Posted on 06/19/2006 4:43:49 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan rebuked Human Rights Watch on Monday for criticizing the kingdom's arrest of four lawmakers after they paid condolences to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's family.
Al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad on June 8. The four lawmakers — members of Jordan's largest opposition group, the Islamic Action Front — attended the al-Qaida in Iraq leader's wake in his native Jordan on June 9. One described al-Zarqawi as a "martyr."
Two days later, they were arrested and charged with "instigating sectarian strife" and "fueling national discord" and jailed for 15 days.
The New York-based rights group issued a statement over the weekend saying that "expressing condolences to the family of a dead man, however murderous he might be, is not a crime."
Government spokesman Nasser Judeh called the statement an "insult to the families of the victims" of last November's triple hotel bombings in Amman, where suicide bombers working for al-Zarqawi killed 60 civilians.
He said Jordanians were offended by the group's suggestion that visiting the wake of a "man who murdered their relatives ... isn't a crime." Jordanians also, he said, were surprised Human Rights Watch considered the lawmakers to have exercised "legitimate freedom of speech."
Sarah Leah Whitson, who directs the watchdog group's Middle East and North Africa division, said Saturday that the lawmakers' actions "shouldn't be grounds for prosecution."
"Going after these people is an unacceptable violation of their basic rights to free speech," Whitson added.
Farouq Sayagh holds a picture of his niece, lina Sayagh ,23, one of the Amman treble bombings victims during a protest in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, June 15, 2006. against the visit of four lawmakers last week to the wake of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The lawmakers of the Islamic Action front were arrested Sunday and charged by the military prosecutor of causing sectarian strife and fueling national discord. (AP Photo/Mohammad Abu Ghosh)
Jordan, do us a favor and arrest the pond scum from Human Rights Watch.
I guess these human rights watch people probably say that Zarqawi attacked his own country of Jordan because the US is in Iraq. And pigs fly.
Are you frickin' sh!++ing me? Jordan finally does ONE thing to protect freedom, after all sorts of uncriticized human rights abuses, and THEN Human Rights Watch pipes up? Or is HRW the homo group?
Nevermind... I think HRC (Human Rights Campaign) were the homonazis back in the 80s. Hmmm... why did I never notice those initials before?
Human rights watch can pound sand,..... in Saudi Arabia. Drop 'em off there, without papers.
Grotesque lack of values in this alleged "human rights watch"
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