Human rights group: Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention center severely abused
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 5/30/2002

A Geneva-based human rights group that said Palestinian detainees in the Israeli Ofer detention center were being subject to severe forms of abuse,

In its report issued last week the group, Defence for Children International/Palestine (DCI/PS), said the prisoners were being held under "inhuman conditions" and were generally denied access to lawyers "as there is no systematic procedure of informing lawyers about court hearings."

Ofer is located in an Israeli military camp near Ramallah and holds more than 900 detainees, 40 to 50 of whom are children. According to the report, all detainees "are beaten regularly by the soldiers, especially while being taken to and from interrogation."

It said the detainees were held in tents, each one sheltering an average of between 25 to 35 prisoners. The tents, the report added, are erected over an asphalt surface and are filled with dust and insects. Each detainee is given four dirty blankets to use as bedding atop a wooden bed which supports a flimsy sponge mattress. There are no pillows and no electricity."

The detainees are also "completely isolated from the outside world. Family members are prevented from visiting them and there are no radios, TVs, newspapers or books. The food is unfit for human consumption and comes in very small quantities."

According to the report, there is a shortage of cleaning supplies "and thus it is impossible to keep the tents clean. In two sections [of the centre] open sewage runs from the pipes into the tents."

The report stated that at night it gets even worse as "soldiers harass the detainees by firing bullets in the air, throwing gravel at the tents and yelling at the prisoners."

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  Amnesty International calls for a commission of inquiry into mass arbitrary detention of palestinians   (5/27/2002)
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  International Red Cross: Geneva Conventions breached by Israeli transfer of Palestinians   (5/24/2002)

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