It now seems clear that the Red Cross and, indeed, members of Israel's parliament, are being stopped by Israeli intelligence services from finding out the location of what has been called a "secret prison". The MP for the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, Dr. Dov Hanin, has filed an enquiry to the Israeli Internal Security Minister, Yitzhak Aheronovic, regarding an unidentified prisoner at Ayalon Prison, Department 15. The prisoner, whose details were referred to on the Ynet website, and then quickly removed, has been held in total isolation and prevented from having visits or giving any information about himself to the officers who guard him. Nobody claims any knowledge of the reasons for the said prisoner to be in this situation.
Dr. Hanin wondered, in his enquiry to the minister, about the identity of the prisoner and the reason for the total information blackout and his complete isolation from the outside world. He also asked about the lack of access to rights which are guaranteed for any prisoner under Israeli law, including whether this prisoner's family has been informed of his whereabouts. The MP refused to accept the concept of the state holding a prisoner of unknown identity.
The enquiries being made about this particular prisoner are reminiscent of recent calls in the media for a disclosure of information about "secret" prisons in Israel the existence of which has long been denied by the government, which has also sought to hide them from international observers such as the Red Cross. The calls for more transparency were made following the publication of a report by the UN Committee against Torture.
Yediot Aharonot newspaper published what looked like a prisoner identification card for "1391 secret prison", which was a base used as an investigation office at military unit 504 associated with the Intelligence Department of the Israeli army. The task of the unit is to recruit and investigate terrorists and soldiers of hostile armies captured by the Israel Defence Forces. According to Yediot Aharonot, the secret prison was set up in an investigation section in Unit 504 in Gdera city in the south of the country. For many years, the department was a centre for investigating the perpetrators of the famous coast operation and the Palestinians who tried to blow up an El Al aircraft at Nairobi airport. In the 1980s, the secret prison was transferred to a building built for this purpose near another base for high-security intelligence operations. The newspaper said that the prison has rooms deep underground and soldiers from the military police provide all the logistics services at this facility, such as the transfer of detainees to and from the prison and from their cells to the interrogation rooms.
The most prominent case linked to this secret prison, according to the report, was the interrogation of the Lebanese former prisoner, Mustafa Dirani. Mr. Dirani was tortured severely during the interrogation, when he was beaten, forced to walk wearing an adult "nappy" and forced to swallow triangular objects; he was also anally raped. The army was forced to investigate this case as a result of which the chief investigator, a man known as George, was dismissed.
According to the newspaper report, the secret facility has another function, which is training Israeli soldiers who wish to join some specialist military units, such as CERT Mtkal, and Cedlag Haitt 13, which carried out the attack on the Freedom Flotilla. They undergo interrogation as part of their training in case they are ever captured during an operation. The officers of unit 504 expose the soldiers to serious torture to the extent that medical personnel and psychologists have joined the process to monitor such methods to ensure that no serious harm is done to the trainees.
A human rights organization known as the Centre for Defence of the Rights of Individuals has submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court against those responsible for perpetrating torture at the secret prison, and has asked for checks to be made to see if the Israeli authorities have in detention in unit 504 those Palestinians who have simply disappeared since their capture by the Israel army. The Prosecutor General Representative has refused to consider the petition, claiming that the detention unit is in a secret military base and therefore cannot be investigated or revealed. In this way, the prosecutor sought to prevent the issue of a warrant for the disclosure of the detention centre thus opening its doors to legislators who want to visit and find out what is happening inside.
The government claims that the prison has been closed but the petitioners say it cannot verify this claim because of the ban on visits. The petitioners say that detainees in the secret prison know nothing about their location of what happens outside. When they ask the guards where they are, they are told, "on the moon" or "in a spacecraft".
The Director of the Centre which has submitted the petition, Dalia Christine, said the prison is a blatant violation of international law. The petition included sworn testimonies by former Palestinian prisoners who believe that they were detained in this prison; the rooms, they claim, had no windows, the walls were painted black and the "toilet" was a bucket placed in the corner. The ex-prisoners also claim that they did not see anyone for the length of their detention apart from the investigators and military judges. They talked about the torture they suffered in the prison, including sleep deprivation, shackling in uncomfortable positions and beating.
Following a discussion in camera at the Supreme Court, the judges rejected the petition.
Showing posts with label Red Cross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Red Cross. Show all posts
Red Cross demands Gaza access, cites 'shocking' discoveries that Israel says is not true
- Story Highlights
- Red Cross: Workers found weak kids with dead mothers during trip into Gaza City
- Team found wounded people, corpses, Red Cross says
- Red Cross official: Israeli military didn't help the wounded
- International Committee of the Red Cross demands access to Gaza
Red Cross workers and four ambulances from the Palestine Red Crescent Society managed to enter the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City on Wednesday, according to a written release. The crew found four children, too weak to stand, next to their dead mothers in a house containing 12 corpses, the statement says.
Other houses revealed more wounded and three more corpses, the release said. It said Israeli soldiers posted near the houses ordered the rescue team to leave the area -- an order the team refused.
"This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's chief official for Israel and the Palestinian territories. "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."
A spokesman for Israel's military said early Thursday that the Red Cross's news release was the first he had heard of the alleged incident. Speaking after midnight, the spokesman said he was unsure if Israel has received a formal request to investigate.
"We do make every effort and our soldiers do put themselves at risk" to help wounded civilians, the spokesman told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
The Red Cross release said the children and other wounded were taken to ambulances in a donkey cart because earth walls erected by Israeli soldiers made it impossible for the ambulances to reach their neighborhood. Watch psychologist describe how war affects children »
It said the group was told more wounded people were in the neighborhood, and demanded that Israel grant it and the Red Crescent immediate access and safe passage to search for them.
The Israeli military operation in Gaza has killed at least 680 people (still counting) and injured more than 3,000 since it launched December 27, Palestinian medical sources said Wednesday. Thirty percent of the deaths are women and children, according to the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, citing statistics released Tuesday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Palestinian civilians 'hostage' to worsening conflict: Red Cross
Palestinians have become a "hostage to the conflict" between militants and the Israeli armed forces and are bearing the brunt of the hostilities, the international Red Cross warned on Thursday.
"The Palestinian people are paying an exceedingly high price for the continuing hostilities between Israel and Palestinian factions," said Beatrice Megevand Roggo, head of Middle East operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"Their situation is made even more difficult by intra-Palestinian rivalries. The Palestinian population has effectively become a hostage to the conflict," she said.
The ICRC said the situation in the Gaza Strip, which has been run by the Islamist Hamas militia since June, is "alarming," with Israel's decision to cut fuel supplies adding further hardship to the beleaguered population.
"The (Gaza) Strip has been progressively sealed off since June: imports are restricted to the bare minimum and essential infrastructure, including medical supplies and water and sanitation systems, is in an increasingly fragile state," it noted.
The ICRC said that immediate political action was needed to resolve the crisis and that humanitarian aid on its own was not sufficient.
It urged Israel to "respect its obligations under international humanitarian law, to ease restrictions on movement in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and to lift the retaliatory measures that are paralysing life in Gaza."
Israeli troops killed six militants in Gaza on Tuesday during a military incursion, with the chief of staff warning that the time was "approaching" for a major offensive in the coastal strip.