Torture In Brazil Reported

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 7

Torture In Brazil Reported

(By ALAN McGREGOR, of “The Times/* through N.Z.P.A.) GENEVA, July 28. In Brazil today torture seems to be “a systematic and scientificallydeveloped practice of the organs charged with maintaining the existing order,” the International Commission of Jurists (1.C.1.) says in a report on repressive measures in that country. It puts the number of political prisoners in Brazil now as at least 12,000. According to the 1.C.1., the report is based on documents smuggled out of gaols and concentration camps, evidence from visitors to Brazil, and details provided by the group of political prisoners exchanged in June for the kidnapped West German Ambassador and who are now in Algiers. The report says that active opposition to the Brazilian regime comes from many sectors of the population, par-

ticularly the universities, the lower clergy, certain religious orders and the liberal professions. “Insecure Zones" As the scattered struggle with different guerrilla groups makes police investigation difficult, suspects brought in after round-ups in “insecure zones” are tortured systematically, the report goes on, to force them to disclose information and also to dissuade them from aiding members of the underground. The report alleges that since January, Army doctors have frequently attended interrogations, to administer stimulants so that prisoners will not lose consciousness and torture can be prolonged. They have also to prevent the infliction of obvious wounds on those who may later appear before a judge. According to the report, the most common techniques are: water torture, in which the prisoner’s head is submerged —always to the limit of suffocation—in a bucket of dirty water, urine, or excrement Electric torture, with the captive hung, generally by his knees, hands tied to feet

from an iron bar. Electrodes are applied to genitals, ears, nostrils, breasts or reverse side of eyelids for the administration of electric shocks of increasing intensity. Blows, with the captive’s ears being struck simultaneously with open hands, causing the eardrums to fracture. “The rape of women prisoners is frequent," the report adds. “Children Tortured” A child is often tortured in front of its mother and husbands and wives are tortured simultaneously in the same room. There are sham executions and methodical deprivation of sleep or water. In numerous prisons, city police stations and camps, special cells consisting of a concrete cylinder, sft by sft, have been arranged. They are fitted with a single air vent and often permanently lit by a strong bulb. The prisoner spends sometimes days and weeks in a huddled-up position close to suffocation. Other forms of torture result from “indivdual initiative,” such as police dogs at

Belloy Horizonte Prison “specially trained to attack delicate parts of the human body.” Distinctive practices at Sao Paulo include the pulling out of finger or toe nails, the crushing of testicles and the use of white-hot needles. “Mutilated Boy” Particularly notorious is the camp on “Flower Island,” where “the men in charge have adopted the habit of leaving in the visiting room a mutilated boy whose disjointed movements and marks of ill-treatment were to encourage visiting parents to advise their sons and daughters to co-operate promptly with the investigators." The 1.C.1. believes that there is little hope of a return to more human standards “in view of the increasing number of civil servants and military officers who have incriminated themselves by torturing their fellow citizens." It adds: “Their only means of avoiding punishment, let alone the revenge of their compatriots, is to continue and even intensify the repression.” •