Newly released today, Defence for Children International-Palestine Section (DCI) has produced this short film about Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinian children during their arrest, transfer and detention. Alone: Palestinian Children in the Israeli Military Detention System contains images of children who found the courage to talk about the appalling treatment.

For example, 14-year-old Ala tells how he was handcuffed and blindfolded during his arrest. “They [Israeli soldiers] put me in the jeep and transferred me to Etzion interrogation center. The interrogator told me to say goodbye to my friend Muhannad, because he was going to throw me from the third floor. No one was there to protect me. No one was with me. I was alone.”
Since 2000, around 7,500 Palestinian children from the occupied Palestinian territories have been detained, interrogated and imprisoned within the Israeli military law system. The film also presents basic information and the impact of their arrest and detention on families.

When 13-year-old Muhannad talks about his arrest, the look in his eyes is heart breaking. His father saw how Israeli soldiers treated his son, “It was as if they were coming to arrest a combatant or an armed fugitive.”

Interrogations are set up to terrorize
In 75 precent of the cases documented by DCI, child detainees suffered some form of physical violence during arrest, transfer and interrogation.

The suffering starts the moment a child is arrested and continues throughout interrogation and court sessions, explains DCI lawyer Iyad Misk. Children are often physically, verbally abused, insulted by soldiers during transport in the jeep. The abuse continues during the interrogation.

Children are also often enticed with offers of immediate release in exchange for confessions. However, what normally happens is just the opposite. Once a child confesses, he is sent to prison and his file is sent to the court. Interrogations are set up to terrorize, says Misk.

Nader Abu Amsha of the East Jerusalem YMCA Rehabilitation Programme says that the purpose of the raids, arrests and interrogations is more than getting information. It is to break the will and spirit of a generation. The purpose is to break the children and make them live in fear and confusion so they become an inactive, unproductive generation.

DCI’s latest film is an excellent tool to inform a wide audience about the ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system. The film can watched on YouTube, or copies of the DVD can be ordered from DCI-Palestine.

First published in the Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

H.E. Mrs. Alice Thomas Samaan, Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain, United Kingdom

Your Excellency,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com

I came to know about the situation from Front Line Defenders.

I am writing to express my concern and request your intervention in the following case.

On 2 October 2012, six medical professionals and human rights defenders were arrested after their homes were subjected to early morning raids in Bahrain. This followed the decision on 1 October 2012 of the Bahrain Court of Cassation in Manama to uphold the sentences imposed upon nine medical professionals in spite of unfair trials and the use of torture.

The six arrested are Dr. Ali Al Ekri (sentenced to five years); Mr. Ibrahim Al Demistani (three years); Dr. Ghassan Dhaif (one year); Dr. Saeed Al Samahiji (one year); Dr. Mahmoud Asghar (six months); and Ms. Dheya Ibrahim Abu Idris (two months). They were convicted on unsubstantiated charges including promoting the change of the political regime by force, instigating sectarian hatred and illegal detention of persons.

The doctors were detained, tortured and prosecuted together with a group of over 40 medics in 2011 because they provided emergency medical attention to injured demonstrators and because they spoke out about the injuries they had seen. The torture of the doctors and the unfair trials they faced before military courts was documented in the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI). Following domestic and international protests they were released pending an appeal before civil courts. The appeal process again failed to meet international fair trial standards but did lead to reduced sentences and some acquittals. It is the revised sentences against nine of the medics which were upheld by the Court of Cassation on 1 October.

I strongly condemn the decision to uphold and implement these sentences and express concern at the ongoing harassment of medical professionals in Bahrain. I believe that they have been sentenced and imprisoned solely as a result of their legitimate and peaceful medical and human rights work.

I urge the authorities in Bahrain to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally release all the medical professionals and overturn all their convictions, as it is believed that their sentencing and imprisonment are solely motivated by their peaceful and legitimate medical and human rights work;

2. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of all the medical professionals and their families;

3. Cease targeting all medical professionals and human rights defenders in Bahrain and guarantee in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

His Majesty King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, Office of the King, Saudi Arabia

Your Excellency,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com.

I came to know from Front Line – The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders about the situation.

On 20 September 2012, the detention of human rights defender Mr Issa Al Marzooq Nukheifi was extended by two weeks following his arrest by Mecca Police on 15 September 2012. He is being held in Al Muwahad Prison in Mecca and is due to be presented before a judge on 24 September. Issa Al Marzooq Nukheifi is a prominent human rights defender whose work particularly focuses on the situation of the people who were rendered landless by an agreement reached by the Saudi and Yemeni governments.

On 15 September 2012, Issa Al Marzooq Nukheifi was arrested by Mecca police and detained in Al Muwahad Prison in Mecca. During his interrogation, he was repeatedly accused of inciting a protest. On 20 September, his detention was extended by two weeks and he continues to be held in Al Muwahad Prison. He has yet to be informed of any charges which may have been brought against him. He is due to be presented before a judge for the first time on 24 September, and is expected to be formally charged at this time.

On 12 September 2012, Issa Al Marzooq Nukheifi was notified that he was required to present himself for interrogation to the criminal investigation department in Gizan by 15 September 2012. After receiving this notification, he posted a video on YouTube explaining that he had been summoned in connection with his legitimate human rights activities and displaying all of the documents and photos he had sent in the context of these activities.

On 10 September 2012, he sent 280 pages of evidence, accompanied by a statement and photos to Prince Ahmed Abdulaziz, reportedly proving the involvement of the ruler of Gizan Province, Mr Abdullah Al Suwaid, in acts of corruption. These reported acts pertain to the prevention of compensation payments from reaching the landless people of Gizan for the property which had been confiscated from them.

I believe that the detention of Issa Al Marzooq Nukheifi is directly linked to his peaceful and legitimate activities in the defence of human rights.

I urge the authorities in Saudi Arabia to:

1.Immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Issa Al Marzooq Nukheifi, as I believe that he is being held solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;

2.Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the arrest and detention of Issa Al Marzooq Nukheifi;

3.Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, US State Department

RE: US: Intervene to stop campaign of arrest, arbitrary detention and deportation to repress and intimidate peaceful political activists in UAE

Dear Secretary Clinton,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com. I have been informed by Human Rights Watch regarding the present disturbing human rights development in UAE.

I came to know that Rachid Mesli, Director, Legal Department, Alkarama Foundation, Mary Lawlor, Executive Director, Front Line, Khalid Ibrahim, Acting Director, Gulf Centre for Human Rights,Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, Middle East and North Africa, Human Rights Watch, and Kirst Hughes, Chief Executive, Index on Censorship had wrote letter to you.

I do agree with the content and concern expressed by them on the situations in UAE.

I am  writing to draw your attention to some disturbing human rights developments in the United Arab Emirates, where the authorities have launched a campaign of arrest, arbitrary detention and deportation to repress and intimidate peaceful political activists.

Since late March, the authorities there have arrested at least 50 Emirati civil society activists and human rights defenders. In recent weeks there has been a marked escalation in the crackdown on those advocating political reform in the UAE, with two prominent human rights lawyers, Mohammed al-Roken and Mohammed Mansoori, amongst those detained in a spate of arrests and detentions. 

Although none of those arrested have been formally charged with any offence, there are strong indications that the detentions are being linked to issues of national security. A July 15 statement by the UAE’s official news agency said Attorney General Salem Sa`eed Kubaish had ordered the arrest and investigation of “a group of people for establishing and managing an organization with the aim of committing crimes that harm state security”. The statement also accused this group of having connections with “foreign organizations and outside agendas” and promised to “expose the dimensions of the conspiracy.”

Al-Roken, 50, is a prominent human rights lawyer in the Emirates, and has provided legal assistance to al-Islah members detained without charge since March, including a group that authorities stripped of their citizenship. In 2011 he served as co-defense council for two of the five activists known as the “UAE 5,” who were imprisoned for seven months and tried in 2011 after allegedly posting statements on an internet forum critical of UAE government policy and leaders.

Mansoori is the deputy chairman of al-Islah and a former president of the Jurists’ Association. The UAE authorities dismissed him from his position as a legal advisor to the government of Ras Al Khaimah in January 2010 after he gave a television interview in which he criticized restrictions on freedom of speech in the country. They have barred him from traveling since October 2007 and have refused to renew his passport since March 2008.

On July 24 the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance sentenced a former judge and Professor of Law at the University of Sharjah, Dr Ahmed Yousef Al-Zaabi, to 12 months’ imprisonment for fraud and assuming another person’s identity. Al-Zaabi’s conviction was based on the fact that his passport still registered his profession as “judge” after his public support for political reform in the UAE had resulted in him being forced into retirement. The authorities’ targeting of lawyers has discouraged members of the Emirati legal profession from offering their services, thereby denying the detained men legal assistance.

On June 16, the UAE deported Ahmed Abd al-Khaleq, an advocate for the rights of stateless residents known as Bidun.He had been held in detention without charge or explanation since May 22 and was informed that he would be indefinitely detained if he did not agree to leave the UAE.Abd al-Khaleq is one of the UAE 5.UAE authorities charged the UAE 5 in early June 2011 under articles 176 and 8 of the UAE Penal Code, which criminalise “public insults” of the country’s top officials. They were detained throughout a seven-month pretrial and trial process. The Federal Supreme Court convicted them on November 27 and sentenced them to between two and three years in prison. Shortly afterward, Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE president, commuted the sentences and they were released. However, the events of recent days have again revealed the lengths to which the UAE is prepared to go to curb dissent.

In the early days of the Arab Spring, you spoke ofthe courage that was on display in the streets of Tunis and the squares of Cairo: ‘we will support citizens working to make their governments more open, transparent, and accountable.’ One year on from that speech, the jail cells of the UAE are being filled daily with citizens displaying the courage you praised,and calling for the  reforms you pledged to support.

I urge you and the US government to raise these issues at the highest levels with the UAE authorities as it does with other governments who deny people their basic freedoms and democratic governance, and to criticize publicly the repression of free speech and free association, the harassment of members of the legal profession, and to call for the immediate release of the detained activists.

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

Ms. Eva Wanasundara, Attorney General, ag@attorneygeneral.gov.lk

Re: SRI LANKA: Former soldier arrested and arbitrarily detained

Dear Attorney General of Sri Lanka,

Name of the victim: Mr. Saman Sampath Rajapakse (34) of No: A/182/24, Adurapotha, Kegalle
Alleged perpetrator: Officers attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lanka Police
Date of incident: 5 February 2008
Place of incident: Custody of the CID Police of Sri Lanka

I am writing to express my serious concern over the case of Mr. Saman Sampath Rajapakse (34) of No: A/182/24, Adurapotha, Kegalle. Saman was a soldier attached to the Commando Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army. He was married to Ms. Jayanthi Wickramasinghe with whom he had two daughters. At the request of his family members, Saman resigned from the Army and began work as a self-employed painter.

On 5 February 2008 as Saman was doing his work, he was arrested in Rambukkana by a number of police officers who had arrived in a white van. They claimed to be from Colombo. Saman was brought to the police station in Colombo and then handed over to the Petta Police Station, where he was detained for almost two weeks. The reasons for his arrest and detention were never revealed to him.

Mr. Saman was then handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka by the Petta Police Station on 26 February 2008. As he was being transferred, he was told that he was being detained for further investigations. He was detained for over a year at the CID office in Colombo. During this time, he was questioned and severely tortured on a regular basis. He was hung from the ceiling, covered with an empty petrol bag and severely beaten. He was refused medical treatment. The police officers questioned him about a Tamil woman named Vadani. Saman clearly stated that he had no knowledge of such a woman. He was also accused of attempting to murder Ministers Keheliya Rabukwella and Ranjith Siayabalapitiya; accusations which he denied. He explained that he had never committed a crime, and maintained that to his knowledge, a legal complaint had never been filed against him. Mr. Saman categorically denied all the allegations laid against him. He said that the police officers refused to reveal motives, facts or circumstances surrounding these supposed crimes.

The CID officers forced Saman to sign a number of blank papers for reasons that were not explained to him. He explained that he signed because he was afraid that he would be tortured if he did not sign the papers. He was refused legal counsel or the opportunity to speak with a senior police officer about his situation. He was not produced before any doctor or any senior police officers or judicial officer before signing the blank papers.

Saman was produced before the Magistrate of Colombo and remanded at the Colombo Remand Prison on 29 January 2009. Later, he learned that he had been accused of committing a crime under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, but a detailed chargesheet had yet to be filed. He also learned that the CID officers had filed two cases against him; one in the Magistrate Court of Kegalle under case No: B/1197/11 and another in the High Court of Kegalle under case No: 3059/11. He is to appear before a judge for both cases on 8 May 2012. Soon after, Saman was transferred to Bogambara Remand Prison. His remand number is No: 658.

Mr. Saman believes that he was arrested and arbitrarily detained by the CID officers as punishment for resigning from the Army. He has been detained for more than three years. He calls for his immediate release and the guarantee of his basic rights enshrined by the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

I request your urgent intervention to ensure that the authorities listed below instigate an immediate investigation into the allegations of illegal arrest, illegal detention, torture by the police perpetrators, and the prosecution of those proven to be responsible under the criminal law of the country for misusing powers of state officers and for wrongful prosecution. The officers involved must also be subjected to internal investigations for the breach of the department orders as issued by the police department.

Yours sincerely,

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

Demonstration in Tel Aviv in front of Red Cross office, 12-2-12 (Active Stills, Oren Ziv)

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on Israel last week to either bring charges against him or immediately release Khader Adnan, 33, is – what is unlawful -  kept in administrative detention and is in hunger strike since his arrest in December.   

As the human rights organisation Addameer stated:

Khader was arrested on 17 December 2011, when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his home outside Jenin at 3:30 am. Before entering his house, soldiers used the driver that takes Khader’s father to the vegetable market, Mohammad Mustafa, as a human shield by forcing him to knock on the door of the house and call out Khader’s name while blindfolded. A huge force of soldiers then entered the house shouting. Recognizing Khader immediately, they grabbed him violently in front of his two young daughters and ailing mother.

The soldiers blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back using plastic shackles before leading him out of his house and taking him to a military jeep. Khader was then thrown on his back and the soldiers began slapping him in the face and kicking his legs. They kept him lying on his back until they reached Dutan settlement, beating him on the head throughout the 10-minute drive. When they reached the settlement, Khader was pushed aggressively out of the jeep. Because of the blindfold, Khader did not see the wall right in front of him and smashed into it, causing injuries to his face.

AUTHOR: Martin Hijmans
URL: http://the-pessoptimist.blogspot.com/
E-MAIL: m.hijmans [at] planet.nl

The Students for Justice in Palestine group began a campaign to ban G4S following the adoption of the ‘Boycott Israeli Goods in Edinburgh University shops and supply chains’ motion at EUSA’s general meeting in March. The motion received around 270 votes in favor and 20 votes against. The decision was not binding because the quorum of more than 300 students to attend the meeting was not met. However, the huge level of support for the motion sent a clear signal to the student council of EUSA, the body that decides upon policies.

Almost seven months later, EUSA’s student council overwhelmingly supported a motion to block a contract with G4S, and to lobby the university to follow suit. The press release on the adoption of the “ban G4S” motion clarifies that the campaign to remove G4S from Edinburgh University campus is part of a wider campaign for boycott, divestmet and sanctions (BDS) by the Students for Justice in Palestine group on campus. The statement adds:

G4S currently provide security services to Edinburgh University library, which prompted Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to begin a campaign to force the University to tear up its contract with the security firm. It was then recently discovered that EUSA were also in the process of hiring the firm for money collecting services. This led to a motion quickly going before Student Council and it was clearly passed, meaning the Union’s trustee board must now look for an alternative.

The Danish-British security firm have been under huge scrutiny following the disclosure earlier this year of their role in Israel’s occupation by ‘Who Profits?’ a project by the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace. The group revealed that the company supplies equipment and services to Israel for use at checkpoints, police stations, and settlements in the occupied West Bank and at Israeli prisons. Over the past month Palestinian prisoners have embarked on an open-ended hunger strike to protest the conditions in G4S supplied prisons.

In March earlier this year, due to pressure from the BDS campaign, G4S announced that it would exit from some of its contracts in the West Bank. However it will still deliver security services to illegal settlements in the West Bank and prisons in Israel.

Meanwhile, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association has published an update with lots of information about the situation of the Palestinian political prisoners. They write:

CURRENT ARREST AND DETENTION STATISTICS*

5,374 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli detention, including:
272 administrative detainees, including 3 women and 18 PLC members
36 women
176 children, including 31 under the age of 16
22 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council
141 prisoners who have been imprisoned for more than 20 years
170 Palestinians from the 1948 Territories
627 prisoners from the Gaza Strip, including 2 detained under the Unlawful Combatants Law
187 prisoners from East Jerusalem
750 approximate number of Palestinians arrested by Israel during the third quarter of 2011 (1 July – 30 September 2011). This marks an 11 percent decrease over the second quarter of 2011, and an 11 percent increase over the same period in 2010.

*Detention statistics are based on reports from the Israeli Prison Service and Addameer’s monitoring. Because the IPS did not publish the latest statistics before the publication of this newsletter, the detention statistics included are current as of 31 August 2011, except for the number of women and PLC member, which are current as of 15 October 2011 and based on Addameer’s own documentation. Arrest statistics are based on figures from the Palestinian Monitoring Group and are current as of 30 September 2011.

Ahmad Saadat, Palestinian lawmaker and Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, entered his 32nd consecutive month in isolation in October, writes Addameer:

On 6 and 9 October, lawyers from Addameer and other organizations were finally able to visit Saadat in Nafha Prison. They reported that he had already lost 5 kg and was showing signs of extreme fatigue and low levels of concentration, with the visits having to be cut short as a result. During both visits, Saadat fainted and reported that he had been coughing up yellow liquid. On 9 October, Addameer sent a request to the IPS for the immediate hospitalization of Saadat and all other hunger-striking prisoners in bad health. On 16 October, the IPS complied with this request, but at the time of publication, Saadat had just been transferred back to Nafha Prison from Ramleh Prison hospital and had his isolation renewed by an Israeli military court.

First published at The Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

On 7 September Human Rights Watch released a 121-page report, “The Rehab Archipelago: Forced Labor and Other Abuses in Drug Detention Centers in Southern Vietnam,” documenting the experiences of those confined to the 14 detention centers under the authority of the Ho Chi Minh City government.

“Tens of thousands of men, women and children are being held against their will in government-run forced labor centers in Vietnam,” said Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch. “This is not drug treatment, the centers should be closed, and these people should be released.”

According to the report “the Vietnamese government reported that in 2007, 3.5 percent of detainees in Ho Chi Minh City centers were children.[227] Like adults, children can be detained for between one to two years.[228] Decree 135 of 2004 requires that detained children must take part in “therapeutic labor.”[229] There is nothing in the decree on “post rehabilitation management” to prevent a child from being categorized as at “a high risk of relapse” and subject to the additional two years of detention.[230]“   The compilers of the report spoke to detainees at Youth Center No. 2  Some former detainees told Human Rights Watch that children detained at the facility were allowed to choose between work and educational study, but other former detainees said that work was compulsory. Luc Ngan was a child when detained at Youth Center No. 2, where he spent almost four years.

There were about eight or nine hundred of us there, all drug users, and the ages were from 12 years to 26 years…. School with the national curriculum was mandatory. There was vocational training in fixing motorbikes and computer work but it was voluntary and I didn’t participate. Work was compulsory. We produced bamboo furniture, bamboo products, and plastic drinking straws. We were paid by the hour for work: eight-hour days, six days a week.[234]

Action is needed now even more than before as the United States and Vietnam are in the midst of discussing a Trans-Pacific Partnership – a new free trade agreement that would give Vietnam benefits in its trade with the U.S. Tell the USTR that any trade deal with Vietnam should not move forward while Vietnam practices state-sponsored forced labor.

You can lend your voice to end these grave abuses against those held captive by signing the petition created by the International Labor Rights Forum to ask US Trade Representative Ron Kirk to call for an end to state-sponsored forced labor!

AUTHOR: Cassandra Clifford
URL: www.bridgetofreedomfoundation.org and http://children.foreignpolicyblogs.com
E-MAIL: Cassandra [at] btff.org

Inmates at Cebu prison performing Thriller

One of the biggest viral hits on the Internet to date stars 1500 inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines, dancing to Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit Thriller.  Clad in their identical orange prison uniforms the inmates of this maximum security prison have become unlikely stars of Youtube with their version of Thriller generating almost 50 million views on the video-sharing website. Since the original 2007 viral hit, videos of the inmates performing ‘Bebot’ (by the Black Eyed Peas), ‘I Will Follow Him’ (from the film Sister Act), Jump (The Pointer Sisters), YMCA (The Village People), a medley of Queen songs and many many others have all become viral sensations.

As their fame grew the prisoners gave special performances for the governor’s birthday party, for the Cardinal Archbishop of Cebu and in late 2007 contestants in The Philippine version of Celebrity big Brother were given the challenge of dancing with the inmates as one of their weekly tasks.  The public and media attention culminated in January 2010 when Sony Pictures took the decision to fly two of the top dancers from Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” show to Cebu to choreograph a performance of the song which was filmed for the global launch of Jackson’s This is It DVD.  What is all the more startling is that while most of the stars of these performances are serving sentences of less than three years there are over 300 who are awaiting trial for murder, rape or drugs trafficking.

As their fame grew the prisoners gave special performances for the governor’s birthday party, for the Cardinal Archbishop of Cebu and in late 2007 contestants in The Philippine version of Celebrity big Brother were given the challenge of dancing with the inmates as one of their weekly tasks.  The public and media attention culminated in January 2010 when Sony Pictures took the decision to fly two of the top dancers from Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” show to Cebu to choreograph a performance of the song which was filmed for the global launch of Jackson’s This is It DVD.  What is all the more startling is that while most of the stars of these performances are serving sentences of less than three years there are over 300 who are awaiting trial for murder, rape or drugs trafficking.

The inmates performing I Will Follow You from Sister Act

However the program has not been without controversy. Testimony from former prisoners claims that violence was threatened against those whose refused to take part, while Amnsety International has criticized the spectacle for diverting attention away from concerns about poor conditions and overcrowding in the Filipino prison system. In February 2010 public performances were temporarily suspended to allow an investigation into the use of funds from donations by fans which eventually led Byron Garcia to loosen his ties with the prison. Additionally to meet concerns that the dance routines were undermining rehabilitation programs as a whole the Governor instigated a series of changes that now mean participation in the routines is no longer mandatory and emphasis is also placed on other programs such as farming. However following the ‘success’ of Cebu’s dancing inmates other Filipino provinces are now looking at replicating the program including Ilocos Norte, where the governor Imme is the daughter of former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. Whatever its merits or flaws there is something distinctly Filipino about this phenomenon and somehow I can’t see it taking on in America. Can you imagine 1,500 burly tattooed Americans line-dancing to “Folsom Prison Blues”? Me neither.

AUTHOR: Dr. Jason Abbott
URL: http://profjabbott.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: jason.abbott [at] louisville.edu

Earlier, funerals were held for some of those killed in Sunday’s violence in the city, with crowds calling for the end of Assad’s Ba’ath Party regime.

At least eight civilian were killed in Homs on Sunday after Assad’s soldiers fired on crowds protesting the death of a tribal leader while in government custody.

The protesters says the occupation of the city center will continue until their demands are met. The protesters’ demands include the immediate end of the military’s enforcement of Syria’s longstanding emergency laws and the release of political prisoners. The security and intelligence services, commonly referred to as mukhabarat, have also arrested lawyers, activists, and journalists who endorsed or promoted the protests.

“Syrian authorities should immediately stop the use of torture and free arbitrarily detained demonstrators, activists, and journalists,” Human Rights Watch said in a press statement. “The government of President Bashar al-Asad should order prompt and impartial investigations into serious abuses against detainees and ensure all those responsible are brought to justice.”

“There can be no real reforms in Syria while security forces abuse people with impunity,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “President al-Asad needs to rein in his security services and hold them to account for arbitrary arrests and torture.”

Most detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported being forced to sign confessions without being allowed to read them, as well as pledges not to participate in future protests. Some also had to provide detailed personal information about themselves and their families, including family members’ addresses and places of employment. None were allowed to have any contact with relatives or lawyers while in detention, and their families were not informed of their whereabouts.

Forced Confessions
Most of those detained following protests told Human Rights Watch that they were forced to sign and put their fingerprints on papers without being allowed to read the document. A teenager from Douma detained for two days by the mukhabarat — he was blindfolded and so did not know which security branch — told Human Rights Watch:

I asked, “What is this paper?” and one of the security men grabbed my head, and pushed my mouth open, and the other one squeezed my tongue with something that felt like pliers and started pulling it. And when I refused to sign it, one of the interrogators took a hammer and started pounding on my toes. In the cell, they also beat me on the face with their Kalashnikovs [AK-47 assault rifles].

Another detainee, a non-Syrian Arab, told Human Rights Watch that he signed and put his fingerprints on a piece of paper after each day of interrogation: “I never saw what I signed,” he said. “My eyes were blindfolded. And I was afraid so I did not even dare ask read it.” A Western detainee recalled that the security services made him sign two pieces of paper but would not let him read them.

Syria’s security services have also arbitrarily arrested and tortured activists, writers, and journalists who have reported on or expressed support for the anti-government protests, detaining at least seven local and international journalists since protests began on March 16.

A Syrian writer described how security services “kidnapped” him off the street in Damascus after he spoke about Syrian protests and the government response in the media. “I saw a white unmarked van on the street, and when I came directly beside it, the sliding door opened and three big men grabbed me,” he told Human Rights Watch. “They did not say anything to me, just grabbed me.” On the way to what he later learned was a State Security building, his captors beat and kicked him. During interrogation they also beat him: “They brought a whip and started to beat my shoulders, legs and arms. They were cursing me and accusing me of things.”

A non-Syrian Arab journalist told Human Rights Watch that he was beaten during interrogation.

State Security also arrested one of the lawyers who represented the protesters detained at the March 16 demonstration calling for the release of political activists. He spent a week at the State Security detention facility in Damascus, where the security personnel on several occasions beat, threatened, and humiliated him. He spent most of his time handcuffed and hooded. Before being transferred into a cell, he was held for four days in an unheated corridor, apparently because the cells were jammed. The lawyer said that throughout his detention he heard sounds of beatings and screams of other detainees.

All former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch described appalling detention conditions, with grossly overcrowded cells where at times detainees could only sleep in turns and suffered various forms of humiliation and verbal abuse. One person detained at State Security in Damascus said he shared a 30-square meter cell with about 75 other people.

AUTHOR: Jim Kouri
URL: http://www.renewamerica.com/
E-MAIL: COPmagazine [at] aol.com