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	Abusing Patients by Joseph Amon Human Rights Watch   Jan 2010   In 2002 Human Rights Watch documented a network of Chinese psychiatric facilities where dissidents were detained alongside the mentally ill. One "patient," Tan Guihua, was detained on September 12, 1999. She was sent to the Jiaozhou Mental Hospital in Shandong province for supporting and practicing Falungong, a form a spiritual meditation. Because she refused to renounce her beliefs she was repeatedly tortured by medical personnel using electroshock therapy, and was force-fed antipsychotic medicines.   The human rights communit"s attention to the complicity of doctors and other health workers in torture or cruel and inhuman treatment has generally been focused on cases like that of Tan Guihua and other political prisoners in detention settings. Most notorious was the "Doctor"s Trial" of Nazi physicians at Nuremberg in 1946-47. More recently, the participation of military psychiatrists and psychologists in "Behavioral Science Consultation Teams" to prepare and provide feedback to interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has drawn attention and controversy.   Yet torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment conducted by medical providers is not confined to political prisoners or counterterrorism efforts.   Increasingly, attention has focused on the complicity of medical personnel in such abuses in medical or rehabilitation settings. In healthcare facilities, juvenile detention centers, orphanages, drug treatment centers, and so-called social rehabilitation centers, health providers unjustifiably, discriminatorily, or arbitrarily withhold treatment, or engage in treatment that intentionally or negligently inflicts severe pain or suffering and has no legitimate medical purpose.   These actions-and inactions-may be done in compliance with state medical policies, in contradiction to them, or in their absence, but when they do occur they can be described as torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment (CIDT), in which case both the medical provider and the state must be held accountable..   * The access this report visit the link below. Visit the related web page
	UN demands Sri Lanka execution probe by International Crisis Group & news agencies   17 May 2010   War Crimes in Sri Lanka. (ICG: Asia Report N°191)   The Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) repeatedly violated international humanitarian law during the last five months of their 30-year civil war. Although both sides committed atrocities throughout the many years of conflict, the scale and nature of violations particularly worsened from January 2009 to the government’s declaration of victory in May.   Evidence gathered by the International Crisis Group suggests that these months saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilian men, women, children and the elderly killed, countless more wounded, and hundreds of thousands deprived of adequate food and medical care, resulting in more deaths.   This evidence also provides reasonable grounds to believe the Sri Lankan security forces committed war crimes with top government and military leaders potentially responsible. There is evidence of war crimes committed by the LTTE and its leaders as well, but most of them were killed and will never face justice. An international inquiry into alleged crimes is essential given the absence of political will or capacity for genuine domestic investigations, the need for an accounting to address the grievances that drive conflict in Sri Lanka, and the potential of other governments adopting the Sri Lankan model of counter-insurgency in their own internal conflicts.   "The scale of civilian deaths and suffering demands a response", says Crisis Group President Louise Arbour. "Future generations will demand to know what happened, and future peace in Sri Lanka requires some measure of justice."   "An international inquiry is necessary not only for justice and long-term peace in Sri Lanka but also to help prevent a repeat elsewhere", says Robert Templer, Crisis Group''s Asia Program Director. "It would serve as a warning to other governments that may be considering ''the Sri Lankan model'' to address their own internal conflicts."   Jan 2009   The United Nations has called for an inquiry into atrocities in Sri Lanka after experts authenticated video footage of government soldiers killing unarmed Tamil rebels.   The video, released by Journalists For Democracy and first aired on Britain"s Channel 4 last year, shows the execution of several naked men who are blindfolded and sitting on the ground. A man in uniform holding an automatic rifle takes a step towards the men and kills them each with a single shot.   UN special rapporteur Philip Alston has called upon the Sri Lankan government to respond to the allegations.   "In light of the persistent flow of other allegations of extra judicial executions committed by both sides during the closing phases of the war against the [Tamil Tigers], I call for an independent inquiry to carry out an impartial investigation into war crimes and other grave violations of human rights law allegedly committed in Sri Lanka," he said.   Mr Alston has called on the government to let independent investigators visit the country. "If the government claims that nothing untoward took place are accurate, then it will be the beneficiary", he said.   * Below is a link to the latest International Crisis Group report on the current situation in Sri Lanka. Visit the related web page
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