According to Amnesty International, at least 122 of the world’s 160 countries it surveyed committed or allowed torture. The global human rights organization also found in its 2015 report that 30 or more countries “illegally forced refugees to return to countries where they would be in danger,” and at least 156 human rights defenders died while in detention or killed.
Torture, whether sanctioned by governments or used by armed groups operating without impunity, is clearly widely practiced.
On June 26 voices will be raised around the globe in recognition of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Here in our corner of the world, a refugee support group, the Owl and Panther Project, and the local chapter of Amnesty International and others will participate in a community gathering to hear from individuals who survived torture, to raise our awareness.
The event will be held at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St., from 2-4 p.m.
“We all have a role in ending this,” said Abagail Hungwe, of the Owl and Panther Project. “The first step is knowing about it and caring and educating ourselves about it,” added Hungwe, who came to Tucson from Zimbawe as a refugee nine years ago.
Leonardo Maturana will be one of the speakers at the event.
The Chilean-born Maturana was tortured after the Chilean military overthrew the democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende, a socialist, on Sept. 11, 1973.
Maturana, now 63 years old, was luckier than thousands of other Chileans who were killed during the coup and in the subsequent 17 years during the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
“I knew people,” said Maturana.
Two years after the coup, as the military regime intensified its suppression, police detained Maturana, a university student and son of a miner. He endured kicks, beatings and electric shocks.
More than 40 years later, the memories still haunt him, making it difficult for him to recall and relive the torture he endured.
He has lived in Tucson for 40 years and taught for the Pima County Adult Education program.
As a survivor, Maturana continues to find ways to heal. One way is not to hide the history or deny that torture existed, and to honor those who survived and those who did not.
“We want a memorial to victims of torture and abuse,” he said during a recent interview. He is active in the efforts to create a “living” memorial in his native Antofagasta, a port city on the edge of the Atacama Desert.
In some countries, like Argentina and Guatemala, aging generals who ordered the deaths and torture of government opponents are being tried for past crimes, despite those who want to forget the past.
Maturana said suppression is unabated as governments continue to violently silence opponents with clubs and water cannons. Sadly, torture is seen as an acceptable form of response, he added.
Torture also comes in other forms, said Hungwe. There is mental and emotional torture in verbal threats or images of torture sent to opponents. A phone call threatening violence or death to family members, or the sending of a severed body part, are forms of torture, she said.
Torture crosses ideology. Governments from the communist left to the authoritarian right engage in torture to suppress dissent and differences.
And democratic governments, including the United States, also practice torture, in the name of national security.
Think Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and waterboarding. A critical 2012 U.S. Senate report detailed abuses and torture committed after the invasion of Iraq. That didn’t keep presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from endorsing waterboarding, saying “torture works” earlier this year.
“We have been trained to accept that torture is the best way to protect ourselves and our country,” said Hungwe.
Hungwe, who works with refugee families who have experienced torture, trauma and forced relocation, said the effects are lifelong and devastating to survivors and their families. The residual effect, post-traumatic stress disorder, “creates instability in the individuals and communities,” she said.
Talking about torture, owning up to it, is the first step to the eventual goal of ending torture, she said.
