Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
RAMALLAH — Both the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas regime conduct arbitrary arrests and employ torture practices that have created an atmosphere of fear throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a human rights group said.
A report by the Al Haq human rights group cited widespread official Palestinian abuse and torture in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the last year.
The report named the PA Preventive Security Apparatus, General Intelligence as well as Hamas's Executive Force and Izzedin Kassam as engaging in torture.
"Both the PA and the de facto Hamas authority have entirely neglected detention controls and safeguards as prescribed under the Palestinian Basic Law and other procedural laws," the report, released on July 28, said. "In this context, security and law enforcement officials have neither respected nor heeded detention procedures, controls and codes of conduct."
Al Haq said numerous civilians were arrested under order of the PA military judiciary. The group said PSA and GI used military warrants to circumvent civilian authorities.
"There is a widespread fear among victims of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip to speak out about their experiences due to the threat they feel of exposing themselves to further arbitrary detention and ill-treatment," the report said.
Palestinian detainees were said to have been subject to severe beatings, whipping, sleep deprivation, prolonged interrogation and standing in uncomfortable positions for long periods. The report also cited cases in which PA and Hamas interrogators threatened to kill and torture detainees and subject them to extreme cold. Since July 2007, three detainees died in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank.
"During detention periods, degradation of human dignity and cruel treatment, including revilement, humiliation and beating, have transformed from an individual pattern of behavior into a common trend exercised by PA security agencies in the West Bank and by the Executive Force and Izzedin Kassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip," the report said.
The report said arbitrary detention has dropped sharply in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since May 2008. Still, Al Haq, which did not explain the decline, said both Hamas and the PA continued to routinely arrest members of opposition movements.
"In the West Bank, PA security agencies arrested persons suspected of affiliation with the Hamas movement as well as those suspected of enlisting with the Executive Force," the report said. "In contrast, security forces reporting to the de facto Hamas authority in the Gaza Strip, as well as the Izzedin Kassam Brigades, detained members of the Fatah movement on the sole basis of such membership."
"The majority of arrests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are politically motivated," Al Haq said. "Detention has rarely been carried out for valid criminal or security reasons."
Al Haq urged the PA judiciary system to supervise detention, prevent abuse and facilitate external monitoring. The Hamas regime has already suspended the duties of the PA attorney general in the Gaza Strip.
"Despite the numerous and painful precedents, persons responsible for committing such crimes have never been brought to justice," the report said.