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Arish…random arrests, detention and torture:
Stop the tragedy
23/11/2004
Introduction
Seventh October 2004, South Sinai, three explosions, hundreds of victims, the perpetrator's identity unknown, unlimited damage.
Local and international news networks broadcast these facts immediately after the three explosions in Taba and the Nuweiba and Devil's Head camping grounds. Nineteen days later there was a new piece of information…The Interior Ministry announced that it had arrested five men from north Sinai on a charge of planning and carrying out the bombings in co-operation with four others including two fugitives and two who died in the bombings.
However what lies behind the bombings goes far beyond this, as was discovered by the fact finding mission sent by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). Arish, the capital of North Arish with a population of some 123,000 residents was targeted because it is the hometown of those accused of being responsible for the bombings.
EOHR was informed by its members and eye witnesses that Arish's inhabitants have been subjected to various forms of human rights violations including:
- Mass detention of large numbers of people in an attempt to force the two fugitive suspects to turn themselves in.
- The detention of the mother of Iyad Salah, one of the two accused men who died in the bombings, an indication of the scale that these mass arbitrary arrest campaigns have reached.
This report provides details of these mass arrests campaigns during which some 3,000 people from Arish and neighbouring villages have been arrested since the bombings. At any one time the state security office was holding 100 - 150 people who would be interrogated before being transferred to detention. Another group would then take their place. Women and children were among those held as "pawns" in an attempt to force a single suspect to turn himself in, and houses were stormed, people terrorised and in some cases personal property destroyed as part of these operations. Groups of security men with their faces covered conducted these operations, and witnesses at first took them for Israelis as the sister-in-law of Mohamed Abdallah Ribaa, one of the accused testifies:
I was returning home after visiting a neighbour and came across a beige Cherokee car and other cars which I couldn't see properly because it was dark. Men wearing black with their faces covered got out of the cars. At first I thought they were criminals. I then saw what I thought to be torches but which turned out to be guns. I was terrified because I thought they were Israelis.
Many detainees were subjected to various forms of torture at the hands of the security forces, a grave violation of the rights to life and personal security.
These acts come despite EOHR's appeals issued immediately after the Taba bombings in a press statement which urged security forces to respect human rights during their investigations into the identity of the perpetrators of the bombings, and treat suspects in a humane manner which respects their human dignity. While recognising that combating armed violence and protecting citizens is of paramount importance, it stated that respect for human rights and standards of justice can and must form an integral part of states' counter terrorism efforts and security investigations, because respect for human rights and counter-terrorism measures are not mutually exclusive.
The report contains three sections:
1. Background to the events and aims of the fact finding mission.
2. Meetings with detainees' relatives and eye witnesses.
3. Results of the mission and recommendations.
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Copyright © 2002 EOHR. All rights reserved. 