Hours after being deported from Pakistan for taking part in a pro-democracy stir, an American human rights activist was arrested in Washington.
ISLAMABAD: Hours after being deported from Pakistan for taking part in a pro-democracy stir, an American human rights activist was arrested in Washington for protesting during a Congressional hearing on US assistance to the Islamic country.
Tighe Barry, who had sought to testify at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on assistance to Pakistan but was not allowed, was arrested and "pulled out of the room, handcuffed, and put in a police van" after he protested during the proceedings.
Barry was held under detention for five hours and is now required to return for a court hearing on December 27, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Barry and another US rights activist Medea Benjamin flew to Pakistan to support the pro-democracy movement last week. They held a 24-hour vigil outside the home of top lawyer Aitzaz Hasan, who is under house arrest, before being arrested by Pakistani authorities and deported.
"We are very upset that the US government continues to give Mr Musharraf 100 million dollars a month," Benjamin told the Dawn from Washington. "We want this suspended until the Pakistani government respects the rule of law," she said.
"We were kidnapped, hijacked and terrorised in Pakistan. Our only crime: supporting the pro-democracy movement. We were not accused of anything else," Benjamin said.
"We had asked for an opportunity to testify about our first-hand experience with the heroism of Pakistan's civil society and the brutality of the government, but were told that the witnesses had already been selected," she said.
The first to testify was Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs. His testimony infuriated about a dozen activists of the rights group Codepink who were in attendance, holding up signs saying "No money to Musharraf."
When Boucher described the emergency as a mere "bump in the road", Barry stood up in protest, saying that the official's testimony was full of lies.
"Musharraf has beaten lawyers and students, destroyed the judiciary, and censored the press," he shouted.
"The US must freeze all funding to this military government until emergency rule is lifted, the independent judiciary is reinstated, the censorship of the media is lifted, and all judges, lawyers, students and human rights defenders are released."
The committee chairman, Senator Robert Menendez, asked security personnel to remove Barry. He was then pulled out of the room, handcuffed, and put in a police van.
Codepink plans to demonstrate outside the Pakistan embassy in Washington on December 10.
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