U.S. Violates Policy By Selling Tools For Torture Worldwide

by Jim Lobe

In doing so, the administration of President George W. Bush, which approves the sales, is violating the spirit of its own export policy, adds the report, released here Dec. 2.

In 2002, U.S. exports of electroshock weapons and restraints that can be used for torture amounted to $14.7 million and 4.4 million dollars respectively, adds the 85-page report, 'The Pain Merchants'.

"Although torture is endemic in Saudi Arabia, Smith & Wesson had no qualms about exporting approximately 10,000 leg-irons to Riyadh, and, apparently sharing this lack of concern, the Bush administration approved the sale," said William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty's U.S. branch, AIUSA.

"For decades, human rights groups and the State Department have documented Saudi Arabia's cruel use of leg-irons and shackles to inflict torture and force confessions," Schulz added in a statement.

"With this shameful shipment, we can expect the torture of religious minorities and peaceful protestors to continue for years to come."

The United States is not the only exporter by any means of such equipment, which is "less than lethal" but can inflict severe pain amounting to torture when used improperly, says Amnesty.

Worldwide, some 856 companies in 47 countries either make or market such devices.

"Just because security equipment may be described as 'less than lethal' does not mean it cannot be abused, nor that it cannot injure or kill," said Brian Wood, Amnesty's expert on crime-control devices.

"We are extremely concerned that in many countries devices are being authorised for use on the population without sufficient investigation of their effects on human rights."

In recent years, the U.S. government has taken steps, most importantly adopting an export policy that requires licenses in order to sell or ship electroshock equipment to all countries except Canada, to reduce the likelihood that devices made here will be sent to countries where they are used to torture.

Similarly, the European Commission (EC) has drafted regulations that would ban the export from member states of equipment whose primary practical purpose is torture, such as leg irons and stun belts, and would impose tight restrictions on the export of equipment that might have a legitimate policing purpose but that can be used for torture, such as electroshock stun weapons and tear gas.

But the EC's policy has yet to be adopted, while U.S. license requirements are not being seriously enforced, according to AIUSA. It noted that in 2001, the government approved three sales of electroshock devices to Turkey, despite the State Department's finding that such weapons were widely used for torture there.

In one 2002 case, a 17-year-old schoolgirl who was detained for distributing leaflets calling for the legalization of Kurdish education was stripped, threatened with rape and tortured with electric shocks to her feet, legs and stomach, says Amnesty.

"The U.S. needs to completely close the loopholes that have allowed the re-supply of this technology to countries that torture," said Maureen Greenwood, AIUSA's advocacy director in Europe, in the report.

She noted that Representatives Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde are currently working on legislation that places restrictions on crime-control exports to foreign governments known to use torture.

Lantos and Hyde are proposing to ban outright the export of all electroshock devices to those countries.

"This is a horrifying spectacle," says Lantos, a California Democrat and Holocaust survivor. "These are singularly unsavoury governments that do not share our human-rights concerns," he told 'U.S. News & World Report'.

Amnesty said it was also concerned about other "crime-control" weapons, such as sedative chemical incapacitating agents, like the one that killed more than 120 hostages when Russian security forces ended a siege in a Moscow theatre last year.

Amnesty also noted that new technologies, many of which are being developed as part of the U.S. "war on terror," might also be used to inflict torture and should be very carefully reviewed for their possible abuse.

These include radio-frequency weapons that might induce an artificial fever; "stench chemicals;" and UV lasers that can ionize the air to also deliver an electric charge.

Amnesty stressed that most of these weapons are not intended to inflict torture but can be used to do so. "It's possible to use anything for torture," the president of a U.S. manufacturer of electroshock riot shields told Amnesty. "But it's a little easier to use our devices."

A three-year-old study by the London-based group found that torture has been reported in all but about 35 countries worldwide, and that there are more than 70 countries in which torture has been reported to be widespread or persistent.

In more than 80 countries, including the United States, deaths have been reported as a result of torture. In the U.S. case, for example, a man died after being "tasered" a dozen times, each time with a 50,000-volt shock, by deputy sheriffs in Florida.

The Department of Commerce last year approved licenses for exports of discharge-type weapons, including electroshock stun guns, shock batons, and similar devices, to 45 countries, among them a large number where the State Department has reported the use of torture against detainees.

Those countries include Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, Honduras, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand and Venezuela.

More than 60 U.S. manufacturers sought licenses to export such equipment during 2002.

AIUSA said it feared that some manufacturers actually ignored the licensing requirement and ship such equipment directly to the buyer.

Indeed, a recent investigative report in 'U.S. News & World Report' found that several small companies freely advertise at various Internet sites how to circumvent exports rules for stun guns by, for example, shipping parts separately.