Mission & Justice

9/7/08

Iraq will not accept any security agreement with the United States unless it includes dates for the withdrawal of foreign forces, the government’s national security adviser said on Tuesday. The comments by Mowaffaq Al Rubaie underscore the US-backed government’s hardening stance towards a deal with Washington that will provide a legal basis for US troops to operate when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year. On Monday, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki appeared to catch Washington off-guard by suggesting for the first time that a timetable be set for the departure of US forces under the deal being negotiated, which he called a memorandum of understanding. Rubaie said Iraq was waiting “impatiently for the day when the last foreign soldier leaves Iraq”. “We can’t have a memorandum of understanding with foreign forces unless it has dates and clear horizons determining the departure of foreign forces. We’re unambiguously talking about their departure,” Rubaie said in the holy Shiite city of Najaf.

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Nasser Arrabyee, 7/7/08

Yemeni tribal leaders have agreed to join an NGO campaign in its fight against child trafficking in Hajja province in the north of Yemen, the NGO said on Sunday.The campaign aims to make members of local councils, shaikhs and dignitaries aware of the menace of child trafficking in the most affected districts, namely Haradh, Hairan, Aflah Al Yemen, Aflah Al Sham and Eslam in Hajja province. Hundreds of children are trafficked every year, often with the knowledge of parents, from these extremely poor areas and other similar areas in Yemen, to neighbouring wealthy Saudi Arabia.

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Irfan Akhtar; Interact, 1/7/08; Summer: Islamic religious leaders in Yemen are playing a key role in raising awareness about HIV and AIDS. Irfan Akhtar is a Progressio development worker in Yemen. The workshop described was held in October/November 2007 and was organised by Progressio and the Interaction in Development Foundation in coordination with the Sana’a local council and the National AIDS Programme.

“Our religious duty is to prevent this disease from spreading among the people and to reduce the stigma against people living with HIV and AIDS.’ These words may not seem controversial, until one realises they were spoken by an imam of a mosque in Yemen. Sheikh Abdul-Wali al-Qadasi, imam of the al-Faniah mosque in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, went on to say: ‘Islam teaches us to respect other people’s rights, including those people infected with HIV. I hope to meet people living with this disease and to help guide them to a shining future.’

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Nasser Arrabyee; 6/6/08

Sana’a: A 23-year-old university student said he was beaten up for walking with a female friend in Aden in May. “A bearded man attacked and slapped me while I was walking with my girl colleague, saying it’s haram to talk to women in the street,” said the student. The student was going home from the Aden law college along with two boys and three girls when a group of religious men intercepted them and had a fight with them over “walking and talking” with girls in the street.

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