27.07.2017
In the modern era, the
use of violence was the prerogative of the state. As Max Weber specified, only
the state has a legitimate right to use violence. In the era of globalization,
the functions of individuals and institutions which define and use multiple forms
of violence, begin to blur. It is not just about military campaigns and
participation in these by private companies, mercenaries and volunteer units,
but also violations of fundamental human rights by a non-state actors and
special departments of the state system, which are beyond the state's powers.
The US
In the United States, the
institutionalization of violence took place at the same time that democratic
institutions developed. The legal interpretation of different “atrocities”
appeared in the U.S in the late 18th to early 19th centuries which justify the
use of state-sanctioned torture.
In Massachusetts, the
1641 Massachusetts Body of Liberties states that a convicted criminal may
be tortured if he is found guilty, but the torture may not be barbaric or
inhumane.
The 1984 Convention
against Torture extends beyond the definition of torture as an inhumane act and
restricts its definition to illegal torture. According to this interpretation,
any actions that have been legalized, by definition, are not torture.
Therefore, if the authorities are empowered to act in the name of abstract
interests of national security, it is possible to torture suspects, as such
behavior is specified by the law.
The Legal Aid Department
of the US Justice Department, at the CIA's request, even prepared an office
memorandum, which stated that if a State employee is going to torture captured
suspected terrorists, he will do it in order to prevent new attacks on the
United States by the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
CIA head, George Tenet,
who served from 1997 to 2004, personally approved harsh interrogation
techniques, including drowning methods. Later, he also instructed the medical
staff to observe the brutal interrogations, which contradicts principles of
medical ethics.
Tenet himself was endowed
to approve, modify, or reject, all proposals relating to research involving
human subjects.
On December 9th, 2014 the
US Senate Committee on Intelligence issued a 500-page report on the findings of
the CIA program on arrest and interrogation of terrorism suspects. The program
was carried out from 2002 to 2006. Officially, the program's techniques were
banned in 2009. The full report, which has more than six thousand pages, is
still classified.
The most infamous cases
that became notorious world-wide in recent years were the tortures of Iraqi
prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, as well as the placement in special prisons
of a large number of foreign suspects, having links with al-Qaeda, most of
which are still at the US military base in Guantanamo (in addition, that Cuban
territory is illegally occupied by the United States since 1959).
In domestic policy, the
use of violence against American citizens has become a common practice. The
legislation gives the country the benefit of the doubt to police and other
security forces in most cases, which cause a high risk of citizen killings and
injuries at the hands of law enforcement agencies.
Ukraine
After the coup d’ etat in
Kiev in 2014, a surge of violence began in the country, which had an ideological
character. In most cases, murder, kidnapping and torture are supported and
encouraged by government agencies. Thus a number of major murders are not
investigated, and in some cases (the Oles Buzina murder investigation), the
suspects were set free. Simultaneously, there is the glorification of the
people who committed serious crimes, which are genocidal in nature.
Some facts about this
torture policy has been officially confirmed by the Ukrainian authorities, but
after a series of management changes in the Prosecutor General's Office of
Ukraine, recently these facts have been ignored.
The Chief Military
Prosecutor of Ukraine, Anatoly Matios, reported in 2015 on the issue of the
Ukrainian Interior Ministry battalion Tornado, that “the battalion commander Onishchenko
was previously convicted five times. He created a criminal group in the city of
widespread dislocation and urged his subordinates to commit serious crimes:
imprisonment of some local residents and repeated inhumane tortures, in
particular, in the basement of Privolnoye school, where torture tools were
prepared.”
The actual reason for the
arrest and torture of Ukrainian citizens by the authorities may be the
participation in the anti-Euromaidan demonstration, participation in Russian
television programs, a statement of sympathy or support for Russia or against
the maidan on the Internet, participation in rallies for Donetsk support,
participation in the referendum, “possession of a Russian journalist's phone
number.”
Aleksey Lukyanov was
arrested in June, 2014. He was brought to the base of the SBU, disguised as a
car-wash, where he was interrogated for a few days, being beaten, undergoing
psychological pressure and humiliation. Then he was put into a jeep and sent to
Slavyansk region, to Evgenevka village, where there was the SBU headquarters
and filtration camp. There he was put into a room with a small booth about
16-20 square meters in size, where he spent more than twenty days. According to
Lukyanov, every night he was in handcuffs with a bag on his head, sitting on a
chair, being asked questions and hit on the head. Also, he was put in a pit
that was specially dug.
A resident of Kharkov,
Alexander Petrunko, was abducted by unidentified persons and taken to one of
the underground prisons in the Kharkov region in January of 2015. He was
interrogated by representatives of so-called battalions. They tried the
technology of “humane” torture of Guantanamo: drowned in water and beaten with
electroshock. In the end, he had a bottle of vodka poured on him and threw out
in the snow.
The 14th, and most
recent, report of the UN monitoring mission on Human Rights indicates that the
SBU has five secret centers, where it tortures the citizens of Ukraine and
illegally seizes foreigners.
Israel
In Israel, the human
rights situation is also critical. The majority of the illegally detained and
tortured people are Palestinians. The violence against them is committed on
their own territory, which is illegally occupied by Israel. Although these
violations are well known to international community for many years, there are
no severe sanctions against Tel Aviv.
ISIS
The Islamic state
terrorist organization, occupying part of the territory of Syria and Iraq, does
not fall under the jurisdiction of any country. ISIS's actions can be described
as willful killing, torture, sexual violence, slavery, kidnapping, and drawing
minors into criminal activity.
In general, the geography
of torture demonstrates a stable tendency of political polarization. Torture is
used in countries promoting the rule of law like the US and Israel on the one
hand, and in states where there is an abrupt transformation of the political
system. In this case, the liberal-democratic institutions are the “umbrella” to
justify the use of violence. In particular, the United States and Israel
torture programs are directly related to the interests of national security. In
the case of fragile states, such as Ukraine and Iraq, bursts of violence are
linked with the disengagement of the state from its social obligations,
including those to protect the lives, rights and freedoms of citizens, and with
the geopolitical interests of a third party. In Ukraine, a deliberate
Nazification was conducted because of the need to create a Russophobic attitude
and following legislative actions of the country, which are beneficial to
Washington.
/https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2021/09/25/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhou-receives-warm-welcome-upon-return-to-china/_1_meng_wanzhou_2.jpg)
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