US President says Russian authorities have destroyed “lives, families and communities”.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, denounced this Monday the acts of torture committed by the Russian authorities, both in Russia and in Ukraine, destroying “lives, families and communities”.
“Torture destroys lives, families and communities. However, there are people around the world who, on a daily basis, are subjected to these horrific violations of their human rights and their dignity,” Biden said in a statement alluding to the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, which this Monday marks celebrate.
The US president referred, in particular, to “evidence of appalling violence by members of Russian forces” in Ukraine, invaded by Moscow in February 2022, “guilty”, he said, of “torture to force cooperation with occupation authorities and during interrogations, such as beatings, electrocutions, mock executions and the use of sexual violence”.
“On Russian territory itself, reports of torture in places of detention are frequent, including against activists and opponents of government policies,” he added.
Joe Biden also mentioned Syria and North Korea, in which he cited “the forced disappearance of tens of thousands of Syrians, with families never knowing the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones”.
“There are many credible reports of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” by the Pyongyang authorities, namely against women, who are victims of “sexual violence, abortions and forced sterilizations”, he adds.
Without explicitly mentioning the numerous accusations of torture that have been made against US forces and secret services in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo for years, Biden considered, however, that “no country” can escape its obligations in human rights in this field.
“We deeply believe, as a nation, that we too must meet the standards we hold others to,” he defended.
