El Salvador Denounced
for Torture
Members of the Permanent
Risk Management Center (MPGR)
charged the Salvadorian
government with
psychological torture of
the civilian population.
The charge is based on
police repression last
Monday when the
population and civilian
institutions held a
peaceful protest against
the policy of
decentralizing water, a
government action they
consider is aimed at
privatization.
The Unit for Maintenance
of Public Order, members
of Special Police
Operations and Groups of
Police Reaction
forcefully broke up the
demonstration that
culminated with 14
arrests and several
injured.
According to witnesses,
the police sprayed
pepper gas and fired
rubber bullets at the
demonstrators.
Members of the
Association of Rural
Communities for
Development in El
Salvador (CRIPDES) who
were arrested declared
that when being
transported by
helicopter to
Cojutepeque, the police
mistreated them
psychologically.
Doctor Jeannette
Alvarado of MPGR claimed
the police surpassed
limits of tolerance and
recalled the 1970s when
the population was
forbidden to express
dissatisfaction.
The groups have filed
charges to Amnesty
International, the
United Nations and the
Interamerican Commission
of Human Rights. |
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