á REPORT ON TORTURE 1 Amnesty International REPORT ON TORTURE DUCKWORTH in association with Amnesty International Publications Second edition 1975 First published in 1973 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. The Old Piano Factory, 43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW1. © 1973, 1975 Amnesty International CONTENTS 7 All rights reserved. No part of this publication Preface to the Second Edition may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, Preface to the First Edition 10 or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording Introduction 13 or otherwise, without the prior permission of Historical aspects of torture 27 the copyright owner. The problem of legal definition 33 cloth ISBN 0 7156 0711 1 39 paper ISBN 0 7156 0712 X I. Medical and Psychological Aspects of Torture Torture as a stress 41 49 Typesetting by Specialised Offset Services Limited, Liverpool Manipulation and resistance Printed by Unwin Brothers Limited, Old Woking Pharmacological torture 55 Injury and long-term effects 58 Torturers: psychological aspects 63 The difficulty of investigation 68 2. Legal Remedies 70 International governmental organisations 71 Regional organisations 74 • Non-governmental organisations 76 Case Study A: The UN and occupied terri- tories of the Middle East 77 CaseStudyB:Regional and international response to the use of torture in Greece, 1967-1973 79 CaseStudyC:The UK government and Northern Ireland 105 3. World Survey of Torture 114 The nature of the evidence 114 Africa 117 Burundi118Malawi 123 Carneroun119Morocco 124 Ethiopia120Rhodesia 126 Ghana121South Africa 128 Namibia PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 133 Tunisia Tanzania 140 137 Uganda Togo 141 Amnesty International continues to receive information to 139 Zambia Asia 144 indicate that torture is a truly world-wide phenomenon that India 145 does not belong solely to one political ideology or to one 149 Philippines Korea 157 economic systcm. This information as well as decisive new 151 Sri Lanka Indonesia 158 events require that this Report on Torture, the first inter- 152 Vietnam 160 national survey of its kind, be brought up to date. Pakistan 156 Western Europe The surveys of the historical, medical, and legal aspects of Belgium 168 torture that were presented in the first edition are still valid, 169 Spain Portugal (and territories) 172 Turkey 176 and these sections have been retained in their entirety. Time Eastern Europe .and the Soviet Union 179 has conspicuously overtaken the information about some Albania, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia 184 countries, however, and those sections have accordingly been German Democratic Republic 185 updated. One principle for revision has been that if ncw Romania 185 information is now available about torture in a country that USSR 186 was not mentioned in the first edition, a section has been The Americas 187 added to deal with that country: whereas Saudi Arabia and The United States 191 Cyprus were not given attention before, the second edition 193 Peru Argentina 215 summarises the material that has been received in the past 195 Uruguay Bolivia 217 year. A corollary of this principle is that if new evidence has 196 Venezuela Brazil 219 confirmed previous inferences, INC have stated the case more 198 Central America Colombia strongly: incidents of torture in South Korea, for example, 201 Costa Rica Chile 220 are not so difficult to substantiate today as thcy were a year 202 El Salvador Cuba 221 ago. 210 Honduras Dominican Republic 211 221 The other governing principle for the revisions has been Panama Ecuador 221 that wherever a change in governmental policy regarding 212 Guatemala Mexico 221 torture has been radical, thc section on that country has been 213 Nicaragua Paraguay 222 re-written. Circumstantial differences, however, have not 214 Haiti The Ailiddle East 223 been noted: no changes have been made in the sections that Bahrain 224 deal with such countries as Indonesia, where the victims may 226 Israel Egypt 231 change but thc political structure and the institutionalised 226 Oman Iran 234 use of certain methods of torture remain unabridged. The 227 Yemen Iraq 235 policies regarding the detention and treatment of prisoners in 230 Syria 238 Chile, on the other hand, have severely changed since the Conclusions military coup in September 1973, which occurred after the Select Bibliography 240 report had gone to press. The visit to Chile by an Amnesty Index 243 International team of investigators shortly after the coup 246 makes it possible to comment with relative precision on the 8 Amnesty International report on torture Preface to the Second Edition 9 use of torture by the Chilean junta. Likewise, during the past tutions where torture occurs; (2) the socio-economic and year the governmental policies regarding torture have political factors affecting torture; (3) international, regional changed sharply for the worse in Namibia (formerly known and national legal factors affecting the practice of torture; (4) as South West Africa): during thc autumn of 1973 the South the short- and long-term psychological and medical effects of African Government, in cooperation with local tribal author- torture on the victim. ities, re-introduced public flogging as a tool of political Discussion of these problems led to several recommend- repression. ations: the establishment within Al of a central clearing There have been favourable changes of policy in Portugal, house for information about specific incidents of torture, the Turkey and Greece. An amnesty granted by the new civilian formulation of codes of ethical conduct related to torture for government emptied Turkish jails of political prisoners in medical, polic-e, and military personnel; the cooperation July 1974, and the April 1974 military coup in Portugal had among clergy, educators, lawyers, doctors, artists, trade a similar effect there. When the military government of unionists and the like through their respective organisations Greece resigned in favour of a civilian administration, Greek on behalf of victims of torture; the strengthening of political prisoners were also freed. In each of these cases, the international and national laws that should govern the outgoing government had denied for many years that it had protection of the accused against torturc; the promotion of practised torture. It is now possible to prove beyond any research into the medical and psychological effects of doubt thztt those denials were false. torture; and the setting up of a register of health profes- This Report on Torture represents one facet of Amnesty sionals to undertake missions to investigate allegations of International's commitment to the continuing Campaign for torture in specific countries. the Abolition of Torture that was initiated in December Immediately after thc conference, Ars International 1972. The first year of the Campaign was successful in Executive Committee, in accordance with the recommend- publicising the widespread use of torture, in collecting more ations made, decided to establish a new division within the than a million signatures from all over the world in support International Secretariat to work exclusively on the con- of an anti-torture resolution in the United Nations and in tinuing Campaign for the Abolition of Torture. The campaign obtaining the unanimous passage of that resolution, General department, which began its full operation in thc spring of Assembly Resolution 3059 (XXVIII), which calls on all 1974, signifies the continuing determination of Amnesty governments `to become parties to existing international International to oppose and eradicate torture throughout the instruments which contain provisions relating to the pro- world. hibition of torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment The publication of the Report on torture in several or punishment'. languages will help to further these aims. The Report has The cuhnination of the first year's activities was the already been published in a Dutch translation: German, Conference for the Abolition of Torture that opened in Paris French, and Japanese editions are scheduled for publication on 10 December 1.973, the 25th anniversary of the Universal in the autumn of 1974. Under consideration are translations Declaration of Human Rights. Approximately 300 partici- into Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Portugese and Urdu. pants, including many internationally distinguished figures, representing governments and international non-govern- August 1974 Amnesty International mental organisations as well as Al's own national sections, discussed various aspects of torture and actions to abolish it. Four commissions were convened at the conference to discuss different problems: (1) the collecting and collating of information about the identity of torturers and of insti- Preface to the First Edition 11 should be made to suffer for holding or expressing his own opinions and that in consequence torture must be recognised for the evil that it is, the public mobilised and international PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION and domestic machinery set up to bring it to an end. The Report was constructed with the help of Mr James In thc following pages Amnesty International presents the Becket, Mrs Elise Smith, Dr Henry Oakeley, and the Research first international review of the use of torture. During the Department of Amnesty International, in addition to the last few years the press has featured stories of torture in many people who supplied Amnesty with the material upon South Africa or Greece or USSR and for a few days the which the Report is based. world has been horrified by the account of the brutalities which one group of human beings, under the protection of August 1973 Amnesty International the state, has inflicted on another. But this very process of concentrating first on this country and then on that has disguised the most significant feature of the situation: that torture has virtually become a world-wide phenomenon and that the torturing of citizens regardless of sex, age, or state of health in an effort to retain political power is a practice encouraged by some governments and tolerated by others in an increasingly large number of countries.