HUMAN RIGHTS-AZERBAIJAN: UN Rapporteur Finds that Torture is Widespread

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 9 2001 (IPS) - The special United Nations rapporteur on torture concluded that such practices were “widespread” in detention centres in Azerbaijan.

Special rapporteur Nigel Rodley, of British nationality, visited the former Soviet republic from May 7-15, 2000 due to reports that police and other security forces systematically tortured people held in preventive detention.

Torture was regularly used, he said, to punish detainees, force them to confess, or force them or their families to pay bribes.

Those accused of treason or other political crimes were systematically tortured, according to the reports documented by Rodley.

The special rapporteur said that “torture and similar ill- treatment are believed by many persons in the hands of law enforcement officials to be automatic,” while the mere threat of negative repercussions for failing to cooperate with investigators – in signing a confession, for example – is assumed to mean torture.

Rodley’s report to the UN Human Rights Commission, which opens its annual session on the 19th, states that “the government should ensure that all allegations of torture and similar ill- treatment are promptly, independently and thoroughly investigated by a body capable of prosecuting perpetrators.”

In addition, “prosecutors should regularly carry out inspections, including unannounced visits, of all places of detention,” says the report.

“Similarly, the Ministries of Internal Affairs and of National Security should establish effective procedures for internal monitoring of the behaviour and discipline of their agents, in particular with a view to eliminating practices of torture and ill- treatment.”

Furthermore, Rodley stated, “non-governmental organisations and other parts of civil society should be allowed to visit places of detention and to have confidential interviews with all persons deprived of liberty.”

The special rapporteur further recommended that a system be set in place by which adequate indemnification would be promptly paid whenever evidence of torture or mistreatment were found.

Rodley had the impression that the use of physical torture had diminished in the past two years, especially with respect to people held on suspicion of politically motivated criminal offenses.

However, the testimony he gathered at the Gobustan penitentiary and other places of detention convinced him that systematic, prolonged torture had been inflicted on detainees suspected of participating in a January 1999 escape attempt from that prison.

Non-governmental sources told Rodley that the government of Azerbaijan decided a few months ago to uproot the practice of torture by security forces.

But the UN rapporteur observed with concern that non- governmental organisations were not apparently invited to participate in the legal reform process, which he said lacked transparency.

The report states that one of the main problems faced by authorities in Azerbaijan after independence, in August 1991, was the high level of armed violence.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, 18,000 firearms were confiscated in this country of nearly seven million from 1994 to 1996. The ministry also stated that Azerbaijan, which abolished the death penalty in 1998, was one of the members of the Community of Independent States with the lowest crime rates.

But Rodley said he observed “palpable fear” among people detained at the Ministry of National Security headquarters’ remand centre.

The mistreatment, he said, was fuelled by the power of prosecutors to order 30 days of detention in remand centres, under Interior Ministry jurisdiction.

Rodley suggested that cameras and microphones be installed to record what goes on in interrogation rooms.

Due to the large number of people arrested who are not aware of their rights, he also recommended campaigns to raise public awareness on human rights, especially regarding police powers.

During his stay in Azerbaijan, Rodley met with President Heydar Aliyev, government ministers and other high-level officials, judges, jurists and members of non-governmental organisations such as the Azerbaijan Human Rights Centre.