Parliament presidency board treats MPs like soldiers, Hashed says [Archives:2006/999/Front Page]
By: Mohammed bin Sallam
SANA'A, Nov. 15 ) In an exclusive statement to the Yemen Times, Member of Parliament and human rights activist Ahmed Saif Hashed strongly criticized the Yemeni Parliament's presidency board, declaring that it deals with MPs like they're in a military camp and not the people's representatives.
“Parliament's presidency board doesn't deal seriously with issues put before the Yemeni Parliament for discussion,” Hashed asserted, “Further, it treats MPs like they're in a camp and not elected by the Yemeni people.”
He noted, “Parliament hasn't won a single case against the government since its establishment. Parliamentary authorities haven't investigated any minister in the way such investigations should be handled. Instead, they give ministers opportunities to present their lame excuses and justifications; thus, they leave ministers unquestioned.”
Hashed added that there are no parliamentary norms to investigate government officials and that Parliament is “a decor with no soul.”
“Deputy Parliament Speaker Yahya Al-Ra'ai didn't allow me to reply to Minister of Interior Rashad Al-Alimi during a parliamentary session to recount the events that have occurred. Furthermore, sympathizers weren't allowed to speak because their microphones were turned off,” he commented.
He further alleged that Al-Ra'ai seized his camera while he was capturing Al-Alimi receiving special MP privileges.
“In its current state, such a parliament can't hold any official accountable. MPs begging from Al-Alimi is evidence that Parliament is weak and can't be counted upon,” Hashed remarked.
When Hashed denied Al-Alimi's story concerning circumstances surrounding his detention last month and swore to Allah that Al-Alimi was a liar and didn't speak the truth, Al-Alimi found it a chance to withdraw from Parliament along with Political Security Apparatus Chairman Ghaled Al-Qamish.
Al-Alimi and Al-Qamish attended Parliament's Monday session after being requested to give accounts of Hashed's Oct. 16 detention while participating in a demonstration involving hundreds of youth, women and elderly citizens seeking human rights activist Ali Al-Dailami's release.
Al-Alimi recounted, “There was a demonstration Mon., Oct. 16 at noon, during which a demonstrator was photographing the intelligence building, so a guard seized his camera.
“It later was revealed that the camera belonged to Hashed, who asked to meet with an intelligence official. He was allowed to enter the building, but found no one there because it was the end of the day. Thus, he told the demonstrators to go home.”
Al-Alimi accused Hashed of committing numerous infringements, including demonstrating without obtaining security permission and going from the attorney general's office to the intelligence building with a large group of demonstrators. Further, he denied that Hashed was detained in the intelligence building.
Several MPs, including Abdulkarim Shaiban and Sultan Al-Atwani, strongly criticized Hashed's terrorizing experience, saying, “It's not the first time an MP's impunity has been violated and it won't be the last.”
They also noted, “Session head Al-Ra'ai pressured Hashed and strongly requested that he apologize to Al-Alimi. He seemed like he was giving military orders, even though Hashed was right.”
MPs expressed their surprise at Al-Alimi and Al-Qamish's withdrawals at the beginning of arguments with Hashed.
“Even if Hashed was incorrect, it was possible to ask him to withdraw his speech and resume discussing violations MPs and others experience in the intelligence building, as long as Parliament asked them to attend the session, not Hashed,” they commented.
Independent MP Hashed represents constituency No. 70 including Lahj and Taiz and is a member of Parliament's Rights and Freedoms Committee.
Since joining the committee, Hashed has adopted issues concerning prison inmates and those in Ministry of Interior detainments, including hostages imprisoned by security apparatuses and detained influential private citizens, as well as those of marginalized groups, street vendors, the unemployed and children's issues.
He has disclosed several suppression and torture cases involving inmates in numerous governorates. He frequently differed with other committee members for presenting independent and anti-government reports, publishing them in newspapers and distributing them among civil society organizations interested in human rights and freedoms.
Ministry of Interior apparatuses have arrested Hashed numerous times, unknown parties have threatened his life on many occasions, asking him to give up defending the wronged and inmate issues and he survived a June 2004 attempt on his life, during which his driver was killed.
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