Amnesty International has released a report (pdf file) on the human rights situation in Honduras after the coup on June 28. It is very disturbing:
“We were
demonstrating peacefully. Suddenly, the police came towards us, and
I started running. They grabbed me and shouted “why do you (all)
support Zelaya’s government? Whether it’s by choice or by force,
you have to be with this government”. They beat me. I have not yet
been informed as to why I am here detained.”
[“Fernando”, 52 year-old teacher, at a police station in
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 30 July 2009]
They are accused of excessive use of force:
Excessive force by police
and military has been routine and hundreds of peaceful
demonstrators have been subject to arbitrary detention. For
example, on 30 July 2009, the police, supported by the military,
broke up a peaceful march in El Durazno, in the capital
Tegucigalpa. According to eye witnesses, the police charged at the
thousands of demonstrators without warning, causing panic and
chaotic scenes as people tried to flee. Military personnel were
deployed behind the rows of police charging at the protestors and
allegedly shouted support for the police beating the demonstrators.
It is alleged that many of the police involved in the violent
action against demonstrators were from the special command “Cobra”
branch, an elite section of the Honduran police force.
Eye witnesses allege that the
police pursued the protestors, beating many of them as they fled.
Nearly all those interviewed by Amnesty International said they had
been struck across the back, buttocks and the back of the legs by
the police batons; their ages ranged from 19 years old to 52 years
old.
And of mistreatment of women:
Some of the female detainees and
witnesses said that women had been touched in a sexual way as they
were prodded with truncheons by police while lying on the ground
under arrest. All those who were interviewed said they had been
beaten on the buttocks and backs of the legs.
One woman told Amnesty
International that when she was detained she had been asked by a
policeman “why aren’t you at home having sex with your
husband?”
A 34- year- old woman, L., who had
been beaten by police at the same demonstration, but not detained
by the police, told Amnesty international how she had always
believed “The police are here to protect us, not to harm us” and
that she was shocked and traumatized at the violence that she and
her 59-year-old mother had experienced at the hands of the police
during the break up of the protest. L. and her mother were
repeatedly beaten by police using batons, across the back of the
thighs and buttocks. L also told Amnesty international that the
police shoved the baton down her blouse. The policeman said to her
“if this [demonstrating] is what you’re up to, well this is what
you’re going to deserve.” L told how her mother had attempted to
cover herself with a piece of clothing and the police officer
shouted “This cloth isn’t going to save you”.
Does anyone honestly believe that this is how "democracy is restored" in Honduras?
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