Yemeni Human Rights Observatory Condemns Newspaper Closure
President Saleh or should I say Marshal Saleh has no sense of humor apparently.
Sahwa Net – The Yemen Observatory for Human Rights has expressed its denunciation at the authorities’ procedures aiming at prosecuting al-Masdar newspaper on charges of insulting president Saleh, stressing that al-Masdar did not violate the state-constitution or laws.
YOHR also condemned threats of closing down the paper with feckless excuses, saying that such act is clear crackdown of the expression freedom.
The Press and Publications Court has summoned the editor-in-chief of al-Masdar newspaper Samir Jubran and the Yemeni-American journalist Munir al-Mawri on charges of publishing an article which insults president Saleh.
A suit was filed by the ruling party, GPC, against al-Masdar due to the article written by al-Mawri , according to the paper’s lawyer Khalid al-Anisi.
This was the offending article written by Yemeni American journalist Munier al-Mawari:
Dear Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh, President of the Republic of Yemen:
I hesitated to address you with that title because I did not know that there still existed in this world someone holding the rank of “Marshall” — or Mushir as you say it in Arabic. I thought that “Field Marshal Idi Amin” was the last Marchalat in the developing world. Vice President Elect Joe Biden, who is expert in foreign affairs, however, assured me that there are still several field marshals in the countries of the Middle East, some of whom have never participated in any war to defend their people and country, but who, instead, got their titles fighting internal wars against their own people within their own territory! This delivered quite a surprise to me; one learns a lot from Joe Biden.
At any rate, Dear Marshal Saleh:
We are following carefully what is happening in your country, and we know very well that you have recently waged five wars against a part of your country, which now enjoys semi-autonomy in the north-western part of Yemen. We also know very well that the provinces in the entire southern part of your country have expelled the representatives of the election committee you placed there, rejecting in advance a sham election that does not reflect the true democracy.
We also know that al-Qaeda is alive and well in Yemen, and that the attack on our Embassy was only the latest terrorist act.. It killed 12 of your innocent people, including a number of the brave Embassy guards. We also know that you are trying to hold a parliamentary election without the opposition parties, who claim with some credibility that the upcoming election is simply a tool meant to reproduce the same faces – and the same anti-democratic forces – that have occupied your parliament for the last 30 years.
We also know that chaos and instability are prevailing in many parts of your country because of the lack of a real local government system which would allow citizens to elect their representatives and manage their own affairs. We are afraid that the discontent in Yemen now will not only prevent the holding of elections, it might even force the international community to make some tough choices leading to the acceptance of a new state or states in the region.
Such new states might show more willingness to combat pirates on land and at sea; such new states might demonstrate real support for efforts to combat terrorism and corruption. The governments of such new states might actually arrest known terrorists and hand them over to the offices of international justice, thus ensuring the safety and prosperity of the citizens, and maintaining their property on their land. Such new states might be devoted to protecting their people against the possibility of falling under the control of destructive ideologies.
These possibilities exist for the future of Yemen, make no mistake about it.
Mr. Marshall:
Finally, I apologize that I cannot accept your offer, which we have received through two U.S. university scholars, to solve the Guantanamo dilemma by adopting a Yemeni System that could invoke only gales of mockery and genuine horror on the part of any civilized people: I speak of the system of releasing detainees while arresting and keeping their innocent relatives as hostages in your prisons, to be funded by the United States taxpayers! Any high school civics student in American would call that idea “retarded.”
We are the nation that protected the relatives of Osama bin Laden, the day after the attacks of September 11th 2001; we sent them back to their own country safely, realizing they were not to be held culpable for the act of their relative. How dare you, Marshall, ask us to help you legitimize a manifestly unjust system of keeping innocent people hostages in your abusive facilities? Are you not aware that this disreputable system was one of the main reasons that the Yemeni people revolted in 1962, and John F Kennedy recognized the new regime set up at that time for that very reason?
Aw, come on, thats hysterical and if its true, well then the problem is not with Munier or the newspaper.
