Torturers are “the common enemies of all mankind.”

Feb 09, 2014 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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The People’s Progressive Party Civic administration has failed to convene a single commission of inquiry into reports of torture during its entire tenure of office. The Government of Guyana, despite its ratification of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1988 and despite well-publicised cases of torture, seems to be indifferent to recurring reports of the crime of torture involving members of the defence and security forces.
Evidence of the PPPC mindset emerged when the matter was debated in the National Assembly on 28th October 2008. The PPPC administration unintelligently sought to justify the unjustifiable by coining the euphemistic doublespeak of “roughing up”.  A PPPC Minister announced that the claims by some of the alleged victims had been found to be “false.” He then added that an internal military investigation had found cases of “roughing up.” He then tried to justify the actions taken by suggesting that, in the light of the “new face of criminality,” the security forces would use “a certain amount of physical and mental pressure” in order to get information, while insisting that such measures did not fit the definition of torture.
The term “torture,” under Article 1 of the Convention, means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by, or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.
The Convention instructs, further: “States are to ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law, including complicity or participation in torture. International law places an obligation on states to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish torture and other ill-treatment. The obligation to prosecute torture includes those who are complicit as well as to those who directly participate in torture, as well as those responsible in the “chain of command.”
The crime of torture was the subject of a significant ruling by the British House of Lords in 1999 in the case of General Augusto Pinochet who was the Head of State of Chile from 11th September 1973 until 11th March 1990. It had been alleged that, during that period, various crimes against humanity (torture, hostage taking and murder) were committed in Chile for which General Pinochet was “knowingly responsible.” According to the House of Lords:
“The jus cogens nature of the international crime of torture [that is, a fundamental principle of international law that is accepted by the international community of states as a norm from which no derogation is permitted] justifies states in taking universal jurisdiction over torture wherever committed. International law provides that offences jus cogens may be punished by any state because the offenders are “common enemies of all mankind and all nations have an equal interest in their apprehension and prosecution.”
As a crime of a “universal jurisdiction,” therefore, those who order or carry out such acts can be prosecuted anywhere in the world, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or perpetrator. No one can claim exemption from this because of his or her official capacity. There is no statute of limitations for such crimes under international law.
There is abundant evidence that the crime of torture has been committed repeatedly in Guyana.  Patrick Sumner and Victor Jones were arrested by members of the police and defence forces in September 2007. They were taken to Defence Force headquarters, Police Force headquarters then to another military camp where they said they were tortured. Michael Dunn, Sharth Robertson and Alvin Wilson – three defence force soldiers – complained that they had been tortured by being beaten, cuffed, kicked, shocked, and struck with metal objects, between November and December 2007, in a military camp.
David Leander was arrested in November 2007. He was so badly injured that he was unable to walk and could hardly speak and had to be hoisted into the Magistrates’ Court to answer charges of attempted murder and possession of narcotics.
Twyon Thomas was arrested in October 2007 on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Ramenauth Bisram, a People’s Progressive Party stalwart and former Vice-Chairman of the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara Region.  The boy was taken to the La Grange Police station and thence to the Leonora Police Station where he was beaten and burnt. Colwyn Harding, most recently, was arrested in November 2013. He accused a policeman at the Timehri Police Station of sodomising him with a baton. Harding suffered severe intestinal injuries.
Guyana, as a signatory to the Convention, is obliged to “take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.” No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture and “An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.”
The PPPC administration should heed the counsel of former British Chief of Defence Staff General Lord Guthrie on this subject who said: “Torture is not only illegal, unethical, ineffective, cruel and counter-productive, it is also dumb.”

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