(b) Reports from other human rights organizations

(b) Reports from other human rights organizations

During the past year, human rights organizations - Israeli, Palestinian and international - have continued to take an interest in allegations about torture and ill-treatment in the Occupied Territories. The next section [5 (c)] provides information about individual cases dealt with by journalists, lawyers and human rights organizations in the year since the B'tselem Report appeared. Here we list only relevant published reports (in order of appearance):

(i) In July 1991, Amnesty International published a report dealing with the system of military justice in the Occupied Territories.⁽⁴³) The report's overal conclusion was that the entire process of military justice - from the moment of arrest, through detention and interrrogation to the trial itself - is fundamentally flawed. On the basis of observation of military courts (in October-November 1990) and other sources, Amnesty concludes that the system does not correspond to international human rights standards for a fair trial. The Report draws particular and detailed attention (pp.23 - 73) to the criticism raised by the original B'tselem Report: the subjection of detainees to prolonged incommunicado detention, without having to be brought before a judge for 18 days and denied meaningful contact with lawyers for 20 or 30 days after arrest. The Report criticizes the lack of safeguards to protect against ill-treatment, the existence of high level judicial authority to use "moderate physical pressure" and the near-total reliance on confessions obtained under interrogation as primary evidence.
On the specific question of torture or ill-treatment, Amnesty concludes - on the basis of "scores of affidavits and testimonies from a variety of detainees, lawyers and local human rights groups, backed up in some cases by medical reports and the results of official investigations"⁽⁴⁴) - that:

...the substantial evidence available indicates the existence of a clear pattern of systematic psychological and physical ill-treatment, constituting torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which is being inflicted on detainees during the course of investigation.

Methods used on a systematic scale include hooding with a dirty sack, sometimes wet, which often hinders breathing, and sleep and food deprivation while held in solitary confinement. Also typically used are prolonged bondage in plastic or metal hand-cuffs usually in painfull positions (a practice called shabah) and being confined in very small and darkened cells referred to as "closets" or "coffins", as well as in small cold cells called "refrigerators." Beatings all over the body, often severe and sometimes concentrated on sensitive areas such as genitals, are also inflicted with relative frequency. Other methods include burning with cigarettes; prolonged denial of access to toilets; verbal abuse and threats of various kinds; and forms of sexual harassment particularly with regard to women detainees.

The Amnesty Report presents four cases - three from Gaza and one from East Jerusalem - to illustrate some of these methods. It is particularly concerned by the reluctance of military court judges to pay any serious attention to lawyers' claims of ill-treatment - even when signs of beating are obviously visible on the defendent's body.

Further, Amnesty makes the serious charge that although in some cases, criminal or disciplinary measures have been taken against those responsible, torture or ill-treatment seem to be "virtually institutionalized." Certain interrogation methods "...have been officially endorsed or are generally condoned, and therefore effectively encouraged by the authorities.^"(45) In a more explicit reference to the Landau Commission (pp.50-57, 63-64) Amnesty joins in the criticism by the international human rights community. As we have stated previously, and in reply to Justice Landau's defence [see above, Sec.2 (a)] Amnesty notes that:

...the existing interrogation practices, which amount to torture or ill-treatment, are either consistent, at least in part, with the Landau Commission's secret guidelines, or they constitute evidence that since 1987 the GSS has been massively violating such guidelines in addition to international standards for the redress of detainees. In both cases urgent measures of redress are required. These include the publication of the secret guidelines on interrogation to compare them with international legal prohibitions on torture and ill-treatment and to ensure that anyone violating their provisions can be identified and punished.⁽⁴⁶)