Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir (BBC)

�Complimenda agli sciovinisti indiani di IPI.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/16/wikileaks-cables-indian-tortu
re-kashmir
Am.
WikiLeaks cables: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir
Beatings and electric shocks inflicted on hundreds of civilians detained 
in Kashmir, US diplomats in Delhi told by ICRC
   �  Jason Burke in Delhi
   �  
guardian.co.uk
, Thursday 16 December 2010 21.30 GMT
   �   larger | smaller
Unrest in Kashmir, where a leaked cable said the Indian government 
'condoned torture'. Photograph: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images
US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and 
security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the 
systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic 
cables.
The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats 
in Delhi were briefed in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red 
Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual 
humiliation against hundreds of detainees.
Other cables show that as recently as 2007 American diplomats were 
concerned about widespread human rights abuses by Indian security 
forces, who they said relied on torture for confessions.
The revelations will be intensely embarrassing for Delhi, which takes 
pride in its status as the world's biggest democracy, and come at a time 
of heightened sensitivity in Kashmir after renewed protests and violence 
this year.
Other cables reveal that:
� The Dalai Lama has told US officials that combating climate change is 
more urgent than finding a political solution in Tibet, which "can wait 
five to 10 years".
� Rahul Gandhi, the crown prince of Indian politics, believes Hindu 
extremists pose a greater threat to his country than Muslim militants, 
according to the American ambassador to India.
� Five doctors were coerced by the Sri Lankan government to recant on 
casualty figures they gave to journalists in the last months of island's 
brutal civil war.
The most highly charged dispatch is likely to be an April 2005 cable 
from the US embassy in Delhi which reports that the ICRC had become 
frustrated with the Indian government which, they said, had not acted to 
halt the "continued ill-treatment of detainees".
The embassy reported the ICRC concluded that India "condones torture" 
and that the torture victims were civilians as militants were routinely 
killed.
The ICRC has a long-standing policy of engaging directly with 
governments and avoiding the media, so the briefing remained secret.
An insurgency pitting separatist and Islamist militants � many supported 
by Pakistan � against security services raged in Kashmir throughout the 
1990s and into the early years of this decade.
It claimed tens of thousands of lives, including large numbers of 
civilians who were targeted by both militants and security forces.
The ICRC staff told the US diplomats they had made 177 visits to 
detention centres in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India between 
2002 and 2004, and had met 1,491 detainees. They had been able to 
interview 1,296 privately.
In 852 cases, the detainees reported ill-treatment, the ICRC said. A 
total of 171 described being beaten and 681 said they had been subjected 
to one or more of six forms of torture.
These included 498 on which electricity had been used, 381 who had been 
suspended from the ceiling, 294 who had muscles crushed in their legs by 
prison personnel sitting on a bar placed across their thighs, 181 whose 
legs had been stretched by being "split 180 degrees", 234 tortured with 
water and 302 "sexual" cases, the ICRC were reported to have told the 
Americans.
"Numbers add up to more than 681, as many detainees were subjected to 
more than one form of IT [ill-treatment]," the cable said.
The ICRC said all branches of the Indian security forces used these 
forms of ill-treatment and torture, adding: "The abuse always takes 
place in the presence of officers and ... detainees were rarely 
militants (they are routinely killed), but persons connected to or 
believed to have information about the insurgency".
The cable said the situation in Kashmir was "much better" as security 
forces no longer roused entire villages in the middle of the night and 
detained inhabitants indiscriminately, and there was "more openness from 
medical doctors and the police."
Ten years ago, the ICRC said there were some 300 detention centres, but 
there are now "a lot fewer". The organisation had never however gained 
access to the "Cargo Building", the most notorious detention centre, in 
Srinagar.
The abuse continued, they said, because "security forces need 
promotions," while for militants, "the insurgency has become a business".
In the same cable, American diplomats approvingly quoted media reports 
that India's army chief, Lieutenant-General Joginder Jaswant Singh, had 
"put human rights issues at the centre of an [recent] conference of army 
commanders".
The ICRC said a "bright spot" was that it had been able to conduct 300 
sessions sensitising junior officers from the security forces to human 
rights.
The cables reveal a careful US policy of pressure in Kashmir, while 
maintaining a strictly neutral stance.
Two years after the cable on torture was sent, US diplomats in India 
argued strongly against granting a visa request from the government of 
India on behalf of a member of the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly who 
was invited to a conference organised by a think-tank in America.
Usman Abdul Majid, a cable marked secret said, "is a leader of the 
pro-GOI [government of India] Ikhwan-ul-Musilmeen paramilitary group, 
which ... is notorious for its use of torture, extra-judicial killing, 
rape, and extortion of Kashmiri civilians suspected of harbouring or 
facilitating terrorists."
The diplomats admitted that denying Majid's application might have some 
repercussions with Indian officials, "especially those from India's 
Intelligence Bureau who have been close to his case" but said it was 
essential to preserve a balanced approach to the Kashmir issue following 
the prior refusal of a visa to the leading separatist leader Syed Ali 
Shah Geelani.
The cable notes that officials are "unable to verify with evidence the 
claims against Majid".
US diplomats repeatedly refer to human rights abuses by security and law 
enforcement agencies within India. In a cable from February 2006, 
officials reported that "terrorism investigations and court cases tend 
to rely upon confessions, many of which are obtained under duress if not 
beatings, threats, or, in some cases, torture".
A year later a brief for the visiting acting coordinator for 
counter-terrorism, Frank Urbancic, described India's police and security 
forces as "overworked and hampered by bad ... practices, including the 
widespread use of torture in interrogations.".
   �  
guardian.co.uk
 � Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

   Complimenda agli sciovinisti indiani di IPI.
(?)
Tb (bieco illuminista)
-- 
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free 
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be 
infringed.

 Complimenda agli sciovinisti indiani di IPI.
E che c'entrano?
Pensi che facciano il doppio lavoro in Kashmir?
Ciao! 

 promotions," while for militants, "the insurgency has become a business".
Demoni contro demoni.

 Demoni contro demoni.
Beh, no. La disumanizzazione e' figlia del nazionalismo e dello 
sciovinismo.
Abu Ghraib e' figlia del Patriot Act, passato dalla nazione piu' 
avanzata al mondo, dopo un pesante attentato. Nulla di diverso.
Am.

 avanzata al mondo, dopo un pesante attentato. Nulla di diverso.
Hai ragione.  Come sappiamo dai purana, i demoni abitano in tutti i
tre mondi.