Center for Torture Victims speaks out against alleged torture by U.S.

[struggle4progress]

by William Wilcoxen, Minnesota Public Radio
June 26, 2005

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Minneapolis, Minn. —

In 1985 a task force put together by then-Gov. Rudy Perpich formed the Center for Victims of Torture. For 20 years, the center has provided healing services to torture victims from around the world and trained health professionals in how to work with survivors of torture. It has also led research on the effects of torture and been an advocate for putting a stop to torture. <snip>

"Today, more than 50 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and more than 15 years after the Convention Against Torture, more than half the countries in the world continue to use torture as a strategic tool of repression," Stein said. <snip>

In letters to President Bush and to Minnesota's Congressional delegation, the center urges that evidence of U-S torture be the subject of an independent investigation along the lines of the Nine-Eleven Commission. The group also recommends that a provision in a 1992 Army Field Manual written by and for interrogators become the basis of a national standard for all U-S interrogations.

Johnson says that manual explains that torture is ineffective as a method of gaining accurate information. He says the authors go on to describe why respectful treatment of captives yields better results. "They say that when people that we fight in our wars are captured, they come from countries where torture is used. They expect to be tortured. And when they're treated humanely, it takes them by such surprise that they offer far more useful information far more quickly." <snip>

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/06/27_wilcoxenw_tortanniv/

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