NEWS ARROUND PRISON AND LAW / AFRICA

9. Dezember 2005

SOUTH AFRICA

von mitte dezember bis mitte januar werden die sog. vergünstigungen für gefangene beschränkt. betroffen sind davon gefangene die als sicherheitsrisiko gesehen werden. angeblich soll mit dieser maßnahme fluchtversuche verhindert werden.

Jail privileges cut for Xmas

Cape Town - High-risk prisoners will miss out on their privileges during the festive season in a bid to preventing possible escape attempts.

The privileges of high-risk offenders will be curtailed from mid-December to mid-January. Security at prison entrances and exits is to be drastically enhanced, and visitation rights are to be controlled. According to Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour, no one will be allowed visitation rights without positive identification, telephone use is be controlled, prisoner recreation will be limited, and parcels coming into prisons will be searched. Speaking at Zonderwater correctional centre on Thursday, Balfour said the "current environment" of cash-in-transit heists and armed robberies had compounded the usual difficulties experienced by members of the correctional services during the festive period.

Stringent security measures

Balfour said: "The increase in prison escapes during the festive season has necessitated a comprehensive and integrated intervention to tighten security in correctional centres during the festive season and beyond. "We believe one more escape is one more too much, and therefore we have approved the introduction of stringent security measures for the festive season... to ensure that the high-risk detainees are safely accommodated, transported and monitored by officials vetted for integrity. "We also wish to make an appeal for all South Africans, including inmates, families and friends of offenders, to bear with these stringent measures in the interest of public safety". The measures have been introduced to prevent the trafficking in prohibited substances in prisons, and threats to the security of other inmates and prison staff.

[  news24.com

7. Dezember 2005

ZIMBABWNE

der folgende artikel ist ein augenzeugenbericht von briggs bomba, einem mitglied der iso zimbawne ( international socialist organisation) der am 8. november 2005 mit weiteren 119 menschen verhaftet wurde . u.a. waren die menschen auch im knast der polizeiwache in chitungwiza . in der stadt gibt es seit drei monaten kein fließendes wasser mehr und die sanitären anlagen im knast sind außer betrieb. den menschen wurden zwanzig- liter eimer hingestellt die nicht geleert wurden. später wurden in die bereits überfüllten zellen weitere 200 menschen gebracht, straßenkinder, händlerinnen, bettlerinnen und prostituierte, die nach der demo festgenommen wurden. eines der kinder war drei jahre, einige wurden in den zellen bewußtlos, weil ihnen kein wasser gegeben wurde.

ZIMBABWE: Four days inside Mugabe’s prisons

John ‘Briggs’ Bomba

I was among 120 people who were arrested on the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)-led Action Against Poverty demonstration on November 8. Hundreds of people had protested against spiralling levels of poverty.

Those arrested included township women with babies on their back (the youngest being only six weeks old), the disabled on crutches, HIV positive people demanding access to anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), workers demanding a living wage, unemployed youth and other activists. We spent a nightmarish four days and three nights behind bars in conditions not fit for wild dogs, for raising banners demanding food and water.

The following is my testimony.

The demonstration showed a new confidence to fight back. The hundreds that gathered at Construction House and marched, defying the heavily armed police, showed that Zimbabwe’s poor are sick and tired of the worsening conditions of poverty. No-one ran way at the arrival of heavily armed, mean-looking riot police. We resolved to sit down and continued singing and chanting slogans in defiance. When we were arrested we all boldly lined up to get onto the trucks, with men helping women who had babies and the disabled. The police turned away some of the disabled people in wheelchairs who had also lined up to be arrested.

Confident response

The senior cops were clearly angry at our self-assured and confident response and one of them just started assaulting comrade Munyaradzi Gwisai with a baton. Munyaradzi was obviously targeted as one of the key leaders present, but still the people were not cowed.

The singing continued and even got louder while we were being driven to the police station, and people on the street waved back in solidarity. It was an inspiring act of defiance, a clear signal that the masses are beginning to wake up and punch back. Other comrades, including disabled people on crutches, followed all the way to the police station demanding to be arrested. The police were so embarrassed that they had to turn away 20 disabled people who had handed themselves in. The Zimbabwe Social Forum (ZSF) chairperson Regis Mtutu is among those who were arrested at the central police station. The police were clearly shocked by the solid determination of the protest.

This is a sign of the times. A new wave of mass struggles is announced through recent actions by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), students, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and critically the ZCTU. The militancy and energy that characterised the Southern Africa Social Forum is now translating into mobilisation and action. The ZSF constituencies, particularly the HIV/ AIDS cluster, the youth and people living with disabilities, played a decisive role in the ZCTU action.

Zimbabwe’s crisis has reached breaking point. The country is writhing in a severe neoliberal crisis presided over by a besieged authoritarian regime. Throughout recent actions and the thorough discussions held in the cells, leftist ideas were quite popular. The Zimbabwe Social Forum and ISO comrades in particular played a key role in articulating an anti-neoliberal ideological line.

Filthy cells

Arriving at the station we were ordered to line up at gunpoint. We were harassed into stinking filthy cells, heavily infested with bed bugs and lice. The police were clearly overwhelmed by the large numbers. The simple procedure of taking down our details took forever. The cops were also clearly demoralised and looked disinterested.

It’s becoming more and more obvious that junior officers are cracking and coming to sympathise with the poor masses. The fact is that junior police officers suffer like all of us. They get peanuts while police chiefs own farms, drive the latest cars and get fatter by the minute.

On the first night of our detention our lawyers had to fight to get us fed, as some over-zealous officers wanted to starve us. The police chiefs had insisted on feeding us prison food, which they would not give to their dogs. Sometime after 9pm a new ordeal began. We were ordered onto a lorry, and packed in tightly like grain bags, while a group of tired farm-worker or war-veteran looking guys in overalls and worksuits pointed AK-47 assault rifles at us. We were kept in the dark as to where we were going and throughout our imprisonment such mystification remained a key weapon the police would use to torture us.

We were taken to Makoni central police station in the town of Chitungwiza, south of Harare. Here we were detained from Tuesday evening to Friday evening. Chitungwiza hasn’t had running water for three months. So we were detained at a place that had no water and no working toilets. We were packed in tiny cages like rats. There wasn’t room for everyone to sit down, so we would take turns.

Both the women’s and men’s cages had no toilets, so we were given 20 litre plastic buckets to use, which filled up in no time. The cruel, stupid and overzealous cop on duty refused to let us empty them. The whole night we called on deaf ears. By morning as urine was flowing to where people were seated, the stupid officer continued to ignore the situation. We threatened to sue him personally for his cruelty but still he was unmoved. The same officer even had the audacity to deny drugs to HIV-positive prisoners. Revolutionary songs

Despite all this, our fighting spirit remained high. Comrades kept singing revolutionary songs and toyi toying till the whole building shook. We turned each cell into a rally, with speech after speech showing defiance to the police, who were clearly looking scared. We had petty criminals in the cells vowing to join the struggle as soon as they were released. We were resolute that the movement will not go away until our demands are met.

They were basic demands that even the dullest policeman could see were justified: anti-retrovirals for people living with HIV, a living wage for workers (including police officers and soldiers), affordable sanitary pads and baby milk, water for our townships, food for our hungry families and education for our children. We were also demanding that the government immediately stop all payment to the IMF and use the scarce foreign currency to buy basic necessities. I am one of those who was called for special interrogation by the intelligence forces and insisted to them that our struggle is about defending life itself, a cause we can’t abandon until total victory.

Our singing, toyi toyi and speeches were clearly getting on the nerves of senior police officers and a number of times they tried to shut us up. Whenever they banned us from singing, someone would break into a revolutionary prayer or begin storytelling. By the end we would all be singing again.

The police decided to split us into the smaller filthy cells that had been disused because they were not fit for human habitation. We successfully resisted a number of attempts to move us and the senior officers had to call in the riot police to forcefully move us. Showing how much the regime had panicked, the riot police pitched two tents in the grounds of the police station and were keeping a 24-hour armed guard. AK-47 wielding riot police were frequently seen around our cages.

My group was put into a tiny cell that apparently had the only toilet that had not yet blocked. We had agreed to allow no solids in the toilet since there was no running water. However every few minutes the cops would bring people who had running stomachs. By dawn the sewer had burst and it was stinking and flowing to where people were sleeping. We called and called, but the cops were of no help. They would put on breathing masks to come to the cells but they apparently expected us to enjoy ourselves. Scorched earth

The regime was shaken by the impact of the demonstration and was in panic mode. First the army was unleashed onto the streets randomly harassing people and they cordoned off parts of town, making them no-go areas. In the evening police went on a scorched-earth style rounding up of street kids, vagrants, vendors and prostitutes. Close to 200 of these were brought to Makoni police station where we were detained. The regime is afraid that these people living in the most desperate of conditions will join up with those who are now fighting back. The strategy is still to preemptively crush and lock up these people before they start rioting. The challenge for progressive forces is to bring everyone who is suffering into the fight.

We were already overcrowded before the arrival of this new group and the situation became totally horrendous. People were piling on each other like sacks. Those rounded from the streets included children (including a three-year-old) and they had to struggle for space in cells that included senile vagrants. Quite a number of those who were detained were workers on their way home who were mistaken for people living on the streets. These people had no food and drinking water and on top of that there were no toilets. One of the kids actually fainted.

The situation was unbearable and calls for a serious investigations into Zimbabwe’s prisons. If people who have not been convicted of any crime could be put through, this what about convicts? Such gross human-rights violations cannot be allowed to continue. The whole world needs to take a stand against such abuses.

Whilst detained we came face to face with base police corruption. Truckloads of goods would come in from the raids on vendors. The seized goods would include vegetables, eggs, fruits, chickens, clothes and so on. We saw the police sharing these things right in front of our eyes and they would put some of the food in the officers’ mess. The nation deserves an explanation from police commissioner Chihuri and the minister of home affairs. We cannot have police looting from poor vendors who are desperately trying to survive an acute economic crisis.

Now that we are out, we are already mobilising for the next action to coincide with the world AIDS day on 1 December. This year’s theme is “Stop Aids. Keep the promise”. We have resolved to quadruple the number of those arrested in the last action, so Mugabe must make room in his cells for at least 500 people. The solidarity we got from local and regional comrades was powerful. The emails, faxes and phone calls kept the regime on its toes. We extend yet another call to comrades in the region for solidarity with the poor masses of Zimbabwe when we rise again.

Shinga Mushandi Shinga! Lets get free or die trying!

[Briggs Bomba is a member of the International Socialist Organisation, Zimbabwe.]

[  greenleft.org.au

15. November 2005

ETHIOPIA

3. 858 der bei riots festgenommenen menschen wurden entlassen. Leider steht in dem artikel nicht, wieviele noch im knast sind. Hintergrund der riots waren die parlamentswahlen vom mai. Die amtierende regierung unter ministerpräsident meles zenawi hatte der oppositionspartei cud "hochverrat" vorgeworfen, die cud der regierungspartei hingegen, dass sie das wahlergebnis manipuliert hätten.

3,858 Detainees Released

The Federal Police says it has released 3,858 of the detainees who were put under custody at the Zway, Dedesa and Addis Ababa prisons for alleged involvement in the riot and violence that erupted in Addis Ababa. In a statement it sent to ENA yesterday, the Federal Police said the detainees were released as they were not found to be direct actors in the violence. The statement said 2,947 detainees were released from the Dedesa prison, while 750 and 161 detainees from the Zeway and Addis Ababa prisons, respectively. The Federal Police said it has been exerting utmost efforts to swiftly finalize its investigation and bring the remaining suspects to justice and urged the public to pursue in its collaboration with supplying evidences to sub-city Police departments.

[  allafrica.com

9. November 2005

SUADAN

ein bericht über frauen im omdurman knast in khartoum.
Etwa 1000 frauen sind dort inhaftiert, die meisten wegen dem brauen umd verkaufen von alkohol, etwas was im sudan seit der einführung der sharia-gesetzgebung 1983 verboten ist. Nach dem strafgesetz des sundanesischen bundesstaates khartoum ( jeder bundesstaat legt eigene strafen fest?im süden des landes ist keine shariagesetzgebung.) ist die strafe für den verkauf von alkohol entweder eine geldstrafe zwischen 20.000 bis 100.000 sudanesischen dinar ( $ 80 ? 400), eine knaststrafe zweischen 15 tagen bis 20 jahren und 40 bis 80 schläge, je nach der vorstrafe des menschen und der größe des handels. Mehr als 80% der frauen die wegen des brauens oder verkaufens von alkohol oder anderen illegalen drogen in den knast kommen sind flüchtlinge aus dem süden des landes, für die dies oft die einzige form des überlebens ist. Da die frauen meist alleinerziehende mütter sind, die männer sind entweder tod, arbeiten woanders oder sind weg, nehmen viele der frauen ihre kinder mit in den knast.

"die knastbehörden sind nicht verantwortlich für die nahrung oder medizinische bedürfnisse der kinder, und das ausgegebene essen ist nur für die mutter berechnet", sagt ein mitarbeiter der ngo al manar volunteer organisation die frauen im knast unterstützt. Die gruppe der unterernährten und kranken kinder ist dadurch sehr hoch. Die einführung der shariagesetzgebung war u.a. einer der gründe für den bis zu diesem jahr geführten bürgerkrieg

SUDAN: Growing up in prison

Omjameal Marshue Mohammed was 18 when she was convicted of selling marijuana and sentenced to 20 years in Omdurman Prison, Sudan's largest women's prison located near the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Released recently after a judge reduced her sentence by a half because she was a young first offender, Mohammed, explained that selling marijuana was one of the few options she had to support her two children. "My husband and I were living in Mayo camp [for internally displaced persons (IDPs), 20 km south of Khartoum], and he made very little money from his day job. We had two children and so we both began selling hashish to make ends meet."

There are currently an estimated 1,000 women in the facility, the majority of whom are serving sentences for brewing and selling alcohol, an illegal substance in Sudan since the country adopted Islamic Sharia law in 1983. According to Arafaa Sheikh Musa, the secretary-general of Al Manar Volunteer Organisation - an NGO that assists and educates women in prison - the business of brewing alcohol and selling drugs developed in the wake of the civil war.

"More than 80 percent of those imprisoned for brewing alcohol or selling drugs are internally displaced southern Sudanese. They have families, have had to leave their homes, are living in camps and have no other means of generating income," Musa said.

On 9 January, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement brought an end to the 21-year north-south civil war that left 2 million dead and more than 4 million displaced. Most IDPs have yet to return to their homes and depend on petty trade ? in anything from clothes to alcohol - to feed their families. Petty trade, however, is prohibited under Section 20 of the Khartoum State Public Order Act, which was established by the Sudanese government in 1996. The punishment for anyone convicted of violating the act is a fine, a possible jail term and 25 lashes.

Under Khartoum State criminal law, the penalty for selling alcohol can include a fine of 20,000 to 100,000 Sudanese dinars (US $80-$400), a prison sentence of 15 days to 20 years and 40 to 80 lashes, depending on prior convictions and the nature of the trade.

"The women cannot afford the fines, so they will have to stay in prison double the amount of time they were initially given in order to work [for] the money that they owe," Musa explained. Raising families in prison In January 2004, an Al Manar study of Omdurman Prison found that 70 percent of the women were serving short-term sentences of 15 days to six months and 30 percent were being held for a period of one to 20 years. A result of lengthy prison sentences is that the children of inmates face abandonment unless they go to prison with their mothers.

"These women are the caretakers of their children. The fathers are not around or working or have died during the war. So when the women are jailed, their children suffer," Musa observed. At the time of her arrest, Mohammed had two daughters. The eldest stayed with a friend, but Zahra, who was only seven months old, went with her mother to prison. They shared a bed in a cell with 20 other women and their children for 10 years.

According to Musa, Sudanese authorities allow the children to stay in prison with their mothers because they realised that the children had no one else to care for them. The facility, however, is not properly equipped to care for all the children living there.

"The prison authorities are not responsible for the feeding or health necessities of the children, and the meals distributed are only enough to feed the mother," Musa explained. The assessment by Al Manar in 2004 indicated that between 150 and 300 children were living inside the prison, of whom 88 percent were under age two. Because the majority of these children came from camps and squatter areas, 95 percent were not vaccinated against preventable diseases and - at the time - 77 percent were malnourished.

"A couple of years back the mortality rate of the children was so high, there were four to six children dying from malnutrition a month," Musa noted. She added that children were also succumbing to preventable diseases because there were no drugs available inside the prison. Intervention

To address the problem, Al Manar -- with support from the UN Children?s Fund (UNICEF) and other organisations -- started a feeding programme and a drug clinic to provide the children with two meals a day and vaccinate them against preventable diseases.

"The malnutrition rate is now almost zero percent. We had only 13 children die in 2004 - from an outbreak of measles, not from malnutrition," Musa said. Al Manar also offers legal assistance to inmates, writing appeals, providing them with lawyers free of charge and conducting workshops to inform the women of their rights and certain by-laws that may help to reduce individual sentences.

"The women can't afford lawyers, and even if they could they do not know their rights because they've never been educated in them. So they plead guilty, even when they are not. By the time we get to them to help, it is already to late to make an appeal," Musa noted. Mohammed maintained that if she had known her legal rights before she was arrested she might not have had to carry out a 10-year sentence. "I had no money and no house, so I couldn't use anything as collateral to pay for a lawyer. I had to take whatever sentence was given. If I'd known my rights before my arrest, I would have been able to defend myself differently," she said. Al Manar also teaches women how to make handicrafts and other items, to provide an alternative to illegal petty trade.

Now that she had been released, Mohammed noted that these new skills would enable her to support her children. "In the courses I learned how to dye cloth and now I can make many wonderful and useful things. I want to start a business to sell these things so that I can make money to take care of my family," she said. Musa pointed out that despite their interventions, most of the women were IDPs and lacked the money to establish a legal business. As long as petty trade remained illegal in Khartoum, the problem would continue, she said.

"On an average day there are about 800 to 1,000 women in prison. Every week, 40 will be released and the police will arrest about 50 more. Sometimes it is the same women being arrested. It is an ongoing cycle and not a very productive one," she added. "These women need to be given opportunities to make money. If there are none, they will continue to make illegal substances, and the cycle will just continue."

[  irinnews.org

11. November 2005

SOUTH AFRICA

nach einem neuen gesetz müssen menschen die ein handy oder eine sim karte kaufen, eine kopie ihrer ausweispapiere hinterlegen.

S.AFRICAN law to force cell phone users to show ID

South Africans must supply proof of identity and address to get a cell phone or SIM card from next month under a new law aimed at fighting the country's notorious rates of crime. South Africa's biggest cell phone operator Vodacom, joint owned by Telkom and Britain's Vodafone said on Friday that from December 1 all individuals and businesses would have to supply photocopies of identity cards or passports to get a phone or SIM card.

The law would apply to pay-as-you-go customers, who account for the majority of the South African market, as well as contract subscribers. The department of justice said on its website that the law was aimed at stopping organized crime in which cell phones and other technology are used. Under the law, cell phone users could also face a prison sentence if they do not immediately report a lost, stolen or broken cell phone or SIM card to police. SIM cards activate and are used as identification for handsets, as well as storing phone numbers.

Vodacom is South Africa's biggest cell phone provider, followed by MTN and unlisted Cell C. Cell phone penetration in Africa's richest country has shot up to over half the population in recent years due to patchy and expensive land line services, with many low-income earners, some of whom may not have official ID papers, owning phones.

[  reuters.com

6. November 2005

SWAZILAND

ein neues gesetz, sexual offences and domestic violence bill 2005, sieht für vergewaltigung u.a. in 3 fällen die todesstrafe vor: falls das opfer unter 14 jahre ist, wenn der täter hiv positiv ist und wenn der täter erziehungsberechtigter ist.

Death penalty for HIV+ Rapists

RAPISTS found to have infected their victims with HIV and AIDS will now face death as the maximum sentence upon conviction by the courts.

Such is applicable to cases in which the survivor is below the age of 14, alternatively whereby the perpetrator has parental power over the child.

This is reflected in the new legislation, Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill of 2005, presently a draft. The Bill has already been presented to a number of stakeholders for further scrutiny and debate. It was promulgated by NGOs, government, and other collaborating partners in an attempt to strengthen the outdated Girls and Women Protection Act of 1920.

States the preamble in part; "Whereas there is an outcry on the escalation of sexual offences and domestic violence against women and children including infants which has accelerated the HIV and AIDS pandemic resulting in His Majesty declaring HIV and AIDS a National Disaster."

States the Bill under Section (8):

Any person who is convicted of rape under this Bill is liable to:

(a) imprisonment for a minimum period of 30 years without an option of a fine if the victim is above 14 years, but below 18 years; or 15 years without an option of a fine if the victim is above 18 years,

(b) the death penalty if the victim is below the age of 14 years; or

(c) the death penalty, where HIV and AIDS is an aggravating factor

(d) death penalty where such person has parental power over the child.

On conviction of a rape charge, a suspect would be subjected to a blood test conducted by a medical doctor, a qualified nurse, midwife or forensic nurse and if the results are positive, such results must be retained by the person in charge of the institution where the test was conducted and submitted by the prosecutor before the presiding officer pronounces the sentence.

Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) Director Nonhlanhla Dlamini said they solicited people?s views before enacting the legislation, especially the part on the death penalty. ?Pre-testing was conducted to obtain views of the people prior to implementing the section that deals with sentences to be imposed on rape convicts. We know from a human rights point of view that the death penalty could be challenged.

"However, the people's views hold the superior opinion; whether we maintain the death penalty or do away with it. The logic behind the enactment of such a Bill was clear; it is known that sexual abuse survivors infected with HIV are condemned to death."

Dlamini said they would still rely on people's views during the Bill's debate, a process which is in progress. The Bill's purpose was outlined as one meant to afford survivors of sexual offences and domestic violence protection and to introduce mechanisms seeking to empower service providers to give full effect to the provisions of the Bill and fortify them in order to eradicate the prevalence of such offences. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Prince David is expected to table the Bill in parliament once the stakeholders have made their input.

In fact, there have been several calls made by different stakeholders, including Members of Parliament, that rapists, HIV positive or not, should upon conviction be sentenced to death, castrated or given life sentences. In respect of rape cases accompanied by aggravating factors, the High Court normally imposes custodial sentences ranging between 12 and 18 years. The judicial officers have persistently lamented the escalating numbers of rape cases involving minors.

At some point the judges implored legislators to revisit the Girls and Women Protection Act of 1920, saying the law was no longer effective. Dr. Joshua Mzizi, human rights activist, could not be reached for comment at the time of compiling the report.

[  observer.org

3. November 2005

EGYPT

ein 21 jähriger jurastudent ,der im internet in seinem blog antiislamische texte veröffentlicht, wurde am 26. oktober festgenommen . die behörden geben keine auskunft in welchem knast er inhaftiert ist.

Egyptian Blogger taken in Detention

Abdolkarim Nabil Seliman is a 21 year-old Egyptian student of law at the Azhar University, Damanhour Campus, a women's-rights activist and a correspondent for Copts United. In addition to writing at Civic Dialogue, he also publishes at a blog he maintains. On Wednesday 26 October 2005, Egyptian State Security took Abdolkarim from his home, and confiscated hard copies of his writings. He is now on his way to an unknown detention. Three Egyptian bloggers visited Abdolkarim's family. The family attributed the state security raid to his writings, although it was not clear if his blogging is directly related. According to his brother, Abdolkarim's relations with Islamist Fundamentalists in his neighborhood of Moharram Bek, Alexandria, are tense. It is possible that the fundamentalists have filed a security complaint that led to his detention.

[  mediachannel.org

Anti-Islamic Blogger Detained, Missing

The whereabouts of blogger Abdolkarim Nabil Seliman who was abducted from his home by Egyptian state security on Wednesday Oct. 26 is still not known. The police refused to answer questions by AP, the first wire to run the story. The last report about his whereabouts said he was on his way to an unknown detention center[...]

[  Full Article: missmabrouk.blogspot.com

28. September 2005

REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA

bericht über die bedingungen im knast in der hauptstadt monrovia. Von den 248 gefangenen sind 15 verurteilt, die anderen sind z.t. seit monaten/ jahren auf ihren prozeß.

Packed jails and delays deny Liberians justice

Every night, Benu Passaway has to decide whether to tie her blanket across the bars of her cell to keep out the rain or huddle under it on the thin foam mattress she shares with three other women.

Four months pregnant, the 38-year-old is locked up in the Central Prison of Liberia's capital Monrovia awaiting trial on charges not of murder or theft, but of defaulting on a loan."I'm cold all the time," she said. "We need clothes, blankets, soap, anything please."

Fourteen years of civil war have reduced Liberia's justice system to a shambles of overflowing prisons and endless waits for trial that point to a virtual collapse in the state's ability to enforce law and order.But as candidates gear up for presidential and parliamentary elections on October 11 -- the centerpiece of a peace deal signed by warring factions in 2003 -- promises of judicial reform have largely been absent from campaign speeches.

With most Liberians struggling to survive on less than $1 a day and with no access to electricity or running water, reconstruction is a bigger priority than prisoners' rights.Whoever wins the polls will nevertheless have to tackle judicial reform to impose authority in the West African country. They will face a huge task.

HANDS THROUGH THE BARS

Prisons are bursting with inmates but inefficient court bureaucracy prevents most from ever facing trial: only 15 of the 248 people in the Central Prison have been sentenced and many go for months without seeing a lawyer or entering a courtroom.Last month, the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, a pressure group, filed a writ against the government on behalf of 45 prisoners who they say have been detained unlawfully.

"Our laws are clear that the length of pre-trial detention may not exceed 30 days, but some of these people have been detained for months or years without trial," said Augustine Toe, the Commission's director. "Nearly half of them are found innocent when they finally do come to trial."In the men's quarter at Central Prison, 12 prisoners are crammed into one cell barely 9 feet square, with only a few straw mats to sleep on and one meal of buckwheat and brackish water a day.

If they are lucky, inmates are held near a large, barred window, which lets in torrents of water during the rainy season. If they are unlucky, a tiny strip along the very top of the cell, too high to see over, is the only source of light.Everywhere, hands scarred by infectious skin diseases reach between the bars, plucking at visitors' clothing and brandishing scraps of paper bearing the names of prisoners who have been unable to tell friends or family where they are."I been here nine months, no trial, they say I killed someone but I got no finance for lawyer," shouts Ambrose Toe, 22.

Most of the men held here are charged with serious crimes -- rape, robbery and murder -- but mixed among them are petty thieves, debt defaulters, and perhaps victims of circumstance."I don't even know why I here, but I been here eight months without trial," insists Joe Tragnga.He is unlikely to be tried anytime soon. Many of the courts were destroyed during the civil war, which ended with the exile of ex-President Charles Taylor to Nigeria two years ago.

"STOP MOB JUSTICE"

Like many government workers, judiciary staff have not been paid for two months, and the justice ministry has less than a sixth of the lawyers it needs, says Chief Justice Henry Cooper.

"Many of our most capable people left the country during the war or have gone to work for the U.N.," he said, referring to the large United Nations mission in Liberia.The Supreme Court has set up a scholarship program to try to increase the number of Liberian lawyers, but it is hard to tempt skilled people into a job paying perhaps $25 per month.All over Monrovia, there are billboards urging residents to "Stop Mob Justice," but in a country with little faith in a notoriously corrupt police force, people take the law into their own hands almost every day.In one such incident in Monrovia, hundreds of people attacked a man accused of stealing early in September.

After struggling to break free, the bleeding man flung himself into the back of a passing pick-up truck, curling up to escape the blows that rained on him when the vehicle became stuck in traffic.A lone off-duty Liberian policeman jumped from a taxi and struggled to keep the crowd away from the bruised suspect.Eventually he was driven around the block and simply let go."Potential criminals are going free and innocent people are being held in prison," said Toe, the pressure group's director."Most of the time it's not the administration of justice that happens in Liberia, it's the obstruction of justice."

[  yahoo.com

23. September 2005

NIGERIA

in dem bericht über nigerianische knäste steht u.a. das für das essen der gefangenen täglich 9 naira
( = 0.058 euro ; 1 euro = 158.19 naira) zur verfügung stehen. Dazu kommt noch das die regierung die zahlen der verurteilten als grundlage für die bemessung des essens benutzt. Zahlen aus dem jahr 2003 (gibt keine neueren) dass z. b. im kirikiri hochsicherheitsknast ,der für 704 gefangene gebaut ist und in dem zu der zeit 1.802 menschen inhaftiert waren, nur 100 davon verurteilt waren.
Es gibt 135 knäste in nigeria : ein frauenknast, 6 männerknäste und 128 " gemischtgeschlechtliche ".

Prisons of pain

One of the nastiest evidences of underdevelopment in Nigeria today is the state of the prisons. Entirely politician-made, the decadent condition of the prisons is the direct result of the commonly held belief that the jail is a centre of retribution rather than rehabilitation. The bitter fruit of this notion has been frequent outburst of bloody revolt in the country’s prisons.

On Tuesday at the Ikoyi Prisons in Lagos, more than 10 inmates were, reportedly, shot dead when armed prison officials and men of the Police Mobile Force tried to quell an uprising by the prisoners. Inmates were said to have torched the Chief Warder’s office and the records office, a development that prison officials saw as capable of leading to a jailbreak and subsequently called in police reinforcement.The prisoners were alleged to be resisting a planned relocation of some of them to other prisons, an arrangement the authorities explained as necessitated by congestion at the Ikoyi Prisons.

The uprising at Ikoyi Prisons came on the heels of similar revolts – June 17 and 18 – at the Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta State, and Port Harcourt prisons, respectively, in which hundreds of prisoners escaped. The Port Harcourt riot was, allegedly, the result of an attempt by loyalists of a murder suspect to free him on the eve of his court appearance, while at Ogwashi-Ukwu, prisoners tried to stall the effort of security operatives to move a generous awaiting-trial inmate to court.

Dehumanisation

A criminologist, Professor Adedokun Adeyemi, is quoted as describing the Nigerian prison system as terribly deficient in “both deterrent and reformative value…

“It has become very costly to the economy; it is physiologically, psychologically, and emotionally destructive; it is socially damaging, it is culturally abhorrent, and it is penologically disastrous.”

Reviewing prison conditions in Nigeria in a recent report, activist Fola Arthur-Worrey, said, “The majority of inmates are living under the most horrendous conditions with appalling food, poor to non-existent medical facilities, no showers, and no beds. Because of some silly policy, they do not participate in any rehabilitation programmes; they do not perform work or attend any programmes, nor do they receive any social or psychological care. Instead, they sit idly for months and years, wasting their lives, losing their self-esteem and with no knowledge of when their cases will be heard, unable to earn a living or make contact with their families.”

Leading a delegation of lawyers to the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Muktar Abbas, recently, the state chairman of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, disclosed that prisoners in the country were fed on N9 a day per prisoner. This amount, obviously, fixed several decades ago, today prevails in a country where a standard meal in an average restaurant costs from N70 to as much as N150.

Social scientists believe the Nigerian prison system is a continuation of the occupationist structure erected by the colonial authorities, which had the sole aim of subduing the natives into acquiescing to colonial domination.

Dele Seteolu, Political Science teacher at the University of Lagos, feels those who inherited the state structure vacated by the colonialists failed to do any “mental or physical reform” of the system. “They simply filled the shoes of the departing colonialists, acquired their privileges, and maintained their tools of domination with the prisons as one of the most critical apparatuses,” Seteolu asserts. “This is the origin of the rot and dehumanisation prevalent in our prison system today.”

Internal Affairs Minister, Mohammed Magaji acknowledged, during a visit to Ikoyi Prisons Tuesday, “This particular place is an eyesore. And such a situation is very embarrassing, not only to the prisoners, but also to Nigerians.”

Patronage

To try to make the best out of the bad situation, an insidious patron-client relationship is explored by both prisoners and some prison authorities. Inmates who are materially buoyant are allowed a free hand to indulge in unethical practices in return for gratifications. Sunday Independent learnt that rich prisoners are often allowed to bring in their own foods, and use gadgets like television sets, radio, and mobile phones. Some even bring in women.

According to the Internal Affairs Minister, after an inspection of the confusion at Ikoyi Prisons, “I saw what we recovered from them. Some things like weapons and mobile telephones were recovered. We even saw television sets. We saw knives, machetes, daggers, and hammers.”

Rich inmates use their resources to maintain loyalties among fellow prisoners and the prison officers. Recent riots in some Nigerian prisons have been attributed to attempts by prisoners to stop the removal of some rich and generous inmates on whom many of them depend for food. Last year, security operatives, allegedly, engaged wild inmates in a hard battle before taking away Hamza Al-Mustapha, retired Major, from Kirikiri prisons to the detention cells of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI). Mustapha, the late General Sani Abacha’s former Chief Security Officer, is standing trial for the alleged murder of some prominent Nigerians during the Abacha years. His material status conferred on him some illegal privileges and comforts, which he shared with many prisoners in the form of patronages to maintain what analysts called a dangerous army of followers.

Feeding condition in the country’s prisons is made worse by the fact that, according to Sunday Independent findings, government bases feeding allocations on the number of actual convicts. But investigation revealed that convicts account for only less than 30 per cent of the country’s prison population.

A preliminary report of the 2003 attempted jailbreak at Kirikiri Medium Security Prison, Lagos, for instance, revealed that at the time of the incident, the prison, which was built to hold 500 prisoners, housed 1,860 inmates. Out of this figure, 1,600 were suspects awaiting trial, some of who had been held without trial for as long as 10 years.

The Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, which was constructed to house 704 inmates, had 1,802 inmates at the time, out of which only 100 were convicts.

The story is the same all over Nigerian prisons. Facilities and allocations meant for a few hundred people are shared by thousands of inmates.

United Nations

The 1995 United Nations congress on the prevention of crime and treatment of offenders says, “Every prisoner shall be provided by the administration at the usual hour with food of nutritional value adequate for health and strength of wholesome quality and well prepared and served, while drinking water shall be available to every prisoner, whenever he/she needs it.” This is far from the reality with Nigeria’s over 40,000 inmates.

Danger

Psychologist Stephen Oghenekaro believes the debilitating condition of the country’s prison system poses more danger to society than the suspects that are being put away could ever create. “The subsisting allegiance system in our prisons with its odious social hierarchy which places rich suspects, however criminally minded, at the top is one of the greatest security threats to the well being of this country,” he holds. “The prisons as presently constituted have become the easiest hatching point for all manner of evils that are then exported into society. HIV/AIDS and other diseases and hardened criminals are today about the only things Nigeria reaps from its prison system.”

Oghenekaro feels, “When a man is nurtured in the belief that he is worthless, he is angry with society and would at the slightest prompting do everything to destroy the good of that society.”

Warders

There are 135 prisons across Nigeria – one exclusively for female, six exclusively for male, and 128 for mixed sexes. These prisons are manned by about 10,000 prison warders whose work conditions express some of the worst cases of poor remuneration, deficient insurance cover, inadequate manpower development, low motivation and low morale. Sunday Independent checks confirm that personnel of the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) are among the poorest paid public servants in the country. They occupy some of the most decrepit structures in the country, from office to residential accommodation. At the Kirikiri Prisons, a warder told Sunday Independent, “The prison officials you see here are neglected, abandoned, and dejected. Many of us are still here because of the high unemployment rate in Nigeria. See how we live and work, even the minimum conditions that should accrue to civil servants are denied us. This is evil.”

Another officer of the prison disclosed, “Honestly, many of us have resorted to surviving through what we can get from rich clients (inmates). The more good clients you have the better for you. That is why we try to make them as comfortable as we can, at least to remain in their good books.”

Reform

Both governmental and non-governmental agencies in Nigeria have canvassed reform of the country’s prison system.

The poor state of the prisons, many believe, is compounded by the country’s criminal justice system, which makes for frequent resort to incarceration as a punishment option. According to the Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS), a non-governmental organisation, underutilisation of the powers of prerogative of mercy and bail is among the factors that delay administration of justice in Nigeria and put pressure on scare prison facilities through growing number of awaiting trial detainees.

Magaji said in Lagos during the Ikoyi prison riots, “We are not saying the condition in prisons are the best. This is why this administration is very much concerned. We have sent schemes and proposals…

“We realised that the number of prisoners who are convicts or convicted is far less than the number of people awaiting trial. The criminal justice system of this country has to be checked.”

HURILAWS has recommended, among others, “Alternatives to imprisonment such as community service, fines and restitution should be encouraged with a view to committing to the prisons only persons who cannot otherwise be dealt with,” and “A legal framework to clearly define prisoners’ right and minimum standards for all aspects of prison life is required. To this end, the existing rules relating to prisons and prisoners should be reviewed and international best practices incorporated. Specifically, the Prisons Act ought to be amended.”

Few topics have inspired so much conversation and argument as the state of the Nigerian prisons. Several positions have been canvassed for reform of the prison system. Until such proposals become law and are put into practice Nigeria’s prisons will continue to be just centres of pain and woe.

[  independentng.com

15. September 2005

EGYPT

die meisten der über 15.000 "politischen" gefangenen sind oft jahrelang inhaftiert, obwohl gerichte ihre freilassung angeordnet haben. Diese werden aber fast immer durch das innenministerium widerrufen.Dazu ein zitat eine wärters: " wir können dich nicht entlassen [ egal ob du schuldig oder unschuldig bist ]. Nachdem du jahre im gefängnis warst hasst du uns - und dich freizulassen wäre ein großes risiko."

Chain of hatred

A police officer summed up the situation very clearly to political detainee Abdel Moneim Mohammed, who has spent 13 years in the custody of the Egyptian interior ministry: "We can't release you [regardless of whether you are innocent or guilty]. After spending years in prison, you hate us - and setting you free will be a great risk."

The statement that was probably made by a low-ranking officer, with no authority to keep or release a detainee, is still worth pondering. Charged with endorsing violence, Mohammed was arrested by the State Security body in 1993, leaving behind a wife and a months-old baby daughter. He signed a "repentance declaration" in detention and was consequently transferred to Wadi Al Natron II prison, also known as the "repenters' prison". His wife, who insists that her husband is innocent, has filed many complaints over the years and has had tens of release verdicts issued by courts. But Mohammed remains in detention. His case is by no means unique.

Egypt has more than 15,000 political detainees, according to the Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRCAP). Release verdicts are issued by courts but are rejected by the interior minister. Authorized by the Emergency Law - in place since 1981 - the minister issues new detention warrants, prolonging the prisoners' time behind bars and their families' time in agony. "Sixteen years. I have been fighting for 16 years," says Sayeda Hassan, mother of Ahmed Abdel Azim, who is currently held in Abu Zaabal prison. "I first struggled for a five-minute visit in prison, then a quarter of an hour, then half an hour." Hassan's husband died after spending 10 years without seeing their imprisoned son, being too sick to visit Abdel Azim in prison.

"The problem is that the regime deals with political detainees merely as security files, overlooking the huge psychological, economic and social problems that they and their families suffer from," says director of HRCAP Mohammed Zarei. The result is catastrophic at all levels. "You have an angry bulk [of detainees and their families] resentful of the regime, who have endured suffering since the 1980s and the 1990s," explains Ahmed Seif Al Islam, executive director of Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC). "Their rage against the regime," explains journalist and analyst Mohammed Gamal Arafa, "makes them see corruption in everything, from the subordinate policeman to the highest-ranking government officer".

Detainees usually end up fired from their jobs and undergoing economic and social problems, "which affects their sense of national belonging; they first complain that their country doesn't help them or offer them anything, then they start complaining that it doesn't represent them, and, hence, they seize to acknowledge the regime that has caused their problems," Arafa says. "Therefore, they seek to escape, either externally by emigrating from the country or internally by adopting violence," Arafa adds. Unfortunately, the solution is by no means simple. "It can cost lives," says Abdel Rahim Ali, an expert on Islamist groups. For the government to release one prisoner it "has to be sure that he has totally rejected the [violent] ideas that he previously had", he adds.

Detainees' families ask, "What about those who were wrongly arrested? Those who never had violent ideas in the first place?" "They want them to repent for something they never did," says Hassan. Hani Abdel Aal was being pressured to "repent": "I went to visit him in prison and police officers kept me waiting for hours," says his 65-year-old mother, Umm Hani, who comes from Egypt's rural governorate of Sharkiya. "I heard police officers tell Hani, 'Your mom is an aging woman and we pity her, so don't keep her waiting. Sign the repentance declaration.' When I could finally talk to him from behind bars I urged him, 'Sign what they want you to sign, son, if this will help,'" she says with tears. "What shall I repent from, mom? From praying or from reading Koran," Abdel Aal answered. "Repentance will be an implicit confession that they committed a crime [or endorsed violence]; they never did," Hassan insists.

"Repentance is not the issue," argues Nabila, the wife of Abdel Moneim Ibrahim. "My husband signed the repentance declaration years ago and he was moved to Wadi Al Natron II, the repenters' prison; yet, he is still detained." Beyond proclaiming repentance from endorsing the violent ideas of Islamist groups, one prisoner announced his conversion to Christianity, in the hope that this would finally get him released. Hassan tells his story, as it was passed on to her by her son, a fellow prisoner of the "Christian convert": "He drew a Cross on the prison's wall and told them, 'I am Christian, if Islam is your problem. Release me'." "Others have started to smoke inside prison to prove to police officers that they are moderate Muslims so that they can get released," Hassan laments. Still the police officers will not release them.

The Egyptian interior ministry adopts certain criteria for releasing political detainees, as stated in the 2004/5 annual report of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR): "[The Ministry releases] prisoners whose critical health conditions make it difficult for the prison's administration, or the hospitals affiliated with it, to handle the prisoners' health, in which case the prisoner is released only on the condition that the ministry ensures he rejects extremist beliefs and ideas, which are harmful to the country's security."

Seif Al Islam of the HLMC comments on this criterion, "It's clear that the ministry's goal is to keep people in political detention until they start dying ... This policy has been adopted since 1981." Other criteria stated by the ministry - and written in the NCHR's report - include the issuance of judicial verdicts ordering the prisoners' release and making certain that they pose no security danger. ""Security danger" is a flexible term," says Mamdouh Ismail, a lawyer for Islamist detainees. "Anyone can be classified as dangerous in one way or another." What's the definition of danger then?

"Danger should be determined by facts and evidence that a certain person is planning to commit violence," Ismail answers, "but this is not the case with the Egyptian interior ministry, which randomly arrested religious people by the thousands, in the 1990s, on the grounds of mere [suspicion] that violent ideas might just occur to them".

Zarei of the HRCAP points out that, "some detainees do endorse dangerous ideas and others have acquired dangerous ideas in detention, but many are innocent people who were wrongly arrested. "These people are not our enemies," Zarei asserts. And for sure, the regime's current policy toward them "has proved it's not the most effective one to combat terror", says Islam. The solution, Zarei believes, is to acknowledge the multi-dimensional problems that political detention causes to detainees and their families, and work hard toward solving them: "A high-ranking committee comprising representatives of different ministries and governmental bodies should be formed, then it should set up a comprehensive rehabilitation program to deal with all political detainees and their families and solve their problems."

Additionally, there should be more political openness so that people can voice their opinions in a peaceful way, says Abdel Rahim Ali, the expert on Islamist groups. The Egyptian interior ministry has refrained from revealing the official number of political detainees in the country, says the NCHR's report. The ministry provides the following explanation: "The ministry faces a great difficulty in determining the number of political detainees in prisons and security camps because the number differs from time to time due to frequent omissions and additions." One detainee's wife speaks of her four-year-old son who wants to grow up and become a policeman, then create a "big prison to keep all those who arrested [his] dad". Another boy, the son of detainee Yahya Abdullah, vows to his mother, "I will buy a gun and kill the policeman who is keeping my dad in custody."

A new generation of political detainees' children: Watch them grow.

[  metimes.com

15. September 2005

SOUTH AFRICA

eine katholische knastgruppe , prison care and support network, und ein mann aus dem helderstroom knast ( western cape) haben eine klage gegen die überbelegung der knäste und die zulange u-haft eingereicht.
Einige zahlen aus der klage:
in den 240 knästen starben 68 menschen einen "unnatürlichen tod".1. 424 gefangene warten seit über 4 jahren auf ihren prozeß.In dem johaneesburg medium b knast , für 1.300 gefangene gebaut, sind 4.984 menschen inhaftiert.

STATE faces court fight about prison horrors

The government is facing a landmark Cape High Court battle over what human rights groups describe as unlawful and unconstitutional "gross overcrowding" of South African prisons. Affidavits supporting the urgent application against the government contain shocking revelations about conditions in the country's 240 jails. They include the grim statistic that the rate of prison deaths is five times what it was a decade ago. Reports have shown 69 people died "unnatural deaths" in jails last year - six of them in fires in Pollsmoor.

The application reveals how thousands of people, many of them children, are in jail for long periods awaiting trial. At present, 1 424 prisoners have reportedly been awaiting trial for four years, and more than half the 3 284 children in jail are still awaiting trial.

In one instance, reported by the Human Rights Commission, a 16-year-old girl charged as an accomplice in a car hijacking was held for almost four years before trial. In another, four boys charged with stealing a sheep were held for three months. But statistics for last year show nearly 250 000 awaiting-trial prisoners - who had been in custody for several months at least - were released by the courts after cases against them were withdrawn. The High Court application was filed shortly after the annual report of the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons revealed on Tuesday that South Africa has more prisoners per head of population than any other African country and more than most countries worldwide. The report said Johannesburg Medium B prison, built to hold 1 300 prisoners, had no fewer than 4 984 inmates.

The application is being brought by the Prison Care and Support Network, a voluntary organisation that operates under the auspices of the Catholic Church, and a Helderstroom Prison inmate known only as "WJ". They want the High Court to rule that overcrowding violates prisoners' constitutional rights to human dignity and to life itself. The High Court is asked to order the government to address prison overcrowding immediately and to order that the state be given four months to present a timetable for plans to deal with the issue. The support network also wants the government to develop policy on the imprisonment of women, children and the terminally ill.

Reports from the juvenile sections of a number of jails say many youngsters complain of being sodomised. The network said the state could cut the backlog of more than 52 000 awaiting-trial inmates by reducing "unnecessary arrests", accurately determining the need for pre-trial detention and encouraging police to use their powers to free accused people on warning or on bail. The Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons report showed more than 13 000 awaiting-trial prisoners were in jail because they could not afford bail.

The network proposes that specialised "bail courts" be opened to hasten bail applications and encourage prosecutors to withdraw trivial cases or cases where people have been awaiting trial "for an excessive period". The application is expected to be heard on September 28.

[  iol.co.za

18. August 2005

SOUTH AFRICA

bei einer operation nice surprice genannten polizeiaktion wurden 20 seit längerem gesuchte menschen festgenommen. Die polizei hatte 194 menschen, die sie als die "meist gesuchten personen" in dem bundesstaat northern cape bezeichnen, einladungen zu einer überraschungsparty geschickt.

Cops throw criminals surprise party

Police arrested 20 wanted criminals in the Northern Cape at a party held by police at the Kimberley City Hall, the provincial police department said. Northern Cape police spokeswoman Superintendent Mashay Gamieldien said the main purpose of the operation - Operation Nice Surprise - was to invite all wanted persons to a party and to arrest them while in the hall. "Some 194 invitations were posted to the most wanted persons in the province whom were blacklisted for serious crimes or linked with finger prints to such crimes to attend the staged party presented by Nice Surprise Enterprises. "They had to confirm their attendance," said Gamieldien.

On Tuesday night a local Kimberley DJ entertained the suspects, while lucky draws were also held during which the attendees received prizes. "Police entered the hall and arrested all the suspects," Gamieldien said. She said the operation was initiated by the deputy-area commissioner of police in the Diamond Fields area, director Pieter Myburgh. Most of these suspects' addresses were known but managed to escape detention every time police visited their homes. Gamieldien said a total of 36 wanted suspects, of whom 20 were at the party, were arrested. Police said they were wanted in connection with crimes ranging from assault, rape, burglaries, shoplifting and theft to fraud. Some of the suspects had already appeared in the Kimberley Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

[  sundaytimes.co.za

July 2005

KENYA/UGANDA

ACTING TOUGH ON REFUGEES

Refugees are facing new difficulties in East Africa. Kenya is host to about 270,000 refugees. Refugees from the turbulent conflicts in Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan have lived in Kenya for decades. Unfortunately, the sense of generosity which allowed those refugees to be welcomed suffered a setback when Immigration minister Linah Kilimo issued an ultimatum for all asylum seekers in the country to either register or risk being deported.

[  Refugee Rights News Volume 2, No. 2 / July 2005

27. July 2005

NIGERIA

neuer human rights watch bericht über folter durch die polizei: " rest in pieces _ police torture and deaths in custody in nigeria".

Nigeria police accused of torture

Six years after a return to civilian rule, Nigeria's police still routinely torture detainees, a new report says.

The study, carried out by the Human Rights Watch group, is entitled "Rest in Pieces - Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria".

It is the first comprehensive documentation of alleged torture in the West African country.Based on interviews with 50 victims, it argues that rape and mutilation are commonly used to extract confessions.The Nigerian police have a poor reputation but the 74-page document still has the power to shock.Suspects are suspended from the ceiling by their hands, beaten with metal objects, sprayed with tear gas in their eyes or shot in the feet, the report says.

The injuries sometimes result in death, it adds.The report's title, "Rest in Pieces", comes from a phrase Human Rights Watch says is used by the Nigerian police to describe detainees who are killed in their custody.The police have yet to respond to the report but it is likely to come as a blow to President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has been campaigning since the start of the year to convince creditor nations that the government is committed to political and economic reforms.

[  news.bbc.co.uk

[  Rest in Pieces - Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria / Report

[  Rest in Pieces - Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria / Report / as pdf

I CAN KILL YOU AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN

The type of police a nation gets may not be totally disconnected from the nature and attitude of its government or the political leadership in that country. A transparent, accountable, open and inclusive government that is popular and people focused would almost certainly among other things translate into an efficient, accountable, upright and people-friendly police service, says the introduction of a report on police brutality by Nigeria's Civil Liberties Organisation. "Most killings occur in police custody. Robbery suspects are summarily executed or shot in the limbs and left to bleed to death. They are later dumped in mortuaries or buried in shallow graves to cover their traces."

[  read more about another report under: pambazuka.org

8. July 2005

SOUTH AFRICA

mehrere frauen, die aufgrund ihrer kleidung von polizisten wegen prostitution festgenommen wurden, versuchen jetzt die polizisten zu verklagen. Bisher wurden solche klagen fast immer abgelehnt.

Women Can Sue Cops for Wrongful Detention

Several women mistaken for prostitutes because of wearing miniskirts and body-hugging dresses that are mainly favoured by commercial sex workers in their chosen trade - have gone to court for wrongful detention.

Many women have been detained and had to endure a nightmarish night in a police cell, simply because they were found wearing the sort of garb associated with prostitution.

But it has emerged that despite seeking legal recourse, the courts usually dismiss such cases, as the claimants usually do not have convincing grounds for instituting such action against detaining authorities.Interestingly, some of these women have been apprehended while their male escorts or rather partners are normally let off the hook and go scot-free.In a brief interview with New Era, Evelyn Zimba, a lawyer at the public interest law firm the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) said, "It is illegal to pick up women off the streets and accuse them of prostitution."

She said she has documented cases in which the police have arrested many women simply because of the way in which they were dressed."People were arrested on implication that they were just standing on the streets. Some women were involved in commercial sex work . others were not," said Dianne Hubbard, another lawyer at the LAC.She said in 2002, a large number of women were detained for "loitering" but the case could not go to the prosecution stage as it was dismissed and subsequently the LAC counselled the women to seek damages. But this group is said to have developed cold feet, citing "personal reasons" when pressed on why they could not proceed with the civil suit.

It is legal for the police to detain people including those suspected of loose morals so long the detentions do not last longer than 48 hours.And if any accused persons feel they were wrongly detained, they could seek damages.

[  allafrica.com