By Agence France Presse (AFP) and The Daily Star

Friday, February 18, 2011

CAIRO: Rights watchdog Amnesty International Thursday called on the Egyptian military to halt the use of torture against detainees and condemned the Bahraini authorities’ use of deadly force against protesters in Manama.
In Egypt, the armed forces are generally regarded by Egyptians as less brutal than his hated Interior Ministry police, but Amnesty said it had interviewed former detainees who described being tortured by the military during the mass protests that forced Mubarak to step down.

“The military authorities must intervene to end torture and other abuse of detainees, which we now know to have been taking place in military custody,” said Malcom Smart, Amnesty International’s regional director.
Recently released detainees told Amnesty that members of the armed forces used torture, including whippings, beatings and electric shocks.
“The authorities must immediately issue instructions to all security forces and members of the army that torture or other ill-treatment of detainees will not be tolerated,” said Smart.

A 29-year-old former detainee from the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya said he was tortured by soldiers in an annex to the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, the focal point of the anti-government demonstrations.
He said he was then moved to another location where he was “beaten, subjected to electric shocks and threatened with rape.”
“They called me a traitor and a foreign agent and forced me to take off my clothes except my underwear and to lie face down on the floor. Then they beat me with a whip and stepped with boots on my back and on my hands. They kicked me. Many other detainees there were also beaten with a whip,” he said.

When the protests erupted on Jan. 25, the military was praised for showing restraint, but reports by international and Egyptian rights groups have begun to emerge, accusing the army of detaining and torturing demonstrators.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said Tuesday that thousands of people went missing during the protests.

Gamal Eid, a lawyer who heads the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said: “There are hundreds of detained people, but information on their numbers is still not complete … The army was holding detainees.”
Amnesty International also spoke to relatives and friends of two brothers in their late twenties who are still being detained without charge in Tora prison, south of Cairo.

Arrested on Jan. 30 by military police while carrying leaflets in support of the protests, they were held in the Nasser Military Academy in Cairo’s Agouza district, where they say they were whipped and subjected to electric shocks.
“The authorities must immediately disclose the names and whereabouts of all detainees and either release them promptly or charge them with recognizable criminal offenses,” said Smart.

“Those now in power must ensure that all allegations of torture or other ill-treatment are investigated promptly, thoroughly and impartially, that officials responsible for such abuses are brought to justice, and that victims receive full reparation,” he added.
In Bahrain, Amnesty has condemned the authorities’ forcible eviction of a peaceful protest camp in the center of the capital Manama that reportedly left at least three dead.

“The Bahraini authorities have again reacted to legitimate protest by using deadly force. They must end their continuing crackdown on activists calling for reform,” said Smart.

“They must also carry out a full impartial investigation into the force used this morning against peaceful protestors, including families with children, and whether the use of deadly force was justified.”
Two people were killed in Bahrain earlier this week in incidents involving the security forces during continuing protests calling for political reform. – AFP, The Daily Star