[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14891-14892]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



            COMMEMORATION OF U.N. TORTURE VICTIM SUPPORT DAY

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, this past Saturday was the 2nd annual 
U.N. International Day in Support of Torture Victims and Survivors. The 
practice of torture is one of the most serious human rights abuses of 
our time. According to Amnesty International, torture conducted by 
government security forces, or that is condoned by other government 
officials occurs in at least 120 countries today. We need look no 
farther than today's headlines about Turkey, Iraq, Kosovo, China and 
Ethiopia to know that we will be dealing with the problems that torture 
victims face for many years.
  We can and must do more to stop such horrific acts of torture, and to 
treat its victims. Focusing on treatment and rehabilitation for torture 
survivors is one of the best ways we can manifest our concern for human 
rights worldwide. As our recent intervention in Kosovo to stop a 
humanitarian crisis demonstrates, both the United States and the 
international community have become aware of the need to prevent these 
human rights abuses and to punish the perpetrators when abuses take 
place. Yet, too often we have failed to address the needs of the 
victims after their rights have been violated. The treatment of torture 
victims must be a central focus of our efforts to promote human rights.
  This commitment to protect human rights is one shared by many around 
the world. In 1984 the U.N. approved the United Nations Convention 
Against Torture. The U.S. Senate ratified it in April of 1994. And just 
last year the Congress enacted the Torture Victims Relief Act which 
authorizes funds for treatment services for victims of torture in the 
United States and abroad. I was pleased to learn that last week the 
Senate Committee on Appropriations recommended that the funds 
authorized by the act be appropriated in full in the foreign operations 
appropriations bill. Under this recommendation, AID will provide $7.5 
million to support foreign treatment centers and the U.S. will 
contribute $3 million to the U.N. Voluntary Fund for Victims of 
Torture. I hope this recommendation makes it through to the final bill 
which goes to the President. While these are significant achievements, 
we must focus on what more needs to be done.
  In many countries torture is routinely employed in police stations to 
coerce confessions or obtain information. Detainees are subjected to 
both physical and mental abuse. Methods include beatings with sticks 
and whips; kicking with boots; electric shocks; and suspension from one 
or both arms. Victims are also threatened, insulted and humiliated. In 
some cases, particularly those involving women, victims are stripped, 
exposed to verbal and sexual abuse. Medical treatment is often 
withheld, sometimes resulting in death.
  The purpose of torture is intimidation and the total destruction of 
an individual's character. Torture impacts on humanity in profound 
ways. The shattering of lives, dispersing of families, and destruction 
of communities all result from this politically-motivated form of 
violence. The destruction of people's humanity, cultures, and 
traditions are often the result for both the torturer and the victim of 
torture.
  Treating torture victims must be a much more central focus of our 
efforts as we work to promote human rights worldwide. Without active 
programs of healing and recovery, torture survivors often suffer 
continued physical pain, depression and anxiety, intense and incessant 
nightmares, guilt and self loathing. They often report an inability to 
concentrate or remember. The severity of trauma makes it difficult to 
hold down a job, study for a new profession, or acquire other skills 
needed for successful adjustment into society.
  Friday morning I met with Sister Dianna Ortiz and several other 
torture survivors courageous enough to share their stories. They 
related to me horrific tales of family displacement, sexual abuse, and 
mental and physical humiliation. Mr. Feltavu Ebba, a survivor from 
Ethiopia told me his horrific tale of torture he received solely based 
on his ethnic identification. He said:

       I was locked up in a room 4 meters by 4 meters with more 
     than 50 other prisoners. I was not allowed to see my family 
     and relatives for the first six years.


[[Page 14892]]


  Needless to say, the damage done to his relationship with his 
children can never be repaired. Also, every minute of his existence in 
prison was wrought with emotional and physical pain. He said:

       Again after three years of prison in 1982 I was physically 
     and mentally tortured for a week . . . This time by dipping 
     me head- down in a barrel filled with cold, dirty water and 
     beating under my feet with interwoven electrical wire.

  Another survivor, Monica Feria, told me of her torture in Peru. 
Rather than attempt to speak on her behalf, I will let her words speak 
for themselves.

       We ran for our lives through the ducts that took us to 
     another prison where the male prisoners accused of belonging 
     to the Shining Path were kept. On the way many of us were 
     shot. While crawling I saw bodies that had been blown up, 
     arms, heads, and blood. Everything was covered with that 
     horrible colour of burnt black. As I crawled avoiding the 
     bullets I felt under me dead bodies still warm. The horror . 
     . .

  This is only a fraction of the horrific episodes relayed to me by 
these courageous survivors. Just last week the New York Times quoted 
the Human Rights Watch organization as being distressed at the 
continued prevalence of torture worldwide.
  In Minnesota, we began to think about the problem of torture and act 
on it, over ten years ago. The Center for Victims of Torture in 
Minneapolis is the only fully-staffed torture treatment facility in the 
country and was one of the first in the world; there are now over 200 
centers worldwide. The center offers outpatient services which can 
include medical treatment, psychotherapy and help gaining economic and 
legal stability. Its advocacy work also helps to inform people about 
the problem of torture and the lingering effects it has on victims, and 
ways to combat torture worldwide. The Center has treated or provided 
services to hundreds of people over the last ten years.
  Some of the often shrill public rhetoric these days seems to argue 
that we as a nation can no longer afford to remain engaged with the 
world, or to assist the poor, the elderly, the feeble, refugees, those 
seeking asylum--those most in need of aid who are right here in our 
midst. The Center for Victims of Torture stands as a repudiation of 
that idea. Its mission is to rescue and rehabilitate people who have 
been crushed by torture, and it has been accomplishing that mission 
admirably over the last ten years. It is a light of hope in the lives 
of those who have for so long seen only darkness, a darkness brought on 
by the brutal hand of the torturer.
  I would like to thank the distinguished human rights leaders who have 
helped me in this fight, including those at the Center for Torture 
Victims in Minneapolis and others such as Sister Ortiz, the Torture 
Abolition and Survivors Support Committee (TASSC), the Congressional 
Human Rights Caucus, and those in the human rights community here in 
Washington and in Minnesota. Without their energy and skills as 
advocates for tough U.S. laws which promote respect for 
internationally-recognized human rights worldwide, the cause of human 
rights here in the U.S. would be seriously diminished. I salute them 
today. We recommit ourselves to the aid of torture survivors, and to 
building a world in which torture is relegated to the dark past, and in 
which torture treatment programs are made obsolete.

                          ____________________