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7 April 2005
Turning to torture to resolve the crises of terrorism would never work and was compromising humanity's values, Mr Paris Aristotle AM told the annual Monash University Costello Lecture on Wednesday night.
Mr Aristotle, the director of the Victorian Foundation for the Survivors of Torture, told the 100-strong crowd that failing to protect the fundamental human rights of every person would damage the framework of values protecting us.
"I do not believe that the nature of the threat of terrorism is so profoundly different to anything the world has seen before that we are forced to compromise our commitment to respect the fundamental human rights of every person, a commitment which includes the unqualified prohibition of torture," he said.
"If we respond to the threat of terrorism by compromising that commitment -- in our treatment of those who are suspected of involvement and even of those proven to be responsible -- we will profoundly damage the entire framework of values that protects us all."
Mr Aristotle said the imprisonment of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba had led to unforseen and unwelcome consequences for the US and its allies.
"I believe the prisoners at Guantanamo have been tortured or have at least endured cruel, inhumane and degrading conditions.
"This would have reinforced among prisoners any previously held beliefs about the barbarism of the US and its allies, thereby confirming the justification of having taken up arms," he said.
"Those people will now have first-hand knowledge and evidence of the violations perpetrated by officials at Guantanamo. This evidence has the potential for use in future legal action brought against those officials and their commanders.
"For these reasons there is now a pool of people for whom release is difficult if not impossible and therefore their predicament turns into a festering moral and legal boil on the rump of the US and its allies.
"In countries such as Chile, Argentina and El Salvador, where similar situations developed, the practice of disappearances became an extension of their policy to detain without charge and torture. Considering that no names or identifying information have been released about the majority of prisoners held at Guantanamo what is there to prevent similar disappearances from occurring?'' Mr Aristotle said. | 
