Posted on 11/30/2001 6:14:22 AM PST by truthandlife
A leading human rights group has charged Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's administration with torturing prisoners and denying them fair trials, in a report issued Friday.
Human Rights Watch estimated that 450 Palestinians, most of them suspected collaborators with Israel, are being held without trial in prisons, where some are subjected to routine use of torture. Several have died.
The report also said vigilante killings go unpunished, citing at least 30 such executions in the past 14 months and complaining that Arafat's police have done virtually nothing to identify the perpetrators.
Palestinian Authority officials had no immediate comment on the report.
The 50-page report charges that Arafat's administration has seriously undermined the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. It said at least 10 security forces operate above the law, ignoring court orders to release prisoners.
At the same time, the report backed an Israeli charge that Arafat conducts a revolving door policy with suspected militants, arresting them, holding them briefly without trial and releasing them. Israel and the United States have demanded that the Palestinian Authority incarcerate suspected terrorists.
Palestinian human rights advocate Bassem Eid said five prisoners have died in custody, at least three from torture, since the current Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.
Human Rights Watch documents human rights violations around the world. This was the group's first study on the Palestinians since 1997. The report put part of the blame for legal disorder on Israel, because of roadblocks in the Palestinian territories. The Israelis say the restrictions are necessary for security.
"The [Israeli] closures and blockades have brought chaos to the legal system because judges and lawyers can't get to court," said lawyer Nick Howen, who wrote the report.
Palestinian police often arrest suspected collaborators after a militant is killed in an Israeli military operation. Dozens of militants have died in such strikes. Eid said he has no doubt that the Palestinian Authority was practicing a kind of torture on Palestinians suspected of helping the Israelis single out their targets.
The report detailed different types of torture it said were used in Palestinian prisons. The report said prisoners are suspended from the ceiling by wrists, beaten on the soles of their feet and subjected to prolonged bouts of sitting or standing in painful positions.
Most of these practices were borrowed from Israel, said Joe Stork, a Human Rights Watch official. Most of the security officers have been in Israeli jails, he said.
Eid did not think this report would have any effect on the human rights violations.
"I wish so," he said, "but unfortunately the whole human rights issue doesn't appear either on the Israeli agenda or the Palestinian Authority agenda."
In Jerusalem a Palestinian academic who claimed she was raped by one of Mr. Arafat' close advisers has been detained by Palestinian secret service personnel.
In Ramallah the deputy Mayor, Zaki Nahas, was abducted by members of force 17, Mr. Arafat's presidential security guards, after he refused to sell his land to a senior Palestinian official.
In the same city a wealthy businessman, Ahmed Abu Ghosh, was severely beaten by the head of the Palestinian secret service, Colonel Jibril Rajoub, after he refused to give up his parking space to the wife of a Palestinian minister.
And the HRW REPORT HERE
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