[Rafah, Gaza Strip] Rafah is being destroyed.

Electricity and phone lines have been cut in many areas of Rafah.
Sewage lines and the basic infrastructure of the city have been destroyed and the Mayor of the municipality has declared the area a disaster zone. As of the writing of this release there have been 10 killed (including at least 3 children, and one ambulance driver).
A significant number are in the ICU including one child after being shot in the back from military fire.
The one hospital to which residents of Rafah can go has run out of beds -people are having to sleep on the floor- and is running critically low on medical supplies.
The only route into and out of Rafah has been sealed for
almost a week now and the town is running low on food, water, and basic supplies.

The UN is reporting that more than 1200 people have been made homeless and that number is rising. This does not include the large numbers of families whose houses have been partially demolished by the military.
Laura Gordon, an American citizen, is inside Rafah
and giving detailed firsthand accounts of the situation on the ground. She and the families she is staying with are in grave danger, include the family of Abu Ahmed, one of the countless families who have been forced to flee their homes under heavy gunfire from tanks and Apache helicopters. This crime must stop immediately.

Please call the following numbers to let Israel know that the world is watching.

Captain Levey, Southern Command, Gaza Strip:
+972 56-246-406

Gaza Occupation Forces:
+972 88-741-544

For more information from Rafah, contact:
Laura:
+972 67 850 734

Questo articolo del movimento per i diritti umani in Turchia
mi ha ricordato qualcosa:

HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION

HOUSE DEMOLITIONS AND FORCED EVICTIONS PERPETRATED BY THE TURKISH SECURITY FORCES: A FORM OF CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT AGAINST THE KURDISH POPULATION
Notes presented to the Committee against Torture (CAT)
by OMCT and HRA
May 2003


I. Preliminary observations: the relevance of house demolitions and forced evictions in Turkey to the Committee against Torture (CAT)

I. Preliminary observations: the relevance of house demolitions and forced evictions in Turkey to the Committee against Torture (CAT)

Forced evictions and house demolitions, resulting in massive forced displacement, have been carried out between 1989 1999 as a form of punishment against the Kurdish population living in the Southern and South-Eastern part of Turkey. Kurdish villages or settlements that were considered as problematic were systematically destroyed. Houses, fields, forests were burned down; livestock was killed, often in front of the victims who had no time to rescue their personal belongings. These acts were often accompanied by other human rights violations, including brutality, humiliations, threats, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial executions and torture.

The jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) acknowledges that this policy, conducted on a large scale by the Turkish Security Forces, can constitute a violation of article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"(see Annex I).

While this policy ended after a one-sided cease-fire in 1999, the issue is far from being resolved. Victims' compensation and redress, as well as the conduct of independent investigations into those events in order to bring those responsible before a competent tribunal are still pending. In this respect, an important number of the victims were often forced to fill-in a formatted petition confirming that they left their homelands because of the PKK activities, that they absolved the authorities from their criminal responsibility and that they abandon their right to compensation and redress. Moreover, HRA and OMCT are particularly worried by the resurgence of new forced evictions after 1999, along with harassment and implementation of measures such as food embargoes, restriction on freedom of movement to go in and out of villages.

In addition, victims of house demolitions and forced evictions who had to forcible leave their homelands are today confronted to precarious living conditions characterised by poverty, destitution, unemployment, child labour, as well as worrying housing and health conditions. In this respect, women, children and the elderly are particularly affected. The trauma left by the destruction of their goods, their displacement, their new socio-economic conditions and their inability to return bear serious psychological impact that is overall affecting their health status.

The issue of house demolitions and forced evictions is not new to the Committee against Torture (CAT). In its November 2001 Concluding Observations on Israel, the Committee stated that "Israeli policies on house demolitions may, in certain instances, amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (article 16 of the Convention)"(Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee against Torture: Israel. 23/11/2001, CAT/C/XXVII/Concl.5. , para 6j). In Hijirizi et al v Yugoslavia, the CAT determined that in the circumstances of the case the failure of the authorities to protect residents from burning and destruction of houses constitute acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Communication No. 161/2000, UN Doc CAT/C/29/D/161/2000 (2 December 2002), para 9.2). The Committee added that the fact that some of the complainants were still hidden in the settlement when the houses were burnt and destroyed, the particular vulnerability of the alleged victims and the fact that the acts were committed with a significant level of racial motivation constituted aggravating factors. The CAT eventually concluded that Yugoslavia's failure to provide redress and compensation to the victims violated article 16.

With regard to the nature of the afore-mentioned policy, to the fact that issues of redress, compensation, independent investigation and prosecution are still pending, to the ECHR jurisprudence, as well as to the CAT's recognition that house demolitions and force evictions can constitute a from of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, HRA and OMCT hope that the Committee will take up this issue in its constructive dialogue with the State party, as well as in its concluding observations on Turkey.