China News Service, Beijing, April 8 (Reporter Li Jingze) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian hosted a regular press conference on the 8th.
A reporter asked: Recently, the British "Guardian" reported that a declassified report of the US government showed that in the "black prison" of the CIA in Afghanistan, a prisoner was used as a "teaching aid" for interns to practice including "hitting the wall". "The "splashing ice water" and other inhumane tortures have suffered devastating physical and mental harm.
What is China's comment?
Zhao Lijian: The CIA has set up "black jails" in many countries under the guise of the so-called "war on terror", secretly detaining so-called "terrorist suspects", arbitrarily detaining them and extorting confessions by torture, which has been widely criticized by the international community.
The notorious Guantanamo Prison, Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, etc., have been exposed to scandals of torture of prisoners, waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other "enhanced interrogation methods", which are extremely cruel and outrageous.
"Black prison" is a typical feature of America's wanton abuse of the rule of law and human rights.
At the beginning of this year, a research report on "The Cost of War" of Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs pointed out that after the "9.11" incident, the "black prisons" of the United States overseas involved at least 54 countries and regions, detaining hundreds of thousands of people. Including Muslims, women and minors.
American taxpayers pay $540 million a year just to hold suspects at Guantanamo.
Yet 20 years on, instead of a single U.S. official being held accountable for developing, authorizing or conducting secret detention and torture programs, the U.S. government continues to cover up and deny its guilt on this human rights issue.
In 2020, the U.S. government imposed economic sanctions and entry restrictions on a number of officials, including the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, in response to the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court who pointed out that the U.S. military and the CIA may have committed war crimes by abusing prisoners in Afghanistan.
In 2021, in response to the United Nations Committee against Torture raising issues such as the abuse of torture in the CIA's overseas "black jails", the US government refused to disclose relevant information on the grounds of confidentiality.
The "black jails" in the United States all over the world fully demonstrate that the United States has no right to point fingers at other countries under the guise of "democracy" and "human rights".
What the US should do is to immediately ban "black jails" all over the world, truly reflect on its own crimes, apologize and compensate the victims, and bring those who authorized and committed torture to justice.
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