Iona Craig on the the Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner
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Dear Anna Politkovskaya,
I am well aware that this honor, which bears your name, is not merely awarded to me personally but rather to the sons and daughters of Syria, and the 3,000 whose blood was spilled over the past 7 months by the same criminal exclusionary mentality that spilled your own blood.
I am aware that your passion for truth and the defense of human dignity, for which you gave your life, is but a link in a chain that stretches across the world, through individuals and entire peoples, all of whom believe in everyone’s right to live free of oppression, humiliation, and subjugation.
Nonetheless, bestowing this honor on me personally out of all other Syrians assumes another dimension, as it comes on the fifth anniversary of your death. It means a lot to me to receive an award in your name, Anna, as a Russian citizen — even as the Russian government continues to support the Syrian regime, which has been committing crimes against humanity for several months now; crimes that have been documented by international human rights organizations.
This vividly exemplifies that what we share in humanity transcends languages, nationalities, and borders, just as tyranny and corruption share the same essence although they differ in details.
For this very reason I believe the battle for freedom, being fought by Syrians for months now, would bring comfort to your soul: because each step forward towards peace and justice in any part of the world benefits all humanity.
I am aware, Anna, that it would have hurt you deeply to see the passage that my country is going through to rid herself of a regime that perfected criminal behavior for several decades. Under this regime tens of thousands have perished in the dark dungeons of its security apparatus, or died in massacres and were buried in mass graves. Hundreds of thousands have suffered the silent and lonely years of detention, forced to express and recite phrases of false loyalty to their hangman, day in and day out. And after all this, the regime was inherited, like a royal heirloom, from father to son, in an act unprecedented in a republic. All this occurred amidst deafening Arab and international silence, and a level of complicity rarely seen before.
The oppressed people, meanwhile, were blamed for the crimes of the tyrant.
When the Syrian people decided last March to tear down the wall of fear and stand up against the violence and humiliation imposed on them by the security apparatus, they did it alone. They did it bearing nothing but the scent of freedom that breezed from Tunisia and Egypt, and the vision of a new homeland that does not steal their being, their future, and the dreams of their children.
Since then the security apparatus has been killing unarmed civilians, whose commitment to peaceful protest has stunned the world for months. As of today, according to the Center for the Documentation of Violations in Syria, there have been 3,031 martyrs, including 192 children and 85 women and girls. These figures do not represent the actual number of martyrs, as we continue to discover mass graves and learn of the disappearance of thousands of prisoners of this revolution.
Tanks have besieged our cities and towns, military forces have bombed homes, and tortured dozens of people to death, disfiguring them and stealing their organs. Hamzeh al-Khatib, the 13-year-old boy, who was arrested, whose dead body was savaged, and whose genitals were mutilated, was but one of many similar cases.
Peaceful protesters have been arrested and killed in cold blood. Ghiath Matar, the non-violent activist, a young man of 26, died under torture 3 days after his arrest. The regime offered him death after he offered them roses and water in one of the demonstrations he was leading.
Family members of activists have been kidnapped, tortured, and executed as a form of punishment — and no one is excluded. Zeynab Al-Husni, 19 years old, served as an example of what might befall the families of activists and protesters: she was kidnapped by the security forces, tortured and killed a few days after they murdered her activist brother.
Security forces carry out mass executions day after day, we find new bodies buried in unmarked graves.
Just as we are proud, dear Anna, that you found loyal friends who kept your name alive to remind us of who you were, and what you sacrificed for the sake of truth and human rights, I wish I could recite the names of all our martyrs, one by one. And I wish I could recite the names of the tens of thousands who were, and continue to be, subject to arrest and torture.
All of them: children, women, young men, and the elderly, they all deserve to have their names honored and immortalized. For they have opened the door to freedom. They have opened a door that was closed for decades, so that we might follow them on the road ahead together and behind them.
And I would like to remind the world that the Syrian people, who were victims to all those crimes yet still patient and persistent, are people who deserve much more than complicit silence, or timid criticism from those who have failed to refer this regime to the International Criminal Court despite acknowledging its crimes.
All those activists, some of whom we know and others that we don’t, are creating a new history for their country and their region. They are creating a homeland and a future from the ashes of the violence carried out by one of the most notorious authoritarian regimes in the world.
And so, Anna Politkovskaya, we continue. We continue in your memory, and in the memory of all the other symbols of truth and freedom in the world, until freedom, justice, and democracy prevail in our Syria and the entire world.
Razan Zaitouneh is the winner of the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award 2011.
It’s Maikel Nabil Sanad’s 26th birthday but he is in no celebratory mood. When I arrive at El Marg prison north of Cairo during visiting hours on Saturday 1 October, I can barely hide my shock at seeing his bony physique. Maikel is wearing a wrinkled blue track suit and on his head is a baseball cap worn backwards in a sign of rebellion. It is clear that Maikel is in extremely frail health. He attempts to stand up to greet me but almost immediately falls back into his chair in sheer exhaustion. That’s because today, Maikel tells me, is also the 40 day of his hunger strike — one that he had hoped would draw public attention to his plight and force the ruling military council to reconsider what he describes as the military’s “discriminatory “policies.
“I have been tried in a military court and sentenced to three years in prison on charges of spreading rumours about the armed forces and criticising the ruling military council, SCAF in my blogpost. Other high profile figures have simply been summoned by the military prosecutor for questioning for similar charges. They have had their sentences revoked,” he explains. His voice is weak and I have to lean over to hear him clearly.
Maikel, who now weighs 48kgs after shedding 12kgs as a result of his food abstinence — has languished behind bars since the 28 March 2011 when he was detained for accusing the military of having conducted virginity tests on female protesters earlier that month — a charge that a senior military general later admitted was true. He had also written on his blog that “The army and the people are not one” — a view that ran counter to the one expressed by tens of thousands of pro-democracy activists in Tahrir Square during the mass uprisings earlier this year. Chants of “The army and people are one” had echoed through Tahrir Square after it became clear that the military had chosen to side with the opposition activists –possibly even defying orders to shoot them.
Maikel is post-revolutionary Egypt’s first prisoner of conscience. He was handed the harsh jail sentence after being tried in a martial court where, according to his younger brother Mark, “eyewitnesses were barred from testifying in the case.”
After spending a fortnight in the notorious state security prison at the Hikestep, Maikel was moved to the civilian prison at el Marg where he has since languished in near solitary confinement.
“Other prisoners have been warned against talking to me. The prison guards have also been spreading rumours to turn fellow prisoners against me. They tell them I have called on Israel to prolong its occupation of Palestinian land or that I support gay rights,” he says, his voice now a soft whisper.
In a conservative predominantly Muslim society, Maikel’s unconventional religious and political views have at best, raised eyebrows or been dismissed as the hallucinations of a madman. At worst, they have earned him the ire — even hatred — of some of his fellow countrymen and provoked the wrath of the ruling military council, for Maikel is a self proclaimed atheist and liberal who supports normalisation of relations with Israel and who has called for military service to be non-compulsory.
“Many intellectuals whom I have associated with share my views but do not dare voice them publicly,” he says, shaking his head.” I do not like hypocrisy so I have openly shared my views knowing they may ruffle some feathers.”
But that is an understatement. Maikel’s refusal to go along with the flow has come at a terribly high price: not only is he serving prison time and losing his health and vitality, but he also risks death, according to a warning from doctors who believe few can survive more than forty days without food. “I’d rather die than live as a slave without dignity under an oppressive regime,” is Maikel’s explanation for refusing to end his hunger strike. He has survived on nothing more than water and a few sips of fruit juice since starting his food abstinence.
I offer Maikel a can of orange juice and urge him to take a sip. He reluctantly accepts it and I notice that his hands are as cold as ice as his fingers accidentally brush my hand. Four of his friends have joined me on the visit to lend their support and try and coax Maikell into ending his hunger strike. Like him, they are all ardent activists and revolutionaries.
” You have already made a statement. Enough Maikel. We need people like you to continue to push for change,” argues Sahar Maher, a mass communication student.
“If I die, scores of Maikels will emerge after me,” is Maikel’s stubborn response.” I have already succeeded in winning many converts. Many of my friends, my brother and my father have all become politicised.”
But his father is quick to point out that while he shares many of Maikel’s political stances, he vehemently rejects Maikel’s religious views. “We are a pious Coptic family. Maikel became an atheist when he started associating with the wrong crowd at university and this is where it has led him.”
While his religious views are not the cause of his imprisonment, they are partly responsible for the little sympathy afforded Maikel by fellow Egyptians — which is not surprising in a society where religion plays a significant role in shaping people’s lives. Maikel is disappointed by the almost complete lack of local media support which he also blames on what many in Egypt perceive as his pro-Israeli stances. He has expressed his admiration for “Israel’s democratic values and freedom of expression” — an opinion that has shocked the Egyptian public angered by Israel’s aggressive policies towards the Palestinians and the recent killing of a number of Egyptian security guards by Israeli forces near the border with Israel. In recent weeks, anti Israeli protesters have called for the dismissal of the Israeli ambassador from Egypt and an annulment of the Camp David peace accords with Israel.
Lack of local support for Maikel in his native Egypt is however compensated for by the strong show of solidarity for him by the international community. A “free Maikel Nabil page” on FaceBook currently has more than 61,400 fans from around the world and the number is steadily on the increase.
As his friends sing Happy birthday and Maikel blows out the candle on the small cake they’ve brought with them, he says that his birthday wish is for more Egyptians to read his blogs. He also yearns for his freedom “so that I can receive medical care in a proper hospital,” he says.
Maikel cites a long list of ailments including a tooth infection, scabies , low blood pressure and low sugar level. He says he is being denied the blood tests and treatment he badly needs to recover. The on-duty prison inspector Sameh Labib denies this. He insists that Maikel, like all other prisoners is getting the attention he requires at the prison hospital.
But whether or not Maikel will be released soon will be decided on the 4th of October when his appeal is scheduled. That day will also mark Maikel’s 43rd day of hunger strike. As we head out of the prison compound, Mark says “We can only hope for the best. There cannot be another Khaled Saeed. Our revolution was sparked by Saeed’s brutal killing by police officers. There cannot be others losing their lives in similar fashion in post revolutionary Egypt.”
Maikel’s lawyer Negad el Borei says he does not have high expectations from the appeal. He adds that Maikell’s imprisonment is “another black spot for the image of the SCAF.” EL Borei also regrets the lack of media attention to Maikel’s case adding that this is because of new restrictions imposed on the media by the ruling military government which are greater today than those imposed by the former regime. “The media in post revolutionary Egypt has gone as far as condoning torture which never happened under Mubarak,” he laments.
Journalist and television anchor Shahira Amin resigned her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV on February. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
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