The Company of Torture - 0 views
started by Niemann Lynggaard on 23 May 13
started by Niemann Lynggaard on 23 May 13
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started by Niemann Lynggaard on 23 May 13
As increased, as their description extended and as new, frequently authoritarian polities, resorted to torture and repression understanding of human rights - human rights advocates and non-governmental businesses proliferated. It's become a business in a unique right: lawyers, specialists, researchers, therapists, law enforcement agencies, scholars and pundits tirelessly sell books, seminars, conferences, treatment sessions for court hearings, victims and other services.
Human rights activists target mainly nations and multinationals.
In June 2001, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a suit on behalf of 11 villagers against the American oil behemoth, ExxonMobile, for "abetting" violations in Aceh, Indonesia. They so-called that the company provided the military with equipment for digging mass graves and go here for more info served in the construction of interrogation and torture centers.
In November 2002, the law firm of Milstein, Cohen, Hausfeld & Toll joined other American and South African law firms in submitting a complaint that "seeks to put up firms accountable for aiding and abetting the apartheid regime in South Africa... Pushed job, genocide, extrajudicial killing, torture, sexual assault, and unlawful detention".
On the list of accused: "IBM and ICL which offered the computers that allowed South Africa to... Get a handle on the black South African population. Car companies provided the armored vehicles that have been used to patrol the townships. Arms companies violated the embargoes on sales to South Africa, as did the oil organizations. The banks provided the funding that allowed South Africa to develop its police and security apparatus."
Expenses were leveled against a large number of other multinationals and Unocal in Myanmar. In September 2002, Montague & Berger filed a class action grievance against Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport. The oil giants are charged with "purchasing ammunition and using... Planes and ships and giving logistical support for 'Operation Restore Order in Ogoniland'" that was created, according to the attorney, to "terrorize the civilian population into stopping peaceful protests against Shell's environmentally unsound oil exploration and extraction activities."
The defendants in most these court cases strongly deny any wrongdoing.
But this is just one part of the torture business.
Torture implements are made - primarily in the West - and sold freely, frequently to nasty programs in developing countries and even through the World Wide Web. Hi-tech units abound: advanced electroconvulsive stun weapons, painful restraints, reality serums, chemicals such as pepper gas. Ship accreditation is generally non-intrusive and small and completely ignores the technical requirements of items (for instance, if they could be dangerous, or merely cause pain).
Amnesty International and the UK-based Omega Foundation, found more than 150 manufacturers of stun guns in america alone. They face tough opposition from Germany (30 companies), Taiwan (19), France (14), South Korea (13), China (1-2), South Africa (nine), Israel (ten), Mexico (six), Poland (four), Russia (four), Brazil (three), Spain (three) and the Czech Republic (two).
Several pain uses pass through "off-shore" supply networks in Austria, Canada, Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Albania, Russia, Israel, the Philippines, Romania and Turkey. European Union is helped by this based organizations bypass appropriate bans in the home. The US government has usually turned a eye to the international trading of such gadgets.
American high-voltage electro-shock stun shields resulted in in electro-shock batons, stun guns in Indonesia, and Turkey and shields, and dart-firing taser guns in torture-prone Saudi Arabia. American businesses would be the dominant companies of stun belts. Describes Dennis Kaufman, President of Stun Tech Inc, a US producer of this innovation: ''Electricity speaks every language known to man. No translation necessary. Everyone is scared of electricity, and actually so.'' (Quoted by Amnesty International).
Amnesty and the Omega Foundation claim that 49 US companies may also be important suppliers of physical limitations, including leg-irons and thumbcuffs. But they are not alone. Other suppliers are found in Germany (8), China (3), France (5), Taiwan (3), South Africa (2), Spain (2), the UK (2) and South Korea (1).
Not surprisingly, the Commerce Department doesn't keep tab with this sounding exports.
Or is the-money sloshing around minimal. Documents held under the export control asset range A985 show that Saudi Arabia alone spent in the United States over $1 million a year between 1997-2000 basically on stun guns. Venezuela's bill for shock batons and such achieved $3.7 million in-the same time. Other clients included Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and - surprisingly - Bulgaria. Egypt's once intense ser-vices - already well-equipped - spent a mere $40,000.
The United States isn't the sole offender. The European Commission, based on an Amnesty International report published in 2001: and named "Stopping the Torture Trade"
"Gave a quality award to some Taiwanese electro-shock baton, nevertheless when questioned could not cite evidence concerning independent protection tests for this kind of baton or whether member states of the European Union (EU) have been employed. Most EU states have banned the use of such weapons at home, but German and French companies continue to be permitted to provide them to other countries."
Torture knowledge is generally proffered by former soldiers, agents of the security ser-vices made retired policemen, obsolete and even rogue medical doctors. France, Israel, South Africa, China, Russia, the United kingdom and the United States are founts of such of good use knowledge and its propagators.
How grounded torture is was revealed in September 1996 when the US Department of Defense admitted that ''intelligence education manuals'' were used within the Federally sponsored School of the Americas - among 150 such features - between 1982 and 1991.The guides, written in Spanish and used to train tens of thousands of Latin American security agents, "advocated delivery, torture, beatings and blackmail", says Amnesty International.
Where there's need there's supply. In the place of ignore the subject, authorities would do well to monitor and legalize it. Alan Dershowitz, an outstanding American criminal defense lawyer, proposed, within an article in the Los Angeles Times, published November 8, 2001, to legalize torture in severe cases and to have judges issue "torture warrants." This may be a significant departure from the human rights convention of the civilized world. But dispensing move vigilantly evaluated permits for dual-use accessories is just a different matter altogether - and long delayed.