Special Report Transcript Episode 13, Section 5, Time 20:16

There is a whole range of complicity we’re dealing with. Various countries such as Chile and Uruguay, which went through authoritarian regimes, have documented quite flagrant participation in torture. But they’ve also documented, as have other countries, that quite often what happened is very banal acts of participation, such as refusing to stand up for the right of the patient to have a medical examination or medical intervention away from the security police. The issue of accurate recording of the injuries observed; the issue of insisting on appropriate medical care; the issue of post mortem reports and accurate reflection of what was observed in the post mortem examination; the issue of giving evidence in medical legal contexts. It can be because they accept the ideology, the motivations of the security force personal who are involved in interrogating somebody. It can be that they are part of a social milieu in which they mix in daily life with these people. It can be a sense of concern about their career, their position, a sense of fear or intimidation, or a result of direct threats. And I think in all of these ways over a period of time doctors or other medical professionals or paramedical professionals can be drawn into a situation of complicity in which the detainee or someone else at the mercy of the state suffers grossly.

Notes: Dr Mary Rayner (Amnesty International)

References: there are no references for this transcript