Report cites alleged Mexico police abuse

The United Nations Committee Against Torture expressed concern Friday about alleged police abuse in Mexico, particularly “the indiscriminate use of arbitrary detentions” against some protesters.

A committee report cites several police crackdowns on protests from 2004 to 2006 in which officers allegedly sexually abused demonstrators and beat others. There was no immediate comment from the government.

In May, the committee said, federal police allegedly sexually abused and beat detainees in San Salvador Atenco, about 15 miles northeast of Mexico City, after demonstrators attacked six officers who had tried to prevent street vendors from setting up stands. Twenty-three female detainees said they were sexually abused and others said they were clubbed.

The committee said similar abuses occurred in the southern state of Oaxaca, where federal police were sent to restore order last month after five months of protests against the state’s governor. Its report does not give any details on those allegations.

The committee also said it had credible reports of unofficial detention centers, abuse and disappearances in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya, where security forces are trying to quell Muslim separatists.

In a 12-page report on Russian compliance with a global ban on prisoner abuse, the committee said it had learned of “allegations that those detained in such facilities face torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

The committee’s report also highlights “numerous, ongoing and consistent allegations that abductions and enforced disappearances” in Chechnya were carried out by government officials or with their consent.