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Indian maid’s hand chopped off by employer in Saudi Arabia

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Kashturi Munirathinam

Chennai: The family of a 55-year-old Indian woman, working as a domestic help in Saudi Arabia, has alleged her right hand was chopped off by her employer when she tried to escape harassment and torture.

Seeking help to bring Kashturi Munirathinam back from Saudi Arabia, her family has sent representations to the state and central governments. DMK MP Kanimozhi has also sent a letter to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj seeking her help.

“When she tried to escape harassment and torture, her right hand was chopped off by the woman employer. She fell down and sustained serious spinal injuries,” S Vijayakumari, sister of Munirathinam said.

She said Munirathinam had gone to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic help only three months ago.

“Kasturi’s employer was angered after she apprised local officials about the harassment she was facing there, she was not even provided food,” she said.

Asked how the family learnt about the incident, Vijayakumari said it was “through agents who sent her to Saudi.”

The attack occurred on the intervening night of September 29-30, she said.

“She has now been hospitalised in Riyadh and is in a serious condition, our appeal is please bring her back home immediately and help in her treatment,” she said.

While Munirathinam’s sister lives in Chennai, her family is in Moongilarei village of Vellore district in Tamil Nadu.

In her letter to Swaraj, Kanimozhi said Munirathinam’s condition was deteriorating and sought help to bring her back to Tamil Nadu.

“Steps should be taken to bring home Kasturi as soon as possible, I appeal on behalf of the victim’s family,” she wrote.

(Agencies)

Deadly air strike reported on Yemen wedding party

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Arab coalition yet to respond to charge it carried out attack in Sanban in second such incident in just over a week.

un-us-yemen-drones

by Al Jazeera

A suspected air strike has killed at least 13 people at a wedding party in a town in Yemen, witnesses say, even as UN peace efforts make headway.

Medical sources said 38 people were wounded, besides the dead, in Wednesday’s incident in Dhamar province.

There was no immediate comment from the Arab coalition, which has been conducting a bombing campaign against the Iran-allied Shia Houthi fighters and their allies in Yemen since March.

The alleged raid hit a house where dozens of people were celebrating the wedding in Sanban, 100km south of the capital Sanaa, residents said.

The incident is the second alleged coalition strike on a wedding party in the Arabian Peninsula country in just over a week.

“Coalition warplanes launched the attack. The house was completely destroyed,” Taha al-Zuba, a witness and local resident, said.

“Warplanes were heard in the area ahead of the attack.”

The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah television said on Twitter that the wedding was hit by “aggression warplanes”, referring to the coalition assembled by Saudi Arabia.

In September, a suspected coalition strike killed at least 131 civilians at a wedding near the Red Sea city of al-Mokha, which the UN said may have been the deadliest hit since March.

The coalition denied involvement.

Peace efforts

The air strike in Sanban comes as the UN announced that the Houthis, who control Sanaa and much of central and northern Yemen, had accepted a Security Council resolution calling for an end to the conflict.

The Houthis’ refusal to agree to abide by the resolution passed in April – demanding their withdrawal from all the territory they have seized since they overran Sanaa in September last year – had blocked previous peace efforts.

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled into exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia in March but whose forces have since recaptured much of the south with the support of coalition ground troops, had refused to join UN-brokered peace talks until the Houthis signed up.

But Stephane Dujarric, UN spokesman, announced in New York late on Wednesday that both the Houthis and their allies had confirmed they were willing to enter talks based on the UN resolution.

“This is an important step,” he said.

The Houthi fighters, whose heartland is in the mountains of the far north, were only able to capture so much of the country because of the support of renegade troops still loyal to Hadi’s deposed predecessor, Ali Abullah Saleh.

Saleh’s General People’s Congress party too announced on Wednesday that it had accepted the UN peace plan following secret talks with Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN envoy for Yemen.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed “believes that the government of Yemen, the Houthis and their allies should accept the invitation to join peace talks on this basis”, Dujarric said on Wednesday.

Arab coalition accused of war crimes in Yemen

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Amnesty International seeks halt to arms transfers to coalition members, citing evidence of “unlawful air strikes”.

The Houthi stronghold of Saada has been hit hard during the conflict [File: Reuters]

The Houthi stronghold of Saada has been hit hard during the conflict [File: Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Amnesty International has accused the Arab coalition fighting in Yemen of carrying out unlawful air strikes, some of which amount to war crimes.

The UK-based rights group on Wednesday called for the suspension of transfers of certain arms to members of the coalition, which launched an air campaign against Houthi rebels in March.

Amnesty said in a report that it had examined 13 deadly air strikes by the coalition, assembled by Saudi Arabia, that had killed about 100 civilians, including 59 children.

“This report uncovers yet more evidence of unlawful air strikes carried out by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, some of which amount to war crimes. It demonstrates in harrowing detail how crucial it is to stop arms being used to commit serious violations of this kind,” said Amnesty’s Donatella Rovera, who headed the group’s fact-finding mission to Yemen.

“The USA and other states exporting weapons to any of the parties to the Yemen conflict have a responsibility to ensure that the arms transfers they authorise are not facilitating serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates are participating in the coalition.

Cluster bombs

Amnesty said its researchers had found remnants of two types of internationally banned cluster bombs as it investigated attacks on Saada, a Houthi stronghold in northeastern Yemen.

Another rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, in August accused Saudi forces of using cluster bombs in Yemen.

The claim was then denied by a spokesman for the coalition.

Amnesty also said cases had been documented of civilians who were not directly participating in hostilities but were killed or injured while asleep or carrying out their daily activities.

It said that in at least four of the air strikes investigated, “Homes attacked were struck more than once, suggesting that they had been the intended targets despite no evidence they were being used for military purposes.”

Another Amnesty report, published in August, condemned both sides in the conflict over the killing of civilians.

Yemen’s war pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against forces fighting on the side of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Arab coalition is seeking to reinstate Hadi and his government.

More than 2,300 civilians have been killed in the conflict since March, the UN Human Rights office said late September.

Pro-Houthi forces have been accused of indiscriminately shelling populated areas in violation of the laws of war, killing civilians.

US judge dismisses 9/11 case against Saudi Arabia

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Judge throws out case filed by victims’ families, saying Saudi Arabia cannot be sued due to sovereign immunity.

The 9/11 attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people [Reuters]

The 9/11 attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A US judge has dismissed claims against Saudi Arabia by families of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks, who accused the country of providing material support to al-Qaeda.

US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan, New York, said Saudi Arabia had sovereign immunity from damage claims by families of nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks, and from insurers that covered losses suffered by building owners and businesses.

“The allegations in the complaint alone do not provide this court with a basis to assert jurisdiction over defendants,” Daniels wrote.

The victims had sought to supplement their case with new allegations to avoid that result, including based on testimony they secured from Zacarias Moussaoui, a former al-Qaeda operative imprisoned for his role in the attacks, Reuters reported.

Daniels said even if he allowed the plaintiffs to assert those new claims, doing so would be “futile, however, because the additional allegations do not strip defendants of sovereign immunity”.

Classified evidence

Saudi Arabia was dropped as a defendant before as judges said it was protected by sovereign immunity, but a federal appeals court in December 2013 reinstated it, saying a legal exception existed and the circumstances were extraordinary.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they would appeal. Sean Carter, one the lawyers, said he believed the ruling was also the consequence of the US government’s decision to keep classified evidence that could be favourable to their cause.

Relatives allege that Saudi agents provided the hijackers who carried out the attack with assistance including helping two of them with accommodation in the US.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks were citizens of Saudi Arabia.

The US government’s 9/11 Commission said in a 2003 report that there was no evidence Saudi Arabia had funded al-Qaeda.

Yemen: Wedding party death toll jumps to 131

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Many women and children among the dead in attack initially reported as a ‘mistake’

Monday's accidental attack on a Yemeni wedding party drew references to the United States' December 2013 drone bombing of another wedding party in Yemen, which resulted in the death of the 15 people. (Photo: AFP)

Monday’s accidental attack on a Yemeni wedding party drew references to the United States’ December 2013 drone bombing of another wedding party in Yemen, which resulted in the death of the 15 people. (Photo: AFP)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

The death toll from the bombing of a Yemeni wedding party on Monday has jumped to 131 people, “making it one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Yemen’s war,” Reutersreports.

Initially reported as a “mistaken” air strike by the Saudi-led coalition, the U.S. backed group is now denying its role in the civilian tragedy as a coalition spokesperson “suggested local militias may have been responsible” for targeting the party, which included many women and children.

Earlier:

Saudi Arabia-led airstrikes “mistakenly” struck a wedding party in Yemen early Monday killing at least 38 people, many of which were women and children.

The U.S.-backed coalition was purportedly targeting Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, when it bombed a celebration in al-Wahga, a village near the strategic Strait of Bab al-Mandab. One senior government official declared the two airstrikes a “mistake.”

According to the BBC, “First reports from the village said that 12 women, eight children and seven men had been killed, with dozens more wounded, when the air strike hit two tents during a wedding for a local man linked to the Houthi group.”

And the Associated Press notes that the village in which the strikes took place “lies in the battered Taiz province, where civilians routinely fall victim to daily Saudi airstrikes as well as rebel mortar shells.”

The United Nations estimates that roughly 4,900 people have been killed and more than 25,000 wounded in the six months since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began in March. Further, roughly 21 million of Yemen’s population of 25 million have been impacted by the conflict.

The incident immediately drew references to the United States’ December 2013 drone bombing of another wedding party in Yemen, which resulted in the death of 15 people. Among those who connected the two attacks, blogger Marcy Wheeler wrote on Twitter:

Makkah stampede: 10 more Indians die, toll 45

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The stampede occurred in a street between pilgrim camps in Mina [Saudi civil defence handout]

The stampede occurred in a street between pilgrim camps in Mina [Saudi civil defence handout]

New Delhi: The toll of Indian Haj pilgrims killed in the stampede near Makkah in Saudi Arabia has risen to 45, with 10 more injured dying, the government announced on Monday.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted: “The death toll of Indians killed in Haj stampede is now 45. We have 50 Indian pilgrims in various hospitals in Saudi Arabia.”

Among the 10 who have died now, three are from West Bengal, two each from Kerala and Jharkhand, one each from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, and an Indian who is a local resident.

Over 1,000 people were killed on Thursday in a stampede near Makkah during the Haj.

(IANS)

Saudi Mufti: Hajj stampede beyond human control

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Top religious leader says authorities not responsible for deadly crush, adding that “fate and destiny are inevitable”.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh told Saudi Arabia's crown prince: "You are not responsible for what happened" [AP]

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh told Saudi Arabia’s crown prince: “You are not responsible for what happened” [AP]

by Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia’s top religious leader has said that the Hajj stampede which killed 717 pilgrims was beyond human control, official media reported on the final day of this year’s pilgrimage.

The stampede was the worst disaster in a quarter-century to strike the annual event and drew fierce criticism of the Saudi authorities’ handling of safety, particularly from regional rival Iran.

“You are not responsible for what happened”, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in a meeting in Mina on Friday, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Saturday.

“As for the things that humans cannot control, you are not blamed for them. Fate and destiny are inevitable,” the sheikh on told the prince, who is also minister of interior.

Bib Nayef chairs the Saudi Hajj committee and has ordered an investigation into Thursday’s stampede during a symbolic “stoning of the devil” ritual by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at Jamarat Bridge in Mina, just outside the holy city of Mecca.

King Salman, whose official title is “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in Mecca and Medina, also ordered “a revision” of how the Hajj is organised.

On Saturday, groups of pilgrims were moving from early morning towards Jamarat Bridge for the last of three stoning days.

The interior ministry has said it assigned 100,000 police to secure the Hajj and manage crowds.

But pilgrims blamed the stampede on police road closures and poor management of the flow of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in searing temperatures.

Abdullah al-Sheikh, chairman of the Shura Council, an appointed body which advises the government, stressed that pilgrims must stick to “the rules and regulations taken by the security personnel… In doing so, they protect their lives, their security and facilitate their performing of the rituals.”

Health Minister Khaled al-Falih earlier made similar remarks that faulted the worshippers.

‘Biased campaigns’

In comments carried late Friday by SPA, the Shura chairman called on citizens and Muslims to ignore “the biased campaigns carried out by the enemies of this pure country, to question the great efforts exerted by the kingdom to serve the holy sites, their construction and expansion, and to serve the visitors and pilgrims.”

Riyadh’s regional rival Iran said 131 of its nationals were among the victims, and on Friday stepped up its criticism of the kingdom, demanding that affected countries have a role in the Saudi investigation into the disaster.

“Saudi Arabia is incapable of organising the pilgrimage,” said Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, leading the main weekly prayers in Tehran.

“The running of the Hajj must be handed over to Islamic states,” he said.

Several African countries confirmed deaths in the stampede, as did India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Netherlands. Moroccan media gave 87 nationals killed.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari urged King Salman “to ensure a comprehensive and thorough exercise that will identify any flaws in Hajj organisation”.

Buhari said his country had lost a prominent journalist, a professor “and others” in the tragedy.

Largely incident-free for nine years after safety improvements, this year’s Hajj was afflicted by double tragedy.

Days before it started, a construction crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site, killing 109 people including many foreigners.

The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, which each of the world’s more than 1.5 billion Muslims is expected to perform.

More than 450 killed in Hajj stampede

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At least 453 pilgrims killed, more than 700 injured in crush at Mina outside Mecca, Saudi’s civil defence reports.

The stampede occurred in a street between pilgrim camps in Mina [Saudi civil defence handout]

The stampede occurred in a street between pilgrim camps in Mina [Saudi civil defence handout]

by Al Jazeera

At least 453 people have been killed in a stampede at the annual Hajj pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia’s civil defence directorate said, as the death toll continued to rise.

The directorate said at least 719 other pilgrims were injured in Thursday’s stampede, which took place in Mina, on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca.

The injured have been evacuated to four different hospitals in the Mina region, according to a civil defence spokesman.

Mina is where pilgrims carry out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three stone walls. It also houses more than 160,000 tents where pilgrims spend the night during the pilgrimage.

Al Jazeera’s Basma Atassi, reporting from Mina, said the incident took place in a street between pilgrim camps.

“The street where it happened is named Street 204. This stampede did not happen at the site of the ‘stoning of the devil’ ritual, which was happening today.

“During and after the stampede the pilgrims continued to flock into Mina to perform the devil stoning ritual.”

Amateur video shared on social media showed a horrific scene, with scores of bodies – the men dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during Hajj – lying alongside crushed wheelchairs and water bottles. The head of the Central Hajj Committee, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, blamed the stampede on “some pilgrims from African nationalities,” Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV channel reported. Survivors assessed the scene by standing on the top of roadside stalls as rescue workers in orange and yellow vests combed the area. About 4,000 people from the rescue services were participating in the operation to help the injured and about 220 ambulances were directed to the scene, a civil defence spokesman said.

Photos released by the defence directorate on its official Twitter account showed rescue workers helping the wounded onto stretchers and loading them onto ambulances near some of the tents.

Al Jazeera’s Omar Alsaleh, reporting from Mecca, said the number of deaths may rise.

“This is only the initial number … The Hajj season was already overshadowed by the crane accident that killed 107 people and wounded more than 200,” Alsaleh said, adding: “The area has turned to a big massive construction site to allow more pilgrims to visit Mecca during Hajj.

“Mina has more than 160,000 tents divided over several camps, and with the 1.9 million people taking part in this year’s Hajj, you will understand the logistical nightmare that the Saudi authorities are facing.”

Deadly Hajj incidents

Saudi authorities take extensive precautions to ensure the security of the Hajj and the safety of pilgrims. But tragedies are not uncommon.

In 2006, more than 360 pilgrims were killed in a stampede, also in Mina.

The day before the 2006 Hajj began, an eight-story building being used as a hostel near the Grand Mosque in Mecca collapsed, killing at least 73 people.

Two years earlier, a crush at Mina killed 244 and injured hundreds on the final day of the pilgrimage.

And, in 2001, a stampede at Mina killed 35 people.

The worst hajj-related tragedy, which happened in 1990, killed 1,426 pilgrims in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mina,+Mecca+Saudi+Arabia/@21.415168,39.887677,10z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x15c2040f36853503:0xd6a3cb46f2b797b4?hl=en-US

Saudi Arabia suspends work of Mecca crane collapse firm

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Construction by Bin Laden Group halted after collapse left more than 100 pilgrims dead at Islam’s holiest site.

collapse Mecca Grand Mosque

by Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia has suspended the Saudi Bin Laden Group from taking on new projects, just days after a deadly crane collapse in Mecca.

A statement by the Saudi government on Tuesday said the company’s operations had been stopped until a review of all their work had been completed.

The Saudi Bin Laden group is one of the region’s largest construction firms with contracts across the country.

Initial investigations by Saudi authorities suggested a “balance issue” in the crane and bad weather contributed to the tragedy that left at least 107 people dead and hundreds more injured at Islam’s holiest site immediately prior to the start of the Hajj.

Al Jazeera’s Omar al-Saleh, reporting from Mecca, said the move was “very significant”.

“The Mecca incident brought everything up to the surface, you can sense there were issues beneath the table,” Saleh said.

“There is an indication that the construction firm misused the manufacturers instructions, an indication perhaps of negligence.”

The Hajj, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, has been prone to disasters in the past, mainly from stampedes as pilgrims rush to complete rituals and return home.

Hundreds of pilgrims died in such a crush in 2006.

Saudi authorities have since spent vast sums to expand the main Hajj sites and improve Mecca’s transport system, in an effort to prevent more disasters.

Saudi claims it has taken in 2.5 million Syrians since uprising

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Saudi Arabia has recently been heavily criticized for its response to the Syrian refugee crisis. (Al Bawaba/File)

Saudi Arabia has recently been heavily criticized for its response to the Syrian refugee crisis. (Al Bawaba/File)

by Arab News

Saudi Arabia has hosted around 2.5 million Syrians since the beginning of the crisis in that country in 2011, the Foreign Ministry has said.

In a statement issued to SPA, the ministry said the Syrians have been leading a decent and normal life in the Kingdom like other expatriates. “The Kingdom does not deal with Syrian expats like refugees. They are living in a normal environment not in special camps.”

According to the ministry, the Syrians have been granted legal residence permits and full freedom to travel inside the country.

“Moreover, they are allowed to study in Saudi schools as per the royal order issued in 2012.

A total of 100,000 Syrians are registered in public schools,” the ministry clarified, reacting to reports about the Kingdom’s role in tackling the Syrian refugees crisis. “All Syrians in the Kingdom receive free medical treatment. They are allowed to work in the private sector like other expatriates,” the ministry added.

Saudi Arabia has spent $700 million to help Syrian refugees, according to figures made available during the Third Intentional Conference of Donors in Kuwait in March this year, the ministry said.

The Kingdom played a vital role in helping Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon through humanitarian aid including food, medical treatment, medicines and clothes,” the ministry added.

An online publication quoted a source as saying that the Labor Ministry has excluded Syrians from labor inspections being carried out to correct expat status. “This will be a great help to my fellow Syrian visitors,” said a Riyadh-based Syrian expat. “We have lived here for many years and benefited not only financially from this country but also from free education for our children,” he observed.

The visitors residing with their families here feel that the gesture would help them put their skills to good use and benefit from their stay, he said, adding that it will be a win-win situation for them and the host country.

The directive by King Salman aims at letting the departments that face skills’ shortage to benefit from Syrian visitors, many of whom are experienced and highly qualified to make a qualitative change to the local market.

Western countries have realized the advantage of absorbing refugees with a wealth of talent and skills, which is a cost effective solution for them amid the global economic slump.

Similarly, these Arab refugees could be a blessing in disguise for the Kingdom in the face of declining oil prices. Their professional skills, along with knowledge of Arabic, will give them an edge over non-Arabic speaking expats.

This year, the king also ordered rectification of the residential status of Yemeni illegals to let them work in various sectors.

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