Alberta, Noviembre-Diciembre 2006
16
ALTERNATIVA Latinoamericana
ENGLISH SECTION
EDITORIAL:
By Nora Fernández
ABUSE AND TORTURE,: PROCESS AND GOAL
Last September the use of torture was
normalized in the US when the Military Commissions
Act was passed by House and Senate. Amnesty
International appealed it without success. The
concerns raised: human rights violations, arbitrary and
secret detention, enforced disappearances, denial of
habeas corpus, prolonged incommunicado detentions,
torture and other cruel inhuman treatment to prisoners.
Still, the Act is in force since October.
Keith Olberman, anchorman of Countdown,
argued that the law created to deal with terrorists will
be used against innocent people. "We now face what
our ancestors faced at other times of exaggerated
crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering: A government
more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it
claims to protect us from. We have been here before,
led by men better and wiser and nobler than George
W. Bush...American citizens in American camps, for
something they neither wrote nor said nor did..."
If it is true that legislation alone will not protect
us, legislation that favors torture and mistreatment will
bring about the worse outcome. Since the UN
Convention Against Torture in 1985, torture and abuse
have not disappeared. Nevertheless, history tells us
about the extent of human rights violations before that.
Why going back in time? Who gains by it?
Early Greek and Roman laws favored the torture
of slaves, but soon freemen were tortured too. Torture,
became part of Roman legal procedure
and used well
into the 18th century. After the fall of the Roman
Empire in Western Europe rural areas were dominated
by castles furnished with their own torture chambers.
Neither legislation nor custom protected prisoners -
tortured barbarically depending on the crime and their
social status. When the Church became the main
centralized power it gave rise to the Inquisition (1184).
Established by the Papacy to seek out, try and
sentence heretics, the Inquisition reached its height in
Spain. Inquisitors used extreme torture to force
confessions, discourage dissent and intellectual
freedom and "persuade" Jews, Moslems and non-
believers to "accept" Christianity.
Bizantium used torture too. Basil the
Magnificent, favored Admiral Oryphas who used torture
against the Arabs to dissuade them from using the
Gulf of Corinth. Emperors were not immune to torture.
Andronicus Komnenus himself was tortured to death in
1185. Chained to a pillar and beaten for days, he had
his teeth broken and his hand cut off, to find
eventually
a merciful death by the sword after being paraded in
Constantinople tied to a camel.
In England, the use of torture reached its height
under the Tudors. Under Edward and Mary torture
diminished but reached a high again under Elizabeth,
who was obsessed with treason. Lords and high
officials were spared but for the rest punishments were
drastic and mutilation and branding common. Some
"minor" cruelties included the pillory and the dunking
chair, this last reserved for women. The harsher the
crime and the poorer the accused, the more
horrendous the punishment. Manslaughter, rape or
robbery, could lead to be caged and hung up in a
public place so others could watch you die.
Still, torture use was not limited to Europe; New
Englanders used it in their witch trials. Aztecs,
Mayans,Toltecs, and other Central American peoples,
practiced it in rituals with captured prisoners. Asian
cultures developed exquisite methods of torture like
the Chinese Water Torture. Many African tribes used
torture against their enemies. In the 20th century
crimes involving torture often ended in genocides. The
Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire (1915), the
Japanese assault on Nanking, China (1937), the
extermination camps of Nazi Germany (1940s) are but
examples. Papa Doc in Haiti (1950s), Idi Amin in
Uganda (1960s), Pol Pot in Cambodia and Unitas in
Angola (1970s), Habre in Chad and Taylor in Liberia
(1980s), Rwanda and Sierra Leone (1990s) are
examples of abusive regimes which tortured and killed
many. In Latin America torture has had its day too:
Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Peru,
Uruguay, and Colombia were all countries with
substantial episodes of torture and disappearances.
Maintaining a Status
Quo Costs
John Verano, an American forensic
anthropologist from Tulane University, investigating a
series of grisly executions in the arid valleys of lowland
Peru, found evidence from skeletal remains that the
victims, who lived during Moche civilization nearly 2000
years ago, suffered shockingly brutal deaths. The
motives are obscure, but the analysis suggests they
were enemies of the Moche --losers of fierce power
struggles between competing prehistoric city-states
who were ritually murdered. At the center of abuse,
victimization and torture we find strategies for
maintaining power and privileges over others. Abuse
and torture are means to an end.
Some argue that torture is a way of obtaining
information when other methods fail. In truth, however,
information obtained through torture is often unreliable
and false. More often, we find the focus of torture is
denigrating people and triggering fear. And often the
goal is eliminating them painfully to teach a lesson
about the costs of being labeled "enemy". Abusive
treatment and victimization serves some as it favors
submission. Torture feeds on hatred and is food for
fear, both powerful emotions spreading over nations
and bringing out the worse in most of us.
When we discuss torture or genocide, the focus
is on extreme abuse; we should not forget, however,
that although there are differences there are also
similarities among forms of abuse. Literature on the
abuse of women and children ranges from physical
and sexual to emotional and psychological abuse.
Isolation, whether expressed as actual restriction to
leave or as prohibition to be in contact with others, is
abusive. Secrecy, common in sexual abuse, is but a
form of isolation. Women in abusive relationships
often ask themselves: why me? Victims of abuse
everywhere ask themselves similar questions. They
have been stereotyped, dehumanized and isolated.
Blacks were called "niggers", Jews were called
"parasites," political prisoners have been called many
names and women, even today, are called "bitches".
Dehumanizing and labeling facilitates both their
victimization and the escalation of their abuse.
A focus on extreme forms of abuse, like torture,
can hide connections present between forms of
abuse. There is a goal. Discussing family violence,
feminists argue that maintaining control over women is
the underlying goal behind their abuse. Abuse and
violence, they argue, are but extreme strategies to
maintain a status quo that favors the subordination of
women to men and helps men maintain privilege.
The quest for power over others at home doesn't
seem to differ greatly from a similar quest in society.
The hanging of blacks scared African Americans into
submission deterring liberation. Apartheid contributed
to keeping power in the hands of a handful of white
men in South Africa and Zimbabwe
.
Native Americans,
labeled "savages and heathens," were treated as
slaves to ensure colonial power for Europe. Hating
Jews helped the Nazis attain power and at the same
time provided an excuse for the removal of those
standing in their way. Oppression is oppression, at
home and in society. Abuse is a tool in maintaining
oppressive relationships, and torture no matter how
extreme, is part of that same tool kit.
The Process of Victimization
Victims are created carefully. The process of
victimization includes identifying, dehumanizing and
blaming victims for what abusers do, or are about to
do to them. Once in motion, this process acquires a
life of its own. It matters little that victims deny the
accusations being made; they will not have
opportunity to defend themselves, and everything can
be distorted, twisted, and turned around. The process
can enlist entire nations, ensuring that the most
heinous crimes are committed with impunity.
"With this very thing in mind I scanned the
revolutionary events of history and put the question to
myself against which racial element in Germany can I
unleash my propaganda of hate with the greatest
prospects of success? I had to find the right kind of
victim, and especially one against whom the struggle
would make sense, materially speaking. I can assure
you that I examined every possible and thinkable
solution to this problem, and, weighing every
imaginable factor, I came to the conclusion that a
campaign against the Jews would be as popular as it
would be successful." Adolph Hitler
In identifying a target group, prejudices and
stereotypes already present in society can help. A
visible enemy is an easier target, but visibility can be
constructed too. Those who in any way block access
to power to a determined group can be targets of
abuse. Excuses can be ridiculous such as those used
by the Nazis like "ensuring pure blood lines". Simple
arguments appeal to people searching for simple
answers. Simple answers become easy to learn
slogans. Racist messages appeal: Who doesn't want
to think they are somehow superior to others?
Dehumanization, a disconnection from our
humanity, is familiar to us all. Removing the humanity
of victims facilitates their abuse. War propaganda is
full of this; reducing enemies to things makes it easier
to do terrible things to them.
We have socialized boys to become warriors; we
have encouraged them to detach from their feelings,
but we wonder about their capacity for detachment.
Language can contribute to the dehumanization of
others; metaphors can build in-groups leaving others
out. The Nazi elite had their gemeinshaft, or
community, which excluded others by calling them
un-Germans. It is not difficult to convince ourselves
that outsiders can be mistreated and mistreating
others can make us feel powerful reinforcing abusive
behaviors. Metaphors and labels are powerful in
favoring the expression of aggressive sentiments and
attitudes and in displacing responsibility for abuse to
others and victims.
Finding fault with victims can increase their
culpability. In abuse at home blaming the victim is
common she made me angry. Victims can
internalize feelings of blame too. Believing that what
happens to victims cannot happen to us can help us
not to empathize with victims. When victimization and
abuse are severe and victimizers appear in control, we
can identify with victimizers to lower our own anxiety
and fear. When a group is abused in society, it can be
blamed for the abuse it endures because of fear of
reprisals, identification with abusers and to find ways
to lower our own anxiety and fear. Thus, abusers are
allowed to win and abuse escalates. Escalation is the
norm in family violence and with abuse in society as
well.
"There are few Germans who have not been
vexed with the behavior of Jews or else have not
suffered losses through them in some way or other.
Disproportionately to their small number they account
for an immense share of the German national wealth,
which can just as easily be put to profitable use for
the state and the general public as could the holdings
of the monasteries, bishops, and nobility...Once the
hatred and the battle against the Jews have been
really stirred up, their resistance will necessarily
crumble in the shortest possible time. They are totally
defenseless, and no one will stand up to protect
them." Adolph Hitler
Naturally, those who do the crime deny it;
victimizers often present themselves as victims of a
conspiracy:
"If our battle against anarchy results in the racial
problem becoming a world problem, that was not our
intention, but it is fine with us. The conspiracy being
forged against Germany will not lead to our
destruction..." (Goebbels, 1933)
A Structural Goal: Power
Power understood as "power over others," not as
power to create or power with others, favors a view of
power as in short supply and of society as ground for
ongoing power struggles with winners and losers.
Aggression is favored and life in society becomes
more like life in a jungle where only the strongest
survive. In Nazi Germany aggressive militarism, the
domination of others, and the glorification of
masculine strength were prominent. Only the fittest
survived, which for the Nazis were "Aryans", their
archetype of the superman.
There was a hatred of all "feminine" in the Reich.
Women were valued only as vessels that were to carry
the superior Aryan race. The dominant ideology valued
warriors and ancient Hellenic standards. Nazi
ideology, aggressively sexist, was relentless also with
men who failed to fit their aggressive male ideal. Scott
Lively (Homosexuality and the Nazi Party) argues that
Nazi ideology developed in connection with
ultramasculine, male supremacist homosexuals,
favoring man/boy sex in accordance with Hellenic
standards. There was particular hatred for effeminate
homosexuals; these were the ones taken prisoners
and marked with pink triangles to be abused in the
camps. Among those labeled as homosexuals, there
were some falsely accused who were political
enemies to be disposed of.
Germa Bel (The coining of privatization and
German's National Socialist Party) argues that
powerful money interests helped the Nazis in the
quest for power:
"The Nazis gave evidence of their good will by
restoring to private capitalism a number of monopolies
held or controlled by the state. Their policies
benefited the wealthiest sectors and enhanced the
economic position and political support of the
elite...the party facilitated the accumulation of private
fortunes and industrial empires by its foremost