Pro-Democracy Activist, Khaled Shawkat, on Human Rights in the Arab World

May 18, 2004 AL-Jazeera TV (Qatar)

Khaled Shawkat, Director of the Holland-based Center for Promoting Democracy in the Arab World, appeared on an Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) talk show in the wake of the Abu Ghureib prison abuses. Following is a verbatim translation of excerpts from his exchange with host, Faysal Al-Qasem, as was aired on May 18, 2004:

Shawkat: I can say that the Arab region is where human rights violations were most widespread. Its torture record is the most hideous. The types of torture the Arab rulers invented are unimaginable. We export not only oil but unfortunately also torture techniques and instruments. Most of our countries are controlled by internal affairs ministries and by the security apparatuses.

These are illegitimate regimes founded on the violation of human dignity and rights on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this is the central, basic characteristic of these regimes from the ocean to the Persian Gulf. I can list many types of violations the Arab citizens from the ocean to the Gulf have suffered. It is difficult to put into words the situations people have faced. We are speaking of the art of torture, the art of oppression, and the art of denying rights.

Host: You mean that Al-Hajjaj is in all Arab countries?

Shawkat: Al-Hajjaj used to kill (his victims), these don't kill, they all demonstrate mental illnesses, perversions, sadism, thirst for revenge, rage. Murder is over in two or three minutes. Torture is when you derive pleasure from the sight of a man moaning in pain…

Host: (Guantanamo) can only be photographed from a distance of a kilometer.

Shawkat: Try photographing an Arab prison, from even five kilometers away…

Host: Or even 500,000 kilometers…

Shawkat: 500,000 kilometers. Our detention centers are locked, our prisons are locked, our political lives are locked, freedoms are expropriated, the peoples are oppressed and terrified, and if you do not say what the ruler wants you to say you risk being sent beyond the sun. These are the behavior patterns recognized by every Arab citizen. This is their normative behavior…

In the 60's they said to us: "We are resisting imperialism," in the 70's I do not know what they told us, in the 80's they said it's terrorism, in the 90's… Each time they invent an external excuse in order to impede the internal reforms…

Host: On the pretext of fighting Israel, they massacre people…

Shawkat: Exactly, on the pretext of fighting Israel, and the Palestinian cause, they impede democracy, abolish rights, subjugate the people to emergency laws, restrict the press, restrict the free voices, restrict real human growth that only free democratic regimes can achieve… We are bankrupt. Our countries are poor, exhausted, in debt, weary, nothing is functioning, millions unemployed, millions sick, millions displaced. 400,000 unemployed Arabs emigrated from the Arab countries. Why? We are completely bankrupt as a result of this policy of oppression, as a result of the policy of imprisonment, as a result of the policy of a divine ruler. There is an Arab ruler who describes his opponents as stray dogs.

Host: Who?

Shawkat: Colonel Qaddafi. He describes his opponents as stray dogs. What does "stray dogs" mean? It means you can round people up in the street and kill them like you kill stray dogs. Even stray dogs have someone to defend them…