‘Work on him until he confesses’

This is the title of a report compiled by Human Rights Watch (HRW) which shows how Hosni Muba­rak’s government re­frained from investigating and prosecuting police officers accused of the most brutal attacks on Egyptian citizens.

A statement by HRW issued before the ousting of Mr Mubarak suggested that “Egyptians deserve a clean break from the incredibly entrenched practice of torture.

The Egyptian government’s foul record on this issue is a huge part of what is bringing crowds onto the streets”.

The document refers to Khaled Said, the 28-year-old beaten to death by two undercover policemen, and to others, such as Ahmad Abd al-Mo’ez Basha, a 22-year-old driver in Cairo, arrested at his home last July and who has lived to tell his story:

“They took me to Imbaba police station and put me in a room by myself. Two officers came in and told me to confess. I asked: ‘What to?’ They answered: ‘Confess to the theft.’ The head of the criminal investigations unit said: ‘Work on him until he confesses.’ They handcuffed my hands in front of me and hung me from the door for more than two hours.

“They had whips and hit me on the legs, on the bottom of my feet and on my back. When they took me down, they brought a black electric device and applied electro-shocks four or five times to my arms until they started smoking. All of this time they kept saying: ‘You have to confess.’ The next morning they beat me again and whipped me with the cable on my back and on my shoulders. I fainted after three hours of beating.”

Hence, the relief at seeing Mr Mubarak brought down by his own people. We hope now his replacement will be better, even though we do know revolutions can go wrong but that would be another story, to be dealt with if it happens. The immediate predicament is the Libya tragedy.

As anyone who has any knowledge of Libya would have foretold, it is proving to be a harder nut to crack. No patronising speech here, the sort delivered by Mr Mubarak in his last attempt at holding on to power one day before he was forced to step down. Muammar Gaddafi craftily stayed on the side of “the people” – while his forces were bombing villages in the rebel-held east – in his rant to a crowd of party faithful and the world press last Wednesday. In the spurts when he was back from his trips into surrealism, Col Gaddafi reminded his people of Omar Mukhtar who led native resistance to the Italian colonisers and was hanged by Benito Mussolini’s army, trying to get Libyans to connect and see him too as a victim of the whims of the West. Yet, he also made us think of the Libyan people’s resistance to their oppressors and that they are not afraid to fight and die.

As Salwa Bugaigis – an important figure among the 200 Libyans organising the revolt – put it: “We couldn’t believe that Benghazi fell into our hands after only four days of protest. The regime is brutal but our determination is rock solid.”

As I wrote in another piece elsewhere, we are not without blame for this bloody mess. The foreign policies of Western governments are said to promote democracy, peace and human rights. The truth is that the top priority is self-interest. See no evil, be dazzled by arms and oil deals. Thus, the huge gaps between governments’ claims and the reality of policy.

Let’s just take one example. David Cameron’s recent trip to the Middle East, for instance; an effort to enhance Britain’s share of trade, which included arms deals. So much so that six members of his delegation were arms manufacturers. Nevertheless, Mr Cameron’s tour was publicised as one to promote reform and liberalisation.

This, when the receipt for the ammunition sold to Libya in the last quarter of 2010 hasn’t yet been filed away. And Britain only cancelled eight licences for arms export to Libya two weeks ago because a lawyer for the United Nations Commission for Human Rights gave the advice it may be found guilty for complicity in the killing of protesters against the Gaddafi government.

The uprisings in the Arab world are not just against the resident dictators but also against us who deal with them and legitimate their roles. This puts further onus on us all that when it comes to dealing with Col Gaddafi’s deadly acts of self-preservation we cannot turn a blind eye to our neighbours struggling at the cordon for democracy.

Turning your army on your own people and setting mercenaries loose on your citizens is an extreme form of barbarity, the gravest despotic sin. This, of course, tells a lot about the nature of Col Gaddafi’s dictatorship.

Dr Dalli is shadow minister for the public service and government investment.