India turns into world’s most violent country
As Secretary-General of Amnesty international I am writing to you and to other people in Indian public life because of a pattern of persistent abuse in the administration of justice in India: the torture, including rape, and deaths of prisoners in custody. We have raised this with successive governments in India and I want you to know why we have decided now to take a worldwide initiative to urge that such abuses are prevented in future.
Numerous people in India, including judges, lawyers, writers and civil libertarians, as well as many police and other officials have forthrightly expressed their concern about these practices. Many have made great efforts to halt them, to demand accountability or to provide redress. They have had success in individual cases but the overall picture has changed little.
Time and again Indian government officials have refused to acknowledge that the problem exists. No administration has shown the political will to bring about change.
INDIA: TORTURE, RAPE AND DEATH IN CUSTODY.
Published on March 25 is our report that may be misrepresented in both the foreign and the Indian news media. It may be described as anti- Indian. It is not. It criticizes practices that are unconstitutional in India itself. Nevertheless some may dismiss the report out of hand or suggest that Amnesty International’s motives are hostile to India. The facts in the report, and its detailed recommendations, may then be lost sight of. All the more reason for my urging you to give it your serious attention, to this report – pages 200.
Some people may say that Amnesty International is interfering in the internal affairs of India. The fact is that human rights are as much a global as a national concern. India recognized this in 1979 when it became a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In doing so, India undertook legal obligations to the international community to observe and protect human rights. Not only did India make a Unilateral Declaration against Torture saying that it would comply with the UN Declaration against Torture, it even initiated the 1977 resolution of the UN General Assembly that introduced the Declaration.
Our investigation has shown that there is a clear pattern of people being tortured to death throughout India — victims are picked up by police, illegally detained and then tortured for confessions until they die.
Officials give the green light to torture and police officers systematically cover up torture killings and bribe or threaten witnesses. The police officers and others who torture people to death are rarely brought to justice.
In Assam women were raped so frequently in detention that the high court ordered that women must not be taken to army camps for interrogation.
The six-chapter report includes violence on Dalits and Tribals, in Kashmir, Northeast, Muslims. And a list of the dead.
