Prisoners Said to Be Tortured in S. Africa
Amnesty International said today it had received reports that South African security forces are torturing people detained under the country’s state of emergency.
The prisoners are allegedly beaten, given electric shocks and threatened with execution, the human rights group said.
The state of emergency was declared three weeks ago during widespread violence in the country’s black townships.
Amnesty International said there have been more than 1,400 political detentions in South Africa since July 20, compared to about 1,000 in the whole of 1984.
It said it had begun receiving “disturbing reports of torture of political detainees. . . . Prisoners are reported to have been hooded, beaten and given electric shocks. Others have been threatened with execution, with pistols pressed against their temples.”
The allegations were “consistent with methods used previously by the South African security forces,” Amnesty International said, and come from various parts of the country.
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