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TITLE: Nations Worldwide Facilitate Torture by Exporting Equipment |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: AFP |
DATE: February 26, 2001 |
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Amnesty International on Monday charged that many governments worldwide are contributing to the use of torture by not controlling the export of equipment used by repressive regimes. In its report released on Monday, entitled "Stopping the Torture Trade," the group calls on governments to ban the manufacture, use and export of restraint and security items such as leg irons, electroshock stun belts, pepper gas weapons and serrated thumb cuffs. It also asks governments to ensure that the training of military, security and police personnel of other countries does not include the transfer of skills that can be applied to torture. "In the 1970s, there were only two companies known to market high-voltage electroshock stun weapons, and now there are over 150 worldwide," said Amnesty International researcher Brian Wood, lead author of the report. "In the absence of stringent controls to prevent this equipment from ending up in the hands of torturers, responsible governments must ban its export immediately," he said. The report identified more than 150 companies in 22 countries -- including Germany, France, Israel, South Africa, China and the United States -- that are involved in the trade of items used in torture. "The torture-weapons industry is one where 'Made in the USA' should be a badge of shame," said William Schultz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "The fact that victims of torture reside in US prisons or in faraway lands should not give US companies false security that they are immune from product-liability concerns," he said. Electroshock weapons are fast becoming a favorite tool for torturers because they leave no marks, Schultz said, adding that Amnesty has called on the US government to ban the export of such devices. Amnesty's report also criticized Western governments for slack controls on the training of foreign military and police personnel. In particular, the report cited the US Army School of the Americas, many of whose graduates have been implicated in human-rights violations across South America. The report also cites French security training used in Togo for torture and intimidation of the civilian population, as well as Israel's benefiting from information extracted under torture by Israeli-trained personnel in southern Lebanon. "Unless security training is strictly controlled and independently monitored, there is always a danger that it will be used to facilitate human-rights violations," the report said. The Amnesty report made its debut on the same day that the US State Department issued its own assessment of worldwide human-rights practices. END |