Mohawks accuse police of torture and beatings

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Mohawk Indians in Quebec are preparing a report detailing allegations Surete du Quebec (SQ) police officers beat and tortured Indians during the standoffs in Quebec.

In the most recent incident about seven Kanesatake Indians were taken to a barn last week, where they were beaten and tortured, charged Don Martin of Kahnawake in an interview from the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) office in Ottawa.

The allegations were earlier raised by Georges Erasmus, national AFN chief. He said some Indians were tortured with lit cigarettes.

Martin said the Mohawks are still trying to locate Gary Gabriel of Kanesatake, who was arrested and beaten several days ago by SQ soldiers.

When Gabriel was arrested, "they immediately started beating on him," he said.

He said Angus Jacobs of Kanesatake was also beaten.

Although the police were in plainclothes and weren't wearing badges, eyewitnesses recognized their faces, said Matin.

"We have been documenting all human rights' violations."

A report is being prepared, which will be released, "when this is all over"

He said a young Kahnawake mother accompanied by her two children was punched by a white protester while trying to get back to the reserve on a side road.

The protester, who reached in an hit her, told her "If you didn't have children in the car, we'd drag you out and beat you," said Martin.

He declined to give her name.

Beverly Scow said in an interview from Kanesatake on Tuesday that police were arresting any Mohawks, who left the reserve and beating some of them.

She said about 15 people had been beaten by police.

One had a telephone book used on him. "His brains are pretty scattered," she said.

A spokesman for the Surete du Quebec laughed at charges that Mohawks had been tortured by police.

"The police never torture anybody," said Const. Richard Bourdon in an interview from Montreal Thursday. "This is 1990."

He also said reports of beatings were "totally false."

Complaints can be filed with the police commissioner, said Bourdon.

He said he had not details on Gabriel's whereabouts.

The International Federation of Human Rights is also monitoring the situation, said Martin.

Observers from the federation, which is based in France, had their own problems in Quebec. They had to be flown in by helicopter to take up their positions last week near army checkpoints on Kahnawake reserve.

Federation vice-president Lydie Dupuy said angry residents armed with metal clubs and baseball bats stalked observers and threatened them.

She said the violent and angry demonstrators on the South Shore of the St. Lawrenc Ricer made it difficult for them to do their jobs while the police and army appeared to be doing nothing to help.

"Let's say there is a lot of passivity, a lot of people just watching," she said.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday a crowd of about 500 people hurled rocks and construction material at women, children and elders fleeing the Kahnawake reserve in their cars. An elder and a child were injured.

"It was a rain of rocks. It was terrible," said one police officer. "Those cars were full of old folks. It was really ugly."