By Stephen Dockery 

BEIRUT: Beatings, torture and verbal abuse are so widely practiced by Lebanon’s police force that the international community should start withholding funding to parts of the security organization, according to a report issued Wednesday. The report by Human Rights Watch focuses on the treatment of vulnerable populations including drug users, homosexuals and sex workers in police stations. Its conclusions are stark: Abuse is so widespread and routine that detainees don’t file complaints and police consider it normal.

 

“Verbal abuse, degradation and humiliation appear to be so common that many victims tended to gloss over them when telling their stories,” the report said.

 

Police abuse and poor treatment has been widely documented in the past, but the HRW study found poor treatment was particularly acute against vulnerable populations who aren’t protected by the law and are looked down upon socially.

 

Sex workers are rarely protected by existing regulations, homosexuals are often targeted with the unnatural acts law, and drug users have few support services. People accused of committing one of these acts face a system that violates their judicial rights and beats them into submission, the report said.

 

“They broke all my teeth and nose, and hit me with a gun until my shoulder was dislocated,” 30-year-old Mohammad said about his detention for drug charges, according to the report.

 

Mohammad’s experience wasn’t unusual; 49 of 52 people interviewed for the HRW study alleged ill-treatment at the hands of the police. Only six of those 49 filed a complaint over their treatment.

 

Drug users, sex workers and homosexuals were particularly singled out for their behavior and subjected to punishment that included intimidation, beatings and standing in stress positions. Women detainees were also subject to many forms of sexual assault and offered better treatment in return for sexual favors, the report said.

 

Detention facilities are rundown and unsanitary while many police officers are untrained and poorly paid, leading to situations of abuse and corruption. A spokesman for the Internal Security Forces said he was reviewing the new report and would have a response sometime next week.

 

Although the report focused on just a portion of people in prison and detention centers, other abusive practices have been widely documented and acknowledged for years by human rights workers and police officials.

 

Nadim Houry from HRW said he hoped the report’s focus on poor treatment of at-risk people would lead to broader reforms of the entire system.

 

“If you can fix a system for the most vulnerable group you can fix it for everyone,” Houry said at the report launch in Beirut.

 

The report recommended that the Interior Ministry set up an effective complaint system, require police to wear identification tags and that the international community be more discerning with their funding for the ISF.

 

International donors have provided funds for police training and equipment over the past years. Reform programs have issued new codes of conduct, offered human rights training to officers and set up forensics and training facilities.

 

Despite some progress in improving the force’s conduct, the report recommended some of that donor money should be withheld from police units guilty of abusive practices.

 

“Refrain from funding the Internal Security Forces units that are credibly found to abuse human rights and make resumption of funding to such units subject to enactment of reforms that guarantee the cessation of such abuses and accountability for past violations,” the report recommended.

 

“Most importantly, Lebanon should be transparent in ensuring accountability for ISF members who commit abuses, and should create effective and accessible complaints mechanisms to insure that happens,” the report said.