NEWS ARROUND PRISON AND LAW / AFRICA

28 july 2006

ZIMBABWE

nach dem bericht der menschenrechtsorganisation human rights ngo forum steigt die zahl der gemeldeten folterfälle und willkürlichen festnahmen mit jedem monat.

Torture cases rise sharply - Rights Forum

HARARE - Torture cases rose sharply in May to 84, and there were some 232 recorded incidents of unlawful arrest and detention, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said in its monthly report on political violence.

The report, with its catalogue of arrests and beatings by police, abductions and general brutality routinely inflicted by state agents, made the expressions of outrage in the state-run media at the beating up of opposition member of Parliament Trudy Stevenson sound particularly contrived and synthetic. The attack on Stevenson and four other officials of the pro-Senate faction of the MDC provided a feast for the state-run media, which denounced it as savage, brutal and barbaric and, before any court hearing, repeatedly said it was the work of members of the Morgan Tsvangarai-led MDC. The Tsvangarai-led MDC has claimed the perpetrators belonged to the ruling Zanu (PF) party.

"They (the state media) would not reconcile their accusations of the MDC as a violent party with results of a study by the Zimbabwe Torture Victims Project attributing 99 percent of Zimbabwe's political violence to the ruling party and state security agents," noted the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ). The Torture Victims Project findings supported an earlier report - based on actual incidents brought to court - by the Human Rights Forum. A detailed analysis of the court cases overwhelmingly attributed political violence to law enforcement agencies and ruling party activists, with the MDC responsible for but a fraction of the violence cases recorded. Among those arrested and reportedly tortured in May, the Human Rights Forum said, were dozens of students from Bindura State University after class boycotts and the torching of a computer lab.

Some incidents reported by the Forum stand out for the sadism and the total indifference of the police to who witnesses their assaults. For example, 23 National Constitutional Association (NCA) demonstrators demanding a new constitution were hauled off in police trucks from the intersection of Second Street and Nelson Mandela Avenue on May 11. At Harare Central Police Station they were allegedly beaten up by police at the parking bay. Once inside, apart from more assaults, "sewage water with dead rats was reportedly poured into the cells," said the Forum. They were released the next day after paying admission of guilt fines under draconian laws preventing free speech and association.

"The Human Rights Forum notes with great concern that violence and torture continue to be used in Zimbabwe by state agents as a way of quelling dissent, as well as extracting information from the public, be it for political or criminal purposes," said the report. Then there were the soccer fans singing political songs in a bus on their way home after a match who were taken to Mungate police station after a herdsman on the bus reported them. Eleven ran away and the remaining eight were assaulted with electric cords, sjamboks and booted feet.

Academic John Makumbe was seized from his office at the University of Zimbabwe by suspected CIO agents on May 17. A day later it was again the turn of NCA demonstrators. After being reportedly assaulted by riot police at Africa Unity Square, 32 of them were detained at Harare Central Police Station for four days in overcrowded cells which had human waste on the floors. The detainees included women with babies. The Forum, a coalition of 16 groups, traditionally chooses its words carefully. It said: "The ongoing harassment and arrest of innocent citizens who are exercising their civil liberties is of continuing concern...and needs to be addressed by the State and its agents as a matter of urgency."

[  thezimbabwean.co.uk

15 July 2006

KENYA

A "Soft Landing" to Keep Prisoners on the Straight and Narrow

NAIROBI, Jul 15 (IPS) - A call has been made in Kenya for initiatives to ease the re-entry of prisoners into society -- this after government's Jul. 13 announcement that almost 8,000 inmates will be freed to reduce overcrowding in jails."A lot of civic education needs to be done to inform the public that people who go to prison are members of our society," said Samwel Mohochi, acting executive director of the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU). The IMLU is a non-governmental organisation based in the capital, Nairobi, which has been documenting torture in prisons. The unit also helps torture victims recover from their experiences.Mohochi's words were echoed by a public relations staffer in the prisons department."The community is still non-receptive to inmates. In the event that these people are not able to settle back in the community, they commit (new) offences," the staffer told IPS.

"If these people were received well into society, if they got a soft landing, maybe they would be able to do something constructive with their lives."Official statistics indicate that there are over 50,000 inmates in the country's 92 prisons, which are only supposed to house 16,000."Most of the prison facilities date back to colonial times, with a few built soon after independence when the population of Kenya was less than 10 million," Vice President Moody Awori said in the statement informing the public that 7,713 prisoners were to be released. United Nations figures now put the population at about 33 million.Congestion in jails has also been attributed to the high number of pending court cases, with some 60 percent of prisoners being on remand, according to Mohochi.

But, while police blame the courts for being too slow in trying inmates, the judiciary accuses police of being over-zealous in arresting petty offenders. Prison officials say most of those crowding jails are awaiting trial for minor crimes.Government has previously announced plans to hire more magistrates to relieve court backlogs; but a lack of funding has plagued these initiatives.News of the imminent release has sparked fears of an upsurge in crime, even though government assures citizens that measures are in place to prevent this from happening. Awori points to the Community Service Order: a 1996 regulation that requires the conduct of those freed to be reviewed regularly, to guard against repeat offences.The decision to release prisoners follows a recent exposé of unacceptable conditions in Meru Prison in eastern Kenya, also the subject of an earlier scandal.

The facility was visited last month by journalists and members of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, a government-appointed watchdog, who found 73 prisoners crammed in a cell meant for 20.This situation was repeated in other cells. The jail was built to accommodate a maximum of 500 inmates, but now houses 1,600, according to the IMLU.In the absence of proper sanitation, buckets of waste had been hung on the cell walls and doors. Unhygienic conditions and overcrowding have made outbreaks of disease common at the prison, where inmates also had open sores on their legs and hands.In 2004, five Meru inmates were found dead in their cell. Another prisoner died on the way to hospital, while 23 others were admitted to Meru District Hospital in a critical condition.

Prison officials blamed the deaths on suffocation; but, a police report indicated that some of the bodies bore signs of injury. Similarly, an investigation by the IMLU revealed that most of the deceased had died from head and chest injuries, others from strangulation.Prisoners later indicated that those who died had refused orders to share a small cell which was already occupied by other inmates. The prisoners said this had enraged the warders, who beat those who disobeyed to death. The prisons department employee noted that inadequate numbers of staff at jails could be contributing to abuse of inmates: "It is likely that because of the larger number of inmates vis-à-vis that of personnel, security at the prisons may be compromised. The warders and other personnel may feel over-stretched, and violence may occur."

Mohochi also said that better training of staffers was needed. "Prison reforms must address retraining of prison officers. The training they have is one that was inherited from the colonial masters. It is dehumanising; it is one (that allows guards) to clobber inmates, to make them squat, and strip them naked."Prison reforms, championed by the vice president, have been underway since 2003. Inmates are now allowed conjugal visits, television sets, mattresses and new uniforms -- as well as buses for transportation. Previously, they were transported in caged lorries.But, as the situation at Meru Prison shows, much remains be done. (END/2006)

[  ipsnews.net

10 Juy 2006

ALGERIA

Algerian intelligence still detains, tortures

Algeria's security forces continue to detain and torture prisoners secretly, Amnesty International said on Monday in a report ahead of the Algerian president's trip to London.

The human rights group said Algeria's intelligence agency, the Department of Information and Security (DRS), is using the war on terror as an excuse to perpetuate torture and ill-treatment.Detainees are beaten, subjected to electric shocks and forced to drink dirty water, urine or chemicals, Amnesty International said.It wants Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair to urge Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during their meeting on Tuesday to investigate allegations of torture and abuse.

Bouteflika "must also ensure that DRS officers no longer arrest or detain suspects and that any responsible for torture or mistreatment of detainees are promptly brought to justice", said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa programme.Blair and Bouteflika are expected to sign agreements on the deportation from Britain of convicted criminals and failed asylum seekers.But a British Foreign Office spokesperson said on Monday that negotiations continue over a deal in which Britain would return terror suspects to Algeria in return for diplomatic assurances that they will not be tortured or abused.

About 150 000 people -- Islamists, civilians and military -- died in an insurgency triggered in 1992 by the Algerian army's decision to cancel legislative elections that an Islamic fundamentalist party was poised to win.The violence has subsided since the army installed Bouteflika as president in 1999, and Algeria has become an important partner in the war on terror.

Bouteflika, who has made efforts to curtail the military's powers, has also said he will hold a national referendum on a new Constitution by the end of this year.But Amnesty International says it remains concerned that a February 2006 Algerian amnesty law provides impunity for crimes under international law, including torture committed by the DRS.

Its report, Unrestrained Powers: Torture by Algeria's Military Security, monitored what it said were dozens of cases of abuse between 2002 and 2006 where detainees were in secret detention centres, without access to lawyers, independent doctors, family or civilian oversight.The report said countries including Canada, France, Italy, Malaysia, The Netherlands and Spain forcibly have returned individuals suspected of terrorist activities to Algeria, despite knowing that they will be detained and interrogated by the DRS.

"The persistent denial of the Algerian authorities of the widespread abuse that has taken place is an indication that Algeria has some way to go in combating torture and other ill-treatment," Smart said.Last month, two Algerian detainees returned voluntarily to their homeland from Britain. One, who was identified only as I, was described as a senior member of a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden.The Algerian embassy in London made no comment on the Amnesty International report. -- Sapa-AP

[  mg.co.za

[  Unrestrained powers:
Torture by Algeria’s Military Security