Brasília, 6/27/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Torture continues to be used as an instrument of pressure and retaliation in Brazilian police stations and prisons, continuing a practice characteristic of the military period (1964-84). "Torture is a cultural problem," says the head of Human Rights Secretariat, Nilmario Miranda. And so, twenty years after the end of the dictatorship, a period characterized by censorship and police violence, Miranda is launching a program called "Torture Never Again," which will seek to ensure that human rights are respected in Brazilian jails today and in the future.

The inauguration of the program was yesterday, World Day Against Torture. It establishes a series of activities enabling police chiefs, prosecutors and judges to deal efficiently and correctly with the problem, punishing the guilty severely and putting an end to impunity.

As for prevention, Miranda explained that educational programs will be run in police academies with emphasis on investigative techniques. "Instead of doing good investigations, the police use violence to get false confessions. Torture results in grotesque judicial errors. The use of such barbaric methods is a cause of police incompetence and inefficiency," says Miranda.

The other problem that must be dealt with is in prisons where guards use torture to punish inmates. There are also cases of torture in juvenile detention centers.

According to data from the National Human Rights Movement (MNDH), most victims of torture in Brazil are negroes from low-income backgrounds. In 77% of the cases they are tortured by police or prison guards. Most occurrences of torture, 70%, take place in small cities in the interior of the country. The MNDH reports that the states where they receive the most complaints about torture are São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Pará and Bahia. (AB)