reply by
barb
4/22/2002 (2:01) |
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TELL THE U.S. GOVT. WE WILL NOT BUY SAUDI OIL!!!!!
Human rights violations in Saudi Arabia are widespread and cloaked in secrecy. Political and religious opponents routinely face arbitrary detention and brutal treatment. Over the past two decades, more than 1,000 people have been put to death or have suffered judicial corporal punishments such as amputation of limbs. Flogging is routine and torture has become institutionalized. Just as the repression is hidden, so too are the arms deals and shipments of security equipment which help the torturers and human rights violators.
Gulam Mustapha, a Pakistan national, was reportedly tortured in a detention centre for drug offenders in Jeddah in 1994. The torture he suffered included insertion of a metal stick or rod into his anus and electric shocks, which apparently left him bleeding and unable to walk.
So who supplied the electro-shock batons to his torturers? Secrecy prevents a comprehensive answer, but it is known that in 1993 the United Kingdom (UK) government granted two licences for the transfer of electro-shock weapons to Saudi Arabia and that since 1984 the US Department of Commerce has authorized at least a dozen such shipments.
Despite Saudi Arabia's appalling human rights record, foreign governments have supplied the country with other equipment that could be used to torture or ill-treat prisoners. For example, between 1980 and 1993 the US government authorized licences worth US$5 million under the category OA82, which includes thumb cuffs, leg irons, shackles, handcuffs and other police equipment.
People formerly imprisoned in Saudi Arabia have described the pain and injury caused by the use of leg restraints such as shackles and chains in ways that breach UN regulations on the treatment of prisoners. Some have stated that such restraints were stamped with ''Hiatts'', a UK company, or ''Smith & Wesson'', a US company.
Phil Lomax, a UK national, explained how shackles are routinely used in Malaz prison, Riyadh, where he was held for 17 days in mid-1999 in connection with alleged alcohol offences.
''When [ever] we were taken out of the cell we were shackled and handcuffed. The shackles were very painful. They were made of steel… like a handcuff ring. The handcuffs were made in the USA. If you're taken out with other people you are shackled to the other people.''
Restraints such as shackles and handcuffs also seem to be an intrinsic element in executions in Saudi Arabia. An Irish national who witnessed a public execution in 1997 said the prisoners were handcuffed behind by their wrists, blindfolded and made to kneel with their handcuffed wrists tied to their feet. Then they were beheaded.
Amnesty International recorded 1,286 executions in Saudi Arabia between 1980 and 2000, but the real number may well be much higher.
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Arms and security equipment
Donato Lama, a Filipino arrested in Saudi Arabia in October 1995 for preaching Christianity, said he was shackled and handcuffed as well as beaten while under interrogation during two weeks' incommunicado detention. © Private
The Saudi Arabian police and internal security forces have taken delivery of large amounts of small arms as well as riot control and internal security equipment in recent years. The Saudi Arabian National Guard in particular has been among the main recipients. Since the mid-1960s companies in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy and the USA, have supplied small arms to Saudi Arabia.
In December 1991 Saudi Arabian army tanks entered Rafha camp, home to over 30,000 Iraqi refugees, and allegedly fired indiscriminately into the crowd. An unknown number of people were killed and injured. Reports of such incidents rarely emerge from Saudi Arabia, but this does not mean they do not continue. Saudi Arabia is a closed country. There are no local non-governmental human rights organizations and the government tightly controls the media. Without independent monitoring we cannot be sure whether transfers of items such as small arms, light weapons, armoured personnel carriers, security or riot control equipment have been, or are likely to be, used for human rights violations.
What is certain is that the threat to use such weapons is an intrinsic part of the repression in Saudi Arabia, allowing the police and security forces to carry out widespread arbitrary arrests, imprisonment and torture.
All parties or political organizations in Saudi Arabia are illegal, and no criticism of the state is allowed. Those suspected of having links with political and religious organizations expect to be watched closely by the authorities and are frequently dragged into detention by security forces.
Indeed, thousands of political or religious detainees have been arbitrarily detained over the years, as have many of their relatives and friends. Today there are thought to be between 100 and 200 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia, including possible prisoners of conscience, most held without charge.
Saudi Arabia is one of the largest procurers of defence equipment in the world. Its total spending in 1997 on defence was estimated at US$18.2 billion by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's annual yearbook for 2000 describes Saudi Arabia as the second largest procurer of major conventional weapons, with purchases valued at US$9.2 billion since 1995. The UK, USA, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Belgium are among those that have benefited from this lucrative business.
The majority of the trade has been in large weaponry such as fighter aircraft or tanks. There is no evidence that such weapons from these countries have been used in human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. However, the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding the deals means that the international community can never be sure what is actually being provided.
For example, in 1995 a British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) salesman claimed on UK television to have arranged the transfer of 8,000 electro-shock batons to Saudi Arabia as part of the multi-billion dollar al-Yamamah project, the biggest arms deal ever agreed between the UK and Saudi Arabian governments. The UK government and British Aerospace denied selling the batons, but details of the al-Yamamah deal have never been made public.
As long as the secrecy continues to surround the arms and security trade to Saudi Arabia, there remains the danger that arms and security products - even electro-shock weapons - will be placed in the hands of those likely to use them for torture or other human rights violations.
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ACT NOW!
Write to your own government and to the governments of the USA and UK calling on them to:
Publicly condemn the routine use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in Saudi Arabia's police stations, detention centres and prisons.
Immediately ban the transfer of leg-irons, shackles, electro-shock devices and execution equipment to Saudi Arabia. Prohibit the manufacture, promotion, use or transfer of all equipment solely used for executions or for carrying out torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. When writing to the UK government, welcome the UK ban on the manufacture and export of torture equipment, introduced in 1997, and ask how the ban is being enforced.
Provide the public with detailed and regular information about all prospective and completed military, security and police transfers by both private companies and government agencies to Saudi Arabia. The information should include detailed monitoring to ensure that weapons are not being misused in Saudi Arabia or diverted to another recipient.
Enact legislation and regulations to prohibit the transfer of all military, security and police weaponry, equipment, personnel or training unless such transfers will not contribute to human rights abuses.
Mr Colin Powell
Office of the Secretary of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington DC 20520
USA
Salutation: Dear Secretary of State
Rt Hon Geoffrey Hoon MP
Secretary of State
Ministry of Defence
Main Building, Whitehall,
London SW1A 2HB
United Kingdom
Salutation: Dear Secretary of State
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