Cairo November 14, 2012

ANHRI strongly condemns the excessive violence use against the protesters to disperse them in the Amman and several cities in the Kingdom which led to several injuries which included live bullets.

The Jordanian government has announced yesterday the decision to depress subsidies on fuel, which included raising the price of the gas by 55% and prices of diesel and gasoline rates 25% and 12%, respectively, which led to the outbreak of angry demonstrations in protest against the decisions that affect directly the lives of citizens and their standard of living.

Gamal Abdel Nasser Square in the heart of the Jordanian capital Amman, has witnessed the most prominent  demonstration, as  thousands of angry citizens gathered in front of the  the Jordanian Ministry of Interior building.

Many cities and  governorates of the Kingdom have witnessed similar demonstrations of Ramtha in the north to Maa’n in the south in addition to Irbid, Karak and others. These demonstrations continued since yesterday evening and until the early hours of the morning.

The Jordinian forces have addressed the angry demonstrations by excessive violence using the tear gas bombs and fire arms which led to several injuries, some of them were hit by live bullets. In addition to arrests to unlimited number of the protesters. The news indicates that arrests conducted against the opposition movements in the different places of Jordon.

ANHRI calls the Jordanian authorities to stop the violent intervention by security forces to address the peaceful demonstrations and contain the riots by the means provided by the law and called for the immediate release of the detainees of the peaceful demonstrators.

ANHRI said that “the attempt to impose decisions that affect the interests of the citizens using the repression police, is a catastrophic recipe that has failed  in many of the in the region and beyond it. Jordanian authorities should resort to community dialogue to reach compromises to be acceptable to the people to deal with the economic problems Kingdom”.

ANHRI added “targeting of political activists from the opposition using arrests and try to hold them accountable for the outbreak of demonstrations is a like burring our heads in the sand and it will not work to stop the popular anger, which actually stems from ignoring the interests of the ordinary citizens. In addition to of being violating fundamental freedoms of these activists in clear a violation to the Jordanian constitution and all international human rights conventions signed by the Kingdom”.

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