[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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