|
Ref.: TG MDE 25/06.02
His Excellency Major-General Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Minister of the Interior
Ministry of the Interior
POB 398
Abu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
04 May 2006
Your Excellency,
Amnesty International wishes to seek information about the arrest and
detention of Gazain Marri, a Pakistani national who belongs to the
Baloch community, on 15 March 2006 in the Emirate of Dubai. He is said
to be currently detained in Abu Dhabi and no charges have reportedly
been brought against him. Amnesty International has no information about
his place of detention nor the circumstances surrounding his arrest.
However, the organization is concerned that should Gazain Marri be
forcibly returned to Pakistan he would be at risk of serious human
rights violations, including torture and incommunicado detention, which
would contravene the UAE’s obligations under the customary norm of non-refoulement.
Gazain Marri is the son of a well known Baloch national leader. The
Baloch people have been active in campaigning around the recent
allegations of the extrajudicial killing of villagers by the military in
Balochistan and the longer standing issue of access to resources such as
gas. Balochistan hosts the country’s primary gas plantation yet the
residents of this province have little access to this resource. Amnesty
International has over the past years raised concern over many cases of
the arbitrary arrest and “disappearance” of Baloch activists who are
held incommunicado without any formal charge and are at risk of being
subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
Amnesty International urgently seeks from Your Excellency clarification
of the reasons for the arrest and continuing detention of Gazain Marri
as well as his place of detention. We also seek assurances that he is
being treated humanely and urge that he be given access to a lawyer of
his own choosing and released unless charged with a recognizable
criminal offence. Amnesty International believes that Gazain Marri would
be at risk of serious human rights violations, including torture,
“disappearance” and unlawful detention if he were to be forcibly
returned to Pakistan. We refer here to the UAE’s obligations under the
customary norm of non-refoulement not to extradite or expel any
individual to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened
or where they would be at risk of other serious human rights abuses
including torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
We look forward to Your Excellency’s response on this urgent matter.
Yours sincerely,
Malcolm Smart
Director
Middle East & North Africa Programme
|
