Human rights activists allege ongoing use of torture

Amnesty International last month published a report about torture and launched a campaign to stop the trade in weapons used for torture, but human rights activists and lawyers say that torture by police remains rife in Taiwan.

The whole culture of the criminal justice system needs to change, they say.

They say that ceasing the trade may reduce torture, but claim it is impossible to fully stop the practice.

Brian Kennedy, a US attorney in Taiwan who helped Amnesty International collect information about the torture weapons trade on the island, agrees with that view.

"It is the culture that matters," Kennedy said.

Su Yue-chen (蘇友辰), a member of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) advisory committee on human rights, attorney and former prosecutor and judge, described how torture can be carried out without special tools.

Physical torture

"Sure they use stun guns to commit torture. My client in the famous Hsichih Trio was tortured by having a needle inserted into his urethra before being given electric shocks. But it is also common for the police to torture suspects by forcing them to drink urine, water mixed with soap or red pepper or forcing the suspects to sit on ice in front of a fan to create an unbearable chill," Su said.

Lee Mau-sheng (李茂生), professor of law at the National Taiwan University, said one of the most common ways to torture male suspects was to apply a medicinal oil made of peppermint and camphor to their genitals.

Taiwan is a good example of how torture is "encouraged" by flaws in, as well as the culture within, the criminal justice system, rather than the promotion of special tools.

But there is no statistical evidence on the prevalence of torture. "Local human rights groups don't have the resources to conduct a statistical analysis or a review of police torture cases," Kennedy said.

A retired police officer who requested anonymity said the prevalence of torture has decreased considerably. "Currently only those involved in major and high-profile crimes as well as rape, theft and drug abuse are tortured. Saying that torture is rife in Taiwan simply isn't true and will spoil our international reputation," he said.

But human rights activists said torture is still widely practiced by police.

In a survey conducted by the Chinese Association for Human Rights (中國人權協會) last year, over 1,700 prisoners said the police had not abandoned the use of torture in obtaining confessions.

Responding to the police officer's remark, Joseph Lin (林永頌), an attorney with the Judicial Reform Foundation, said a situation in which suspects in "only major and high-profile" criminal cases are tortured deserves particular concern.

"Torture in these cases leads to confessions that can cause an innocent person to be sentenced to death," he said.

Kenneth Chiu (邱晃泉), a lawyer and another member of the president's human rights advisory group, remembered having received "convincing complaints" from at least six prisoners about being tortured within the past five years. "I believe there are still many torture cases and their numbers have been underestimated," he said.

Lin further ridiculed the proposition that the situation had improved.

"If you compare it to the situation 50 years ago, of course you can say it has improved a lot," he said.

Police evaluation structure blamed

Activists and legal experts blamed police performance evaluation methods for police torture. "The more criminal cases they break, the more the credits and the larger the bonuses they earn," Lee said.