[News] Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture'
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Feb 9 18:28:22 EST 2011
Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture'
Military accused by human rights campaigners of
targeting hundreds of anti-government protesters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/09/egypt-army-detentions-torture-accused
The Egyptian military has secretly detained
hundreds and possibly thousands of suspected
government opponents since mass protests against
President Hosni Mubarak began, and at least some
of these detainees have been tortured, according
to testimony gathered by the Guardian.
The military has claimed to be neutral, merely
keeping anti-Mubarak protesters and loyalists
apart. But
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/human-rights>human
rights campaigners say this is clearly no longer
the case, accusing the army of involvement in
both disappearances and
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/torture>torture
abuses Egyptians have for years associated with
the notorious state security intelligence (SSI) but not the army.
The Guardian has spoken to detainees who say they
have suffered extensive beatings and other abuses
at the hands of the military in what appears to
be an organised campaign of intimidation. Human
rights groups have documented the use of electric
shocks on some of those held by the army.
Egyptian human rights groups say families are
desperately searching for missing relatives who
have disappeared into army custody. Some of the
detainees have been held inside the renowned
Museum of Egyptian Antiquities on the edge of
Tahrir Square. Those released have given graphic
accounts of physical abuse by soldiers who
accused them of acting for foreign powers, including Hamas and Israel.
Among those detained have been human rights
activists, lawyers and journalists, but most have
been released. However, Hossam Bahgat, director
of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in
Cairo, said hundreds, and possibly thousands, of
ordinary people had "disappeared" into military
custody across the country for no more than
carrying a political flyer, attending the
demonstrations or even the way they look. Many were still missing.
"Their range is very wide, from people who were
at the protests or detained for breaking curfew
to those who talked back at an army officer or
were handed over to the army for looking
suspicious or for looking like foreigners even if
they were not," he said. "It's unusual and to the
best of our knowledge it's also unprecedented for the army to be doing this."
One of those detained by the army was a
23-year-old man who would only give his first
name, Ashraf, for fear of again being arrested.
He was detained last Friday on the edge of Tahrir
Square carrying a box of medical supplies
intended for one of the makeshift clinics
treating protesters attacked by pro-Mubarak forces.
"I was on a sidestreet and a soldier stopped me
and asked me where I was going. I told him and he
accused me of working for foreign enemies and
other soldiers rushed over and they all started
hitting me with their guns," he said.
Ashraf was hauled off to a makeshift army post
where his hands were bound behind his back and he
was beaten some more before being moved to an
area under military control at the back of the museum.
"They put me in a room. An officer came and asked
me who was paying me to be against the
government. When I said I wanted a better
government he hit me across the head and I fell
to the floor. Then soldiers started kicking me.
One of them kept kicking me between my legs," he said.
"They got a bayonet and threatened to rape me
with it. Then they waved it between my legs. They
said I could die there or I could disappear into
prison and no one would ever know. The torture
was painful but the idea of disappearing in a
military prison was really frightening."
Ashraf said the beatings continued on and off for
several hours until he was put in a room with
about a dozen other men, all of whom had been
severely tortured. He was let go after about 18
hours with a warning not to return to Tahrir Square.
Others have not been so lucky. Heba Morayef, a
Human Rights Watch researcher in Cairo, said: "A
lot of families are calling us and saying: 'I
can't find my son, he's disappeared.' I think
what's happening is that they're being arrested by the military."
Among those missing is Kareem Amer, a prominent
government critic and blogger only recently
released after serving a four-year prison
sentence for criticising the regime. He was
picked up on Monday evening at a military
checkpoint late at night as he was leaving Tahrir Square.
Bahgat said the pattern of accounts from those
released showed the military had been conducting
a campaign to break the protests. "Some people,
especially the activists, say they were
interrogated about any possible links to
political organisations or any outside forces.
For the ordinary protesters, they get slapped
around and asked: 'Why are you in Tahrir?' It
seems to serve as an interrogation operation and
an intimidation and deterrence."
The military has claimed to be neutral in the
political standoff and both Mubarak and his prime
minister, Ahmed Shafiq, have said there will be
no "security pursuit" of anti-government
activists. But Morayef says this is clearly not the case.
"I think it's become pretty obvious by now that
the military is not a neutral party. The military
doesn't want and doesn't believe in the protests
and this is even at the lower level, based on the interrogations," she said.
Human Rights Watch says it has documented 119
arrests of civilians by the military but believes
there are many more. Bahgat said it was
impossible to know how many people had been
detained because the army is not acknowledging
the arrests. But he believes that the pattern of
disappearances seen in Cairo is replicated across the country.
"Detentions either go completely unreported or
they are unable to inform their family members or
any lawyer of their detention so they are much
more difficult to assist or look for," he said.
"Those held by the military police are not
receiving any due process either because they are
unaccounted for and they are unable to inform anyone of their detention."
Human Rights Watch has also documented detentions
including an unnamed democracy activist who
described being stopped by a soldier who insisted
on searching his bag, where he found a pro-democracy flyer.
"They started beating me up in the street their
rubber batons and an electric Taser gun, shocking me," the activist said.
"Then they took me to Abdin police station. By
the time I arrived, the soldiers and officers
there had been informed that a 'spy' was coming,
and so when I arrived they gave me a 'welcome
beating' that lasted some 30 minutes."
While pro-government protesters have also been
detained by the army during clashes in Tahrir
Square, it is believed that they have been handed
on to police and then released, rather than being held and tortured.
The detainee was held in a cell until an
interrogator arrived, ordered him to undress and
attached cables from an "electric shock machine".
"He shocked me all over my body, leaving no place
untouched. It wasn't a real interrogation; he
didn't ask that many questions. He tortured me
twice like this on Friday, and one more time on Saturday," he said.
Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture'
This article was published on
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/>guardian.co.uk at
21.30 GMT on Wednesday 9 February 2011. A version
appeared on p1 of the
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/feb/10/mainsection>Main
section section of
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian>the
Guardian on
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/feb/10>Thursday 10 February 2011.
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