Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Dopo la liberazione, vengono aperti i lager

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,489898,00.html
A building formerly occupied by Fatah's intelligence service in Gaza
was long notorious for torture and execution. Now Hamas is in control
-- and is letting former inmates visit the chamber of horrors.
The cells are small, perhaps six feet by six feet, with only an
overhead lamp to provide light. The toilet is a hole in the floor
behind a small wall. The prisoners have scribbled graffiti on the
walls, including slogans like "Al-Qaida in Jerusalem" and "Islamic
Jihad." One inmate even scratched the phrase "Mother, oh my mother"
into the plaster.
The children have no interest in the graffiti. Four of them are
rushing through the 30-odd basement cells, their mother and aunts in
tow. The nine-member family has taken the afternoon off. Where parents
in other parts of the world might take their children to a chamber of
horrors in an amusement park, the main attractions in the Gaza Strip
these days are Fatah's torture chambers.
The headquarters of the Fatah-controlled security force in Gaza have
been open to the public since last Thursday. Every day is open house
now.
For years the complex was a symbol of the horror disseminated by the
security forces that reported directly to Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas. This is where Hamas men were taken after Fatah had
arrested them. Some of those lucky enough to be eventually released
reported that they had been tortured. Others disappeared forever.
'A Symbol of Injustice'
Human rights organizations like Amnesty International have long voiced
criticism of systematic human rights violations in the security
force's prisons, both in Gaza and the West Bank. In this respect, the
fact that Hamas captured the Fatah headquarters in Gaza last week was
more than just strategically significant -- it was also a highly
symbolic act.
"This building is a symbol of injustice in stone," says Abu Mohammed,
an officer in Hamas's militant al-Qassam Brigades, who led the attack
on the complex. He and his unit have occupied the compound since the
building was captured, and Abu Mohammed is using the gatehouse as his
office. "We came because we wanted to see the place where our brothers
were killed," he says.
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Three days ago, his soldiers exhumed four bodies that had been hastily
buried in one of the prison basements, he says wearily. They were able
to identify a fellow al-Qassam Brigades member, Nasser al-Juju. They
believe he was killed shortly before he was discovered: "The others
have been lying in this basement for a long time."
In the room next to the guard booth, large puddles of blood are drying
out, surrounded by swarms of flies. "Fatah used this room to shoot
people," says the al-Qassam militiaman.
But why the security force would have performed executions in a room
with two windows, directly adjacent to the gate of the complex,
remains unclear. One can't help but suspect that Abu Mohammed's men
may have used the room to shoot Fatah men who wanted to surrender.
Eyewitnesses last Thursday reported that the Fatah members who were
defending the building were shot in the head, one after another, when,
with their shirts removed and their hands held above their heads, they
had attempted to surrender. "We didn't kill a single one of them,"
counters Abu Mohammed. "That would be un-Islamic."
A stack of Dushka machine gun ammunition and a book titled "The
Lessons of the Vietnam War" lie on the desk in front of Abu Mohammed.
Both items had just been dropped off. Hamas, says Mohammed, has called
upon residents to return stolen property to the Palestinian Authority
-- and that was precisely what local residents were doing.
Abu Mohammed reads out a long list: weapons, weapons, and more
weapons, CDs, ammunition, landmines, computers, walkie-talkies. These
things have all been brought back already, says Mohammed, adding that
more and more people suffering from guilty consciences had contacted
the office to drop off items they had taken illegally.
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      Middle East Opinion: Spinning The Disaster in Gaza (06/20/2007)
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    *
      Interview with Fatah's Intelligence Coordinator: "It Will Be A
Hot Summer" (06/18/2007)
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The scheme seems almost unbelievable at first, but it is confirmed a
few minutes later at the gate. Abu Ahmed wears a knit cap and a long
robe, the outfit of the devout Muslim. He glances sheepishly at a list
of items he took while cleaning out the security force's building,
which he says he would like Hamas to pick up from his house: "Printer
paper, a chair, a wall clock, a fan, a video recorder with remote
control, and a radio."
He apologizes for his greed, explaining that Fatah killed his brother
during the fighting. As he is speaking, a donkey trots through the
gate, pulling a cart stacked with doors, lumber, parts of filing
cabinets, drainage pipes -- items sent back by their temporary owner.
Abu Mohammed, who is wearing blue Hamas camouflage, is all smiles.
"Look," he says. "When Hamas calls upon people to return stolen goods
the people comply -- voluntarily, no less."
Revisting the Worst Days of His Life
Imad al-Akad has been in the security force building before -- four
years ago. His eyes blindfolded, he was led through long corridors.
The blindfold was only taken off once he had reached an overcrowded
communal cell.
Akad was arrested because he had thrown stones at an army major who
had allegedly raped a child. Akad, who was just 18 at the time, got
off lightly -- he was released after 11 days. He never saw the
notorious isolation cells in the basement.
Today he has come here with friends to visit the place where he spent
the worst days of his life. "One ticket for the complete tour,
please," he says, joking with the Hamas men at the entrance.
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But other former inmates were less inclined to make light of the place
when they visited the former prison in recent days, say the guards.
Grown men wept when they saw their former cells. Others accompanied
widows who came to see where their husbands had been murdered.
Hamas has assumed power in the Gaza Strip, but what it does it intend
to do with it? Does it aim to establish an Islamic state based on the
Iranian model? "One cannot prescribe something like that," Abu
Mohammed says at his desk in the guard booth. "Only God can lead us to
that."
And what is better for Gaza, now that Hamas is in charge? "That you,
as a foreign journalist, can sit here without being kidnapped," says
the militia leader, smiling thinly. "There is security in Gaza now,
even for Fatah's people."
Hamas, says Mohammed, has released all of the captured enemies --
"except for a few dozen with blood on their hands" -- and guarantees
their safety. "We now have law and order."
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

 counters Abu Mohammed. "That would be un-Islamic."
Meglio credere ai terroristi di Hamas :)
*LOL*
-Stefano