RIGHTS-ASIA: Tokyo Diplomacy Does Little on Torture – Critics

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 25 2000 (IPS) - Kalsang Palmo, a shy 35-year-old nun from Tibet, recalls how the Chinese police slapped and kicked her, and used electric batons to torture her after she was arrested in 1988 for joining a protest demanding freedom for her homeland.

“I was standing with a group of about 15 other monks and nuns and we were demonstrating peacefully against a Chinese government order to close Tibetan monasteries, when we were arrested by the police,” she told a spell-bound audience of Japanese listeners over the weekend here.

“Then they tortured us. I was constantly abused for more than 24 hours, including having to bear unbearable pain when they used electric batons that were inserted even into my private parts,” she said softly. “I still continue to suffer from fear and nightmares.”

Palmo, who fled Tibet after her ordeal, is in Tokyo for a week along with five other Asian victims of torture, to share her experiences.

Her visit, like those of other torture victims, is part of the year-long global campaign against torture launched here by the human rights organisation Amnesty International on Oct. 18.

Japan was chosen as a launch site for the campaign in order to sensitise the public here, and to pressure Tokyo to use its clout as top donor to China and pressuring it to curb the ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience.

“Stopping the torturing of political rights activists is a government responsibility because political rights belong to government,” said Palmo.

“This is why I am in Japan because I want the Japanese government to tell China to respect our right for an independent homeland,” she added.

But rights activists here say that getting Japan to take a more aggressive stance on human rights in its diplomacy and development policy is no easy job.

“Japan leads Asia economically but when it comes to taking a stand with Asian governments on human rights, there is not much hope,” said Norio Yamamoto, a human rights activist.

“Take the example of the five Asian victims of torture who spoke at the launch. Three of them live here in Japan, but they have yet to get proper visas even though some of them have applied for refugee status years ago,” Yamamoto pointed out.

Tibetans, Amnesty International Japan had invited former torture victims from Burma, Indonesia, South Korea and even Japan, apart from Tibet, to speak about their own experiences.

“‘The average Japanese has been reared to respect authority, but not question it. That’s why there is a reluctance to support victims of torture in other countries, because they are seen as people who have defied the law,” added human rights lawyer Kaido Yuichi.

At last week’s launch, Phone Myint Tun of Burma, who lives in Tokyo as a refugee, says he spent six years in a Burmese jail after being arrested for participating in a student demonstration against the military-led regime there that refused to honour the results of the 1990 general election.

“I was beaten and asked to repent against my political activities. I was denied food, denied a lawyer or a proper trial and now I cannot return to my home for fear of reprisal,” he said.

Yenny Rosa Damayanat from Indonesia, also living in Japan, says she was arrested in 1993 for her dissident activities against the Suharto government, and sentenced to one year in jail.

While in prison she was repeatedly subjected to lashings, she said, adding that victims were rarely given medical treatment for their injuries.

A report by Amnesty International, ‘Take a Step to Stamp Out Torture’ reveals that torture is mostly committed by police officers, soldiers, or agents of state but can also be inflicted by members of the family.

Torture is carried out in more than half of the countries in the world, with the report’s findings showing that 70 out of 150 countries allowed ill-treatment by state officials to be widespread or persistent.

Hideki Morihara of Amnesty Japan says Amnesty International’s campaign aims to achieve progress in three major areas — preventing torture, confronting discrimination and overcoming impunity.

The former torture victims and Amnesty Japan also met with foreign ministry officials here last week, urging the Japanese government to play a more active role against torture.

The Amnesty publication calls on governments to work against discrimination against women, saying violence against them is a form of torture.

Women detainees face sexual abuse, but many of them keep silent because they fear rejection by their husbands and social ostracism. Complaints against male soldiers are rarely investigated, says the report.

The UN Convention against Torture establishes the responsibility of the state for acts of torture inflicted “with the consent or acquiescence of a public official.”

But Amnesty International reports that despite international treaties and conventions, the use of high voltage electro-shock weapons are gaining popularity. They are used in more than 20 countries including Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Turkey and the United States, it says.

The Amnesty report adds that women often endure torture at the hands of relatives as a result of social discrimination.

Take the case of Sabira Khan from Pakistan, who was forced to marry a man twice her age and set on fire in 1993 by her mother-in law and husband.

In the court proceedings about her case, the magistrate upheld the position of her husband, who argued that she had set herself on fire because she was insane.