Amnesty International Report, Kenya

Today, Amnesty International will release a report entitled Kenya The impact of "anti-terrorism" operations on human rights. In it, Amnesty International will express their concern that Kenya has been torturing its citizens as part of this anti-terrorism operations, largely resulting from the bombing of the Mombasa Hotel in 2002. The report's main findings were:

• The use of torture and other ill-treatment during detention including physical abuse;
• Detention of suspects without charge in undisclosed locations and without access to a lawyer or relatives;
• The holding of suspects in degrading and unsanitary conditions without access to medical care when needed;
• Harassment of family members and the arbitrary detention of relatives to put pressure on suspects to hand themselves in;
• The failure of police to show warrants when arresting individuals or conducting searches of property.

An individual case, that of Mohammed Surur, is described in the 30 May 2003 entry.