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Human Rights Watch Warns of Setbacks for Freedoms in Lebanon Calls for End to Restrictions on Free Expression and Lifting Ban on

In a letter to Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri made public today, Human Rights Watch says that recent government actions represent serious setbacks for freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and the rule of law in Lebanon.

The organization also strongly protested the continuing policy of referring civilians to military prosecutors, and trying civilians in the military court, which it said lacked independence. It urged Mr. Hariri to reverse the policy of widening the jurisdiction of the military court to include the prosecution and trial of civilians for peaceful political activity.

The full text of the letter is attached.

BY FACSIMILE

18 December 1997
His Excellency Rafiq Hariri
Prime Minister of the Republic of Lebanon
Office of the Prime Minister
Beirut, Lebanon

Your Excellency:

Human Rights Watch/Middle East is writing to express deep concern about recent government interference with the privately owned broadcast media in Lebanon, and the suppression by security forces of a peaceful gathering in the Ashrafiyeh section of Beirut on December 14. These actions represent, in our view, serious setbacks for freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and the rule of law in Lebanon. We also find it alarming when civilian authorities resort to the military justice system as a threat to deter peaceful political activities, as recently happened with the ten Lebanese who were referred to the military prosecutor following their arrest, and the arrest of over fifty others, in East Beirut on December 14.
Our organization has repeatedly called for a reversal of the cabinet's August 1993 decree that banned "all assemblies and processions with or without a permit." This categorical prohibition of peaceful public gatherings prevents Lebanese citizens from exercising the internationally recognized right to peaceful assembly. Those who choose to exercise this right put themselves at risk of arrest, as the events near the MTV television station in Ashrafiyeh on the evening of December 14 so dramatically illustrated. Several hundred students and professionals who had assembled there to protest the state's restrictive audio-visual media policies and the Syrian presence in Lebanon were forcibly dispersed with tear gas and clubs. Some were injured and over sixty were arrested by internal security forces, including Hikmat Deeb, secretary general of the engineers and architects syndicate, and lawyer Georges Haddad. Deeb suffered a fractured rib and finger and as of today remained in hospital. Physicians also documented injuries suffered by Georges Atallah (blows to the head, right arm and right rib cage) and Patrick Khoury (trauma to the thorax and abdomen). The suppression of the demonstration, and the use of excessive force by security forces, was unwarranted.

With respect to freedom of expression in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch continues to be concerned about the manner in which the state is regulating and restricting the privately owned broadcast media. We monitored the implementation of Lebanon's audio-visual media law, and in a report published in April of this year we recommended that the power to issue broadcasting licenses should be placed in the hands of a regulatory authority independent of the government. We also noted the vaguely worded content restrictions in the 1994 broadcasting law and the 1996 broadcasting decree, and concluded that such restrictions could be used by authorities to stifle free expression. Indeed, the recent statements and actions of Information Minister Bassem al-Sabaa, described below, place the broadcasting freedom of Lebanon's privately owned audio-visual media in jeopardy. The minister has challenged the right of privately owned stations to present to viewers a diversity of information and political views, including those of well-known opposition figures.

On December 11, Mr. al-Sabaa met with MTV and reportedly expressed a "wish" that the station's planned broadcast on December 14 of an interview from France with exiled Gen. Michel Aoun be cancelled, terming it "an attempt to destabilize the government." The information minister also said that day that authorities considered it "harmful to national interests" when prominent members of the political opposition were permitted to "appear on TV and distort facts before the public," a reference to the interview with exiled former President Amin Gemayel that was broadcast by MTV on December 7. The information minister, in effect, banned the Aoun interview, and Human Rights Watch is unaware of any disclosure by authorities of the legal basis for this action. MTV director Gabriel Murr said that the information minister had clearly communicated the "wish," and that "we do not have any other choice than fulfilling this wish." On December 15, Mr. al-Sabaa made clear at a press conference that he would not tolerate criticism of Syria by the Lebanese media: "In my position as information minister and in my capacity as a journalist, I cannot and I will not agree to being a guardian for any particular party which is trying to use the media as a means to disturb the peace and, in particular, aims to destroy relations with Syria."

This ominous trend toward greater state censorship of the media is contrary to pledges that the government made last year. On February 11, 1996, just prior to the issuance of the decree designed to implement the provisions of the broadcasting law, then-Minister of Information Farid Makari, noting that freedom of expression is "safeguarded" by Lebanon's constitution, said on Radio Lebanon :

What the government is doing to organize the media in Lebanon, particularly the audio and visual media, is primarily intended to organize the media organs and not to restrict or confiscate them. We realize, just as you do, that safeguarding freedom is a sacred duty, for they are the pillars of Lebanon's existence without which there is no justification for the state's existence.

Developments this month, however, indicate the government's intent to restrict media pluralism, particularly when stations attempt to disseminate ideas and opinions of the political opposition, including criticism of the Syrian role in Lebanese affairs. The information minister made it clear in recent public statements that he would not permit the media to be used to harm Lebanon's relations with Syria. The close bilateral relationship between Syria and Lebanon, and its impact on governance and human rights conditions in Lebanon, is an issue of deep interest to many Lebanese. Human Rights Watch believes that the views that Lebanese express privately on this subject should also be permitted to be aired fully on radio and television, and in the print media. To obstruct public discussion and debate about one of the most important political issues in the country fundamentally compromises the basic provisions of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Lebanon has ratified and pledged to uphold.

Last, Human Rights Watch strongly protests your government's policy of referring civilians to military prosecutors and trying civilians in the military court for vaguely worded offenses such as "incitement to conflict" or "threatening national security." The military justice system, which is under the jurisdiction of the ministry of defense, is not an independent tribunal and most of its judges are military officers. The court is known for carrying out summary trials in which the right of defendants to due process and fair trial are violated. The court's proceedings and judgments cannot be reviewed by a judicial body that is independent of the military justice system. In April 1997, the U.N. Human Rights Committee noted "the lack of supervision over the military courts' procedures and verdicts by the ordinary courts," and recommended that Lebanon transfer to the ordinary courts "all trials concerning civilians and ...all cases concerning the violation of human rights by members of the military."

We are gravely concerned that while the majority of the arrested in Beirut on December 14 were eventually referred to civilian prosecutors, ten were singled out and sent to the military prosecutor. According to our information, their names are: lawyer Georges Haddad, engineers Hikmat Deeb and Ziad Abs, law students Tony Harb and Georges Rabahia, science students Tony Mukheiber and Tony Ateeq, business student Bassam Lataif, Paul Basil, and Dani Aoun. Lawyers and human rights activists in Lebanon told Human Rights Watch that they have been unable to obtain an official list of those referred to the military prosecutor from the secretary of the military court. Although the ten were released on December 16 without any explanation or charges, they were all were assigned to their places of residence, which means that they are unable to leave Lebanon. "We can be called back [by the military prosecutor] at any time," one of them told Human Rights Watch. A lawyer who spoke with the military prosecutor on December 16 told Human Rights Watch that the prosecutor said he had taken no action against the ten. "But it's still iffy," the lawyer said. "The military court was used as a threat by civilian authorities." We respectfully urge the Lebanese government to bring its practices into conformity with the standards set forth in international human rights law and, in particular, to ensure that citizens enjoy the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. We further call upon the government to reverse the policy of widening the jurisdiction of the military court to include the prosecution and trial of civilians for peaceful political activity. We will continue to monitor closely the human rights situation in Lebanon, and welcome a reply at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,
/original signed/
Hanny Megally
Executive Director

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