DATE=11/11/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / POLICE TORTURE (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256053
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: An international human rights group says
police torture is reaching epidemic proportions in
Russia. V-O-A Moscow Correspondent Eve Conant reports
that the group - Human Rights Watch - says two years
of research has revealed what it describes as rampant
police brutality, forced confessions, and systematic
torture.
TEXT: A study released by Human Rights Watch
concludes police torture to extract confessions is
widespread in Russia. The nearly 200-page report is
based on more than 50 interviews with torture victims
as well as interviews with former police officials,
judges, and prosecutors.
The study describes common forms of police brutality,
including beatings, near-asphyxiation with gas masks,
and electric shock treatment.
The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth
Roth, says forced confessions are used to boost crime-
fighting statistics.
/// ROTH ACT ///
But ultimately we found that the main reason
police torture is because they can get away with
it. The main conclusion of the report is that
there is a complete breakdown in any system of
accountability.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// The study describes four cases in which
detainees, one as young as 15, jumped from police
department windows to escape. Two of the men were
paralyzed and one died. /// END OPT ///
Mr. Roth says subjects from all over Russia were
interviewed for the study told of similar forms of
abuse.
/// ROTH ACT ///
Other types of torture that we encountered
included electric shock and then a variety of
tortures that have become so common police have
actually given names to them. For example, the
police call one form of torture "the elephant."
It derives the name from the fact that they put
a gas mask on people. The hose looks like an
elephant's trunk. Then they shut off the air
and suffocate the person, sometimes to the point
of unconsciousness. Needless to say, people
don't go through that very long without quickly
confessing.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// Another practice detailed in the report
is referred to as the "swallow" because a victim
resembles a bird after his hands are tied behind his
back and he is hung in the air and beaten. /// END
OPT ///
Mr. Roth says in Soviet times, torture was directed
from above and targeted special cases such as
political dissidents. But now, he says, even the
simplest crime can lead to brutal forms of torture.
/// ROTH ACT ///
The victims are anyone caught in the police
dragnet. You could have committed a serious
crime (or) a very minor crime. You could be
guilty or entirely innocent. It doesn't really
matter. If you are in police custody you have a
very good chance of being tortured.
/// END ACT ///
Russia's Interior Ministry spokesman told V-O-A the
ministry is not able to comment on the report until
it has studied it further.
/// REST OPT ///
Part of the problem, says the head of Moscow's Center
for Prison Reform, Valery Abramkin, is that many
Russians accept police brutality as part of the crime-
fighting process.
/// ABRAMKIN ACT -IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
///
He says, "Control has weakened over investigators and
police. But one must also bear in mind that this is
happening against the backdrop of mass hysteria and
fear of crime."
The Human Rights Watch report says officials must
allow detainees immediate access to independent
lawyers; and lawmakers must enact a law to make police
torture a crime. The rights group says part of the
problem is a conflict of interest. At present, the
prosecutors who work closely with the police to
investigate ordinary crimes are the same people who
field complaints of police brutality. (Signed)
NEB/EC/JWH/JP
11-Nov-1999 11:51 AM EDT (11-Nov-1999 1651 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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