Interior Ministry: We torture 5 out of 1000 detainees!

The Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence has sent a letter to General Ahmad Diaa the Assistant to the Interior Minister, asking him to clarify his statements to Al-Masry Al-Youm on 17 January, where the General accused some newspapers of inciting the public against the Interior Ministry over the issue of torture. The general added that: “The percentage of torture in Egypt over the past few months has been 5 out 1000.”

Yep that’s the quote!!

Well, I’m also interested in understanding what General Diaa said. Does this mean that the Interior Ministry is officially acknowledging that five detainees out of 1000 are tortured every “few months”?!! Ok, great, it’s such a low “percentage” indeed. Did General Diaa, and his boss General Habib el-Adly refer the officers involved in those “5 out of 1000” cases to court? Were they disciplined? Who are those unlucky “5 out of 1000”? Have the victims been compensated?

UPDATE: The Nadim Center sent me an English translation of their statement:

El-Nadim Center For the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence
Clarification needed from the assistant to the Minister of Interior
5/1000… What?!
On the front page of its Wednesday the 17th of January issue, El Masri El Yom daily newspaper published a piece of news, at the end of which General Ahmad Diaa El Din, assistant to the Minister of Interior accuses independent newspapers of adopting an “agitating methodology” in publishing about torture issues. He said: “I am not referring to a particular newspaper. This is an “aggressive” campaign that targets the achievement of certain objectives and the prevalence of torture during the last months did not go beyond 5/1000!!!!!
We cannot but welcome parts of the statement of the assistant to the Minister of Interior, since this is the first time that a government official admits to what human rights organizations have been saying for months and years, namely that torture is widespread to the extent that can be measured by a percentage. It is a confession that denies previous allegations by the Ministry of Interior that torture does not go beyond individual malpractices that does not amount to a phenomenon. However, since the assistant to the Minister of Interior himself has specified a “percentage”, even if it is only 5/1000, it follows that we are talking about a phenomenon and not merely individual breaches.
This part we welcome. It is definitely a step ahead, even if it was not meant to be.
Still the statement of the assistant to the Minister of Interior includes more than one point which need further clarification:
Firstly; why does the assistant to the Minister of Interior consider publishing on crimes of torture an act of agitation? And who is the target population for this agitation? Is it Egyptian public opinion, who from the point of view of the Ministry of Interior, should not know about what is happening in police stations and state security headquarters? Or is it the victims of torture themselves who in his opinion do not deserve to share their pains and humiliation by the police, which was meant to be in the “service of the people” before the Ministry changed its slogan and mandate to be in “service of the (emergency) law”? Or is the assistant to the Minister of Interior concerned of agitating international public opinion who knows more about torture in Egypt than do most Egyptians to the extent that Egypt has become one of the countries to which the US administration exports victims to be tortured on its behalf? Does the assistant to the Minister of Interior wish the press to be silent so that his officers might torture in peace?
Secondly; the assistant to the Minister of Interior describes publishing about torture crimes as an aggressive campaign that targets certain objectives. We hope that the assistant to the Minister of Interior would clarify what he means by those “certain objectives” targeted by the campaign. In the meantime, it might help if we clarified our objectives of this “aggressive” campaign which we would rather describe as a “courageous” campaign, for our objectives are clear and no secret: We wish Egyptian public opinion to be informed of the crimes committed by the police, not only against members of political opposition but against each and everybody whose bad luck crosses his path with that of the police, whether through an investigation, a suspicion, a complement to a third party or merely because of an argument where an Egyptian citizen might refuse to be verbally abused by another, just because this other serves in the Ministry of Interior, and irrespective whether this other is wearing a uniform or not. We clearly target the exposure of those torturers to public opinion and to investigative and judiciary bodies because we target that they be held accountable for their crimes, that they be deprived of the impunity they enjoy and that victims of torture be able to reclaim some of their injured dignity. And we shall continue to do so.
Thirdly and finally; we hope that the assistant to the Minister of Interior would complete his last sentence where he says that the prevalence of torture does not go beyond 5/1000. And our question is: 5/1000 what? Does he mean 5/1000 of the Egyptian population suffer torture? Or that 5/1000 of Egyptian police commit the crime of torture? Or that 5/1000 citizens who visit police stations are subject to torture?
We await the clarifications by the assistant to the Minister of Interior. Until we receive those it may be appropriate that the Ministry disclose the information regarding those 5/1000: disclose the names of the victims so that we can help them through rehabilitation, apologize to them from the crimes committed against them and present those torturers to justice to receive the punishment they deserve.
We are waiting.
20 January 2007