Declassified documents from the Guardian Newspaper have today revealed the nature and extent of systematic and brutal torture inflicted on 'communist
agents' by the British army in 1946. Only one officer was ever convicted as a result. Warning - pictures associated with newslink could be
upsetting for those of a very nervous disposition.
www.guardian.co.uk
Photographs of victims of a secret torture programme operated by British authorities during the early days of the cold war are published for the first
time today after being concealed for almost 60 years.
The pictures show men who had suffered months of starvation, sleep deprivation, beatings and extreme cold at one of a number of interrogation centres
run by the War Office in postwar Germany.
A few were starved or beaten to death, while British soldiers are alleged to have tortured some victims with thumb screws and shin screws recovered
from a gestapo prison. The men in the photographs are not Nazis, however, but suspected communists, arrested in 1946 because they were thought to
support the Soviet Union, an ally 18 months earlier.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
I had always regarded the systematic torture of prisoners as something that the British Army just did not do, unlike, say the US in Abu Gharaib.
The only redeeming feature of the episode appears to be that a Royal Navy officer was instrumental in shutting the sordid affair down.
Related News Links:
www.guardian.co.uk
[edit on 2-4-2006 by TaupeDragon]
[edit on 6-4-2006 by asala]
