the material in KUBARK remained in use, psychologists augmented already- existing material with newer techniques, some of which had been developed from torture resistance protocols used to train U.S. military personnel to survive capture and interrogation themselves. Thus, as Katherine Eban has reported, discoveries initially applied to help possible torture victims were later used to break interrogation subjects held in U.S. custody. Psychologists were complicit in designing and using techniques to break subjects rather than aid them, and in so doing they made a mockery of their ethical obligation to “do no harm.”

Twice, then, psychologists forged relationships with the state in which they cast ethics aside. And both times they acted with impunity.

The KUBARK Precedent
The KUBARK Manual cites Albert Biderman and other research psychologists as sources for the “scientific findings” that support its conclusions. Biderman, who died in 2003, was known for his studies of U.S. personnel captured by the Chinese during the Cold War. He examined the ways in which the Chinese military induced false confessions – often outlandish and implausible ones – from U.S. prisoners. Whatever one thinks today of the validity and cogency of that literature, the government used it to legitimize tactics and propositions that go well beyond the claims of the literature itself. KUBARK instructs interrogators to use protocols entitled, “Ivan is a Dope,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Mutt-and-Jeff.” Some of these tactics recall the stationhouse “third degree” sessions documented by the 1931 Wickersham Report on police abuse; others appear even more ad hoc and arbitrary. To some extent, the bibliographical citations to social psychology literature provide window-dressing for a how-to on coercive interrogation practices. They help to create a scientific-sounding discourse of counterintelligence interrogation.

KUBARK does not describe in detail the ways in which psychological interrogation methods (“clean torture,” as Darius Rejali calls it) are done. KUBARK merely recognizes that “chemical and electrical” methods are available (though it may be more specific in the redacted portions). To see how sensory deprivation and electroshock treatment actually work on the psyche of subjects, we must look outside KUBARK itself, at the research findings of scientists and the accounts of victims themselves. Naomi Klein interviewed one such victim who unwittingly became a research subject for Dr. Ewen Cameron of McGill University (a psychiatrist) while Cameron was treating her as a psychiatric inpatient. Cameron administered drug and electroshock therapy on his patient that left permanent, devastating injury. Many years later, she discovered the cause of her injuries when she learned of a legal settlement by the CIA paying unwitting experimental subjects for the damages they suffered. By then, she had become completely disabled as a result of her “treatment.” …more

Should Central America’s drug violence be considered a global crisis?
By Joshua Keating – 28 February, 2012 – Foreign Policy

A new report from the U.N.’s International Narcotics Control Board contains more grim news about the drug violence in Central America:

In Central America, the escalating drug-related violence involving drug trafficking, transnational and local gangs and other criminal groups has reached alarming and unprecedented levels, significantly worsening security and making the subregion one of the most violent areas in the world. Crime and drug-related violence continue to be key issues of concern in Central American countries. Drug trafficking (including fighting between and within drug trafficking and criminal organizations operating out of Colombia and Mexico), youth-related violence and street gangs, along with the widespread availability of firearms, have contributed to increasingly high crime rates in the subregion. There are more than 900 maras (local gangs) active in Central America today, with over 70,000 members. According to a recent report by the World Bank, drug trafficking is both an important driver of homicide rates in Central America and the main single factor behind the rising levels of violence in the subregion. The countries of the so-called “Northern Triangle” (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras), together with Jamaica, now have the world’s highest homicide rates.

Just how bad is it? To put things in perspective, in Syria, where the the United Nations is debating imposing international sanctions and many are urging humanitarian intervention, an astonishing 7,500 people are estimated to have been killed in the last 11 months. With Syria’s population, that’s almost 37 deaths per 100,000 people.

By comparison, Honduras has a murder rate of 82.1 per 100,000, the highest in the world. It’s followed by El Salvador at 66 and Jamaica at 60 — all driven primarily by drug violence. With only 8.5 per cent of the world population, Latin America and the Carribean account for 27 percent of homicides.

I don’t mean to minimize the tragic violence of the Middle East, but it’s a bit astonishing how little this carnage closer to home gets in U.S. political circles, particularly since, as the world’s largest drug market, North Americans are directly implicated in it.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is visiting Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama this week where she faces the unenviable task of touting progress in the war on drugs. …source

Syrian rebels confirm receiving arms from Western & Arab countries
24 February, 2012 – JafriaNew

Speaking at an international conference on Syria unrest in Tunisia, a Syrian opposition source said on Friday that several countries are providing armed groups in Syria with weapons, which are being smuggled into the country.

He also criticized foreign powers for ignoring the arms smuggling aimed at causing chaos in Syria.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, attending the ”Friends of Syria” conference has openly supported arming Assad opponents.

The US has earlier said that it will consider military assistance to armed groups fighting the Syrian government. Pro-Israeli US Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, have also called for arming Syrian gangs with the help of Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The pro-opposition Friends of Syria conference organized by a number of Western countries and the Arab League kicked off in Tunisia on Friday to discuss Syria unrest.

Russia, China and Lebanon have shunned the conference, describing it as one-sided. The leader of Syria’s opposition party, the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, has also slammed the conference.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Assad supporters gathered outside the venue of the conference to condemn the meeting.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. The violence has claimed the lives of hundreds, reportedly including over 2,000 security forces.

Damascus blames ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups’ for the unrest, asserting that it is being orchestrated from abroad. …more

SAUDI ARABIA: Cracking Down Quietly
By William Fisher – 29 February, 2012

It is being reported that Saudi Arabia’s aging monarch, King Abdullah, is refusing to discuss the Syrian catastrophe with international colleagues. “There is nothing more to say,” he is being quoted as saying.

Well, OK, given the huge rebuff Syrian President Basher al-Assad handed the Arab League, maybe the king’s position is understandable. On the other hand, the King’s neighborhood is chock-a-block with calamity situations triggered by the so-called Arab Spring.

The King should be a tad relieved. Ongoing violence in Syria and Bahrain, continuing post-revolutionary conflict in Egypt and Yemen – all these situations have tended to draw media attention away from locales that don’t present journalists with enough blood-curdling visuals.

And Saudi is one of those locales where brutality has always trumped justice and human rights – and still does. While far more highly-publicized transgressions are pervading the Middle East and North Africa, Saudi has quietly put in place a carrot and stick strategy in an effort to keep the country stable.

The carrots have consisted of generous cash stipends for every Saudi family and the availability of more government jobs and more funds for job training. The sticks have come from the arsenal brutally used by every Middle East dictator in memory.

In March, Saudi Arabia announced that it would not allow any demonstrations or sit-in protests in the country that the government said are aimed at undermining the Kingdom’s security and stability.

“Laws and regulations in the Kingdom totally prohibit all kinds of demonstrations, marches and sit-in protests as well as calling for them as they go against the principles of Shariah and Saudi customs and traditions,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The ministry said such demonstrations not only breach the Kingdom’s law and order but also encroach on the rights of others.

Saudi Arabia has blamed an unnamed foreign power for clashes that took place in its oil-rich Eastern Province in which it says 14 people were injured.

Among the people, and largely under the press radar, there appears to be a substantial desire for more human rights. Many of these demands are coming from women who want to seek office and vote, women who want the right to drive, and women who are frustrated with their roles as men’s property.

The Kingdom’s minority Shia population says they suffer from widespread discrimination in housing, top government and private sector jobs, and access to finance.

The King has not hesitated to use the stick part of his carrot-and-stick strategy. He has jailed hundreds of citizens, including many journalists and bloggers. It has long been well documented that Saudi jailers practice torture of prisoners, as do most of the nations of the Middle East-North Africa region. Men and women detained by the Security Forces are likely to lack lawyers and even less likely to experience anything that could pass for due process. Defendants frequently languish in jail for long periods before they are tried. …more

Saudi Arabia: Update – Release of Dr Said bin Zair and other human rights defenders
01 March 2012 – Alkarahma

Update: In addition to the releases announced in our press release of last Monday, we further welcome the release of Dr Mubarak bin Zair, son of Dr Said bin Zair. He was arrested on 21 March 2011 and was arbitrarily detained until his release yesterday, 29 February 2012. His release came after the Special Criminal Tribunal, a court of exception mandated to examine terrorist-related cases, decided on 14 February 2012 that it was not competent to consider Dr Mubarak bin Zair’s case and consequently ordered his release.
These positive developments are tainted by the news that Mr Saad bin Zair, brother of Dr Mubarak bin Zair and son of Dr Said bin Zair, remains in prison. Moreover, Alkarama was informed that Mr Saad bin Zair was recently tortured and forced to sign false confessions. We firmly condemn these acts as well as his arbitrary detention, lasting nearly 5 years now, and call for his immediate and unconditional release.

Press release of 27 February 2012
Alkarama welcomes the release of Alkarama Award 2011 laureate, Dr Said bin Zair, along with other long standing human rights defenders and political activists in Saudi Arabia. Among the released are Mr Mokhlif Al Shammari, who had been held in incommunicado detention since July 2011, and Mr Thamer Al Khodr, whose detention was recently found to be arbitrary by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s Opinion No. 42/2011. Alkarama has been closely following their situation over the past years and hopes these releases are the beginning of a real reform process. …more

February 29: A new case of death due to tear gas suffocation
1 March, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Habib Kadhim Almulla, 60 years old, died on morning of Feb 29, 2012 due to teargas suffocation. Last friday, teargas was shot inside his home in Sehla, it broke the window and made him suffocates, and he was moved to to Salmanya hospital. His brother told BCHR that this was not the 1st time that Habib suffocates from the fired gases, but it was the 3rd time.

On different news, Hundreds of dismissed workers protested in front of the Ministry of Labor, demanding their return to jobs without any conditions. Security forces accompanied by armed civilians carried out a campaign of house raids and arrests without any warrants or orders in Bani Jamra, which started in the early hours of morning and continued until afternoon. …more

Syrian opposition forms military council
By Zeina Karam – 1 March, 2012 – The Daily Star – Associated Press

BEIRUT: Syria’s main opposition group formed a military council Thursday to organize and unify all armed resistance to President Bashar Assad’s regime as the conflict veered ever closer to civil war.

The Paris-based leadership of the Syrian National Council said its plan was coordinated with the most potent armed opposition force – the Free Syrian Army – made up mainly of army defectors.

“The revolution started peacefully and kept up its peaceful nature for months, but the reality today is different and the SNC must shoulder its responsibilities in the face of this new reality,” SNC president Burhan Ghalioun told reporters in Paris, saying any weapons flowing into the country should go through the council.

Still he tried to play down the risks of all-out warfare.

“We want to control the use of weapons so that there won’t be a civil war,” he said. “Our aim is to help avoid civil war.”

The SNC has called for arming rebels in the past, but this was the first time it sought to organize the fighters under one umbrella. The plan coincides with a ferocious government offensive on the opposition stronghold of Homs in central Syria that has been going on for nearly a month.

International pressure on the regime has been growing more intense by the day. The U.N.’s top human rights body voted Thursday to condemn Syria for its “widespread and systematic violations” against civilians, and the U.K. and Switzerland closed their embassies in Damascus over worsening security. The U.S. closed its embassy in February.

But the U.S. has not advocated arming the rebels, in part out of fear it would create an even more bloody and prolonged conflict because of Syria’s complex web of allegiances in the region that extend to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

On Wednesday, the Syrian regime showed a new determination to crush its opponents, vowing to “cleanse” the rebel-held district of Baba Amr in Homs from “gunmen,” as activists reported troops massing outside.

Syrian activists said government forces have cut off communications to Bab Amr, jamming satellite phone signals as they mass for an apparent ground assault. The neighborhood has been under siege for about four weeks and hundreds have died in shelling.

Authorities had previously blocked land and mobile phone lines, but activists were able to communicate with the outside world with satellite phones.
…more