Author
jade
this is all from the amnity international press release and report and it's too long
According to a new report by Amnisty International, "torture does not happen in a vacuum. The tools and techniques used by officials for deliberately inflicting physical suffering rely on a failure of political will. If the governments of the world had the will to stop torture, they could do so."
"The US government has allowed such modern electro-shock weapons to be transferred by US companies to Turkey, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, all countries where electro-shock torture has been reported."
"Ongoing research by Amnesty International reveals that during 1998-2000 at least 185 businesses in 25 countries were involved in the manufacture, distribution, supply or brokering of devices that are always or sometimes used to inflict torture. Of these, the United States is by far the most prolific, with at least 74 US companies involved in marketing electro-shock weapons, leg irons, shackles, thumbcuffs and other restraints."
"'In the absense of stringent controls to prevent this equipment ending up in the hands of torturers, responsible governments must ban its export immediately,' said Brian Wood, one of the Amnesty International researchers who worked on the report."
"Military, security and police expertise taught internationally has also been used for torture, according to the new report. Hundreds of graduates of the US School of the Americas have been implicated in human rights violations in South America. This military school is one of over 150 centres in the USA and abroad where foreign officers are trained. Public information on the human rights content of the training is minimal."
"'Unless security training is strictly controlled and independently monitored, there is always a danger that it will be used to facilitate human rights violations,' said Amnesty International."
In particular, Amnesty International calls upon governments to:
1) Ban the manufacture, trade and use of police and security equipment whose use is inherently cruel, inhuman or degrading.
2) Suspend the international transfer of electro-shock, leg-cuffs, thumbcuffs, shackle boards, restraint chairs and pepper gas weapons pending the outcome of a rigorous and independent review into the effects of these devices.
3) Ensure that the training of military, security and police personnel of another country does not include the transfer of skills, knowledge and techniques likely to lend themselves to torture.