Folter
Folter, auch Marter oder Tortur, ist das gezielte Zufügen von psychischem oder physischem Leid (Gewalt, Qualen, Schmerz) an Menschen durch andere Menschen, meist als Mittel für einen zielgerichteten Zweck, beispielsweise um eine Aussage, ein Geständnis, einen Widerruf oder eine wichtige Information zu einem bestimmten Sachverhalt zu erhalten oder um den Willen und Widerstand der Folteropfer (dauerhaft) zu brechen.Im engeren Sinne tritt Folter als eine Tat einer bestimmten Interessengruppe (beispielsweise Teile der Exekutive, politisch-militärischen Organisationen oder Gruppen) an einem Individuum auf. Beispiele sind das Foltern zum Erzwingen von Geständnissen seitens der Inquisition, der Polizei oder des Geheimdienstes. Laut der UN-Antifolterkonvention ist jede Handlung als Folter zu werten, bei der Träger staatlicher Gewalt einer Person „vorsätzlich starke körperliche oder geistig-seelische Schmerzen oder Leiden“ zufügen oder androhen, um eine Aussage zu erpressen, um einzuschüchtern oder zu bestrafen.[1] Die Folter ist international geächtet; in Deutschland ist das Foltern einer Person eine Straftat.
Völkerrechtlich enthalten Artikel 5 der Menschenrechtserklärung der Vereinten Nationen und Artikel 3 der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention ein Folterverbot:
Art. 5: „Niemand darf der Folter oder grausamer, unmenschlicher oder erniedrigender Behandlung oder Strafe unterworfen werden.“
Art. 3: „Niemand darf der Folter oder unmenschlicher oder erniedrigender Strafe oder Behandlung unterworfen werden.“
Das Folterverbot der Europäischen Menschenrechtskonvention (EMRK) ist rechtlich von größerer Bedeutung, da es – anders als die Menschenrechtserklärung der Vereinten Nationen – einklagbare Rechte begründet, die von jedermann vor dem Gerichtshof der Menschenrechtskonvention geltend gemacht werden können. Weitere völkerrechtliche Folterverbote finden sich in Art. 7 des Internationalen Pakts über bürgerliche und politische Rechte und in der Anti-Folter-Konvention der Vereinten Nationen. Im innerstaatlichen Recht der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist ein Verbot der Folter verfassungsrechtlich in Artikel 1 Absatz (1) GG und in Artikel 104 Absatz (1) Satz 2 GG verankert:
Art. 1: „Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar.“
Art. 104: „Festgehaltene Personen dürfen weder seelisch noch körperlich mißhandelt werden.“
Außerdem wird das Folterverbot durch verschiedene Bestimmungen des deutschen Straf- und Strafprozessrechts im einfachen Recht abgesichert. So wird es Vorgesetzten durch § 357 StGB verboten, ihre Mitarbeiter zu rechtswidrigen Taten zu verleiten oder auch nur solche zu dulden. Ferner sind Aussagen, die unter der Androhung von Folter erpresst werden, in einem Gerichtsverfahren nicht verwertbar (§ 136a StPO).Aussageerpressung ist auch selbst eine Straftat (Amtsdelikt).
Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention
Artikel 3
Verbot der Folter
Niemand darf der Folter oder unmenschlicher oder erniedrigender Strafe oder Behandlung unterworfen werden.
Strafprozeßordnung
| 1. Buch - Allgemeine Vorschriften (§§ 1 - 150) |
| 10. Abschnitt - Vernehmung des Beschuldigten (§§ 133 - 136a) |
(1) Die Freiheit der Willensentschließung und der Willensbetätigung des Beschuldigten darf nicht beeinträchtigt werden durch Mißhandlung, durch Ermüdung, durch körperlichen Eingriff, durch Verabreichung von Mitteln, durch Quälerei, durch Täuschung oder durch Hypnose. Zwang darf nur angewandt werden, soweit das Strafverfahrensrecht dies zuläßt. Die Drohung mit einer nach seinen Vorschriften unzulässigen Maßnahme und das Versprechen eines gesetzlich nicht vorgesehenen Vorteils sind verboten.
(2) Maßnahmen, die das Erinnerungsvermögen oder die Einsichtsfähigkeit des Beschuldigten beeinträchtigen, sind nicht gestattet.
(3) Das Verbot der Absätze 1 und 2 gilt ohne Rücksicht auf die Einwilligung des Beschuldigten. Aussagen, die unter Verletzung dieses Verbots zustande gekommen sind, dürfen auch dann nicht verwertet werden, wenn der Beschuldigte der Verwertung zustimmt.
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Torture
according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture (an advisory measure of the UN General Assembly) is:...any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions. --UN Convention Against Torture[1]
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Wes Clark's
viewpoints on Torture and Murder according to himself (see links below)
Clark was
responsible for the "School of the Americas" in 1996, a CIA
torture facility meant to teach people how to torture. Nowadays Clark pretends
to be very much against torture but just fails to mention that he has organized
very bloody torture and committed a very violent pre-meditated murder that I
was forced to witness. I do want the bastard dead. That is how bad it was.
He started to
torture my dad in 1992 and eventually ended up killing him very
violently in 1999. After the torture and murder on my dad. Wes Clark
has on 2 different occasions broken into my house in August and
September of 2004. I got kidnapped, threatened and shot at in September of
2004.
Clark has also
broken into my hotel room in Switzerland in January of 2000 (the
Swiss police was there so this part here can be proven very easily)
Just in case any police facility would like to do their work for a change and start an investigation; I have a list of phone no.'s and addresses of witnesses. It is not possible to commit 35 years of stalking and harassment, torture in 3 different countries in Europe and a commit very violent murder without leaving any witnesses. Even though most of the witnesses are too scared to talk and the police in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany so far fails to do their job and investigate.
Just in case any police facility would like to do their work for a change and start an investigation; I have a list of phone no.'s and addresses of witnesses. It is not possible to commit 35 years of stalking and harassment, torture in 3 different countries in Europe and a commit very violent murder without leaving any witnesses. Even though most of the witnesses are too scared to talk and the police in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany so far fails to do their job and investigate.
| General Wesley Clark On Defensive On School Of The Americas (SOA/WHISC), Once Under His Command |  |  |
From June 1996 to July 1997, General Clark served as Commander of the US Southern Command, where he was responsible for US military activities concerning Latin America, including the School of the Americas (SOA), now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). On Sept. 20, 1996, Pentagon officials admitted that SOA manuals used from 1982 to 1991 advocated the use of torture, extortion, and extrajudical executions against dissidents in Latin America. The New York Times wrote "an institution so clearly out of tune with American values should be shut down without further delay."
On December 16, 1996, a few months after the Pentagon admission of the torture manuals, Clark visited the SOA, not to demand accountability but to give a commencement speech at an SOA graduation ceremony. Six years later and still, no one has been held accountable for the use of the torture manuals at the SOA. The SOA trained death squad leaders, assassins and military dictators. Its graduates were found responsible for some of the worst human rights atrocities in Latin America, including the El Mozote massacre of more than 900 civilians in El Salvador in 1980, the murder of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi in 1998 and of Colombian Archbishop Isa?as Duarte in 2002.
At almost every campaign stop, Gen. Clark is facing critical questions concerning his connection to the SOA and his continued unpopular support of the school. Asked about his continued support of the SOA during an event in Manchester, NH, on Dec. 19, 2003, Clark responded, " I?m not going to have been in charge of a school that I can?t be proud of." In reaction to a question asked in Concord, NH, about the torture manuals Clark stated: "We're teaching police procedures and human rights . . . [We've] never taught torture." Despite cosmetic changes, the SOA remains a combat training school that teaches Latin American soldiers commando tactics, psychological operations, sniper and other military skills. Its graduates continue to be linked to massacres and other crimes. A few examples:
? In April 2002, the Venezuelan Army Commander-in-Chief Efrain Vasquez and General Ramirez Poveda -- both graduates of the SOA -- were key players in an attempted coup against the democratically elected Venezuelan government. In total, the school has produced at least eleven military dictators.
? In October 2003 it became public through documents released by the Mexican Secretary of Defense that SOA-trained ex-soldiers are now working as highly trained hired assassins for the Gulf Drug Cartel. SOA graduates comprise over a third of 31 renegade soldiers who were previously part of an elite counter-drug division of the Mexican Army.
? In December 2003, the Colombian prosecutor general's office ordered the dismissal of SOA graduate Oscar Eduardo Saavedra Calixto for failing to prevent a 2001 massacre of 27 civilians in the village of Chengue. human rights Reports consistently cite SOA-trained Colombian officers for collaboration with paramilitaries.
In 2001 the SOA changed its name at a time when SOA opponents were poised to win a congressional vote that would have closed the school. The vote lost by 204-214 and even though the school renamed, Amnesty International joins other human rights groups in calling for its closure. A broad movement of human rights groups, churches and temples, students, veterans and others maintain that the underlying purpose of the school remains the same: to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries. New legislation to close the school was introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass) and has been co-sponsored by 102 Members of Congress. Opponents of the SOA/WHISC are preparing for a large-scale Lobby Day in DC on March 30th. 28 people are scheduled for trial on Jan. 26, facing 6 months for civil disobedience when 10,000 people demonstrated at Ft. Benning, home of the SOA.
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On Visit to France, Donald Rumsfeld Hit with Lawsuit for Ordering, Authorizing Torture
The complaint was filed with the Paris prosecutor’s office as Rumsfeld arrived in France for a visit. This is the fifth time Rumsfeld has been charged with direct involvement in torture since 9/11. We speak with two attorneys with the plaintiffs—Center for Constitutional Rights president Michael Ratner and Jeanne Sulzer of the International Federation of Human Rights. [includes rush transcript]
U.S. and European human rights groups filed a lawsuit in France today charging former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. The plaintiffs include the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights and the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights. They say Rumsfeld authorized interrogation techniques that led to abuses at US-run prisons in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.
The complaint was filed with the Paris prosecutor’s office as Rumsfeld arrived in France for a visit. This is the fifth time Rumsfeld has been charged with direct involvement in torture since 9/11. Michael Ratner is the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He joins me in the firehouse studio. Jeanne Sulzer is a French attorney with the International Federation of Human Rights. She joins me on the line from Paris.
The complaint was filed with the Paris prosecutor’s office as Rumsfeld arrived in France for a visit. This is the fifth time Rumsfeld has been charged with direct involvement in torture since 9/11.
Michael Ratner is the president for the Center for Constitutional Rights; he joins me in our firehouse studio. Jeanne Sulzer is a French attorney with the International Federation of Human Rights. She joins me on the line from Paris. Welcome to both of you to Democracy Now!
Below you will find another article from Wes Clark that I have found very recently that he has posted in 2008. Of course it is very easy to take the point of view in the newspapers to be against torture when it serves his political needs and at the same time he expects to get away with very violent torture and first degree murder without ever having to go to court for it.
If my dad had only been water boarded he would still be alive today.
Instead he got cut up with a knife by Clark himself. I witnessed it. Clark is a
murderer. He belongs on the electric chair. Hearing that piece of shit talk
about honor, as if he had any, makes me want to throw up.
And if the police in more than one country insist on letting that lying,
backward snake further harass me as he has been doing for years. I will end up
killing him at one point. I intend to run around free and clear afterwards and
be just as proud of it, as Clark is of the fact that he so far seems to get
away with the inhumane torture and first degree murder that I have watched him
commit. I am totally fed up with it.
There is not a judge in the world that could possibly ever convince me
that it is anything else than justice after the shit that I have been through.
I have known Clark since 1975. The guy is an arrogant piece of shit. A
lying creep that finds it the most normal thing in the world that he gets to
carve up a totally innocent person because he feels like it. Since that person
was my dad. I will not put up with it. I keep getting more pissed every single
time that another police station refuses to have a look at the case.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0801.clark.html
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orture—the word evokes images of dark, damp dungeons and outlandish punishments and pain. But torture can take many forms, and it lives today. Incredibly, Americans are part of it. And we must put a stop to it.
