Torture as political terror: analysis of a phenomenon over time and space

Résumé du document

The word "terrorism" appeared during the French Revolution and was associated with the Reign of Terror. Since Antiquity, human beings have used torture to extract information. However, an "organ of political authority" may also adopt a "policy of torture" to control and terrorize any given society. Therefore, the use of torture as an instrument of political terror, could be defined as an "inflection of physical or mental pain, or both, as a political act implemented with the consent or tolerance of the state or of another organ of political authority as a part of a national or community policy to respond to real or perceived internal threats". According to Amnesty International, 75% of the world's governments have used this kind of violence between 1997 and mid-2000. The question that arises is, why did/do past/current "organs of political authority" want to terrorize any society or people groups using torture? Firstly, the use of torture as political terror by some governments appears as an authoritarian method of governing. Secondly, some democratic regimes could use this political apparatus to face the rise of terrorism or to protect their national territory and their population in the international context.

Extraits

[...] Torture as political terror: analysis of a phenomenon over time and space The word “terrorism” appeared during the French Revolution and was associated with the Reign of Terror. Moreover, since the Antiquity, human beings have mainly used torture to extract some information. However, an “organ of political authority” may also adopts a “policy of torture” to control and terrorize any given society. Therefore, the use of torture as a “political terror's instrument” could be defined as an “inflection of physical or mental pain, or both, as a political act implemented with the consent or tolerance of the state or of another organ of political authority as a part of a national or community policy to respond to real or perceived internal threats”. [...]

[...] Thus, torture appeared to the French government as a political terror instrument in reply to terror. More recently, the IRA which desired the establishment of an all- island Irish state committed many attacks against the British which terrorized the population. Thus, a 1971 report by Amnesty International found that the British Army beat and forced some IRA suspects to run over broken glass for instance. An intangible and thus a terrifying threat: the advent of Islamic terrorism threatening liberal- democratic regimes According to statistics gathered for 2005 by the National Counterterrorism Center of the United States, Islamic extremism was responsible for approximately 56% of all fatalities where a terrorist perpetrator could be specified. [...]

[...] These security companies are largely constituted of former and often retired police officers or soldiers from previous state torture regimes. Thus, the governments who want to practice torture as political terror to fight against terrorism use these kinds of companies and give them the responsibility to use torture tactics according to their aims. For instance, it appears that these “security companies” have been playing an important role in conflicts such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. To sum up, differences in the implementation of policies of torture remain regarding the politic culture and the economic system of these countries. [...]

[...] For example, the United States were threatened on their national territory with the September 11th attacks that killed almost 3,000 citizens. Thus, torture as a political terror could be an instrument for democratic governments involved in the on terrorism” From a condemned archaic instrument to a practice used by democratic regimes Legitimization of the use of a condemned practice After the Nazi period, public opinion has become more and more in favor of human dignity. Thus, when democratic governments want to use torture as political terror, they frequently legitimize it pointing to history focused violence against the state such as insurgencies which threaten the security of its citizens and its stability. [...]

[...] Thus, the use of torture as political terror varies among world countries. For instance, the acts of torture committed by US soldiers are not equivalent to the state torture uses by Sudan or Russia. Moreover, the use of torture as political terror varies because of the evolution of the international context; the use of torture in the first part of the 20th century for instance is not similar to some currents implementations. Nevertheless, from the end of the Cold War, the use of torture as political terror has decreased and this process will continue. [...]