By Scott Wright
TASSC Event Coordinator
For the 12th consecutive year, the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition (TASSC International) gathered in the halls of Congress and the streets of Washington DC to call out to the U.S. government and governments of the world: “Torture Never Again!” the theme of this year’s gathering.
More than 75 survivors of torture from 27 different countries – including the United States – gathered from June 24-28 to act together for an end to torture throughout the world. Survivors called for truth, justice and accountability in their testimony before the Congressional Human Rights Commission, just days before Attorney General Eric Holder announced his intention to name a special prosecutor to investigate the use of torture during the Bush Administration.
TASSC Testifies at Congressional Human Rights Commission
On June 25, TASSC joined human rights advocates from a dozen organizations at a noon rally to call on Attorney General Eric Holder to name a special prosecutor to investigate the justification and practice of torture by the United States during the Bush administration.
Later that day, Demissie Abebe, from Ethiopia, and Sr. Dianna Ortiz, OSU, from the United States – current and past Executive Directors of TASSC – joined two other survivors to testify before the Congressional Human Rights Commission, chaired by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). Mr. Abebe declared:
“Only when the most powerful are prosecuted for torture will those coming after be dissuaded from practicing this crime against humanity.”
Mary Aileen Bacalso, from the Philippines, represented the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), a federation of families of victims of enforced disappearances, “one of the worst forms of torture both for the direct victims and the surviving family members. Ms. Bacalso told the committee:
“We are aware that in all nooks and corners of the world, there are more victims who have no opportunity to share their stories, to heal their wounds, and to mend their scars. Amidst all these, the atmosphere of impunity exists. We therefore demand accountability, redress, reparation, and memory of those who did not live to tell their stories. Equally important is that we demand prevention measures so that this crime against humanity will totally be eradicated from the face of the earth.”
Dilkhwaz Ahmed, a survivor from Kurdistan who suffered under Sadaam Hussein, was the last to testify. She shared the experience of joy and disillusionment that many persons seeking political asylum in the United States share:
“Eight years ago, when I came to America, to the land of the free, I thought that I would experience real freedom and have a break from what I had been through. I left my country but I did not leave my identity. I left my children, but I did not leave my passion. I left behind everything but hopes. However, my dream never came true. I was shocked to hear that the United States is the main proponent of torture and advocating the same violence in its ideologies and practices.”
That evening, survivors and friends gathered at Catholic University to hear Shane Kadidal, head of the Guantanamo Project of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York. Mr. Kadidal offered a compelling story of defending Guantanamo detainees, and of the on-going struggle of human rights lawyers to call for justice and accountability for those who participated in torture – be they lawyers, psychologists, government officials, military, CIA, or private contractors.
UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
On June 26, to commemorate the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, more than 100 people gathered at the Columbus Law School on the Catholic University of America campus to hear survivors from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East testify.
The first panel, “Torture in Our Backyard,” set the tone for the day as human rights lawyers and human rights activists – including School of the Americas Watch founder Fr. Roy Bourgeois and TASSC lawyer and activist Jennifer Harbury – called on the Obama administration to investigate and hold accountable officials of the Bush administration who ordered, justified, and practiced torture in clear violation of both U.S. and international law.
A second panel of survivors – Bobbie Garcia from the Philippines, Mariam Iravanian from Iran, Marvyn Perez from Guatemala, and David Sanchez from Mexico – shared their very personal experiences of torture, and the continuation of the practice in their home countries. Subsequent panels dealt with two very important themes: truth, justice and accountability, and torture, women and children.
The panel on “Truth, Justice and Accountability” included Patrick Rice, a torture survivor from Argentina, who shared the struggle of survivors and human rights activists to bring military officials responsible for the disappearance, torture and assassination of 30,000 persons to trial; Martin Musinguzi, who shared the experience of the post-genocide reality in Rwanda, where village councils predating colonial times attempt to re-integrate the more than 130,000 perpetrators into society; and Mirna Perla, a survivor – and now a Supreme Court magistrate – and her daughter Rosa Anaya from El Salvador, where the memory of the victims and martyrs plays an important role in the struggle for justice and political participation of those most affected by more than a decade of war.
The panel on “Torture, Women and Children” offered a moving testimony to the resilience and courage of women and children – both victims and survivors – confronting the horrific violence of torture, rape, and mutilation in countries as diverse as the DR Congo, Uganda, the Philippines, Colombia, and Guatemala. Survivors testifying included Martine Songa (DR Congo), Grace Musoke (Uganda), Mary Aileen Bacalso (Philippines), Diana Gomez (Colombia), and Marylena Bustamante (Guatemala).
TASSC 24-Hour Vigil
The Survivor Gathering concluded with the annual 24-hour vigil in Lafayette Park, directly in front of the White House. Two to three hundred survivors and their supporters gathered to honor the victims of torture, and to speak the truth, as survivors and supporters, that torture is a crime against humanity.
Human rights, solidarity activists, lawyers, and cultural workers joined survivors of torture from around the world to celebrate, commemorate, protest and to challenge the Obama administration to live up to the promise of a break from the violence and abuse of the past, holding accountable those who tortured, and offering hope to future generations for a world based on justice, human dignity, and the eradication of torture.
In their message to President Obama, survivors said:
“We survivors come from all regions of the world, many of us live as refugees in the United States, all of us have directly experienced torture and inhuman treatment in our own countries. We are the fortunate few to survive.
“We gather annually at the end of June on the occasion of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture for a 24-hour vigil of solidarity with our sisters and brothers who are currently suffering torture in more than 150 countries around the world. We organize this activity at Lafayette Park across from the White House, although during the Bush administration this was not always possible.
“We gather here to protest the military aid US administrations have given to governments involved in torture. It was most distressing that after 9/11, the Bush administration, in betrayal of America’s most cherished principles, began to endorse torture as a tool in the war against terrorism.
“One of your first statements on becoming President was that your administration would never engage in torture anywhere. We have welcomed this policy and celebrate it as an answer to our pleas. Our vigil this year promised to be an occasion for hope.
“We sent you a letter expressing these concerns on March 12th. Now we invite you to come and meet torture survivors in Lafayette Park. We are confident you will find it worth your time to talk with people who have been tortured. We want you to know that you have our support in the struggle to end torture.”
Still Waiting for Truth, Justice and Accountability in America
Two weeks prior to the vigil, Sr. Dianna Ortiz, OSU, former Executive Director and founder of TASSC, joined religious leaders from the National Religious Coalition Against Torture (NRCAT) in a meeting at the White House with aides to President Obama. There they presented a unified demand for the U.S. to set up a Commission of Enquiry to investigate torture and other crimes committed by US officials during the Bush administration.
Sr. Ortiz also presented a letter on behalf of survivors to President Obama, inviting him to meet personally with survivors during TASSC Survivor Week. Every effort was made to have President Obama meet with the survivors of torture. His failure to do so – and his failure to even respond in writing to their letter – was a major disappointment to survivors, who are still waiting for the Obama administration to set the example for the rest of the world of living up to its obligations to comply with the Convention against Torture.
As human rights lawyers have reminded the Bush administration – and now the Obama administration – the Convention against Torture, as a treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate – is “the supreme law of the land.”
Navi Pillay, a South African magistrate and current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, offered a powerful statement on the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, a message in no small part directed to the people and government of the United States. In her message she said:
“The prohibition of torture is one of the most absolute to be found anywhere in international law. Article 2 of the Convention Against Torture is unequivocal: ‘No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.’
“… The terrorist acts that shook the world on September 11, 2001, had a devastating impact on the fight to eliminate torture… State lawyers began to look for ingenious ways to get around the Convention against Torture, or stretch its boundaries. The Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons, in particular, became high-profile symbols of this regression, and new terms such as “water-boarding” and “rendition” entered the public discourse, as human rights lawyers and advocates looked on in dismay.
“… As the Convention against Torture makes clear, people who order or inflict torture cannot be exonerated, and the roles of certain lawyers, as well as doctors who have attended torture sessions, should also be scrutinized. ‘Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture’ (Convention against Torture, Article 4).
“… What happened in Guantanamo, while reprehensible, nevertheless pales in comparison to the scale and nature of the torture taking place in prisons, police stations and other government premises in countries around the world… There are thousands of such places, and tens of thousands of victims, about whose atrocious suffering we hear next to nothing.
“… Torture is a barbaric act. I believe that no state whose regime conducts or condones torture can consider itself civilized.”
A World Free from Torture
TASSC wants to thank all of our supporters who carry on the struggle to abolish torture with so much courage. Your faithfulness to all such core values as human dignity, human rights, truth, justice, and accountability give hope to survivors everywhere that our struggle is not in vain. We can have a world free from torture.
Thank you! Let us go forward in 2009 and 2010 to make this dream a reality!
