Chan'ad Bahraini

It is important to understand the role that torture played in the government's strategy during the dark era of the State Security Law (1975 - 2000). Not only was it used to get false confessions, but it was also used to spread fear and to prevent people from spreading information. Up until just a few years ago, people would not discuss politics in public areas without first looking over their shoulders to make sure that no one else is listening. At the time there was no internet, no blogs, no satellite tv. This was how the government managed to control the flow of information.

So how brutal did the torture have to be achieve its goal? In a 1997 report to the UNHCR (pdf 109KB), the Special Rapporteur described the situation in Bahrain's torture cells:

The methods of torture reported include: falaqa (beatings on the soles of the feet); severe beatings, sometimes with hosepipes; suspension of the limbs in contorted positions accompanied by blows to the body; enforced prolonged standing; sleep deprivation; preventing victims from relieving themselves; immersion in water to the point of near drowning; burnings with cigarettes; piercing the skin with a drill; sexual assault, including the insertion of objects into the penis or anus; threats of execution or of harm to family members; and placing detainees suffering from sickle cell anaemia (said to be prevalent in the country) in airconditioned rooms in the winter, which can lead to injury to internal organs.

A fuller picture is created when explained in the victims own words. In a 1997 report by Human Rights Watch:

Hussain, a nineteen year old from Shahraqan, told Human Rights Watch what happened after he after he was brought to Qal'a early one morning:

They took me upstairs to an office, I don't know whose. There they told me to stand on one leg and bray like a donkey. "What am I accused of?" I asked. "Get some manners," the officer said, and he hit me and left. Then someone came in wearing a dishdasha [traditional white shoulder-to-ankle garment worn by men in the Gulf]. I recognized him from photos I had seen: It was Adil Flaifil. He asked me if I was Hussain Shahraqani and I said yes. He had a piece of paper marked "confidential" on top, otherwise blank. He told me to sign it. I refused. They took me to a different room and trussed me up with a pole under my knees. There were four men, two in uniform. They kicked me and took turns hitting me with a hose. After half an hour of this they took me back to Adil Flaifil, who told me again to sign. I refused again. I went back and forth several times between the hanging and beating and the questioning. At one point he [Flaifil] asked for my hand. Two people held my hand, and he burned the back of my hand with his cigarette [displays light scars].

Hussain asserted that his tormentors on this occasion also used electricity to inflict pain. Adil Flaifil, he said, "attached some wires to a piece of metal he was holding against my hand. The shock knocked me to the floor."

"Then they took me into a corridor and put my cuffed hands over the top of a door," Hussain continued:

so I was hanging with my toes just touching the ground. I fell down when they finally let me off the door, and they beat me with a hose again for what seemed like a long time. They saidthey would charge me with bombings and planning attacks with bombs. Later they said I would only have to confess to incitement. I still refused. Finally they said I had to sign a statement that I would not do these things. That I did sign. They gave me one more beating, till my mouth bled, and then they let me go.

You can read many more similar interviews in this 1995 Amnesty International report, and an earlier AI report issued in 1991.

Sadly though, not everyone was fortunate enough to live to tell the story, as there have been several reported cases of detainees who died during the interrogation period. It's not for the faint-hearted but if you can handle it, there are some photos of the corpses displaying injuries allegedly caused by torture at this site (scroll down to the second set of pictures). This case was documented in 1995 AI report:

The second case is that of Sa'id 'Abd al-Rasul al-Iskafi, a 16-year-old secondary school student from al-Sanabes who died ten days (not two days, as initially reported) after his arrest. According to information received by Amnesty International, he had been summoned for interrogation by Mabahith Amn al-Dawla (State Security Intelligence) on 29 June 1995 in connection with his alleged participation in anti-government protests. He was reportedly suspected of having sprayed graffiti on walls near his home. Upon arrival at the headquarters of State Security Intelligence, Sa'id al-Iskafi was taken into custody. On 8 July, his family was told to collect his body from the Military Hospital. According to accounts received, the security forces prevented his family from burying his body in the local cemetery in al-Sanabes, and he was later buried at a cemetery in the nearby district of al-Na'im, where he was born.

It should be quite easy now to understand why the victims of torture and their relatives refuse to give up their campaign for justice. I expect that tomorrow in Geneva the goverment representatives will do their best to dodge the issue of Law 56. But one can hope...

Read my related posts: Repeal 56