-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
1/4 of Israeli troops in West Bank witness abuse
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
AFP - Dec 17, 3007
AFP via Google - Dec 17, 2007
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTB_S1cOi65qpzsYQTCpUwHvRWHg
Quarter of Israeli troops in West Bank witness to abuse: re****t
AFP
Jerusalem - One in four Israeli troops serving at the hundreds of
checkpoints across the occupied West Bank has engaged in or witnessed
abuse of Palestinians, an army-commissioned survey said on Sunday.
Twenty-five percent of respondents said they had either taken part in,
seen or heard about from colleagues about acts that included either
physical or verbal abuse at the more than 500 roadblocks dotting the
territory, said the re****t quoted by army officials and media.
The abuse includes humilitations, gratuitous delays and bribe-taking.
One soldier re****ted forcing a Palestinian truck driver to remain on
his knees for four hours for lying that he had a permit to cross the
roadblock.
"We knew there was a problem, but we never imagined it was this grave,"
one senior military officer was quoted as saying by the Yediot Aharonot
daily.
But the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem called the results
"shocking but not surprising," adding that the "physical and verbal
abuse of Palestinians by soldiers, particularly at checkpoints, has
long become routine.
"In spite of official condemnations, the military does not do enough to
ensure accountability and to deter soldiers from engaging in such
behaviour," it said in a statement issued after the survey came to
light.
The group went on to claim that in the past seven years only 36
indictments have been brought against soldiers charged with abuse,
excluding those accused of shooting and wounding or killing
Palestinians or damaging property.
The military survey -- which questioned 1,000 soldiers with participants
assured their identities would not be revealed -- was commissioned
several months ago by Israel's central command, an army spokesman told
AFP.
As a result of the findings, all soldiers serving in the territories
are to attend a two-day workshop. "We are making an effort so that the
soldiers behave themselves better," a military source said.
Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank mushroomed in the aftermath of the
Palestinian uprising in September 2000 as the military upped a
crackdown on militants.
The roadblocks, often manned by 18- to 21-year-old conscripts, today
dot the territory, severely hampering Palestinian freedom of movement,
feeding local resentment and stirring widespread international
criticism.
"When you prevent thousands of people from moving freely, that's
something that can't be done nicely," the Yediot quoted one soldier as
saying.
"What can you do, you can't expect the Palestinian citizen to say thank
you for what you're doing to him," he said.
"Sometimes he tries to bypass you because that's what saves him his day
of work -- and then you catch him. What are you going to do to him?
You're going to punish him," said the soldier.
"You can keep him there for eight hours to roast in the sun... Things
like that happen all the time. One time a truck driver lied to me that
he had a permit, so I kept him on his knees for four hours."
*
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Our main website: http://www.blythe.org
List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)
iD8DBQFHaQEqiz2i76ou9wQRAgAtAKC0hScjAcgy+saPWXZA+Ld/6UVk9wCfXBZ1
ScN+F/UsR7oN75ONuvzStjo=
=Dygd
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
