Category: torture

#NorthKorea


north-korea-flagWe attach here a speech by Fiona Bruce MP given just before Christmas last year on life in North Korea.  The group has campaigned on several occasions concerning life in this country and this has included a video on YouTube as well as petitions.  We feel Fiona’s speech is worthy of a wider audience and we include most of it here:

Life in North Korea is not a joke. It is not a joke that desperate women wade across the frozen Tumen river to escape to China, only to be caught by Chinese men, sold into sexual slavery and then, when used up, sent back by the authorities to face torture in North Korea and the forced abortion of their unborn children.

north koreaIt is not a joke for those hundreds of thousands who live in concentration camps reminiscent of the Nazi era, many for uttering a few words against the North Korean regime — or, worse, under the regime’s atrocious “guilt by association” rule, not for something they have done, but for something their relatives have done to offend the regime. Prisoners are told they are not humans but animals and indescribably tortured: steam-rolled to death; killed by having hot molten metal poured over them; frozen to death; starved to death; worked to death in factories; hung upside down to have water poured into their nostrils, like so much beef hanging from hooks in a slaughter house; deprived of clothing and sleep, then mercilessly pummelled with wooden bats; kept in cells with two holes in the door for them to stick their feet out to be horrendously tortured; and frequently forced to watch executions, including of their blood relatives. As my co-chair of the all-party group on North Korea, an increasingly active group, Lord Alton, said:

“Christmas spent in a North Korean gulag will be just another day of grotesque suffering.”

Life in North Korea is not a joke outside the concentration camps either. It is not a joke for the thousands of stunted, parentless children—the so-called wandering swallows—who eke out a living on the streets. The problem of malnutrition in North Korea is so bad that the minimum height for a member of their armed forces is just 4 feet 2 inches. It is not a joke for the disabled in North Korea either. Just when we thought that reports from North Korea could not get any worse, this week we heard at first hand from an escapee at a meeting of the all-party group in the UK Parliament about how disabled people, including children, were sent:

“for medical tests such as dissection of body parts, as well as tests of biological and chemical weapons. Dwarves are castrated. Babies with mental and physical handicaps are routinely snatched from hospitals and left to suffer indescribable things until they die. The disabled in North Korea are simply disappeared.”

We were told that by a disabled escapee, Ji Seong-Ho, who, at 14, lost his left hand and leg after passing out from hunger while scavenging for coal on railway tracks and was run over by a train. He was told by North Korean Government officials:

“disabled people like you hurt the dignity of North Korea and you should just die.” He told us, “That really hurt.”

At Christmas time, let us remember that living in North Korea is not a joke for the many brave Christians who every day fear incarceration simply for owning a Bible. One lady has told the all-party group that if soldiers suspect that someone is a believer, they will ransack their home until they find what they are looking for. In her home, they did: they noticed a brick slightly out of position, and behind it they found her Bible, so she was taken to prison.

I have mentioned just two of many escapees who have spoken to our group this year and who are now finding sanctuary in the UK and increasingly giving testimonies of their suffering to Members of Parliament.

For the rest of my speech, however, I want to speak not to fellow Members, or even to our constituents, but to the people of North Korea. When I first spoke about North Korea in the House, I was amazed to receive a letter from supporters in South Korea saying, “You are being heard” so I know that when we speak here, many of you in North Korea hear what we say—and that is increasingly the case with modern means of communication, such as smuggled-in USB sticks.

I want you, the people of North Korea, to know that your suffering is being heard. Do not think that no one cares. Do not think that no one is speaking out for you. In the UK Parliament, more and more people are speaking out and showing that they care. We have compassion for you in your suffering, and this Christmas remember that our compassion is as nothing compared with that of Christ. One day, this too will end. Kingdoms rise and fall. We are praying for you and for your freedom.

In addition to praying and speaking out, more and more people are acting. This year, a 400-page UN report by Mr Justice Kirby catalogued the brutal atrocities you experience. The world now knows of them and cannot stay silent. Increasingly, people in the free world are calling for action on your behalf. Only last week in this Parliament, the all-party group on international freedom of religion or belief issued a report that can be found at http://www.freedomdeclared.org which added to demands made last month at the UN by no fewer than 111 countries that those responsible for human rights violations in North Korea be brought to justice by the International Criminal Court.

We also called for all appropriate justice mechanisms to be considered to bring the North Korean Government to account for their terrible atrocities against their own people. Here in the UK Parliament, as MPs we continue to press for the BBC World Service to broadcast to you, the people of North Korea, in the Korean and English languages, and we MPs continue to press for an increased dialogue with China to stop its policy of forced repatriation and for humanitarian aid to the people of North Korea.

So, at Christmas time our hearts go out to you, the North Korean people, from the UK. Know that we are with you; know that we are supporting and working with your relatives and friends who have escaped to this country and know that they have a voice; and know that we shall continue to speak out for you and to press for action on your behalf until the day comes, which it surely will, when your country is free again and your suffering is at an end.

The Shadow Leader of the House, Thomas Docherty responded saying:

“As ever, the hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) made an impassioned and knowledgeable speech about the situation in North Korea. She has a tremendous track record in relation to the persecution of Christians, and—again, as ever—she made a hugely important contribution. I know that her work has the support of all Members.”

Fiona Bruce MP

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North Korean film


#northkorea

Kim Yong-Un
Kim Yong-Un

Sony Picture’s film The Interview, which was not screened due to the alleged hacking attack by North Korea, attracted considerable publicity at the end of last year.  It represented a flagrant attempt by North Korea – if indeed they are the culprits – to silence the screening of a film about the fictional attempt to assassinate the leader of that country, Kim Jong-un.

Amnesty International has released The Other Interview which features the story of Park Ji-hyu who fled starvation in North Korea and was then trafficked into China and sold as a slave to a farmer.  She was reported to the Chinese authorities as a defector and was forcibly returned to North Korea.  She was sent to one of their hellish prison camps where she faced starvation and torture.  She eventually managed to escape.

Amnesty International’s UK Director Kate Allen said ‘Sony has every right to make a comedy about North Korea.  We should all be worried when blackmail, threats to cinemas, and the hacking of private data are being used to censor and silence.

‘In reality, many people in North Korea are subjected to an existence beyond nightmares.  The population is ruled by fear with a network of prison camps a constant spectre for those who dare step out of line.

‘Thousands of people in the camps are worked to death, starved to death [or] beaten to death.  Some are sent there just for knowing someone who has fallen out of favour.

‘Amnesty is releasing The Other Interview so that people all over the world can hear first-hand how people in North Korea are suffering appallingly at the hands of Kim Jong-un and his officials.

‘They don’t want you to see it which is precisely why you should.’

A preview can be seen on YouTube.  We do not know if this film will be shown in Salisbury but we will see if we can arrange a viewing somewhere.

This is being written while the dreadful events are playing out in France following the assassination of journalists and cartoonists in the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.  This is another attempt – this time by violent means – to silence criticism and the particular kind of satire that this magazine goes in for.

The Salisbury group’s North Korean YouTube video clip can be see here.

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CIA torture #stoptorture


The world was shocked – briefly – last week with the publication of Dianna Feinstein’s report into the use of torture by the CIA around the world in its ‘war against terror.’  The report examines in great detail the methods and effectiveness of those methods and also the effects it will have on the United States’ reputation around the world.  In her words:

‘[It has done] immeasurable damage to the United States’ public standing, as well as the United States’ longstanding global leadership on human rights in general and the prevention of torture in particular.’  (p16)

When we have campaigned in the street against the use of torture most people hurry on by, after all we don’t use torture in the UK do we?  Some find the subject distasteful and even those who stop to sign a card will often decline to take a fact sheet with the details of what is happening to someone described on it.  The fact remains that it is still widely used around the world despite the great majority of countries having signed UN pledges otherwise.

It has to be said in the United States’ defence that they are one of the few countries which could enable an investigation take place and then publish the results, despite redactions, for all to see.  The United Kingdom who, along with other countries around the world, aided and abetted the CIA in its activities has gone to great lengths to frustrate, delay and otherwise prevent details of its involvement becoming known.  It is to be hoped that over the coming months and years details will emerge to show our complicity in this sordid activity.

The report goes into great detail of the use and effectiveness of the methods used.  The world was especially shocked to learn of ‘rectal feeding’.  Precious little evidence is provided of any effectiveness.  It notes that a lot of useful information was provided before suspects were then tortured and that many of the claims about counter-terrorism successes were ‘wrong on fundamental aspects’ (p2).

So how has this come about?  Torture is of course as old as the hills.  But there are several aspects which keep it alive in the modern state.  Firstly a belief in its effectiveness despite evidence to the contrary.  Part of the blame is a kind of Hollywood view of terrorism.  The report quotes the TV series ’24’ the first of which showed a man being fearsomely tortured to reveal the vital secret which our hero then spends the next 24 hours dashing about trying to frustrate.  Buried within this is the assumption that an individual has a key piece of information and once sufficient pain has been inflicted, he (or she) gives it up.  But how does anyone know?  The problem being that people will say anything to get it to stop so just because a piece of information is finally revealed, how does anyone know how accurate it is?  This kind of thinking is demonstrated in the familiar question ‘if you knew someone had a key piece of information which could save hundreds of lives but he won’t tell you, wouldn’t you torture him to get hold of it?’  But how do you know it is key?  The report notes that seven of the 39 detainees they looked at produced no information at all despite relentless beatings, waterboarding, starvation and sleep deprivation.

Another familiar Hollywood feature of crime series like CSI and NCIS for example, is the copious amounts of information that the officers seem to have at the press of a button.  A screen suddenly appears on a wall with flashing dots to show where the culprit is and they all dash off to apprehend him.  It is part of the technological view of crime detection.  This engenders a belief that simply getting the information will enable the law enforcement agencies to close in on a terrorist cell.  The problem was that the record keeping by the CIA was so poor combined with their lack of cooperation with other agencies such as the FBI, meant that little of value was derived from the activity.  (p13)  The reality of what actually happens on the ground is miles away from the fantasy world of TV series.

This Hollywood inspired view of the world goes someway to explain the public’s attitude to the revelations.  It is seen as a regrettable necessity when a war is being fought against a terrorist enemy.  If it keeps us safe, then what does it matter if someone is deprived of sleep for a few days to get them to talk?  The end of saving hundreds of lives justifies the means of bad treatment of a handful of detainees.  We cannot afford to be too squeamish when dealing with fanatics after all.

But the activity has corrupted the governing process.  It was ineffective so lies were told about valuable information being gained when next to none was.  People like Secretary of State Colin Powell were kept out of the loop.  The media was deceived into believing that terrorism plots were being interdicted when in reality few if any were.  The White House was lied to and up and down the CIA deception was practised.  When some detainees died as a result of their torture no one was brought to account.  Foreign governments were dragged into the process to provide locations known as ‘black sites’ where individuals were taken to be tortured.  Foreign governments such as the UK government lied about ‘rendition’ flights through the UK, in particular Prestwick.  The use of Diego Garcia which the USA leases from the UK, is a story which may slowly unravel over time.

Torture is widely practised around the world.  It is routinely used to coerce people and to inhibit  opposition parties.  If the world’s leading nation – the United States – does it then the moral force they might apply to the nations who routinely use it is dissipated.  Let us hope the Feinstein Report results in an end to the practice in the States.

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Group meeting


The meeting took place tonight with a speaker from South Korea.  A full report will appear soon.

#stoptorture  And a reminder that we are running a stall on Saturday 15th in the Market Place to highlight the issue of torture around the world.  If you can come along and sign or better still, help for an hour that would be great.  It will be the first outing of the torture wheel based on the Philippine’s security services wheel used to decide on how they are going to torture a suspect.

Group campaign event, Saturday 8 November
Group campaign event, Saturday 8 November
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Court of Appeal victory #stoptorture


October 2014

stop_torture

Update: See this Human Rights Watch blog: http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/31/dispatches-rare-victory-justice

A victory was achieved today in the long running battle by Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar to get justice and redress for being tortured in Libya.

Belhaj was a Libyan politician who was allegedly abducted and secretly flown to Libya where he was tortured by General Gaddafi’s security forces.  He has brought the case against the former foreign secretary, Jack Straw and Sir Mark Allen, the former head of counter terrorism at MI6.  After the collapse of the Gaddafi regime, papers were discovered in Libya which implicated the British security services in the torture of Belhaj and his wife.

In December 2013, the High Court struck out the civil lawsuit brought by the claimants, holding that since the claim called into question activities of a foreign state on its own territory the act of state doctrine precluded the court from hearing the case.  The Court rejected the UK Government’s argument that state immunity (a principle of international law by which a state is protected from being sued in the courts of other states) operated as a bar to the claim.

Judge Mr Justice Simon found “with hesitation” that the case could not go ahead and expressed his concern that “what appears to be a potentially well-founded claim that the UK authorities were directly implicated in the extraordinary rendition of the claimants, will not be determined in any domestic court; and that Parliamentary oversight and criminal investigations are not adequate substitutes for access to, and a decision by, the Court.”

In February 2014, the claimants were given permission to appeal the ruling on the act of state doctrine and the UK Government cross-appealed contesting that, in addition to the act of state doctrine, state immunity also precluded the claims from being heard.

On Monday 30 June, the NGOs Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, JUSTICE and REDRESS filed written interventions jointly in this case, which may set an important precedent for future claims brought by torture victims.

In the Court of Appeal’s decision it noted, among other things, the changed nature of public international law which has expanded to include the regulation of human rights …  It went on to observe that ‘unless the English Courts are able to exercise jurisdiction in this case, these very grave allegations against the executive will never be subjected to judicial investigation.’ 

Andrea Coomber of Justice said that the Government’s case would fundamentally undercut the international rule of law and undermine the global commitment to remedies for victims of human rights violations.

Part of the Government’s case was a fear of embarrassing the United States who had colluded with MI6 in the alleged abduction.

It is frequently stated that the British Government does not carry out torture and we have signed the relevant treaties to that effect.  Rendering people to countries to, in effect, subcontract this evil process is unacceptable.

The government is considering whether to appeal.

Sources

Brick Court Chambers, http://www.brickcourt.co.uk

The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk

Redress (see link at bottom of this blog)

Reprieve (ditto)

Amnesty International (ditto)

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#stoptorture Bahrain


stop_tortureAn interesting decision was made by the courts this week that Prince Nassser bin Hammed Al-Khalifa (pictured) is liable for prosecution for his alleged role in the torture of FF a torture survivor from the kingdom.  Up to now the prince has claimed immunity.  The case is important because several of the gulf states regularly use torture yet prosecutions never happen because of claimed immunity.

This is an embarrassment to the UK government as it has welcomed members of the ruling family toprince nasser bin hasam Downing St and is keen to promote greater ties with the kingdom.  Indeed the New Statesman remarked that ‘the more desperate the situation in Bahrain becomes, the closer Britain ties itself to the ruling family.’

Behind it all is an arms deal of £1bn for the sale of Tornado jets.

The full story is on the Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (sic)

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David Cameron’s speech


October 2014

In his speech to the Tory party conference today, the prime minister David Cameron pledged to get rid of the Human Rights Act #HRA and replace it with a British Bill of Rights.  Problem?  Where is it?  A bit like Lewis Carroll’s snark, it is often spoken of but never actually seen.  It has been talked about off and on for around 7 years now but it still hasn’t seen the light of day.

David Cameron Photo, BBC
David Cameron
Photo, BBC

Second problem: how will it be any different to the HRA it will replace?  It will presumably contain many of the clauses about fair trials, no torture, knowing what one is accused of, no slavery, arbitrary arrest etc. etc. that are contained in the HRA.

It is likely that the ire is directed at some individual cases which get the tabloid press in a stew such as Abu Qatada.  The issue here of course was that he could not be deported because it was likely that either, he would be tortured or, evidence gained by torture would be used against him.

The problem is the same as it always has been with the act.  It is European and in the fevered atmosphere of anti-Europeanism stoked up by Ukip, anything from Europe is a bad thing.  The second problem is the media – or sections of it – who dislike the act and print all manner of misinformation and disinformation about its rulings.  They don’t like it because the question of privacy has a higher standing under the act than they would like.  As we have seen with News International – and are beginning to see with the Mirror Group newspapers – newspapers are sold by penetrating the private lives of the famous by a variety of dubious and illegal means.

The benefits of the act, such as that reported today of people in Essex who were able to use it to take action against the police, are seldom reported.

Unless we pull out of the Council of Europe, we will still be subject to the rulings of the European Court.  It is strange to report that with all the venom and anger directed against Strasbourg nearly 99% of cases applications against the UK are struck out.  That is because we have good legal systems here.  The HRA was brought in to stop the trail of people having to go to Europe to get justice.

Note added in April 2026.

This post was written 12 years ago and a lot has happened since. David Cameron resigned as PM following the ‘no’ vote in the Referendum to leave the EU. The Conservatives had a long and tortuous relationship with the EU (and still do). Many believe in human rights but are fearful of the right wing press which – as discussed – do not like it. They were then and still are, frightened of he popularity of UKIP which is now the Reform party.

Immigration still makes waves and is often a deciding factor in our politics.

Interesting to note that this speech was in all likelihood written by one Danny Kruger who is now the MP for East Wiltshire where this is being typed. Kruger left the Conservatives last year and is now a Reform MP. He is still anti the EU and was on the BBC radio programme only a few days ago speaking against it.

We are delighted that this post still is attracting views after 12 years so thank you for those who landed here.

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Stop Torture campaign


The local group will be manning a stand on 15 November to highlight the #stoptorture campaign which was launched by Amnesty in May this year.  The practice is alive and well throughout the world and Amnesty has recently ramped up its campaigning to stamp out the practice with the Stop Torture campaign.

'Waiting for the guards'
‘Waiting for the guards’

Ahead of its launch, Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General said governments around the world are “two-faced on torture” – prohibiting it in law, but facilitating it in practice”.

He added: “Torture is not just alive and well – it is flourishing in many parts of the world.  As more governments seek to justify torture in the name of national security, the steady progress made in this field over the last thirty years is being eroded.”

Stop torture will be a key part of the Amnesty display as part of the Magna Carta events at the Cathedral next year.

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