Africa: (US) Torture Debate a Mockery

Africa: Torture Debate a Mockery to Africans

"When activists were tortured at the hands of the South African Apartheid state police, we looked to the democratic countries of the world to condemn police brutality and call on our government to abide by internationally recognised human rights.

Because of their active criticism of the use of torture, countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, among others, were able to use their relatively clean records to shame and pressure the South African state.


In a frightening turn, however, torture has made its way back into the public debate, with the governments that supposedly advocate democracy and freedom at the helm of its defence.

In South Africa, during apartheid, the notion of terrorism was used as an instrument of widespread and systemic human rights violations by the regime. But even the apartheid state, as brutal as it was, publicly denied its use.