[Reader-list] Use of torture to extract confession, anyone surprised?

[SUNDARA BABU]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jyotilal Singh jyotilal.singh at ahrc.asia


Dear Friends,

Torture in India is a ‘tool’ for the security forces either to extract
information or for confessions, according to the latest leak cable news. The
report asserts that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was
concerned about New Delhi's despicable tolerance of the issue and that the
government practically did nothing to prevent torture and has consistently
condoned it.

Please find below the statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission *INDIA:
Use of torture to extract confession, anyone surprised? *and feel free to
circulate to your friends and others.

With regards
~Jyotilal

---------- Forwarded message ----------

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
*AHRC-STM-264-2010
December 17, 2010

*A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission *

*INDIA: Use of torture to extract confession, anyone surprised? *

The latest news by the WikiLeaks claims that India has systematically used
torture to extract confessions and has allowed its armed forces to resort to
brutal human rights abuses like extrajudicial executions and disappearances
to instil fear, and thus control the population in the state of Jammu and
Kashmir. The report asserts that the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) was concerned about New Delhi's despicable tolerance of the
issue and that the government practically did nothing to prevent torture and
has consistently condoned it. The lack of action by the government and the
impossibility of the government soldiers to be investigated or punished for
engaging in torture has contributed in no less terms towards the alarmingly
high number of extrajudicial executions and disappearances in that state,
the leaked wires claim.

Torture, extrajudicial execution and disappearances are no news to Indians
though. The diplomatic wires leaked by the WikiLeaks and the sudden news
value it has attained in India and abroad is similar to someone expressing
surprise after hearing that the earth's shape is very close to that of an
oblate spheroid and not a perfect sphere. The Asian Human Rights Commission
(AHRC), AHRC's national partners, as well as other civil society groups in
the country and aboard have been contenting for years, with sufficient
proof, that the practice of torture and encounter killings - a euphemism for
extrajudicial executions in India - is consistent and widespread in the
country. During the past six decades, the practice of torture and the number
of encounter killings have only increased steadily and it never showed a
tendency to decrease.

The AHRC has analysed this issue, and has been arguing that torture is used
as a tool for social control in India. The AHRC has contented that similar
is the state of affairs in other South Asian states like Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In fact more than 80 percent of AHRC's human
rights interventions on its engagement in South Asia is against torture, all
of which is available at http://humanrights.asia The AHRC has consistently
argued that the widespread use of torture in the region is the result of the
failed domestic institutions, in particular, the police, prosecution and the
judiciary and hence is the central deficit in realising human rights in the
region. The AHRC has been drawing the attention of national governments as
well as that of the international human rights community to this issue, and
has been consistently urging the international community in particular, to
work with the national governments and the civil society in the region to
address this perennial issue, without which there can be no visible
improvement to the protection, promotion and fulfilment of human rights in
the region.

Concerning India, the AHRC has reported, in the past six years, more than
500 cases with meticulously documented details, including names, dates,
places and even affidavits of victims of torture. Each of these cases,
reported through the Urgent Appeals programme of the AHRC, has been reported
to the Government of India, the respective state governments and the United
Nations' Special Rapporteur on Torture calling for an immediate intervention
and necessary action. The AHRC has reported when the elected representatives
and the law enforcement officers in the country have publically stated that
they believe in torture as an effective and necessary tool for crime
investigation. The national media has reported at least a dozen incidents in
the past 36 months where uniformed police officers where documented
torturing suspects in full public view. The AHRC has consistently argued
with evidence, that today torture in India is not a mere tool for crime
investigation, but it is more o ften used for extracting bribes, that it
promotes corruption, is used for silencing political dissent and to instil
fear in the population. The AHRC has argued with proof that torture is most
often used against the poor and members of the minority communities. The
Supreme Court of India, over the years and on several occasions, has held
that the practice of torture is widespread in India and the Court has
repeatedly ordered the government to take remedial actions to contain it.
The National Human Rights Commission and the short-lived National Police
Commission has recommended the Government of India that unless the police is
trained and equipped to discharge their responsibilities, that meets the
operative standards of a civilian service in a democratic state, the police
will continue to use torture as a crude tool to meet their ends. Yet, the
government of India has done nothing to address the issue so far.

The farcical approach of the Government of India concerning this serious
issue that has made disastrous dents upon the very notion of democracy in
the country is evident from the 242-worded law that it passed in the lower
house of the Indian Parliament - the Lok Sabha - this year and claimed it to
be the law that would suffice the need of the time and will enable the
country to ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) and is thereby
equipped to end torture in India. The AHRC's analysis of the issue is now
available in its most recent issue of Article 2, which is available
here<http://www.article2.org/mainfile.php/0903/>.


In states like Chhattisgarh and Orissa, where the national government as
well as the state administrations are engaged in countering modern India's
product to the region - the Naxalites - resulting out of the despicable
neglect of the needs of its rural population, the police as well as state
sponsored private militia like the Salwa Judum, are engaged in widespread
use of torture with impunity. Conditions in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir is
the several folds multiplied effect of the same nemesis, where the Indian
armed forces, armoured with the statutory immunity provided by the Armed
Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 is in operation. It defies commonsense and
insults intellect to expect a government that has done practically nothing
to prevent torture in rest of the country where it has to fight no armed
insurgents, not to allow its armed units stationed in Manipur or Jammu and
Kashmir to practice torture or murder civilians.

Those who are from these states, including human rights defenders who have
dared to speak against the government, have faced the wrath of the Indian
administration. Internationally acclaimed human rights defender and lawyer,
Mr. Parvez Imroz, from Jammu and Kashmir is yet to be allowed to travel
outside India, since the government has denied him a passport. Human rights
defenders in Manipur are afraid that they would be arrested, tortured and
even murdered at the behest of the central government or the absolutely
corrupt state administration, should they dare to speak about torture or
about state-sponsored murders. Environmental activist and human rights
defender, Mr. Jiten Yumnam, in Manipur was arrested last year and charged
with a fabricated case registered under the non-bailable provisions of the
draconian National Security Act, 1980 only because he has been vocal against
corruption within the Manipur state administration. Jiten was arrested from
Imphal airport, while he was preparing to travel to New Zealand to
participate in an international human rights consultation.

Yet, in response to the WikiLeaks news, the government of India has
officially responded that torture in India is its internal affair. The
government spokesperson has claimed that the government views the news as
not serious enough to make a detailed response. Indeed this is expected. It
is the same response of the government whenever it is questioned about yet
another brutal form of human rights violation practiced in India,
caste-based discrimination. What the government fails to admit is that
discrimination has never been an internal affair of India, though India
still has a caste-enslaved population estimated to constitute 20 percent of
the country's population, unable to free from this brutal social and
structural evil. Neither are torture or extrajudicial executions, issues
remote and irrelevant, to remain as a miniscule family feud between Indians.
These are crimes having universal jurisdiction, that today, the rest of the
world consider these crimes as crimes against humanity.

If the arguments advanced by the government of India are to be accepted, by
condoning apartheid, India was interfering in South Africa's internal
affairs and thereby breaching international law. India could also be held
responsible for violating state sovereignty and international law for
participating in the UN intervention in Rwanda. Lt. General Shiva Kumar, the
third and the last Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission
in Rwanda could be then held for leading an international invasion of
Rwanda.

A government that condones caste based discrimination, or torture or
extrajudicial executions disserve only contempt. Any government that
obstructs the punishment and prevention calls for global humiliation. Its
leaders can be prosecuted and punished if they travel to civilised
jurisdictions.

Or is it that the government of India believes that Indians are not human.
Conversely, is it that the government of India that is inhuman?

# # #

*About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in
Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984. *


 *International Human Rights Day 2010 - Download our pre-print PDF version
of the annual reports here<http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2010>
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