Amnesty International: Unrest in Mid. East and N. Africa

As violence and unrest continues to spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Amnesty International has sent experienced research teams to the region to monitor developments as they unfold.

We currently have experts on the ground in Egypt, Bahrain and elsewhere who are available as spokespeople offering eye witness accounts, testimonies from protesters and activists, and video footage. Our team of Middle East and North Africa experts in London are also available to provide comment and analysis.

The long suffering people in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere in the region have defied decades of repression to demand their human rights. But as their voices grow louder, state authorities are ramping up their tactics of intimidation and using brute force.

An 18-year old Egyptian student told our team in Cairo about how he was tortured at at unknown location after being arrested near Tahrir Square on 3 February: "They put a chain or rope to my legs and lifted me up - so that my head was hanging down. From time to time they would let me down into a barrel that was filled with water. They told me to confess that I was trained by Israel or by Iran. They also put electric shocks to my body and I fainted."

Amnesty International is urging all state authorities in the region, and particularly the security forces, to respect the human rights of those demanding change, including the rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression.

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