APRIL 29, 2014
SECONDARY STUDENT MAGAZINE
kind of world we want to build? If our government tortures prisoners, the situation actually
becomes worse- not the other way around. If the same people responsible for enforcing our laws
and principles violate them, it fosters disrespect for ALL principles and laws. Ultimately that
makes us less safe.
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Torture is ineffective, illegal and a violation of our principles. Torture is NOT the type of behavior
we expect from civilized, law abiding nations. An example can be taken from the victims in
Mauritania. Abuses in Mauritania must come to an end. Authorities must investigate all reports of
torture and abuse and implement the recommendations recently presented by the UN Committee
against Torture.
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A flicker of lights | Amnesty International Article
by Kamola Khaitova
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A flicker of lights.
A pulsating, painful, pestering throb
took over my body.
That was all that I felt. All I could feel.
All I thought I thought I would ever feel
again. The heat, the noise, the stench. I
was lost.
“Beg for forgiveness, you worthless old
man!” I hear a distant voice screech my
native tongue, but he is no brother of
mine. Suddenly, I see an apparition of
my wife. She stands tall and enchanting; an angel whose heart was the rising sun and whos e mind
was the all-seeing moon.
“Yusuf,” she says, “come home.”
I open my eyes, the apparition disappears and I let the impact of the clenched fist reverberate
through me. I clench my quaking hands and spit out the tooth hanging off my gums by a strand of
bloody skin. The intensity of the situation hits me as hard as the officer’s baton and my breath
catches in a tight cage along with my heart. I could die. The faces of my children smile in the glare
of the flashlight and a tear slices though the grime on my face. I begin to recite my own poem
scrawled across the sickly air in front of my eyes.
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