In a
terrifying escalation of human rights abuses by police on the
Croatian border with Bosnia, a group of migrants and asylum seekers
have recently been tied up and tortured by officers who laughed at
injuries and smeared food on their bleeding heads to humiliate them,
Amnesty International UK disclosed today. In a new investigation,
Amnesty spoke to six men in a group of 16 Pakistani and Afghan
detained by Croatian police on the night of May 26-27 near Lake
Plitvice. Eight to ten people in black uniforms and balaclavas
identical to those used by the Croatian special police fired their
weapons into the air, then kicked and hit restrained men with metal sticks, batons and pistol grips. Then they rubbed ketchup, mayonnaise and
sugar belonging to one of them into the bleeding heads and hair of
migrants. Amnesty also spoke to doctors who treated men and NGOs who
witnessed their injuries
Ten men
were seriously injured as a result of a prolonged attack. 30-year-old
Tariq now has both arms and leg in a cast (he must now use a
wheelchair), visible wounds and bruises on the head and face, and
suffers from severe chest pain. Said Amnesty: "They didn't give
us a chance to say anything when they caught us. They just started
beating us. When I was lying on the ground, they hit me in the back
with a pistol and I started to bleed. I tried to protect my head from
blows, but they started kicking me and hitting me with metal clubs. I
passed the rest of the night and lost consciousness. Pakistani Amir
had a broken arm and nose, staples on the back of the head, and
visible bruising all over his face and shoulders. He told Amnesty:
"We
begged them to stop and show pity. We were already bound, unable to
move and humiliated; there was no reason to beat and torture us. They
took pictures of us with phones, sang and laughed. " Amnesty
shared the details of this incident with the Croatian Ministry of theInterior, but did not receive an official response. Massimo Moratti,
deputy director of Amnesty International's European office, said:
"The European Union can no longer remain silent and deliberately
ignores the violence and abuse of the Croatian police at its external
borders. Their silence allows and even encourages the perpetrators of
this abuse to continue without consequences.
"We
only expect the condemnation of these acts and independent investigation
of reported abuses, as well as the establishment of an effective
mechanism to ensure that EU funds are not used for torture and
illegal returns. "In the absence of urgent action, inhumane
migration practices of Croatia will turn the EU into a partner in the
event of serious human rights violations that are just around the
threshold."
Humiliated
The men
told Amnesty how they felt humiliated as the attackers rubbed their
mayonnaise and ketchup on their bloody heads and faces. One masked
man poured mayonnaise on one of the men's pants between his legs,
while others laughed and sang "Happy Birthday" around them.
After
almost five hours of bullying, migrants were handed over to the
Croatian border police, who transported them to the border with
Bosnia and Herzegovina in two vans and ordered them to walk. Some men
eventually reached Miral, the admission center run by the
International Organization for Migration in Velika Kladusa in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Five who were too weak to walk were left behind and
eventually received the help of an NGO. An ambulance doctor at a
medical clinic in Velik Kladusa, who was treating men, told Amnesty
that everyone had head wounds that were consistent with blunt object
blows. Their head wounds required suturing, and most men had multiple
fractures, joint injuries, sunken lungs, cuts and bruises, and
several were severely traumatic. It may take months to recover.
Attacks
pattern
The
shocking incident points to a new level of brutality and abuse by the
Croatian police. In early May, the Guardian reported that a group of
men had been forced to cross the Croatian border after beating them
and painting them with orange crosses on their heads. The Croatian
Ministry of the Interior rejected these reports. Numerous reports
from the last three years indicate that Croatian border police
routinely attacks men, women and teenagers in an attempt to get into
the country, destroying their belongings before driving them to
Bosnia. Sometimes people were undressed from clothes and shoes and
forced to walk for an hour through snow and frosty rivers. A doctor
at the Velik Kladus clinic told Amnesty that about 60% of migrants
and asylum seekers who needed treatment reported that their injuries
had been caused by the Croatian police while attempting to cross the
border.
Source : amnesty.org
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