Doctors aid torturers

Press, 26 August 1986, Page 12

Doctors aid torturers

NZPA-Reuter Copenhagen Doctors take part in torture in many countries and are especially vulnerable to involvement if they work for the military or in prisons, an international conference has been told. “In several countries, for example Chile and Uruguay, doctors have taken an active part in torture and they have falsified death certificates in order to conceal torture.” A Danish forensic scientist, Joergen Thomsen, told a seminar on doctors, ethics and torture in Copenhagen. Doctors in prisons and the military run a high risk of human rights violations, he said. “They may be under pressure to assist in torture, to falsify

death certificates to overlook signs and symptoms of physical and psychological abuse. “There have been documented examples of all of these offences. It may be extremely difficult and dangerous for these doctors to refuse to co-oper-ate with the authorities,” said Mr Thomsen. “There is much need for international support from the national medical associations.”

Amnesty International, in a report given to conference members, lists cases of unethical involvement in torture by doctors in Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Tanzania and Greece.

More thhan 40 speakers from a dozen countries attended the seminar, in-

eluding representatives of Argentinian. Chilean, Uruguayan, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Swiss, Belgian, West German and Philippines medical associations.

The secretary-general of the Chilean Medical College, Dr Francisco Rivas Larrain, was prevented from attending the meeting after being arrested in a peaceful demonstration for reinstatement of democratic rule in Chile, said the Danish Medical Association.

But in a speech read out on his behalf, he said: “During the dictatorship more than 80 physicians have directly or indirectly taken part in acts of illtreatment, humiliation or

torture. The great majority of these physicians belonged to the armed forces.”

The Uruguayan representatives Dr Gregorio Martirena, said there had been 100 similar cases in his country. In both Chile and Uruguay, the medical associations had taken action against members found guilty of involvement in torture.

The president of the Danish Medical Association Professor Erik Holst, said it might help doctors at risk to include in their contracts a clause specifically forbidding them to act against international ethical principles. He said torture was known to have occurred in 92 countries.