Discovering Oslo 2 Diary
25 January 1997
Students in Palestinian detention: Some statistics from 1996
Truth and statistics
I got hold of some preliminary statistics for 1996 about detention of Birzeit students (and one staff member) under the Palestinian Authority, from the Birzeit University Human Rights Action Project. We all like statistics as they make things clear, but intrinsicly, if we have looked into how they can be used, we distrust them. Sometimes however, statistics can be so simple that they make the message crystal clear. So here are some simple and clear statistics from a well researched source:
* means "not applicable" because the sample is so small or because figures were not available for the case.
The Birzeit community in PA detention, 1996
Agency detained by Number of students No. of cases arrest warrent obtained Average detention time Percent abused in detention Intellegence ("Mukhabarat") 17 none 7 months
and 6 days35% Preventative Security ("Amin al-Waqai'i") 11 none 3 weeks
and 4 days45% Intellegence and Preventative Security 1 none n/a* n/a* Military Police 1 none n/a* n/a* All of above 31 none 5 months
and 3 days40% Overview
The longest arrest period was 318 days, which was Mustapha Atari, one of the detainees after the March 1996 round up. He was released in January, during Ramadan. He was never interrogated or charged. Five of the detainees were detained for periods of more than 250 days. As is clear from the table above, no arrest warrents were used in any of the cases. The term "abuse", as used in the table above, means severe beating, although some of the detainees were hooded, subject to position abuse, made to stand outside in the winter nights for days on end, beaten with thick electric cables and combinations of the above.
Members of the Palestinian Authority continue to deny that abuse and torture take place in prisons. Be sure to tell all your friends.
A Personal Diary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is produced by Nigel Parry. More information about the Diary can be found in the introduction. Hyperlinks to useful websites, websites of activists organisations and websites linked to the Diary can be found in the links page. E-mail can be sent to the author at nparry@baraka.org.