Greece Denounced For Torture

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32274, 17 April 1970, Page 13

Greece Denounced For Torture

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) STRASBOURG, April 16.

The Council of Europe yesterday denounced 'Greece for alleged violation of basic human rights, including the widespread torture of prisoners.

The condemnation was based on a report by the European Commission for Human Rights, which detailed allegations that prisoners were beaten on the feet, given electric shocks or had their hair pulled out. The report, after a call by the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, added that witnesses described prisoners having their heads squeezed in a vice and men having their genitals kicked. The ministers decided by 15 votes to nil to publish the report, seen as a heavy psychological blow to the Athensi regime. France and Cyprus I did not vote. Under the European Con- | vention of Human Rights the ! Greek colonels would normally have been given time to amend their policy, but the ministers today took into consideration Greece’s attitude in withdrawing from the i council last December and its ’ declaration that it was not legally bound by the report’s ! conclusion. The Human Rights Commission found the Greek authorities responsible for toriture or ill treatment of 11 people. i Its report said that it had

taken account of the fact that most of the people detained for political activity since the April, 1967, coup were avowed Communists or other opponents to the regime, and that their account of torture might be fabricated.

But the report said the Greek Government had replied to allegations only with generalities or statements of opinion which carried little weight. The commission "cannot but regard the actual number of complaints brought before it as a strong indication that acts of torture or ill treatment are not isolated or ex-

ceptional, nor limited to one place,” the report said. As to official tolerance of ill-treatment, the commission said it had considered the general failure of the Greek Government to order inquir ies. But it rejected allegations that military security officers had been authorised to torture prisoners, provided no physical marks were left.

The commission concluded that Athens security police had tortured prisoners in their Bouboulinas Street headquarters, to extract confessions and information. Most of the accounts of torture made to the comtnis-

sion described “the falanga,' a centuries old method of beating the soles of the feet with a wooden or metal stick.

If skilfully done, the falanga broke no bones and left no permanent marks, but caused intense pain, the report said. The council’s ministers welcomed recent measures by the Greek Government, including the freeing of some political prisoners, informed sources said. But they said that these did not go far enough to change the resulution.

The resolution urged the colonels to restore human rights and freedoms and

urged an end to torture and ill treatment. Prisoners detained without trial should be released. The Greek Government claims that the council has no further jurisdiction over human rights in Greece. But the regime showed its concern over the report in a long statement issued on Monday in Athens. It said that the report was compiled “in a forced and hasty fashion without verification of the witnesses* statements and with the express intention of issuing a decision unfavourable to Greece for political reasons."