Report - Issue 46 - Yemen Times

46 - Nov 13 thru Nov 19 2000, Vol X

Who Controls Police Stations?

Many people complain of being insecure, particularly when they realize that those who are entrusted with providing security in the country and those in charge of implementing the law, are themselves who commit violations. People also complain of maltreatment by some security and police apparatus and they are subject in many cases to suppression, blackmail and intimidation at the hands of some people supposed to be representatives of law. This is a very serious problem and needs to be tackled seriously. Because such a topic needs great attention and care, Mohammed Ben Sallam of the YT interviewed a number of lawyers and men of law to sound out their opinion on the issue and solutions they propose to solve it.

Advocate Abdulrazzaq Al-Hakeemi said: “All heavenly laws, and Islam in the first place, and all positive laws and international agreements have highly honored man. The Universal Declaration of human rights can be cited as an example in point.
It is not only police that blackmail and humiliate people. There are other government institutions and authorities that do similarly such illegal acts though they are part of work or specialty, such as imprisoning, illegally fining peddlers, shops etc. Those authorities include Supply, Housing and Electricity offices. Oddly enough, people do not try to reject such irresponsible and illegal practices for many reasons some of which are:
1- those practicing such acts are lacking of religious and moral values,
2- wrong ideas embedded in people’s awareness along years making them to blindly obey,
3- civil society organizations are either absent or marginalized,
4- People are not aware that rejecting such wrong practices is part of their rights. They rather help violators as if the matter does not concern them.

The constitution has guarantees people’s intellectual, political economic...etc., rights as well as freedom of expression.
According to article 84 of procedural law, both police and security are considered tools of judiciary control. They also come under the control and supervision of the attorney general who has the right to sue violators and instruct authorities concerned to look into any violation in duty. Article 91 of the law of criminal procedure identifies responsibilities of judiciary control bodies: investigate into crimes, trace criminals, study reports and complains, gather information and evidence for the general prosecution. Other practices by police or other government authorities must be rejected. People must not keep silent and must resort to justice when such practices are committed. Keeping silent helps such irresponsible and illegal practices take root and encourage wrong doers to violate the constitution.
To sum it up people must not leave their rights go by, media should raise legal awareness of people, a public’s committee is to be established to undertake responsibility of resisting injustice and appointing attorney generals in police stations to closely supervise police’ work.”

Advocate Shaief Al-Yosoufi responded to the same issue by saying: “Article 4 of the criminal law of procedure for 1994 dictates that people are presumed innocent until proved guilty. Suspicion is interpreted in the defendant’s favor. Article 7 of the same law identifies the job of police as to look into crimes, causes and surrounding circumstances. However, we find that people are being deliberately dragged to police stations for interrogation. They might even be detained for some days. When we, lawyers, are requested to defend such people, we are rejected by police stations’ directors saying that police stations are not for lawyers. This is an ignoring of the law. It will be better if the Ministry of Interior organizes special courses for such control tools to make them know and recognize people’s rights. They should understand that they have been placed in such positions to protect people’s rights not to violate and disrespect them.
The Ministry of Interior should continuously supervise police stations and appoint supervisors with good knowledge of law to help set everything right.
In case of any violation committed by police people have the right to: reject all procedures, complain to the Ministry of Interior, report to the attorney general, file a suit against the false report and reporter. They also keep the right to ask for compensation.”

Advocate Tariq Al-Hammadi said: “Owing to misunderstanding laws and lack of law awareness, some police and security elements go beyond their assigned jobs to the extent that they make themselves judges and violate people’s rights. To put an end for such violations and practices there must be a strict supervision on police stations and security offices and implementation of laws that forbid such practices. In addition, organizations and societies concerned with human rights must be given a chance to play their role in defending people’s rights.
There are many reasons for violations and illegal practices by police stations. Some of these reasons are:
- Some police stations and security offices do not abide by their jobs’ instructions but go beyond that to perform jobs of judiciary and general prosecution. It is common to find police stations and criminal investigation offices dealing with civil and commercial issues that are not of their jobs. Some plaintiffs intentionally go to those offices to put pressure on defendants. If people in charge of such offices are confined to their jobs they will refer them to judicial offices concerned.
Criminal investigation offices sometimes do the work of prosecution. They interrogate and torture suspects to force out their confession.
- Absence of supervision on those offices and their work.
- No penalties are imposed on violators and official wrong- doers.
- Insufficient role of NGOs and civil society organizations. Those organizations can disclose such practices to the public.
The government should also pay more attention to the situation of people working in the police apparatus and improve their living standards.”

Reports to the Nation:
Report #2: Education for Development

Dr. Abdulmageed Ghaleb Almikhlafi
Lecturer,
Sana'a University
Underdevelopment and Education
Underdevelopment as a condition of retardation influences and in turn is being influenced by other conditions of retardation in ways that contribute to the preservation of conditions of retardation and to delaying the transformation of the Arab nation. The material world affects what human-beings attempt to become. It retards their efforts, when they become helpless or passive victims, it limits their possibilities when they ignorantly act for or against it. There has been a gradual realization over a period of time that the development efforts of the past decades have not enabled the Arab masses, either to raise their standard of living economically or to develop their own transformative potentials educationally. In these efforts the model of development was taken to be the western world, and Arabs, irrespective of their own cultural peculiarities and the historical experience they gained in the course of history, were expected to follow the very same path that the west had taken. The tendency was to equate economic growth (GNP) with improvement in the overall quality of human life.
Both assumptions have proved to be unfounded. The development efforts have not yielded the expected results; on the contrary, the exercise has tended to perpetuate the dependence of the Arab nation as an under-developed area in the developed world. Within the national formations of the Arab society, on the other hand, gains elsewhere have made the living conditions of the masses, the majority of whom live in the rural areas, stand out more dehumanizing than ever.
Development in the Arab countries, on affected the dependent bourgeoisie, while the rest remained underdeveloped. And the development of this dependent bourgeoisie in the Arab countries was, and still is, artificial in that it depended on consumerism, not on production. As a result, the value system got mixed up, the educational and cultural systems got disrupted, and the gap widened between the haves and have-nots, the majority and the minority, the city and the countryside. While the dependent bourgeoisie consumed foreign products and used foreign modes, the people could not create their own modes and were thus left behind due to ignorance and retardation. This is the root of educational disparities and inequalities between town and countryside, between haves and have-nots, between men and women, and between physical and intellectual labor. Hence, the education of underdevelopment and the underdevelopment of education.

Development and Education:
One of the great mistakes by the governments in dealing with development has been to seek the advice of economists only. The economists persuaded them that development was simply a problem of investment and resources. They talked about industrial projects when they should have talked about culture and education for human development. Meanwhile, those who were entitled to speak about culture and education, confused culture with folklore and education with training. However, despite the importance of subjectivity and despite the fact that the key to development lies in the sphere of culture, the idea of a purely educative movement operating without regard to the level and character of socio-economic development is an anarchist fallacy. In other words, the development must encompass the subjective and the objective, the transforming structure (TS) as well as the forming structure (FS) of society.
The attempts at transforming the Arab countries after the regained independence, did not result in any meaningful transformation of the lives of the people. The new government adopted strategies to realize the virtuous consumer society. In economic terms, it meant increasing cash crop production and resource depletion for sale to the developed societies, while the industrial process was to start with import substitution industries and eventually, go for heavy industrialization. In political terms, the governments were to ensure stability and lay the basis for democratic society. This politico-economic strategy, regardless of whether it was right or wrong, was not strengthened with socio-cultural programs, including the one for socialization through education. However, the notion of development in the Arab world became entirely characterized by that of alienation. Education has a role in reducing that alienation.
Development as a condition of emancipation reinforced by other emancipatory conditions, must be an aim of Arab education, on one condition that it is understood as a continuous social transformation toward a total human emancipation. Without the development of creative potentials and value systems which correspond with the needs and possibilities of the Arab nation, the criteria of development, the criteria of goal-setting can only be imported from developed countries. If values and goals of the Arab nation represent only replicas of those existing in the developed countries, then the structure of power, the mode of life, the production of new values, in one word, everything will be just a replica of the existing reality in the developed countries. Cross-fertilizing them with its own cultural experiences, can contrive its own emancipatory future. To develop creativity, however, a society has to develop its own human resources. Hence, the importance of education. Talking of development without the development of the human who will undertake the process of development, is the placing of the cart before the horse. Therefore, if Arab nation wishes to achieve not only economic, but also political and cultural independence and equality with developed countries, then development of endogenous creativity, of endogenous value, is a must. Development of an endogenous value system entails the development of an endogenous structure of power, of specific national integration factors such as cultural, educational, scientific, and technological factors. However, development as a condition of emancipation must be reinforced by the promotion of all other conditions of emancipation.

Chemistry Conference Concludes

Radwan Al.Saqqaf
Aden Bureau Chief
On Wednesday 8 November 2000 the eleventh 3-day conference of Arab chemists was concluded in Aden. The conference was organized by the society of Yemeni chemists in coordination with the union of Arab chemists. Fifty researchers taking part in the conference presented more than 50 scientific papers in fields of education, scientific researches, chemical and petrochemical industries and mineral, agricultural resources and industry of medicines.

Dr. Raad Mahjoob Al-Musleh, secretary general of the union of the Arab chemists said “ the conference has achieved its goals and we in the union hold conferences on regular basis. The eleventh conference was hosted by the society of Yemeni chemists succeeded in exchanging experience among Arab chemists. Suggestions and recommendations will help using chemistry on a wider scale in every day life of us all and as chemists we have a big responsibility towards our communities especially in the fields of environmental pollution with chemicals.”
He added “ we, in the union try to educate the Arab citizen chemically that he could use.”

Chemist Saleh Al-Fahili, member of the board of directors of the Syrian society said “ it is a good opportunity to visit Yemen, to meet other Arab chemists and to exchange experience in this field. We presented a lecture about corrosion in the lines and structures of the Syrian company for oil transportation. The lecture was given by the chairman of the Syrian society of chemists, chemist Nazar Shamali.”

Yemen Times also met Dr. Abdul-Ghafar Abdul-Salam, faculty of education- university of Ain Shams and asked him about his evaluation of the conference, he said” this is the first time for me to attend these conferences, I noticed that the theoretical part was more than the practical and the practical researches presented by the chemists to the conference were not more than 10% of the overall number of researches, the rest were theoretical studies that had nothing to do with the main purpose of the conference. Egypt is considered one of the developed countries in the field of chemical researches although we lack some the advanced devices.”
The final statement made by the participants called to support the uprising of the Palestinian people and the lift of the sanctions imposed on Iraq , Libya and Sudan. All participants stressed on the importance of spreading chemical education to increase the awareness of the people of the hazards of misusing chemicals. They also urged all unions and societies of chemists to make common researches.
Engineer Waheed Ali Rasheed deputy of Aden province gave a speech in the final session of the conference called for more effective role of the Arab chemists in the development of the Arabic countries.
Final session was attended by Dr. Saleh Basura, dean of the university of Aden, representatives of scientific research establishments and representatives of the private sector.