The Global Afia Movement (GAM) vowed to aid all victims of torture on the occasion of ‘international day in support of victims of torture’ here on Wednesday.
The day was proclaimed by the United Nations (UN) on December 12, 1997. The aim of this day and its associated resolutions was to eliminate torture, wrongful persecution and other inhumane acts across the world irrespective of state and government.
Talking to media, Dr Fowzia Siddiqui, sister of incarcerated Pakistani neuroscientist Afia Siddiqui, said that in an attempt to dominate the world and victimise Pakistan, the United States had crossed all limits of savagery and barbarianism.
She further said that Camp Delta, Guantuanamo Bay, Abu Gharaib, Bagram Jail and the Carswell correctional facility were examples of horrendous abuses of human rights at the hands of the US.
Torture is often employed as an effective way of interrogation by many countries across the globe. It seeks to destroy an individual’s personality and self-respect by employing inhumane and brutal tactics.
The United States had been in the thick of things lately after it was revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency and other US departments employ methods such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation, white noise, sexual abuse and psychological methods to extract sensitive information from suspects.
She further stressed the elimination of this exercise and said that no individual has the right to harm another human being; doing is not only animalistic but sadistic and uncivilized also.
Torture is a crime under international law as agreed upon by not only the UN but the Geneva Convention as well. Its prohibition is encouraged by the UN and covers all states and communities across the globe.
Sidduqui further told the media persons “Lynne Stewart and Afia Siddiqui are proofs of this hideous activity. One was refused cancer treatment while the other continues to be abused and maltreated while their captors continue to call themselves peacemakers”.
She called torture by the US a repugnant reality which must be eliminated at all costs.