The psychological trauma caused by torture has no boundaries. The victims of torture suffer serious consequences and need qualified assistance to overcome them, said the authors of a project to condemn the phenomenon and to rehabilitate victims that is implemented by the Comrat Institute for Democracy in partnership with the Tiraspol Media Center and the Chisinau National Institute for Women.
The manager of the Institute for Democracy Andrei Borshevski, project director, in a news conference at IPN said torture continues to be wisely used in the Republic of Moldova. According to the data of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the prosecution bodies in 2017 examined 639 complaints about bad treatment, as opposed to 622 complaints a year earlier. In 2017, following the examination of the given complaints, 34 criminal cases were sent to courts and these passed 20 judgment convicting 25 persons who were found guilty.
Within the project “All together we will say NO to torture in Moldova: civil society against torture” that has been implemented since last December with the financial support of the EU, three centers for legal, psychological and rehabilitation assistance intended for torture victims were opened. These work in Chisinau, at 71 București St, in Comrat, at 21/3 Tretiecova St, and in Tiraspol, at 12/12 Shevchenko St. In the first half of this year, over 400 persons sought help from the three centers, including 183 victims of torture. Among other activities that will be staged as part of the project are seminars on the inadmissibility of the use of torture and ill-treatment intended for employees of the penitentiary system and detainees and an information campaign that is underway, stated Andrei Borshevski.
Project coordinator in Chisinau Nonna Mihalcean, of the National Institute for Women, said 80% of the reports come from the families of victims of torture. The persons complain about inhuman detention conditions, insufficient food in jails, limited access to information and cases of violence between detainees. “The psychological trauma caused by torture has no boundaries. This trauma remains in conscience for a long period of time and leaves powerful imprints on the development of the personality of the victims. At the center, we also have cases when persons who were tortured many years ago come. We also had a case when a victim was tortured 15 years ago,” stated the activist, adding it is very important for each victim to benefit from rehabilitation as this enables them to overcome anxiety and distrust .
Tiraspol Media Center head Luiza Doroshenko, project coordinator for the Transnistrian region, said 155 psychological consultations and 48 legal consultations have been held so far. The center in Tiraspol is also visited mainly by relatives of victims, who report cases of use of torture in jails or ill-treatment in psychiatrist institutions.
Eduard Pesendorfer, manager of the Justice and Human Rights Program of the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova, said the human rights are a priority for the European Union. The combating of torture is important as the use of this affects human dignity. These cases should be stopped at all levels, regardless of the place where they occur. The objective of the project is to fight the use of torture and bad treatment and to provide qualified assistance in the rehabilitation of victims.
