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Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture'
Military accused by human rights campaigners of targeting hundreds of
anti-government protesters
* Chris McGreal in Cairo
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 February 2011 23.46 GMT
The Egyptian military has secretly detained hundreds and possibly thousands of
suspected government opponents since mass protests against President Hosni
Mubarak began, and at least some of these detainees have been tortured,
according to testimony gathered by the Guardian.
The military has claimed to be neutral, merely keeping anti-Mubarak protesters
and loyalists apart. But human rights campaigners say this is clearly no longer
the case, accusing the army of involvement in both disappearances and torture
abuses Egyptians have for years associated with the notorious state security
intelligence (SSI) but not the army.
The Guardian has spoken to detainees who say they have suffered extensive
beatings and other abuses at the hands of the military in what appears to be an
organised campaign of intimidation. Human rights groups have documented the use
of electric shocks on some of those held by the army.
Egyptian human rights groups say families are desperately searching for missing
relatives who have disappeared into army custody. Some of the detainees have
been held inside the renowned Museum of Egyptian Antiquities on the edge of
Tahrir Square. Those released have given graphic accounts of physical abuse by
soldiers who accused them of acting for foreign powers, including Hamas and
Israel.
Among those detained have been human rights activists, lawyers and journalists,
but most have been released. However, Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian
Initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo, said hundreds, and possibly thousands,
of ordinary people had "disappeared" into military custody across the country
for no more than carrying a political flyer, attending the demonstrations or
even the way they look. Many were still missing.
"Their range is very wide, from people who were at the protests or detained for
breaking curfew to those who talked back at an army officer or were handed over
to the army for looking suspicious or for looking like foreigners even if they
were not," he said. "It's unusual and to the best of our knowledge it's also
unprecedented for the army to be doing this."
One of those detained by the army was a 23-year-old man who would only give his
first name, Ashraf, for fear of again being arrested. He was detained last
Friday on the edge of Tahrir Square carrying a box of medical supplies intended
for one of the makeshift clinics treating protesters attacked by pro-Mubarak
forces.
"I was on a sidestreet and a soldier stopped me and asked me where I was going.
I told him and he accused me of working for foreign enemies and other soldiers
rushed over and they all started hitting me with their guns," he said.
Ashraf was hauled off to a makeshift army post where his hands were bound
behind his back and he was beaten some more before being moved to an area under
military control at the back of the museum.
"They put me in a room. An officer came and asked me who was paying me to be
against the government. When I said I wanted a better government he hit me
across the head and I fell to the floor. Then soldiers started kicking me. One
of them kept kicking me between my legs," he said.
"They got a bayonet and threatened to rape me with it. Then they waved it
between my legs. They said I could die there or I could disappear into prison
and no one would ever know. The torture was painful but the idea of
disappearing in a military prison was really frightening."
Ashraf said the beatings continued on and off for several hours until he was
put in a room with about a dozen other men, all of whom had been severely
tortured. He was let go after about 18 hours with a warning not to return to
Tahrir Square.
Others have not been so lucky. Heba Morayef, a Human Rights Watch researcher in
Cairo, said: "A lot of families are calling us and saying: 'I can't find my
son, he's disappeared.' I think what's happening is that they're being arrested
by the military."
Among those missing is Kareem Amer, a prominent government critic and blogger
only recently released after serving a four-year prison sentence for
criticising the regime. He was picked up on Monday evening at a military
checkpoint late at night as he was leaving Tahrir Square.
Bahgat said the pattern of accounts from those released showed the military had
been conducting a campaign to break the protests. "Some people, especially the
activists, say they were interrogated about any possible links to political
organisations or any outside forces. For the ordinary protesters, they get
slapped around and asked: 'Why are you in Tahrir?' It seems to serve as an
interrogation operation and an intimidation and deterrence."
The military has claimed to be neutral in the political standoff and both
Mubarak and his prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, have said there will be no
"security pursuit" of anti-government activists. But Morayef says this is
clearly not the case.
"I think it's become pretty obvious by now that the military is not a neutral
party. The military doesn't want and doesn't believe in the protests and this
is even at the lower level, based on the interrogations," she said.
Human Rights Watch says it has documented 119 arrests of civilians by the
military but believes there are many more. Bahgat said it was impossible to
know how many people had been detained because the army is not acknowledging
the arrests. But he believes that the pattern of disappearances seen in Cairo
is replicated across the country.
"Detentions either go completely unreported or they are unable to inform their
family members or any lawyer of their detention so they are much more difficult
to assist or look for," he said. "Those held by the military police are not
receiving any due process either because they are unaccounted for and they are
unable to inform anyone of their detention."
Human Rights Watch has also documented detentions including an unnamed
democracy activist who described being stopped by a soldier who insisted on
searching his bag, where he found a pro-democracy flyer.
"They started beating me up in the street their rubber batons and an electric
Taser gun, shocking me," the activist said.
"Then they took me to Abdin police station. By the time I arrived, the soldiers
and officers there had been informed that a 'spy' was coming, and so when I
arrived they gave me a 'welcome beating' that lasted some 30 minutes."
While pro-government protesters have also been detained by the army during
clashes in Tahrir Square, it is believed that they have been handed on to
police and then released, rather than being held and tortured.
The detainee was held in a cell until an interrogator arrived, ordered him to
undress and attached cables from an "electric shock machine".
"He shocked me all over my body, leaving no place untouched. It wasn't a real
interrogation; he didn't ask that many questions. He tortured me twice like
this on Friday, and one more time on Saturday," he said.
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