How we killed Archbishop Romero

Major Roberto D´Aubuisson participated in the conspiracy to assassinate Archbishop Romero, although a son of former president Molina provided the sniper, asserts Captain Álvaro Saravia. Thirty years later, he and some of the other people implicated in the crime reconstruct those days of arms trafficking, cocaine and kidnapping. Reduced to ignominy, Saravia has been a pizza delivery man, a used car salesman and a drug money launderer. Now he is burning in the hell he helped create during a time when killing “communists” was a sport.


He begins to read aloud slowly: “Several years after murdering Archbishop Romero, Captain Álvaro Rafael Saravia resigned his military commission, abandoned his family and moved to California.” He is holding several pages, a copy of a newspaper article published five years ago. He adjusts his glasses—two large lenses sustained by a wire—. His nails are broken and dirty, his eyes wide and nervous. He rereads the first paragraph. “Several years after murdering Archbishop Romero, Captain Álvaro Rafael Saravia…”  He pauses to repeat a name he has not pronounced for a long time: “Captain Álvaro Rafael Saravia”.


Read more at Elfaro

Iraqi refugees cautious about return after landmark election

BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 15 (UNHCR) – Early results from Iraq's national election, widely seen as a test of its democracy and a step towards stability after years of sectarian conflict, brought mixed reactions from Iraqi refugees still concerned about the situation back home.

Several Iraqi refugees said their country needs time to heal before they can safely return, while others said they were optimistic and many hoped the polls would end sectarianism and allow people to go home.

Read more at the UNHCR

Inside a Dictator's Secret Police

Eight years ago, Reed Brody stumbled upon the records of one of Africa's most brutal leaders, Chad's Hissène Habré. Now, two decades after he fell from power, Habré finally faces charges for his crimes -- if, that is, the trial actually happens.

For the two decades that he has been free, Souleymane Guengueng has constantly relived the two years he spent in a Chadian prison, where he watched hundreds of cellmates die from torture and disease. Thrown in jail in 1988 for still-unknown reasons, the deeply religious civil servant took an oath before God: If he ever got out alive, he would bring his tormentors to justice. So when the country's dictator fell in a 1990 coup and Guengueng walked out of prison, he used his considerable charm to persuade still-frightened victims to form an association and start preparing a case against their aggressor. But Chad's new government brought back many of the old henchmen and allowed the former tyrant -- Hissène Habré -- to live in quiet luxury in Senegal.


Read more at Foreignpolicy.com

Iran: Trial in Torture Deaths Begins

Twelve suspects accused of torturing to death three anti-government protesters during the widespread turmoil after the June presidential election went on trial on Tuesday, the official news agency IRNA reported. Iran’s judiciary last year charged 12 officials at the Kahrizak detention center in Tehran for involvement in the deaths of three protesters held there. The IRNA report did not identify any of the suspects, saying the judge had banned reporting details of the trial. In January, a parliamentary inquiry found a former Tehran prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, responsible for the deaths of the three at the detention center. There has been no word of any effort to punish him


From the New York Times

UK/US Asylum Seekers Find Death, Abuse, and Criminal Indifference

Editor’s note: Please see correction/update at the end of this report.

An article in the March 14 UK Observer reports that United Kingdom’s asylum immigration system is systematically denying claims of torture by asylum applicants, despite ample medical evidence by applicants of torture in their home countries. Since 2001, many asylum applicants have been sent to prison, with murderers and rapists, despite the fact they have never broken any law, making Britain the only European Union country to have such a practice.

Read more at the Public Record

Justices Weigh Claims Over Torture in Somalia

WASHINGTON — After the Supreme Court heard an hour of technical arguments Wednesday about whether foreign officials may be sued in the United States over torture claims, one of the plaintiffs in the case stood on the steps outside and recalled what had happened to him in Somalia in the 1980s.

“They destroyed my entire tribe,” Bashe Abdi Yousuf said of the regime of Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre. “I was tortured — waterboarded and put in electric shock.”

Read more at the New York Times

New UN resolution can help check doctors' role in torture

A new UN resolution could end doctors' participation in torture, says a new report.

According to experts on bmj.com, the resolution, passed in March 2009, can pose a challenge to torture and cruelty.

The resolution says, "states must never request or require anyone, including medical or other health personnel, to commit any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".


Read more at Africa Leader

19-yr-old dies after torture by husband, mother-in-law

A woman died on Tuesday evening after she was allegedly beaten up by her husband and mother-in-law. The accused allegedly beat up the 19-year-old victim twice since January 24.

The beatings were provoked by Harpreet Kaur’s inability to comprehend the gestures of her deaf and dumb husband, Kharar SHO, sub-inspector Harsimrat Singh Bal told Newsline.

Read more at the Indian Express