Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Mali.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Mali. Some of these links may lead to websites that
present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Mali U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/mali/
[accessed 28 July
2021] DISAPPEARANCE There were numerous
reports of forced disappearances believed to have been carried out by
extremist groups and, in some instances, by the MDSF in the central and
northern regions of the country. MINUSMA’s HRPD reported that the MDSF was
responsible for 40 disappearances during the first six months of the year
while armed groups were responsible for 71 forced disappearances or
kidnappings during the same time period. In its June report on human rights
abuses by security forces in the Sahel, Amnesty International similarly
reported dozens of forced disappearances and possible summary executions at
the hands of the MDSF in the course of counterterrorism operations and on
other occasions. In December 2019 at least 26 individuals were arrested by a FAMa patrol at the Maliemana
market in Segou and never seen again. Bodies were reportedly discovered in a
well in the nearby village of N’Doukala seven days
later. Human rights
observers continued to report they were unable to verify the whereabouts of
dozens of prisoners purportedly detained in connection with the northern
conflict. This might have been due to possible unreported deaths in custody,
alleged surreptitious releases, and suspected clandestine transfer of
prisoners to the government’s intelligence service, the General Directorate
of State Security (DGSE). Limited capacity to keep up accurately with case
management exacerbated the difficulty in locating individuals within the
country’s penal system. TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution
and statutory law prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading
treatment or punishment, but reports indicated that FAMa
soldiers employed these tactics against individuals with suspected links to
extremist groups, including JNIM-affiliated member groups (see section 1.g.).
MINUSMA’s HRPD reported 56 instances of torture or cruel and inhuman
treatment by the MDSF during the first six months of the year. Other
organizations reported extensively on torture allegations. In February,
according to reports by Amnesty International and others, an elected official
from Kogoni-Peulh, Oumar
Diallo, was asked by his community to inquire at a gendarme base in Segou as
to the whereabouts of previously arrested villagers. He was allegedly
arrested and detained at the military camp in Diabaly
where he was reportedly treated poorly. He died while subsequently being
transferred to Segou by the military. Amnesty International reported that
those who buried him stated, “On his corpse you could see traces of ill
treatment.” Leaders of the opposition movement the June 5 Movement-Rally of
Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP), arrested in the wake of the violent July 10-12
protests, claimed they were tortured or mistreated by the gendarmerie at the
Gendarmerie Camp I detention facility in Bamako. Investigations into these
allegations by international organizations continued at year’s end. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Overcrowding and
inadequate sanitary conditions and medical care caused prison conditions to
be harsh and life threatening. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Arbitrary Arrest:
Human rights organizations reported widespread allegations of arbitrary
arrest and detention. In many cases gendarmes detained suspects on DGSE
orders and then transferred them for questioning to the DGSE, which generally
held suspects for hours or days. Due to the country’s size, long travel
times, poor road conditions, and inadequate personnel or resources, however,
the transfer process itself sometimes took more than a week, during which security
services did not inform detainees of the charges against them. Authorities
did not provide released detainees transport back to the location of their
arrest, trips that often required several days of travel. These detentions
often occurred in the wake of attacks by bandits or terrorists and were
targeted against members of the ethnic group suspected of carrying out the
attacks. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/mali/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 15 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? An October 2019
report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) found that members of Mali’s military had
committed serious acts of ill-treatment during counterterrorism operations.
The military has been accused of committing summary executions in the past. Prisons are
characterized by overcrowding, insufficient medical care, and a lack of
proper food and sanitation. The government made some effort in 2017 to
improve conditions by holding staff trainings and building a new prison with
a capacity of about 2,500 prisoners. Deaths,
Torture in Army Detention - Justice Ministry Should Conduct Investigations in
the Mopti Region Human Rights Watch,
9 April 2018 www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/09/mali-deaths-torture-army-detention [accessed 10 April
2018] A 57-year-old herder
described being tortured by the soldiers. He said that at around 8 a.m. on
March 12, six soldiers arrested him, his son, and a nephew at their home. The
soldiers ordered them to walk to a spot outside the village, where he was
blindfolded, and his hands and feet bound. He was severely beaten there for
about 40 minutes. “One soldier held my head while another held my feet. The
third began striking me with a machete on my back again and again until I
lost consciousness.” Another man, 42,
detained in the same operation, was beaten with gun butts and a machete, and
threatened with death: “They interrogated me while beating me and one
threatened to slit my throat if I didn’t talk.” On March 25,
residents of Dogo told Human Rights Watch they had
identified the bodies of six men, including a father and son, who had been
arrested by security forces three days earlier. One said: “The last time we
saw them alive they were in the custody of the soldiers. The next time we saw
them they were in a common grave.” Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] MALI ABUSES BY STATE
SECURITY FORCES
- In 2014, the number of violations committed by the Malian army decreased,
but soldiers were implicated in several cases of arbitrary detention, one
instance of excessive use of force in responding to a demonstration in Kidal,
and several summary executions, largely targeting Tuareg
men. The military hierarchy made some effort to investigate and hold to
account soldiers implicated in several of these incidents. Members of the
security forces were also implicated in acts of extortion, bribe taking, and
to a lesser extent rape. Mass graves in
Mali: families want answers Salil Shetty, Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International
AI, 9 December 2013 www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2013/12/mass-graves-in-mali-families-want-answers/ [accessed 8 January
2019] I had just got off
the plane after a trip to Mali when I heard about the discovery of the mass
grave close to the Kati military camp, just north of the capital, Bamako. Only
a few days earlier I had met family members who were desperate for news about
the fate of their loved ones who disappeared after being abducted from the
same camp in May 2012. The bodies were
discovered following the arrest of General Amadou
Haya Sanogo who led the military coup in March
2012. He and several of his soldiers were arrested in late November and
charged with kidnapping, murder and assassination in connection with the
disappearance of 21 soldiers suspected of supporting a counter-coup. I felt a huge sense
of loss for the women who are now grieving their sons, husbands and brothers.
At least, I thought, they could now finally come to terms with their loss.
But no: even though the story of the mass grave is all over the press, no one
from the Malian authorities had contacted the women to formally notify them,
as of Monday morning. Malian soldiers
accused of torture, murder Middle East Online,
Gao Mali, 21 Feb 2013 www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=57099 [accessed 22
February 2013] An AFP journalist
saw four "pale skins" in Gao and Timbuktu, 900 kilometres
northeast of Bamako, who bore marks of torture, such as cigarette burns,
traces of electric shock treatment and the use of acid, broken bones,
bruises, bullet wounds and signs of strangulation, as well as sexual abuse. In one town, which
cannot be named at the request of the victims, who also asked for anonymity,
one man said that after he was beaten up and burned with cigarettes, soldiers
poured acid down his nostrils. "It's perhaps because
I am Tamashek (Tuareg), I
don't see any other reason," he said. "I know that
he is not an Islamist," said his doctor, who added that the victim was
gravely ill because "the acid will lead to a shrinking of the oesophagus, perhaps cancer." Elsewhere, a young
pale-skinned woman lay on her sickbed with broken bones and several bullets
in her body. She said that soldiers had assaulted her. Her doctor said she
had also been raped. In Timbuktu,
journalists of the US news agency Associated Press (AP) said that they had
found two Arabs buried in the sand, close to the town. The family of one of
the victims said he had been arrested by Malian soldiers two weeks earlier. 3 suspects accuse
Mali forces of torture Associated Press AP,
1 February 2013 www.sfgate.com/world/article/3-suspects-accuse-Mali-forces-of-torture-4244823.php [accessed 2 February
2013] The three suspects,
who were tied together with a turban and one handcuff, all acknowledged
having been members of the al Qaeda-linked group known as Ansar
Dine, or Defenders of the Faith. "To force me
to talk they poured 40 liters (85 pints) of water in my mouth and over my nostrils
which made it so that I could not breathe anymore. For a moment I thought I
was even going to die," said one of the men, who gave his name as Ali Guindo and said he was from a village near the central
Malian town of Niono. "I sleep in
the cold and every night they come pour freezing water over me. All three prisoners
described similar treatment. Their account could not be independently
verified. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 TORTURE AND OTHER
ILL-TREATMENT People suspected of
being supporters of armed groups or targeted because they were Tuareg, were victims of torture and other ill-treatment
or extrajudicial executions by security forces. In January, soldiers
arrested two Tuaregs accused of providing petrol to
armed groups in Ménaka. They were beaten with rifle
butts. In April, soldiers
arrested three unarmed men, including two Tuaregs
and another man, all unarmed, accused of spying for the MNLA in Sévaré. They were beaten with rifle butts before being extrajudicially executed. In September, the
military arrested 16 Malian and Mauritanian nationals in Diabaly
before extrajudicially executing them on suspicion
of being supporters of Islamist armed groups. The 16 were members of a
movement of Muslim preachers, the Dawa, who had
come from Mauritania to attend an annual meeting of their movement in Bamako.
An inquiry was set up but by the end of the year the results had not been
made public. ABUSES BY THE MILITARY
JUNTA Extrajudicial
executions, enforced disappearances and torture In May, after an
attempted counter-coup, soldiers and police officers loyal to former
President Touré were tortured and extrajudicially killed or were victims of enforced disappearance.
Two soldiers were stabbed to death at Kati military camp near Bamako by army
personnel loyal to the junta. More than 20 others were victims of enforced
disappearance after being abducted from their cells. They remained
unaccounted for at the end of the year. Some of the soldiers and police
officers were subjected to sexual abuse and held in harsh conditions during
their interrogation and detention. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=mali+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 8 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil
Liberties: 3 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/mali [accessed 2 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] The judiciary is not
independent of the executive, though it has shown increased autonomy in
rendering decisions that are unfavorable to the government, which has in turn
respected the judgments. Local chiefs decide the majority of disputes in
rural areas. Detainees are not always charged within the 48-hour period set
by law, and there are lengthy delays in bringing defendants to trial. Although there are
reports of police brutality, courts have convicted some perpetrators. Prison
conditions are harsh. The government permits human rights monitors to visit
prisons, but at least one group has complained that cumbersome administrative
procedures make investigations difficult. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61580.htm [accessed 2 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61580.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however there were occasional reports that police
abused civilians. On April 5, a court sentenced a police officer to one month
in jail for physically abusing a civilian during questioning. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatmentin the early years of the 21st Century- Mali",
http://gvnet.com/torture/Mali.htm, [accessed <date>] |
