Doha — Members of Qatar’s Al Ghofran tribe have filed a second complaint against the Gulf state to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper reported on Saturday.
Members of the tribe are seeking international intervention to protect them and to secure their rights in Doha. The tribesmen alleged the Doha government had committed crimes against their members, including “revoking their citizenship, forbidding them the right to work and benefit from international aid”.
One of the tribe’s active members said on Friday during a BBC broadcast: “We do not want to harm our home, Qatar, but we are dealing with rulers whose hearts are filled with hatred towards any individual carrying the Al Ghofran name.”
The Al Ghofran clan had formerly complained about Qatar to the UN in September, about how Qatar detained many members of the Al Ghofran tribe in 1996. It alleged that brutal methods used to torture the victims, in some cases, led to memory loss and psychological disorders.
In 2000, the Qatari government began to revoke nationalities from tribe members and deported them to neighbouring countries, preventing any chance for their return to their homeland.
The complaint added that in 2005, Qatari ordered the revocation of the citizenships of 6,000 tribe members, including women and children.
