"BEIRUT (Reuters) - Dozens of Palestinians detained while leaving a besieged refugee camp in Lebanon have complained of abuse by the Lebanese army, ranging from beatings to some cases of sexual abuse, human and civil rights activists say.....
Most of those detained were young men. Some were held for several days and described abuse and ill-treatment. "Many Palestinian refugees in the camp stopped fleeing because they heard Palestinians were being detained and abused," said Mahmoud al-Hanafy, head of the Palestinian Organisation for Human Rights, or "Shahed" which has documented 60 cases......
Abu Mohammed, a 38-year-old Palestinian who has sought refuge with his extended family in a storage room just outside Beddawi camp, said he was detained by the army for eight days. He said he was blindfolded much of the time, beaten severely with batons, threatened with electrocution and subjected to verbal abuse and sleep deprivation. "I had to stand for 36 hours. Every time I slumped, they would beat me. At one point I felt them slip my hands into something behind my back and they started raising me, soon after I lost consciousness and they splashed me with water," he said......
"From the testimonies that have been gathering, the abuse is physical and psychological and it is severe. The evidence points to a pattern emerging," said Caoimhe Butterly, a human rights activist who has been living in Beddawi for over a month. "Almost all detainees describe a bare minimum of being verbally taunted and severely beaten, to more serious allegations of death threats, threats of being electrocuted, people having their toes cut off, and being told to choose their preferred way to die."
Between human rights groups, NGOs, concerned individuals and journalists, the testimonies include two cases of electrocution and two of sexual abuse, Butterly said.......
Human Rights Watch, which has also been in touch with civil activists and has documented some of its own cases, said it was very concerned about the cases of "more violent ill-treatment." "We've raised this issue with the army directly and they're denying that it's happening, we've asked them to investigate some of these cases," said Nadim Khoury, Human Rights Watch researcher responsible for Lebanon.
Khoury also said that most Lebanese media had avoided covering the story because "it was bad for morale of the army.""
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