TORTURE OF
GREEK PRISONERS REPORTED
{The ruling military junta in Greece, given Washington's blessing in the form of recognition of its regime last January 23, is continuing its brutal repression of all opposition. Following is the full text of a January 27 report by Amnesty International on the torture of political prisoners.
{Amnesty International sent a delegation of eighteen to Greece on Decenber 30 to investigate the extent of the so-called Christmas Amnesty proclaimed by the colonels with such fanfare. After a four-week investigation, the delegation reported that the junta had claimed to have released 284 prisoners, although "some of these were not in fact released, but simply transferred under Law No. 509 to the islands..." The delegation estimated that at the end of January there were approximately 2,777 political prisoners being held without trial in Greece. The subheadings appear in the original.]
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Torture
The following account presents in summary form the evidence the Amnesty International delegation took from the sixteen people they saw who reported that they had been tortured, and from the thirty-two people still in prison about whose cases they received secondhand evidence which they found convincing because it was in many cases corroborated.
Organizations, Places and Persons
Engaged in Torture
Torture as a deliberate practice is carried out by the Security Police (Asphalia) and the Military Police (Ethniki Stratiotiki Astinomia). The delegation heard firsthand evidence that the army and the gendarmerie also carried out torture, but it was difficult to determine if these were isolated cases or standard procedure.
Those whose names are most frequently mentioned as directing and carrying out torture are: Inspector Lambrou, the director of the Security Police Headquarters in Athens at Bouboulinas Street, and the following officers -- Mallios, Babalis, Karapanayiotis, Kravaritis, Spanos, Yannicopoulos, all of the same office; Major Theophiloyaiannakos of the Military Police located at the Dionysos camp outside Athens. Others mentioned frequently were Zagouras at Dionysos, Lt. Kapoglou, director of Asphalia at Aigeleo, and Kouvas of the Asphalia in Pireus.
The places where the most serious torture was reported in the Athens area
are the Bouboulinas Asphalia, Military
Hospital 401, and the Dionysos camp.
Techniques of Torture
A. Physical Torture
1. The standard initial torture re-
ported from every Asphalia station is the
so-called falanga. The prisoner is tied
to a bench and the soles of his feet are
beaten with a stick or pipe. Between beat-
ings the prisoner is usually made to run
around the bench under a heavy rain of
blows. We examined the feet of a person
who suffered this treatment four months
before and his sole was covered with
thick scar tissue. One prisoner now in
Averoff prison had his foot broken under
this torture. As he went without medical
attention, the bones have not set proper-
ly and he is crippled. The next step in
this method is to strike the prisoner on
the sternum. Prisoners vomiting blood
from the lungs have generally undergone
this treatment. Falanga is almost always
accompanied by other inflictions of pain
on the prisoner. In general five or six
men are engaged in the torture of one
prisoner. Common methods accompanying
falanga are: pouring water down the mouth
and nose while the prisoner is screaming
from pain; putting "Tide" soap in the
eyes, mouth and nose; banging the head on
a bench or on the floor; beating on other
parts of the body, etc.
2. Numerous incidents of sexually-
oriented torture were reported. In the
case of women, the torturers shove as
many fingers as possible, or an object,
into the vagina and twist and tear brutal-
ly. This is also done with the anus. A
tube is inserted into the anus and water
is driven into the prisoner under very
high pressure. In the case of men, beat-
ings on the genitals with long, thin sand-
bags have frequently been reported. One
trade unionist was beaten so much that a
testicle was driven up into his body.
3. Techniques of gagging are fre-
quently reported. The throat is grasped
in such a way that the windpipe is cut
off, or a filthy rag (often soaked in
urine) is shoved down the throat. Suffo-
cation is prevented only at the last mo-
ment.
4. Beating on the head with sand-
bags or beating the head against the wall
or floor are standard procedure. Many
cases of concussion have been reported.
5. Beating naked flesh with wires
knotted together into a whip.
6. Prisoners have been hung up for
long periods of time. Usually the wrists
are tied behind the back and the prisoner is suspended from the wrists.
7. Jumping on the stomach.
8. Tearing out the hair from the head and from the pubic region.
9. Rubbing pepper on sensitive areas of the body, such as the genitals, underarms, eyes, nose, etc.
10. Pulling out toenails and fingernails.
ll. Different methods of inflicting burns, including putting out cigarettes on parts of the body.
12. The use of electric shock. This is done at Military Hospital 401 and unconfirmed reports state that it is done at the Asphalia Station at Bouboulinas.
Physical beatings by the army and police as a method of intimidation and interrogation are general. Physical beating can be classified as torture if it is done in a systematic way. One man of over sixty contacted by the delegation was beaten steadily for periods of up to five days. Generally from four to six men beat a prisoner with their fists and kick with their booted feet, or use instruments such as planks, pipes, canes, etc. At the Dionysos camp, which houses Greece's elite soldiers, prisoners are made to run a gauntlet. A reliable secondhand report from this camp is that a man literally had his eye knocked out of his head. The Amnesty International delegation spoke with others who had broken ribs, noses, eardrums, etc.
B. Nonphysical Torture
Many informants who have undergone torture consider that the nonphysical methods were more difficult to bear.
1. Certain prisoners are intentionally moved to cells within earshot of other prisoners who are being violently interrogated. This has caused a number of nervous breakdowns. One informant said that listening to the cries of the others was worse than undergoing the torture, one wanted to run in and be beaten rather than listen to the sufferings of another. It is reported that Mikis Theodorakis, the composer, who was never physically tortured, suffered a nervous collapse under this method.
2. Conditions of detention in some places are particularly bad. One technique is to leave the prisoner in a tiny, dark cell without food, water or blankets, for some days. The cells at Dionysos, which are cut into the side of Mount Pendelli, have ten centimetres of water in them all the time. There is an iron bench
in the cell. As prisoners held here are
not allowed to go out of the cells, the
water is filled with their own excrement.
The cells in the basement of Bouboulinas
used for solitary confinement are full of
vermin.
3. Threats to kill, maim and rape.
People who had been tortured were often
told that it would be repeated at a cer-
tain hour in the night, and were kept in
constant terror by threats that they
would have to undergo again what they had
just experienced.
4. Stripping prisoners naked is
particularly effective in Greece, where
the association of nakedness with shame
is very strong in the culture.
5. Mock executions were frequently
reported. The prisoner faces a firing
squad, is blindfolded and the rifles are
fired. Some prisoners experienced this
more than once. It is often done at
Kesaryni, in the place where wartime exe~
cutions took place.
6. Signing declarations is consid~
ered by many to be the most inhuman tech~-
nique of the regime. Compulsion to sign a
paper denouncing parents, wife or politi-
cal beliefs particularly affects a person
of highly developed conscience and ideals.
This is used in a deliberate way to break
down the spirit of the prisoner.
The expert in these matters is Mr.
Tournas, promoted to be director of Greek
prisons under the regime. He begins by
getting the prisoner to sign something
innocuous, then tears up the paper, and
makes the prisoner renounce more and more
that he holds sacred.
The delegation interviewed people
who had signed under this pressure, and
all were in some sense broken.
One particularly moving case was
that of a man who signed in order to be
free to see his daughter who was dying
of cancer. She died before he was released
and he has had a nervous breakdown.
The Security Police and the Mili-
tary Police are unrestricted today in
Greece. Since, in Mr. Patakos' words,
"the laws sleep," the police may arrest
anyone, in any place, at any time, with
no obligation to charge him or inform
anyone of his arrest. Believing that
their own position is threatened by oppo-
sition to the government, they have re-
acted brutally to those engaged in oppo-
sition.
Those who have particularly suffered
at the hands of the security forces are the
young people, those who are not known abroad,
and those believed to be of the left.