Pressure for independent inquiry signals need to acknowledge true scale of torture

While efforts to unearth the truth about the UK government's role in the torture of terrorism suspects are to be welcomed, the plight of countless other lesser known torture victims should not be forgotten, says the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (now Freedom from Torture).

Recommendations for an independent inquiry and greater ministerial accountability were made by the all-party parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) in its report, Allegations of UK Complicity in Torture, published on 4 August 2009.

The report refers principally to the eight British or dual-nationality ‘terror suspects' who the UK government confirms were questioned overseas.

Implementing the committee's recommendations will be critical in establishing the truth about the torture allegations, said the MF, which had earlier supported widespread calls for a full judicial inquiry into the UK government's policies and practices.

Simon Carruth, CEO, said: "While endorsing the report's recommendations it is important not to forget many other uncomfortable truths about torture. Over more than two decades, the MF has seen thousands of men, women and children whose testimonies are an indication of the endemic scale of torture practised worldwide.

"Unlike those detained during the ‘war on terror' these countless other victims remain anonymous and their voices largely unheard. The vast majority of torture survivors are not ‘high value detainees' - nor do their experiences conform to the commonly held misperception that torture is principally used to secure information.

"The experiences of the people we see reveal that most people are tortured for their ethnicity, political or religious beliefs or gender. Others are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"In the calls for greater Government accountability to the victims we now know so much about, the plight of the thousands of other survivors to whom the Government also has a responsibility should not be forgotten."