Bruce Van Voorhis

June 26 is the U.N. International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. It is a day that should be widely observed annually in Asia, like International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, as torture has become a disease that afflicts thousands of Asia's people every year. Many of these victims are members of opposition political parties, dissidents, journalists, lawyers, academics and others who may be tortured because they are seen by their government as a "national security threat" with "vital information" that can only be procured through torture to protect the nation. In reality, however, it is more likely that their exercise of free speech is the threat that they pose, not to the nation, but to the privileged position of the ruling political party and the government it leads. The detention and torture of this group of people rightly leads to the condemnation of human rights groups and denunciations by foreign governments.

Most torture victims in Asia, however, are ordinary people whose only transgression is they are poor and perceived to be powerless. Torture has become so entrenched in many parts of the region that the torture of these people is consciously or unconsciously viewed as a normal part of life. They are usually detained and brutalised by the police as part of what passes as a criminal investigation in an attempt to "solve" a crime - a daily reality that prompts the message on the back cover poster of this issue of Human Rights SOLIDARITY.

It is easy to perceive the use of torture, regardless of who are the victims, as a reflection of the power of the state. However, it is also a symptom of the government's illegitimacy and a sign of its weakness, its powerlessness to govern without coercion; for how can a government command the respect and support of its people if it regularly tortures its citizens or the threat of torture is always present? Why must a government succumb to such barbaric practices if it truly enjoys the authority to govern and maintains a legal system that dispenses justice?

Another prevalent perception of the commonplace use of torture that must be examined is that it creates and perpetuates fear in people and thus engenders a climate of impunity. While true, like the perception of power above, it must be added that torture also exposes the government's fear of its own people, that it feels it must intimidate its people in order to rule and control them. Based on this understanding, there is some hope for terminating the practice of torture.

This flicker of optimism is founded on the premise that fear begets silence in society and that if the government shares that fear, even if for a different reason, it offers possibilities for breaking this silence. Presently, the voices of the legal and academic communities, the media, religious figures and civil society in general - those who are most likely to speak out against torture - are oftentimes muffled by the fear generated by the government. However, when one realises that the government is also afraid, then this awareness can perhaps lead to more space for reacting to torture.

A good example of this response is the Street Movement for the Reform of Justice in Sri Lanka that is highlighted on page 20 to 23 of this issue of Human Rights SOLIDARITY. While its aims are broader than the elimination of torture, as the name of the movement indicates, eradicating torture is very much at the centre of its work as it seeks to mobilise civil society to confront the deficiencies of the country's legal system of which the pervasive and continual use of torture is a major manifestation. It is a model that is worth consideration in other parts of the region to transform the police from being lawbreakers to being law enforcers.

In the meantime, Asia's torture victims must not be abandoned. There must be protection, encouragement and support for those who have been tortured, including efforts to meet their medical and psychological needs, and advocacy against the practice. Remembering them on June 26 every year is a small beginning to this process that should not be missed.