Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Serious Allegations against Army of Abuse & Torture of Prisoners -is this Govt policy?

Allegations against the Army of serious abuse and torture on terrorists detainees and suspects have been uncovered by a leading news agency and I'm shocked by some of the details of such abuse.

Some of the former detainees have alleged they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs at detention facilities.this news agency had interviewed 27 former inmates from around the country over a period of two months.

They were held at times between 2002 and 2008 and they were all accused of belonging to or helping terrorists.None were charged with any offense or put on trial; some even received apologies when they were released.

Defence authorities has denied the charges and insisted that all inmates in the facility are treated 'humanely' but the list of abuses is horrifying..to list a few...

a. physical abuse ( i guess this means assault etc)
b.use of stress positions (including tied down upside down and left hanging from ceilings etc..)
c. excessive heat or cold (being immersed in cold or hot water,being kept inside freezer trucks for prolong hours etc)
d.exposure to unbearably loud noise (loudspeaker played in to a enclosed holding cell etc..)
e.forced to remove clothes presence of female soldiers...(every one understands this well...he he)

In some cases detainees were threatened with death at gunpoint in what i figure is a staged mock execution and one former inmate had allegedly stated that "They did things that you would not do against animals let alone to humans" while another had said "They poured cold water on you in cold days and hot water in warmer days. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol or a gun to your head and threatened you with death"...

"They put some kind of medicine in the water to make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you" said another..

But when the news agency took up these allegations of torture with Defence Authorities a senior officer had denied the allegations and had said that their conduct "meet international standards for care and custody".

They also argue that granting legal rights to detainees could harm their "ability to succeed in armed conflict and to protect their Governments' forces" by limiting their powers to conduct military operations.

Having read the allegations and follow on description I'm shocked by the details of such horrific practices and as a Sri Lankan who had experienced violence and fear that was part of LTTE's thirty year war of Terror against this country i understand some measures may be needed when it comes to interrogation of captured terrorists but by no way i condemn the use of such horrible and inhumane methods on suspects ,who in the end turned out to be Innocent civilians..

I wonder what the leadership of the country has to say about this and also the Defence Authorities who constantly claim they 'follow and defend Rights of people" ...especially the President who wants to portray himself as a champion of Freedoms and Justice...




by the way i forgot.. this is all about the US Army in Afghanistan and allegations mainly centred around its detention facility in Bagram Air Base North of Kabul..according to BBC..

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what the...interesting write up..i agree with you..but the US has the 'right' to do anything they please and will say 'sorry' if someone complains bit too hard..

Anonymous said...

If the US does it it's ok for Sri Lanka to do? Perhaps we should bring in slavery and segregation too.

Or maybe we could vote in a minority president like the US? Or be the subject of several UN investigations, like the US?