Saudi Arabia should stop murdering people because of their race and
background...This is no Islamic law but racism....
For Justice
Niamorkono...
Saudi Arabia executes young Sri Lankan housemaid By Vilani Peiris
11 January 2013
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabian authorities beheaded 24-year-old Sri Lankan
housemaid Rizana Nafeek, who had been convicted of murdering her employer’s
infant child. Nafeek denied the charge. Her plight has been widely
condemned by human rights groups internationally and in Sri Lanka.
The execution exposes not only the reactionary character of the Saudi
regime but also the callous attitude of Sri Lankan government toward the
fate of hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan migrant workers in the Middle
East.
The Sri Lankan foreign ministry issued a token condemnation on behalf of
President Mahinda Rajapakse, stating: “[We] deplore the execution of Rizana
Nafeek despite all efforts at the highest level of the government and the
outcry of the people locally and internationally.” The parliament observed
a minute’s silence on Wednesday, then moved on to next business.
In reality, the Rajapakse government made no effort to help Nafeek with her
legal defence. Even after a Saudi court sentenced her to death in 2007, the
government refused to provide financial assistance for an appeal. Foreign
Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister Keheliya Rambukwella declared
that it was “important not to violate Saudi Arabia’s domestic laws.” The
government’s priority all along was to maintain good relations with the
Saudi regime, and the flow of remittances from migrant workers back to Sri
Lanka.
Nafeek was from a very poor family from a village in Sri Lanka’s Eastern
Province. In 2005 she left for the Middle East, at the age of 17, after a
job agent persuaded her to alter her age in order to be eligible for
employment. Although she had been promised a job as a housemaid in Saudi
Arabia, she was forced to work as a babysitter, caring for a child without
any experience or training. Just weeks later she was charged with murder
after the infant died while she was bottle-feeding him.
A Saudi court convicted her on the basis of a so-called confession
extracted by police. She had to face the court without the assistance of a
lawyer or a professional translator. In her appeal before the Saudi Supreme
Court, financially assisted by the Asian Human Rights Commission, she
retracted her confession, saying it had been made under duress. She said
the child had begun to choke during feeding and she had been unable to save
him. The Supreme Court rejected her appeal and upheld her death sentence.
It ignored the fact that she was just 17 when the incident took place.
The Rajapakse government’s “efforts” to aid Nafeek were limited to visits
by ministerial delegations and government officials to Saudi Arabia, a trip
for her parents to see their imprisoned daughter and an appeal by Rajapakse
to the Saudi king. The main purpose of these actions was to stem mounting
criticism and protests in Colombo over Nafeek’s death sentence.
Up until the last minute, the Sri Lankan government falsely claimed that
Nafeek would be pardoned as a result of its negotiations with Saudi
authorities. On January 5, the government-owned *Daily News* reported that
Nafeek was “likely to receive a pardon,” according to the Saudi Ambassador
in Sri Lanka. Following Nafeek’s execution, Sri Lankan Justice Minister
Rauf Hakeem declared that President Rajapakse and the government had done
everything possible to secure a pardon for the young woman.
The Asian Human Rights Commission sheeted home the blame to the Sri Lankan
government. It stated “categorically” that “the singular responsibility for
this innocent young Sri Lankan woman’s death is upon the President of Sri
Lanka, Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse,” adding: “His office and the government led
by him shamelessly neglected the life of this innocent Sri Lankan woman.”
The commission declared that the Sri Lankan government had ignored calls
for it to intervene and “did nothing, except issuing valueless statements
relating to this case.”
Nisha Varia, a senior researcher with the US-based Human Rights Watch
(HRW), said in a statement: “Rizana was just a child herself at the time of
the baby’s death … Saudi Arabia should recognise, as the rest of the world
long has, that no child offender should ever be put to death.”
The HRW statement noted that Saudi Arabia had breached the terms of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids the imposition of the
death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18. Saudi Arabia
formally ratified the convention, but left the door open for exceptions
when it conflicted with Islamic law. According to HRW, Saudi authorities
executed at least 69 people last year.
Amnesty International reported that about one-half the people executed in
Saudi Arabia annually were foreign nationals from developing nations.
Millions of foreign workers, a majority of whom come from South Asia, have
few rights under Saudi law and are often ill-treated and not properly paid.
Young women employed as domestic servants are treated as little more than
slaves, forced to work long hours, and suffer psychological and physical
abuse. South Asian governments turn a blind eye so as to ensure a good
relationship with the Saudi regime and the continued flow of workers’
remittances.
Facing a balance of payments crisis, the Sri Lankan government is desperate
to prevent any disruption to remittances, which constitute one of the
country’s top foreign exchange earners. The *Daily News* reported on
January 2 that migrant worker remittances were expected to surpass an
unprecedented $US6 billion at the end of 2012. It said the figure for the
first eight months of last year was $3.9 billion, “equivalent to 8.2
percent of GDP [gross domestic product], 25 percent of total government
revenue and 35 percent of total foreign exchange earnings.”
*The author also recommends:*
Mother of Sri Lankan worker facing Saudi death sentence speaks to
WSWS<http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/11/sril-n10.html>
[10 November 201]
Top Saudi court confirms death sentence on Sri Lankan
worker<http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/11/sril-n03.html>
<file:///C://Users//Administrator//AppData//Local//Temp///%22%20data-mce-href=>[3
November 2010]
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