In PNG’s barbarous prisons, where is the voice of Australia?

What are the chances of Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd applying his famous concentration to Papua New Guinea, in particular the level of torture by police?

Australia gives almost $460 million a year to PNG but seems to do little about the staggering level of violence in places such as police lock-ups, where people not convicted of any crime may be held for months. Some die in custody.

Evidence has now been found of police deliberately disabling those suspected of a serious crime or who escape custody About 40 per cent of people in PNG live in poverty, that is, on less than 90 cents a day and it has the highest rate of reported HIV cases in the region. In 2009, an estimated 98,757 people or 2.56 per cent of the adult population had HIV-AIDS.

Four years ago Human Rights Watch reported the prevalence of police violence, with children and others in police custody often raped and tortured.

“Police rapes and torture are crimes, not methods of crime control,” Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division, then reported. “These brutal tactics have destroyed public confidence in the police.”

Now a little-publicised report by the United Nations has found an appalling incidence use of torture and other abuse by police, including systematic beatings of prisoners on arrest or soon after.

“Very often beatings are inflicted by the police as a form of punishment of suspects, reflecting complete disrespect for the presumption of innocence and the dignity of persons suspected of crimes,” says a UN Special Rapporteur. The Rapporteur, Manfred Nowak, was on the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances; he is a UN expert on missing people in the former Yugoslavia and on legal questions on enforced disappearances; and a judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is Professor of Constitutional Law and International Human Rights at the University of Vienna and Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights.

While expressing gratitude for the willingness of the PNG Government to open up to independent scrutiny as a means for assessing torture and ill-treatment, he was disappointed that at the highest political level, both in government and in Parliament, his mission was not given appropriate attention.

He made unannounced visits to places of detention and held confidential interviews with selected detainees. “However, in Buka Police Station, an intelligence officer from Port Moresby, Thadeus Yangavi, verbally assaulted members of my team and even attempted to physically attack them ...”

He said the spread of firearms exacerbated the problems of violent crime and tribal fighting. He saw how minor occurrences quickly grew into violent incidents.

“I am concerned that the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary is not always in a position to enforce the rule of law due to insufficient human and financial resources, a high level of corruption and unprofessionalism, difficulties in accessing remote rural areas and a lack of political will. These deficiencies have led to private security companies carrying out some of the main duties of the police. The fact that there are far more private security officers than police officers in the country is a worrying sign of police weakness and a failure of the State to provide security and freedom from fear to its people.”

Torture and ill-treatment

“Widely practiced methods include beatings with car fan belts, bush knives, gun butts, iron rods, wooden sticks, stones, punching and kicking, used mainly to punish and intimidate detainees and to establish authority. While I did not find more sophisticated and brutal methods of torture, understood in the classical sense of this term, there is no doubt that police beatings often reached the level of torture, as defined in the UN Convention against Torture. This worrying fact has been corroborated by medical evidence in a high number of cases.”

Outside detention, the police often use excessive force, not only in dealing with crime but also in evicting residents from settlements, says Nowak.

“Excessive use of force amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In correctional institutions, those who attempt or succeed in escaping are subjected to torture upon recapture as a standard practice. This includes brutal beatings with bush knives and gun butts, shooting detainees’ legs and feet at close range and cutting their tendons with bush knives and axes after they are apprehended, with the intent of disabling them. The victims are usually kept in punishment cells without any medical treatment, which sometimes leads to their death, as at Baisu Correctional Institution near Mount Hagen.”

A lack of effective complaints mechanisms, independent investigation and monitoring and similar safeguards create an environment of impunity fueling these practices, he says.

Conditions of detention

There is a general atmosphere of violence and neglect in all police lock-ups and in many correctional institutions. Detainees had no knowledge of or trust in any complaint mechanisms available to them.

The lack of effective oversight mechanisms and the prevalence of bribery in the criminal justice system result in prolonged detention in police custody or on remand for detainees, particularly those with little money.

Lock-ups are used to keep detainees on remand for a considerable time, often for many months or even more than a year. Nowak: “I am deeply concerned about the fact that many persons suspected of having committed a criminal offence are locked up for prolonged periods in appalling conditions of detention in police custody. This practice … [is] in violation of Articles 7 and 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

Over 11 days in May this year he saw detainees locked up in overcrowded, filthy cells, without proper ventilation, natural light or access to food and water for washing, drinking and for using the toilets. In the Highlands, where temperatures can be particularly low at night, prisoners are often left without any blanket or warm clothes, while sleeping on concrete floors.

“In general, detainees were hardly ever taken out of their cells, and I found several instances where the officers on duty did not even have the keys to some of the cells, raising serious safety concerns …”

Nowak found that some prisoners were forced to urinate and defecate in plastic bags and bottles, which were then picked up by the female detainees and piled in the small common space. In all police stations, detainees had to sleep on the floor. Although some were allowed visitors, it was often only for a few minutes. Despite the very small amount of food provided to the detainees, food provided by families was often rejected.

Poor conditions and prolonged detention in lock-ups spreads cholera and other contagious diseases. “Access to medical care was generally non-existent, leading sometimes to death in police custody. In other instances, the delayed access to any medical care led to avoidable amputations and the spread of disease among the detainees. The overall impression was one of negligence.”

None of the police stations can be regarded as complying with international minimum standards for the humane treatment of detainees, but conditions in Goroka and Mount Hagen Police Stations were particularly appalling.

Those held on remand are not separated from convicted prisoners, which violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The last execution was in 1954.

Nowak found prison conditions are generally poor. “Most prisons do not have sufficient beds, mosquito nets or blankets. In addition, very few cells have running water, contributing to poor hygienic conditions. … the food provided to the detainees in the entire country is insufficient and of a very low nutritional value.”

Detention or punishment cells are overcrowded, holding up to three times their capacity. In some institutions prisoners were locked in overcrowded cells up to 18 hours a day.

Women

Nowak found that although violence against women seems to be widespread the communities underreport it for shame or fear of further violence or rejection. “Little support is granted by the State, and women who are victims of domestic violence do not seem to be recognized as victims. Many female detainees I interviewed were incarcerated for crimes linked to domestic violence and polygamy.”

He heard many allegations of sexual abuse by arresting officers in exchange for release from custody. “Some officers also appear to frequently arrest women for minor offences with the intention of sexually abusing them. As a punishment, some women were also threatened or were placed in cells with male detainees for a night, where they were subjected to collective rape by the other detainees.”

Persons with disabilities and diseases

“Medical care in detention facilities is insufficient or totally inexistent throughout the country,” finds Nowak. “The psychiatric support to detention facilities is not in compliance with international minimum standards. Psychiatric evaluations should be done on a routine basis, and in an independent and professional manner.”

Only one hospital treats those with mental disabilities, but it does not have enough permanent resident psychiatrists and facilities are old and fairly run down.

“It seems that Papua New Guinea lacks a proper forensic system capable of assuring timely and adequate examinations of victims of torture and ill-treatment, as well as prompt and complete forensic autopsies in accordance with international standards.

“I am very concerned about the practice of the police to deliberately disable persons suspected of serious crimes and those who escape from detention.”

Nowak recommended that the PNG Government:

• Declare unambiguously at the highest level, in particular those responsible for law enforcement, that they will not tolerate torture or similar ill treatment by public officials and that those in command at the time abuses are perpetrated will be held personally responsible for the abuses.
   
• Ensure prompt and thorough ex officio investigations for all allegations of ill treatment or excessive use of force by an authority that is independent from the investigation and prosecution. Any officer known to be abusive should be removed from custodial duties. Heads of police stations and detention facilities shall be made aware of their supervisory responsibility.
   
• Ensure a comprehensive and structural reform of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary in accordance with the recommendations of the Administrative Review Committee to the then Minister for Internal Security in September 2004.
   
• Ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol, providing for regular preventive visits to all places of detention by an independent domestic monitoring body.
   
• Amend the domestic legislation to include torture as a serious crime with adequate penalties. The definition of the crime of torture should be in full accordance with article 1 of the Convention against Torture.
   
• Reduce, as a matter of urgent priority, the period of police custody to a time limit in line with international standards (maximum 48 hours). After this period, detainees should be transferred to a separate remand facility under a different authority.
   
• Establish accessible and effective complaints mechanisms in all places of detention. Complaints by detainees should be followed up by independent and thorough investigations, and complainants must be protected from reprisals.
   
• Ensure those deprived of their liberty are confined in facilities where the conditions comply with international minimum sanitary and hygienic standards and that detainees are provided with basic necessities, such as adequate floor space, bedding, food, water and health care. Prisoners should be provided with opportunities for work, education, recreation and rehabilitation activities.
   
• Separate detainees on remand from convicted prisoners. Remove all children from adult detention facilities. Immediately close Mount Hagen Police Station.
   
• Urgently build a proper correctional institution in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
   
• Ratify the first Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides for the right of victims to lodge individual complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee.
   
• Abolish the death penalty and ratify the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

He also recommended that the international donor community consider protection of human rights in the criminal justice system, and in particular the prevention of torture, as the highest priority. Specific programmes and projects should be carried out only after clear demonstration of the political will to implement far-reaching structural reforms aimed at the prevention of torture. Are you listening, Foreign Minister?