Annual Report

Governments Denying Their Citizens Basic Human Rights Under the Guise of National Security

• Colombia: The Colombian security forces, heavily funded by the United States government, conspire with paramilitary forces labeled as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department to commit countless human rights abuses. The United States justifies its military involvement as an effort to combat narcoterrorism – linking the war on drugs with the war on terror.

• Egypt: The Egyptian government increased its crackdown on NGOs, opposition members and civil society groups in 2005 and extended the Emergency Law which grants Egyptian security forces sweeping powers to arrest citizens at will, prohibit strikes and public meetings and close down newspapers--all in the name of national security. During Egypt's December 2005 election, Amnesty International reported that hundreds of people from opposition parties were arrested, including an alleged 1500 arrests among Muslim Brotherhood supporters alone. Egypt's security forces were reported to have used force against protesters resulting in scores of injuries. Reports also show that security forces prevented voters from casting their votes in some places and to have arrested local non-government election monitors or prevented them from accessing polling stations, despite their official accreditation from the Ministry of Justice. In addition, Egypt has been involved with “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects who seem to disappear into a judicial system and are allegedly subject to torture.

• Iraq: Iraqi authorities have been systematically violating the rights of detainees in breach of guarantees contained both in Iraqi legislation and international law and standards. There have been reports of torture and ill treatment of detainees by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior as profiled in the Amnesty International report, Beyond Abu Ghraib, March 2006.

• Jordan: Amnesty International continues to receive reports about the Jordanian security forces arresting Islamists and alleged terrorism suspects in the name of national security. Often detainees are kept for long periods without being charged, and some have alleged that Jordan security forces tortured them while in custody. In addition, two Yemen nationals profiled in previous Amnesty International reports were held and tortured by the GID, before being taken to a secret detention center in Eastern Europe or Central Asia.

• Pakistan: Amnesty International has received reports that armed forces are attacking the local population in the province of Balochistan, ‘disappearing’ people, killing, and torturing men, women and children. The U.S. State Department recently said that Pakistan had handed over hundreds of terrorist suspects to the United States.

• Russia: The Russian government has claimed that it is pursuing terrorists but actually they have been harassing human rights defenders such as the employees of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.

• Syria: The United States has sent detainees to Syria, including the case of Maher Arar, who was reported to have been repeatedly whipped with two-inch thick electrical cables by Syrian authorities. In addition, many members of Syrian civil society--including rights defenders--faced the daily threat of arbitrary and prolonged incommunicado detention with the attached risk of torture and ill-treatment because of their alleged support for opposition against the Syrian government.

• Uzbekistan: Uzbek security forces fired indiscriminately into crowds of mostly unarmed civilian protesters while they were gathered in Andizhan last May, killing hundreds of people, including women and children. They sentenced scores more to long prison terms after mostly closed or secret trials, justifying the violence as pursuit of terrorists. To date, no one has been prosecuted or held accountable for the violence.

• Yemen: Yemen has held its own nationals in detention centers in the country. According to a recent Amnesty International report, Beyond the Radar, (April 2006), the Yemeni nationals were “disappeared” into United States custody and spent over 18 months in various CIA “black sites” before being turned over to the Yemeni government. Yemen continued to hold these men at the request of the United States government, according to Yemeni officials. The men were released at the end of March 2006 without being charged with any terrorism offenses, but they continue to suffer lingering physical and psychological effects of their detention.