Amnesty International Maastricht: “We want to see Al-Mansouri”

Dutch citizen and Maastricht resident Faleh Abdullah Al-Mansouri, 60, was last May arrested in Syria and extradited to Iran. He is now believed to be held in Karoun Prison in Ahwaz City, the capital of the Province of Khuzestan, and possibly at risk of the death penalty, as well as torture and ill-treatment. Amnesty International Maastricht is fighting for his cause.

Sigrid Haenen took a break from volunteering with Amnesty International Maastricht when her first child was born three years ago. But last May she jumped right back in when she heard that her friend and fellow Amnesty volunteer Faleh Abdullah Al-Mansouri had been arrested in Syria, together with seven other Ahwazi men. Since then, Haenen has been working on his case several days a week. She was close to Al-Mansouri when they both volunteered with Amnesty.

The Ahwazi people
Al-Mansouri’s story begins in Iran where he used to work as a high ranking officer for the Iranian military. He was also the leader of the Ahwazi Liberation Organisation (ALO), a political group representing the Ahwazi people.

The Ahwazi people in Iran are an Arab ethnic minority living mostly in the province of Khuzestan, which borders Iraq. “Amnesty International and the United Nations have documented this group’s persecution by the Iranian authorities,” Haenen says. “There is even a sense that Iran is attempting to rid the country of the Arab Ahwazi culture,” she adds.

Haenen explains further that Ahwazi people are forced to register a Persian name because their Arab names aren’t legally recognised in Iran.

Refugee roots
Al-Mansouri’s political activity ultimately caused him to be tried for resisting the Iranian government. In 1988 a military court sentenced him to death.

Al-Mansouri fled from Iran to Baghdad with his wife and four children (currently aged 21 to 34). After obtaining official refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), he and his family were in 1989 permanently relocated to Maastricht through UNHCR’s Resettlement programme. They eventually acquired the Dutch nationality.

Al-Mansouri started volunteering with Amnesty International Maastricht in 1998. Haenen admits that she and other Amnesty volunteers were wary of him at first because he was so keen to get the group interested in helping the Ahwazi people. But after they got to know the “kind and generous” Al-Mansouri, they also learned more about the plight of the Ahwazi people and the Ahwazi Liberation Organisation. “We realised that he had a wealth of knowledge and contacts which could be used to help Ahwazi people,” Haenen says.

Meanwhile, Al-Mansouri was an active volunteer with Amnesty, canvassing, attending lectures and visiting homes for the elderly. He did not shy away from working at grassroots level. Amnesty Maastricht introduced him to Amnesty’s headquarters so he could share his story and promote the Ahwazi people’s human rights .

After living in Maastricht for almost two decades, Al-Mansouri was decorated for his community work by Philip Houben, the then mayor of Maastricht. He received the title “Lid in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau” (Member of the Order of Orange-Nassau, a very high distinction bearing the name of the Dutch monarchy). Very few newcomers receive this royal recognition – an honour bestowed by the Queen of the Netherlands.

A visit to Syria that went terribly wrong
Last May Al-Mansouri travelled to Syria to visit some Ahwazi friends in need. Before leaving Maastricht, he applied for a visa and made sure it was safe to visit the country. A requirement for the visa was that a Syrian citizen would vouch for him. He didn’t know anyone since his friends all came from Iran, so a friend of a friend agreed to vouch for him. Al-Mansouri was arrested on May 11, together with his friends, three days after arriving in Syria. “Some Amnesty members think that he was set up by this ‘friend of a friend’. It almost looks as if Syrian officials were expecting him,” says Haenen.

On 13 May, Amnesty International Maastricht issued an Urgent Action calling for Al-Mansouri’s release. According to the group, Dutch and Syrian authorities have both confirmed that Al-Mansouri was forcibly extradited to Iran on 16 May. Amnesty protests that Syria had no legal right to do this: “As a state party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), Syria agreed not to extradite anyone to a country where they face torture or ill treatment,” the human rights group says.

It is only after his arrest that many Amnesty volunteers in Maastricht learned that Al-Mansouri was actually the head of the Ahwazi Liberation Organisation. Only those very close to the man knew the details of his active political past. Most were surprised that their modest friend, who was willing to canvas people in the streets of Maastricht, had been such a public figure in Iran. “What makes his case especially sad,” says Haenen, “is that Al-Mansouri never speaks about his own past or his own troubles. He only wants to help others.”

While sympathetic to his cause, many people ask why Al-Mansouri travelled to Syria in May. As a refugee he must have realised there was some risk, they say. “He felt that his trip was necessary,” explains Haenen. “He wanted to visit and maybe help his friends. He’d been in the Netherlands for 17 years so he thought he was safe.”

Amnesty International emphasizes that, regardless of Al-Mansouri’s reasons, his human rights were grossly violated when he was extradited to Iran and imprisoned there.

The campaign
As soon as Haenen was alerted of Al-Mansouri’s arrest, she and two other Amnesty volunteers asked for a meeting at the Syrian embassy in Brussels. But the embassy was unable to give them any information about their colleague. On 4 August the group organised a rally in front of the same embassy and seventy people showed up in support. A fax from the Syrian government dated August 8 simply confirmed Al-Mansouri’s extradition, but offered no explanation as to his whereabouts.

Until then all the work on finding Al-Mansouri had been carried out by Maastricht volunteers. But the crisis had become too big for the small dedicated group, who decided to request assistance from Amnesty’s Dutch headquarters in Amsterdam. The campaign for Al-Mansouri’s release was extended to national and even international level.

Dutch lawyers, politicians and professors applied for Iranian visas in order to travel to Iran and try to find Al-Mansouri. The campaign’s motto was “Wij willen Al-Mansouri zien” (“We want to see Al-Mansouri”). In September, ninety Amnesty supporters held a rally in The Hague to gather support.

In a radio announcement that was aired all over the Netherlands, Maastricht Mayor Gerd Leers spread the word that a “Maastrichtenaar” was being held in captivity in Iran and urged listeners to help “get him back”.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke with the Iranian government about Al-Mansouri. Well-known Dutch lawyer Gerard Spong agreed to take on the case. On 16 October Spong applied for an Iranian visa.

Even after all this high profile campaigning, however, Amnesty International says Iran has still not adequately responded to this case.

“Iran is one of the most difficult countries to work on,” Haenen says. “It’s like a big black hole”. She also thinks that the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is worried about repercussions that might result from pressuring Iran. “It’s extremely difficult to negotiate with Iran on Al-Mansouri’s case because the various parties use with different sets of rules,” she says.

Advertising human rights?
Besides actively volunteering with Amnesty, Haenen works three days a week as Head of Communications with Daelzicht, an organisation in Maastricht serving the mentally challenged. Her PR skills are also valuable assets for Amnesty.

As a PR expert, Haenen knew from the start that she had to stress Al-Mansouri’s “Dutchness” to rally support for his cause in the Netherlands and abroad. Although she had mixed feelings about doing this - “why should his being Dutch make his plight more authentic or important?” - it was also clear to her that the campaign would be most effective if actions were planned in a way that would draw as much national and international attention as possible.

Most recent developments
In spite of tragic rumours on some Iranian websites claiming that Al-Mansouri has been executed, there is reason to hope that he is still alive. According to Amnesty’s latest Urgent Action report issued on 30 November, Al-Mansouri and three other Ahwazi men are now presumably being held in Karoun Prison, in Ahvaz city in Khuzestan. “All four are believed to be at risk of the death penalty, as well as torture and ill-treatment,” the report says.

Since Iran has released very little information about the case, it is only recently that Al-Mansouri’s present whereabouts have been discovered. It appears that the reason why Iranian authorities kept saying that they did not have any information about him is because they don’t recognise Arab names. Once Amnesty’s volunteers realised this, they started enquiring about the whereabouts of Faleh ‘Abdullah Nikouseresht’, which is Al-Mansouri’s registered Persian name. That’s when Iran finally located Al-Mansouri in the Karoun prison.

Even though Iran says to have found a man in custody with this name, Amnesty is quickly running out of time and ideas to free Al-Mansouri. “How can we get the Iranian authorities’ attention when they don’t subscribe to our understanding of human rights? It doesn’t matter to them that he is Dutch, since they don’t recognise his refugee claim,” Amnesty says.

“This is what makes human rights work so difficult,” Haenen says, “We only have a glimpse of hope after half a year. It’s so frustrating not to be able to get our message across.”

“It’s also difficult to follow Amnesty’s strict researching and campaigning methods,” continues Haenen, who confesses she sometimes would just “want to act right away on an issue.” But she is aware that instead she needs to carefully follow Amnesty International’s procedures, which aim at ensuring objectivity.

On a brighter note, Haenen says the rewarding part of the campaign has been supporting the Al-Mansouri family. “And,” she adds, “every movement we manage to make is a good thing.”

“That’s what Amnesty is all about: helping people in need who are suffering from the actions of other people,” Haenen explains. “By stopping harmful human actions, Amnesty tries to make the world a better place.”

By Danya Chaikel

Danya Chaikel is from Vancouver, Canada and recently graduated from law school. She has a background of working with migrants and promoting human rights. Danya recently moved to Maastricht to be with her Dutch partner.

Further information:
10 December is International Human Rights Day. On 9 December, Amnesty International Maastricht will hold a rally for Abdullah Al-Mansouri at 16:30 in front of Maastricht’s Central Train Station.
Update (10 December 2006): see photo-reportage of the rally.

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News update:
Some newspapers today (8 December 2006) report that Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot received direct assurance yesterday from his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, currently on a visit in the Netherlands, that Abdullah Al-Mansouri is still alive in Iran and that he will get an open trial - this mean that representatives of the Dutch embassy or consulate will be allowed in court. Mottari added that Al-Mansouri’s family would be allowed to visit him in Iran. He did not however give any information about the visa application submitted by Al-Mansouri’s Dutch lawyer Gerard Spong. Iran still does not recognise Al-Mansouri’s Dutch nationality. (Sources: De Gelderlander and De Stentor, 8 December 2006)

According to Dagblad De Limburger, Amnesty International Maastricht spokesperson Sigrid Haenen comments that the human rights group is caustiously optimistic about this latest development, but that it will advise Al-Mansouri’s family not to accept Iran’s offer.

Al-Mansouri’s son believes that his father’s lawyer Gerard Spong would be more helpful to him at this point in Iran than his direct family. (Source: L1)

Dagblad De Limburger further reports that Amnesty International Maastricht hopes that the city will send an official representative (“preferably Gerd Leers (the mayor of Maastricht) himself”) to Iran in order to ensure that Al-Mansouri, who is charged by Iranian authorities for “terrorist activities”, receives a fair trial.

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Amnesty International: act local, think global
Amnesty International campaigns for internationally recognised human rights. According to their website there are more than 1.8 million Amnesty members, supporters and subscribers in over 150 countries.

The group’s vision is “a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Their mission is “to research and take action against grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination.”

What sets Amnesty apart from most non governmental organisations is its independence and strict pursuit of the objective truth. Amnesty does not affiliate itself with any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. It does not “support or oppose any government or political system, nor does it support or oppose the views of the victims whose rights it seeks to protect. It is concerned solely with the impartial protection of human rights.” With a goal of impartiality, absolutely no funds can be accepted from governments. This supports Amnesty International’s reputation which has led to their human rights reports being used in courtrooms around the world.

Local Amnesty volunteer groups are primarily responsible for fundraising. One such group is Amnesty International Maastricht, whose members are all volunteers. The Maastricht group has been active for 25 years, and has existed without an office or paid staff. Volunteers write letters to governments, canvas people in the street and offer free human rights sessions in Limburg schools. Fundraising takes up a lot of their time since they follow the strict policy of accepting no funds from the government, and they must seek out private donors.

UNHCR and refugee status
There are two ways to acquire refugee status. The more common way is for asylum seekers to flee to a destination country like the Netherlands and to go through the Dutch refugee determination system.

Another way is for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to determine a person’s refugee status in or close to their country of origin, after which the person is resettled to a third country. In order to gain refugee status, the 1951 Refugee Convention says a person must prove they have a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion and they aren’t offered protection by their own government. Some countries have added gender as a ground for persecution.

Further information about Amnesty International in Maastricht:
Amnestygroep Maastricht (only in Dutch)
Amnesty International Maastricht Students (in English)

Further information about Faleh Abdullah Al-Mansouri’s case:
Amnesty Library