centinaia di palestinesi detenuti in campi di tortura

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg@tin.it>]

Missing Palestinians turn up at torture camp
By Justin Huggler

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 15 April - Hundreds of Palestinians have disappeared
since Israel began its onslaught in the West Bank less than two weeks ago.
The truth is only now emerging about where they are, and how they are being
tortured and humiliated at the hands of Israeli forces.
Hussein's wife has not seen him for six days. The last time she saw him was
when the Israeli Army came to their village, Salseed, at 4 a.m. They
blindfolded the men and made them stand outside in the cold night in their
nightclothes, without shoes. Now Hussein's wife is looking after their
one-year-old baby. She has no idea where her husband is.
There are hundreds like her, wondering where their loved ones are. The
answer, for many of them, lies behind the razor wire and look-out posts at
Ofer, an Israeli Army base that sits in a valley surrounded on three sides
by rocky hills, overlooked by the scruffy outskirts of Ramallah.
It appears that many of the disappeared are still alive. But that is where
the good news ends. Inside Ofer up to 1,500 Palestinians have been detained
and are being regularly beaten with wooden batons. They are forced to spend
nights sitting on the dirt outside in the cold, in their underwear. They are
refused any food for days at a time.
This is according to evidence collected by respected Israeli human rights
organizations, and interviews The Independent has made with released
prisoners. Those held in Ofer are not allowed to see lawyers, or anyone from
the outside world. Even the international Red Cross (ICRC) has been refused
permission to see them.
The Israeli authorities have admitted in an Israeli court that many of the
men being held in Ofer are not suspected Palestinian fighters at all, but
civilians who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We found Nour Hamed in Beit Rur, a small village just a stone's throw away
from the forbidding gates of Ofer. All the prisoners' names have been
changed to protect their identity - except Hamed's. He made the courageous
decision that he wanted his real name to be used. "We have to explain to the
Europeans what is really happening here," his father said.
Hamed had just been released. His family did not know where he was for 10
days. Little did they know that while they feared for his safety, he was
nearby, in Ofer.
Hamed is a director of Ajaill, a Palestinian radio station in Ramallah. He
was detained with 10 of his colleagues, on March 31, after Israeli forces
moved into Ramallah. "Nine soldiers came into the office and arrested us,"
the young man says, sitting forward on the sofa in his family living room.
"They searched us for weapons and then blindfolded us." After being held for
five hours in Ramallah, the men were taken to a place Hamed would only later
realize was Ofer.
Many stories are emerging now of Palestinians being stripped and humiliated
when they are detained by Israeli forces. Many are kept for a few days while
they are questioned. Hamed was inside Ofer for 10 days. He tells an even
more disturbing story of torture inside.
"They made us sit on the ground outside," he continues. "There were between
300 and 400 of us sitting there waiting to go in and be questioned. There
was heavy rain and a cold wind. We were three days in that situation. For
three days we had no food. Every day the soldiers came and hit us very hard.
They were using wooden batons.
"When it was my turn to go for questioning they took off my blindfold and
took a photo of me holding up a placard with my name on it. They asked me my
name and where I worked, the names of my father and brothers. They said to
me, 'You are sons of bitches'. After the last question they made me sit
outside on the ground again."
After three days outside, Hamed says, he and the others were to a large room
inside one of the buildings. "Every day the soldiers still came and hit us.
I was lucky, they didn't take me for any more questioning. Some they took
every day for more questions, and hit them hard. Some of them were badly bru
ised. I saw one man with his arm broken."
Another recently released man, Muhammad, said that shortly after he was
detained in Ramallah with 16 others, they were told by the Israeli soldiers:
"'We are going to kill you in revenge for the Israelis.' They made us stand
in a group and drove an armored personnel carrier at us. It swerved away at
the last minute."
Muhammad says he and the group of young men he was detained with were forced
to strip to their underwear, and leave their clothes behind.
When they reached Ofer, they were made to spend the cold night outside
sitting on the ground, in only their underwear.
It is impossible to verify the claims, not least because the Israeli
authorities are refusing anyone access to Ofer.
But many of the details are the same as those in accounts obtained by
respected independent Israeli human rights organizations. An Israeli soldier
inside Ofer told the B'Tselem organization that torture was being used
inside the camp, and that he had seen detainees whose toes had been broken.
The detainees can be held without charge or evidence under Israeli military
law. A special warrant has been issued, allowing the authorities to refuse
them access to lawyers for up to 18 days. (The Independent)




Nello

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