Dear Editor,
The Harding allegation of torture by means of a baton pushed into the anus of a prisoner is an act of sheer brutality. Whether the Ministers concerned deny the act or not, and whether the alleged victim has a reputation or not the testimonies on both sides seem to establish that Harding suffered an act of brutality. Its name is for the courts, or for competent people to determine.
There is a responsibility on a government to bring to justice any of its officers suspected of torture. If it does not, then the government itself deserves to be accused of a cover-up, and runs the risk of being seen and to rank as an accomplice after the fact.
Young Harding’s testimony is credible and clears the way for a fair investigation or other legal procedure. There can be no reasonable obligation on the part of the victim to instruct the physicians. What if he were unconscious? The victim does not have to know what a hernia is, or how it may be caused. That omission is a useless red herring.
The responsibility for informing the doctors of the circumstance of the injury and the victim’s condition is that of the police. The Minister politically responsible is the Minister of Home Affairs, unfortunately the General Secretary of the ruling party.
Mr Harding has said that he was ashamed to tell people of his ordeal. His fears were not groundless. He wanted to tell the Magistrate, “quietly” in a court of strangers. He was too ashamed to do so. Is that not easy to understand? The prison guards laughed at him and mocked him when he told them of his ordeal.
On Friday night the report came out that a fellow prisoner, Mr Phillips, called ‘Muslim,’ gave an eyewitness statement of his beating to Mr Harding’s attorney-at-law, Mr Nigel Hughes. We should regard the hernia surgery of December 18, which no doubt took place, as intended to cast doubt. It may yet do the opposite. The point is that it came after the incidents at Timehri lock-up. To push a pencil into a prisoner’s anus is a violation. A baton is only evidence of the extreme brutality at work. A government that does not make its position on torture clear beyond doubt runs the risk of being seen as a partner in crime.
Many may see this issue as purely political or as not concerning us. The only way to ensure that our loved ones do not suffer similarly is to join forces to ensure that we expel torture from the system.
Yours faithfully,
Eusi Kwayana
