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Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran sent a letter to Iranian authorities on November 25 to ask for a full, transparent and independent investigation into the suspicious death of Dr. Ramin Pourandarjani, a physician who had examined prisoners wounded and killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests. Dr. Pourandarjani, 26, reportedly died of a heart attack in his sleep at police headquarters in Tehran on November 10.

The letter states:

We strongly urge that this investigation be thorough, impartial and independent and we also urge you to ensure that internationally respected forensic experts be invited to assist in such investigations. We respectfully draw to your notice that experienced forensic specialists from Physicians for Human Rights, would be willing to assist in the investigation.

Dr Pourandarjani graduated with distinction from the University of Tabriz and was doing his two-year national service at the Kahrizak detention center in Tehran during the June 2009 protests.

Many protestors were held in Kahrizak where they were allegedly tortured and ill treated. At least three detainees reportedly died of their injuries, including Mohsen Ruholamini, the son of a senior conservative politician. Following his death, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the closure of Karhizak. Although Iranian authorities have promised to investigate the ill treatment of detainees at Kahrizak, no prosecutions have yet been announced.

The Washington Post reported on November 18:

A parliamentary committee plans to issue a report soon on the Kahrizak prison, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said. The makeshift detention center was closed in July on the orders of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, because of substandard conditions.

The prison became the focus of a rare investigation into police conduct after the death of Mohsen Rouholamini, the son of a former senior Health Ministry official. Authorities said he and two others died of meningitis, but Rouholamini’s father said his son was tortured to death.

Former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, a Shiite cleric, publicly accused security forces in August of having tortured and raped detainees in Kahrizak, an allegation that government officials denied. In a raid on Karroubi’s office in September, security forces confiscated witness reports, names and addresses.

Dr. Pourandarjani had reportedly examined Mr. Ruholamini two days before he died. The doctor reportedly stated to Iranian MPs: “He was brought to me after being physically and severely tortured. He was in a grave physical condition and I had limited medical supplies, but I did my best to save him. It was then that I was threatened by the authorities of Kahrizak that if I disclose the cause of death and injuries of the detainees, I will cease to live.”

Defending colleagues at risk is at the core of PHR’s work. Physicians for Human Rights was founded in 1986 after Dr. Jonathan Fine and a group of US physicians visited Chile to advocate for the release of imprisoned health professionals. Since then, PHR has rigorously defended health professional colleagues and pressured governments for their release, supplementing secondary material with firsthand research and investigation.

Washington Director, John Bradshaw, was recently interviewed by PressTV about PHR’s new report, Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 CIA Inspector General’s Report.

A team of PHR doctors authored the white paper, which details how the CIA relied on medical expertise to rationalize and carry out abusive and unlawful interrogations. It also refers to aggregate collection of data on detainees’ reaction to interrogation methods. Physicians for Human Rights is concerned that this data collection and analysis may amount to human experimentation and calls for more investigation on this point. If confirmed, the development of a research protocol to assess and refine the use of the waterboard or other techniques would likely constitute a new, previously unknown category of ethical violations committed by CIA physicians and psychologists.

Remember the calamitous end to Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long civil war back in May?  Some 16,700 non-combatants were wounded and several thousand more were killed during the final onslaught. Fighting between the 150,000-strong Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and the 7,000-strong Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) armed forces resulted in 300,000 displaced minority Tamils.

Although both sides committed mass atrocities, recent video footage of apparent executions (warning: this video contains graphic images) of 9 Tamil POWs supports widespread allegations of war crimes by the SLA.

But the international community, most notably the UN Security Council, remains idle while it should be launching a commission of inquiry.

Now shift your attention to Burma where eerily similar events are taking place. Murder, torture, forcible displacement, enslavement and rape comprise the military’s arsenal of abuses inflicted against minority populations. Last week, in a Washington Post op-ed, Chris Beyrer, MD, and I described such recent attacks that resulted in the flight of some 30,000 Kokang (an ethnic Chinese minority group in Burma) to Yunnan Province, China.

Though it can’t be confirmed, it seems as if the Burmese junta is reading the SLA’s play book on how to pull off a swift and murderous end to its own decades-long civil war. Curiously, following the military victory over the Tamil Tigers, the President of Sri Lanka, General Mahinda Rajapaksa, made a state visit to Burma to meet with President Than Shwe. Perhaps the two military dictators met only to discuss a bilateral agreement on tourism. But I doubt it.

Senator Jim Webb recently opined in the New York Times that we can’t afford to ignore Myanmar (the official name of Burma since 1989). The senior Democratic senator from Virginia rightly calls for increased engagement with Burma, but for all the wrong reasons. Without knowing better, one could read the Senator’s piece and believe the only problem with Burma is a blemished democratic process that lacks political openness.

Such whitewashing belies the stark reality that over the past five decades of continuous military rule, ethnic minorities have abided widespread mass atrocities. Murder, forced displacement, slave labor, conscription of child soldiers, torture and rape comprise the military’s arsenal of rights abuses inflicted against these non-combatants.

The junta has leveled some 3,200 villages by destroying and looting all that sustains these rural populations. The military regime’s persecution of ethnic minorities has resulted in more than two million Burmese fleeing their country, and the flow of refugees continues. Last month another 5,000 Burmese fled to Thailand, and last week week some 30,000 have fled to Yunnan province, China.

Imagine. Burmese are now seeking refuge in China!

The Burmese do need outside help, as the Senator admits, but engaging with the current regime on the electoral process will only strengthen the hand of the military and ensure continued repression of ethnic minorities who make up one-third of the populace.

A team of PHR doctors authored the new white paper, “Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 Inspector General’s Report.”

The report details how the CIA relied on medical expertise to rationalize and carry out abusive and unlawful interrogations. It also refers to aggregate collection of data on detainees’ reaction to interrogation methods. PHR is concerned that this data collection and analysis may amount to human experimentation and calls for more investigation on this point. If confirmed, the development of a research protocol to assess and refine the use of the waterboard or other techniques would likely constitute a new, previously unknown category of ethical violations committed by CIA physicians and psychologists.

In a statement today, Scott Allen, MD, PHR’s Medical Advsisor and lead author of the report, said:

Medical doctors and psychologists colluded with the CIA to keep observational records about waterboarding, which approaches unethical and unlawful human experimentation. Interrogators would place a cloth over a detainee’s face to block breathing and induce feelings of fear, helplessness, and a loss of control. A doctor would stand by to monitor and calibrate this physically and psychologically harmful act, which amounts to torture. It is profoundly unsettling to learn of the central role of health professionals in laying a foundation for US government lawyers to rationalize the CIA’s illegal torture program.

Steven Reisner, PhD, PHR’s Psychological Ethics Advisor and report co-author, said:

The required presence of health professionals did not make interrogation methods safer, but sanitized their use, escalated abuse, and placed doctors and psychologists in the untenable position of calibrating harm rather than serving as protectors and healers. The fact that psychologists went beyond monitoring, and actually designed and implemented these abuses — while simultaneously serving as ’safety monitors’ — reveals the ethical bankruptcy of the entire program.

The Inspector General’s report documents some practices — previously unknown or unconfirmed — that were used to bring about excruciating pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end. These practices included:

• Mock executions;
• Brandishing guns and power drills;
• Threats to sexually assault family members and murder children;
• “Walling” — repeatedly slamming an unresponsive detainee’s head against a cell wall; and
• Confinement in a box.

Co-author and PHR Senior Medical Advisor Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, said:

These unlawful, unethical, and ineffective interrogation tactics cause significant bodily and mental harm. The CIA Inspector General’s report confirms that torture escalates in severity and torturers frequently go beyond approved techniques.

Co-author Allen Keller, MD, Director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, said:

That health professionals who swear to oaths of healing so abused the sacred trust society places in us by instigating, legitimizing and participating in torture, is an abomination. Health professionals who aided torture must be held accountable by professional associations, by state licensing boards, and by society.  Accountability is essential to maintain trust in our professions and to end torture, which scars bodies and minds, leaving survivors to endure debilitating injuries, humiliating memories and haunting nightmares.

PHR has called for full investigation and remedies, including accountability for war crimes, and reparation, such as compensation, medical care and psycho-social services. PHR also calls for health professionals who have violated ethical standards or the law to be held accountable through criminal prosecution, loss of license and loss of professional society membership where appropriate.