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 The Becket Fund Decries Arrest of UN Religious Freedom Monitor in Pakistan’s Round-Up of Human Rights ActivistsNov 7, 2007 In the past 4 days, General Pervez Musharraf ordered the arrest of hundreds of human rights activists, lawyers, and political dissidents in a crackdown on opponents to his continuing military rule. Caught in the dragnet was Asma Jahangir, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief, who is currently under house arrest for unidentified activities allegedly “prejudicial to public safety and maintenance of public order.” Ms. Jahangir is being detained under a sweeping 1960 law that allows for “preventive” arrests without warrants and without charges in the name of state security.
“General Musharraf’s arrest of U.N. Special Rapporteur Jahangir for being a threat to ‘state security’ is as outrageous as it is unsurprising. Recent arbitrary detentions of jurists highlight what religious freedom watchers of Pakistan, with the most severe anti-blasphemy and free speech laws in the world, have long known – General Musharraf has no respect for basic human rights,” stated Angela Wu, International Director for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
The Becket Fund sent a letter today to the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, encouraging the administration to ask for more than just elections. Echoing the words of Ms. Jahangir in an email sent to the Becket Fund, Ms. Wu declared that elections are no longer enough. General Musharraf must also reinstate the judiciary and press rights as first steps toward earning back any credibility as a leader. The full text of the letter is available here.
The Becket Fund also signed a joint letter to Musa Javed Chohan, the High Commissioner for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, with 23 other international scholars and NGO representatives who met with Ms. Jahangir in Ottawa just two weeks ago at a private roundtable on international religious freedom. The signatories included Alex Neve, Amnesty International Canada; Malek Sitez, Danish Institute for Human Rights; Imam Abdul Hai Patel, Former Ontario Human Rights Comissioner; Susanne Tamas, Baha’i Community of Canada; Ian Leigh, Professor of Law at the University of Durham; and Lloyd Lipsett, Rights & Democracy. The letter called on the High Commissioner to release Ms. Jahangir and other human rights defenders. The full text of the letter is available here.
If there is any silver lining to this alarming story, it is that the Becket Fund has confirmed with Ms. Jahangir that as of now, though under house arrest, she is physically unharmed, and remains as committed to the welfare and liberty of her countrymen as ever. However, she remains anxious for other colleagues who have been beaten and dragged off to jail.
Contact:
media@becketfund.org
202-349-7230
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