Jordan National Movement
Amman, Jordan
http://www.jnm.jeeran.com -Under Construction
Mission Statement: An authentic, independent Jordanian organization seeks to promote democracy, human rights, and political, economic and social reforms, and national strategic issues in Jordan, and constructive and peaceful dialogue to settle current and future conflicts in the Middle East region
Human Rights Report (1)
August 30, 2006
For Further Info. Contact:
Dr. Ahmad Oweidi Al-Abbadi (Chairman), Former Member of Parliament (Two Terms) Amman-Jordan, at 00962 777 419 545, oweidi2005@yahoo.com, &
Dr. Abdul Salam Al-Mualla (Secretary of Foreign Affairs), Dean & College Professor, in the U.S. at (703) 629-5427, almala@att.net.
 

State of Human Rights in Jordan: Report (1)

New York-based Human Rights Watch reported on June 17, 2006 that the Jordanian regime “must not roll back on its commitment to fully respect freedom of _expression…rather than implement the reforms it promised…the [unelected] government of Prime Minister Ma’ruf al-Bakhit is giving the intelligence agencies, the police and prosecutors free rein to clamp down on legitimate speech.” For instance, the leadership and countless members of Jordan National Movement (JNM) are being threatened and harassed on a daily basis by the omni-present officers of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID). According to a recent major report, Jordan's 9/11: Dealing With Jihadi Islamism, prepared and delivered by the independent International Crisis Group (ICG), the (GID) has “carved out a critical role (since 1999) and, according to one analyst, "regional developments over the past few years have only helped entrench the Mukhabarat's (GID) role in politics and society." Further, the same report emphasized that “the [Jordanian] media, while free in theory, consistently exercises a degree of self censorship that reflects keen awareness of its limits, encouraged by occasional arrests or threatening phone calls.”

On March 8, 2006, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. State Department, issued a report stating that “although the [Jordanian] government respected human rights in some areas, its overall record continued to reflect problems.” Among these major human rights problems: “restrictions on the right of citizens to change their government, allegations of torture, continued police abuse and reported mistreatment of detainees, arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention, instances of impunity, denial of due process of law, limited judicial independence, infringement on citizens' privacy rights, harassment of members of opposition political parties, restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, movement, and on some religious practices, legal and societal discrimination against women, ‘honor’ crimes, child abuse, discrimination against (Jordanians of all origins), restrictions on labor rights and abuse of foreign domestic workers.”

Torturing prisoners to death continues to occur in Jordan. For instance, a gruesome crime took place at Al-Jafer prison on Saturday, August 12, 2006. The Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), Jordan Branch, reported on Monday, August 14, 2006 that the inmate, Mr. Mwafq Abdul Aziz Odeh Taha, was beaten to death by prison security guards and found dead at Al-Jafer’s horrible prison. He was serving an unknown sentence for non-criminal charges. Al-Jafer is located 270 km in the isolated and extremely hot southern desert, very far away from prisoners’ families and close relatives. [The prison was built in 1935 and ordered to be reopened by the appointed government in 1998 after the late King Hussein decided to close it down several years ago.] After a recent visit to Al-Jafer, the AOHR noted deep bruises on Taha’s left shoulder and emphasized that he was starved to death. The AOHR described the prison conditions as “absolute and extreme misery” and “over crowded.” The chairwoman of the Complaints Department at the AOHR, Ms. Basma Al-Hassan, stated that prisoners at Al-Jafer have “no access to bathrooms, medical assistance, drinking water and provided with only one piece of rotten cover to sleep on the bear floor.” The AOHR issued a press release stating that 80 percent of the 264 current prisoners at Al-Jafer prison are incarcerated due to traffic (speeding) violations, administrative fractions (violating a city ordinance) and other non-criminal charges. Political prisoners in Al-Jafer, such as Mustafa Arabiat, Fouad Mohammad Zamzam and Ahmed Ibrahim, were imprisoned for speaking up in public against the king and the royal family.

Recently, the GID has been very active in preventing and disallowing political and human rights activists (living inside and outside of the country) from renewing their Jordanian passports, a repugnant practice that is inconsistent with the current constitution and very basic human rights. For instance, an avid writer, Mr. Salah Al-Moomni, living in the U.S., was told by the Jordanian authorities in Amman that he could not renew his passport because of his critical articles of the government. For further information on the most recent violations conducted by the GID, please read this report: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE160052006, prepared by Amnesty International (AI).

Abuses of human rights, travesties of justice, unequal distribution of national resources, political oppression and abject poverty breed indefinite cycles of violence and vicious acts of terrorism. These dimensions of daily hardship are widespread and growing rapidly in Jordan. The current condition in Jordan is unbearable and heading towards a situation worse than what was happening in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s era. The current regime has absolute executive power of a ppointing and dismissing governments, creating illegitimate and rubber stamp parliaments by picking and firing senior judges, senators and high-ranking advisers. These ongoing circumstances are creating potential junior and senior terrorists who would have nothing but hate towards those countries that support absolute monarchical regimes in the Arab world.

The U.S., Europe and the civil world have to face this reality: either ease the pressure and discontinue supporting absolute monarchical regimes in the Middle East region, or face a countless number of angry people. Those oppressed and freedom-loving people will turn to violence and terrorism and do everything at their disposal to vent out their immense anger at the U.S. and other countries that support these cruel r ogue regimes.

Hence, the Jordan National Movement (JNM) urges all democratic countries, worldwide free societies and international civil institutions to take bold, practical and courageous measures against the current corrupt absolute monarchical system in Jordan. We need to work together to curb this regime’s double-faced local and foreign policies that have deceived the global civilized community regarding its daily dictatorial activities against the people of Jordan. We must work hand-in-hand to defeat growing terrorism in the Arab world: peacefully and democratically!

Cc:
President George W. Bush, U.S.A.
President Vladimir Putin, Russia
President Hu Jintao, the People's Republic of China
President Jacques Chirac, France
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany
Prime Minister José Luis Rodrيguez Zapatero, Spain
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japan
Senator Hilary Clinton, U.S. Senate
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General
Dr. Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State
Steve Hadley, US National Security Adviser
Klaus Schwab, President of the World Economic Forum (WEF)
Members of U.S. Congress
European Union, Delegation of the European Commission to the United States
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Transparency International
U.S. and Worldwide Human Rights Organizations and Political Institutions
U.S. and Jordanian Press and Media