Afternoon

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Dec-18-2002
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It was very very cold.The officer approached us with an idea regarding the discarded IDs that are left, taken, what ever, in the checkpoint occasionally. He suggested we contact the Hotline for Human Rights perhaps, he said, so the people would somehow learn their IDs are safe and that they can freely come and collect them.Qalandya South, around 3.30 PMWe encounter five freezing detained men, who had been standing there for four hours already, their IDs have been taken. With them were standing two freezing taxi drivers (who had been there for two and a half hours) whose IDs were taken too, keys confiscated, all for stopping here or there. (The drivers reported that it was the notorious soldier whom we know in a jeep, hunting them, later we understand it is the 'yield' of the new couple; this soldier and the checkpoint commander)The soldiers wouldn't talk to us and wouldn't let us approach. But after seeing us make conspicuous telephone calls, about an hour later they released the five pedestrians. As for the last two, the soldier said, we are checking, which turned out to be a false report because one of the officers later explained that the IDs were with the notorious soldier, who had in fact come to return them but was called suddenly to the quarry (Tora Bora) and that is why they couldn't yet receive the IDs back. They asked us whether they should wait. We didn't know what to say. Finally the commander came, the IDs with him, after a while he gave them back to the drivers.There seems to have been an alert. Many additional border police in jeeps, with pointed guns shouting from afar to people to stand, open their bags, coats, lift their shirts. We told them that it might be dangerous to point their guns at people, and they did in fact stop pointing after that. We photographed some of these scenes. We think we should complain to the DCO commander about pointing guns directly at people who are not acting suspiciously. When we approached the 'bouncing' soldiers for all the other unresolved problems, they said they can't speak to us, because there is an alert. The commander's presence doesn't seem to help. He isn't consistent and may present different truths to different people, and we witnessed situations where his soldiers were more lenient and he more strict and rigid.Qalandya North20 men were detained and we called the hotline. The soldiers claim to be checking their IDs, we don't see any sign of this action and finally one officer ordered them released. It turns out he called and asked to tell the sergeant to release them, but the sergeant happened to have gone elsewhere they were not released.