Page 10 - aruba-today-20190426

A10 WORLD NEWS
Friday 26 april 2019

Rights group: Bahraini authorities abuse, torture detainees

By BASSEM MROUE threatened to “bring in a
Associated Press bottle” — a veiled threat of
BEIRUT (AP) — A Bahraini sodomy. Sarhan, also a le-
rights group said Thursday gal adviser to SALAM, said
that sexual abuse and sexual torture has been
torture have been wide- ongoing since 2011 and
spread and systematic in there are no exact figures
jails in the Gulf island nation of how many men and
during a yearslong crack- women have been sub-
down. jected to torture. However,
The SALAM for Democracy the numbers are in the doz-
and Human Rights group ens, he said. Bahrain, which
released a 30-page report has been conducting a
documenting abuses it says yearslong crackdown on
“use the most intimate and dissent, has dismissed such
personal parts of a person allegations in the past.
in order to inflict suffering.” Sima Watling, Amnesty In-
The report was released in ternational Gulf researcher,
Beirut because the group is said sexual torture usually
barred in Bahrain. takes place during inter-
A Bahraini government rogation in Bahrain and
spokesperson who asked many former detainees
not to be identified, said refuse to speak about it to
in an email that “the Gov- Bahraini citizen Ebrahim Sarhan speaks during a press conference by SALAM for Democracy and avoid being “stigmatized
ernment of Bahrain takes Human Rights, a non-governmental organization that follows human rights abuses in the Middle by one’s own family and
allegations of human rights East, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 25, 2019. community.”
violations very seriously. Associated Press “Whereas it is difficult for
Bahrain has a zero-toler- legation of mistreatment receive to ensure that they pendent manner.” Amnesty International to
ance policy towards mis- thoroughly and transpar- are not subjected to torture, At the release in Beirut, state that sexual assault of
treatment of any kind and ently,” the spokesperson or inhuman and degrading Bahraini citizen Ebrahim detainees is systematic, it
treats such allegations with added. treatment.” The spokesper- Sarhan recounted the tor- is certain that this practice
the utmost seriousness. The spokesperson said Bah- son said “the committee ture he was subjected to has taken place and con-
“The Kingdom’s indepen- rain’s independent Prison- exercises its functions free- in 2017, describing how he tinues to take place and
dent oversight institutions ers’ and Detainees’ Rights ly, impartially, transparently was stripped naked in front we consider it to be an act
such as the Ombudsman Committee “monitors pris- and in a completely inde- of other inmates as officials of torture,” she said.q
and Special Investigation oners’ and detainees’ sta-
Iraq: Yazidis to accept children of IS
Unit will investigate any al- tus and the treatment they
rape into community

the Islamic State group’s
2014 campaign to try to
exterminate the minority.
Thousands of women and
girls were forced into sexual
slavery when the extremists
attacked Yazidi communi-
ties in northwest Iraq.
But the community shunned
the women returning from
captivity with children, a re-
flection of the deeply held
Yazidi traditions to view
outsiders with suspicion as
a response to centuries of
persecution. Officials at the
In this March 2, 2019 file photo, Dilbar Ali Ravu, 10, is kissed by
his aunt Dalal Ravu when Yazidi children were reunited with their Beit Yazidi foundation in
families in Iraq after five years of captivity with the Islamic State Kurdish-administered north-
group, at a truck stop on the road between Sinjar and Dohuk, east Syria said Yazidi wom-
Iraq. en with children who could
Associated Press have returned to Iraq were
SALAR SALIM turn to Iraq from Syria. choosing to stay in Syria,
Associated Press Eido Baba Sheikh, son of instead, in order not to be
ERBIL, Iraq (AP) — The the Yazidi spiritual lead- separated from their chil-
children of Yazidi women er Baba Sheikh, said the dren.
raped by Islamic State men children of the formerly The Yazidi Supreme Spiritu-
will be welcomed into the enslaved women will be al Council issued a decree
minority faith, a community treated as members of the welcoming the survivors of
leader said Thursday, allow- faith, resolving one of the slavery, and their children,
ing women taken as slaves most difficult questions fac- into the Yazidi community,
by the militant group to re- ing the community since on Wednesday. q