Hizb Slams Arrest of Its Members in Jordan

AMMAN, 8 September 2005 — Islamist group Hizbut-Tahrir said yesterday that the Jordanian authorities had detained eight of its members in recent days, and launched a virulent attack on the regime. Two were arrested on Friday after they tried to organize a demonstration in a Palestinian refugee camp, and another six have been detained since, it said in a statement, without giving a reason for the arrest.

It attacked the Jordanian regime over the detentions, reminding it of “what happens to partisans of fallen regimes ... (they are) trampled on by people in the street and humiliated.”

Meanwhile, three out of four Jordanians fear that criticism of the government would have security repercussions despite the fact that a majority for the first time describe their country as a democracy, an annual survey said yesterday. A total of 77 percent of those polled said “they could not criticize the government publicly and differ in opinion with it without themselves or their families being subject to security repercussions.”

Last year’s survey by the Center of Strategic Studies of the University of Jordan showed that 80.6 percent feared criticism of the government would trigger repercussions. Likewise, 51 percent of the 1,385 Jordanians polled by the CSS said “Jordan is a democracy,” compared to 49 percent last year, while 10.4 percent described it as “authoritarian” compared to 12 percent in 2004.

“The results of this poll reflect a general mood of optimism that the level of freedoms has slightly improved ... probably due to an increase in the level of (political) dialogue and unprecedented debate seen in the past few months,” the survey said. Jordanians gave democracy in their country 6.29 points on a scale of 10, passing, for the first time, the six-point mark it had earned since the first CSS poll was conducted in 1993.

In July, Prime Minister Adnan Badran won a vote of confidence following heated debate over his reform policies, three months after a Cabinet reshuffle in the face of a threatened no-confidence vote unless the economic team was changed. As in last year’s survey a sweeping 90 percent said that political parties, including the opposition Islamic Action Front, did not represent their aspirations.