On behalf of my Quaker Meeting, I am a member of MNRCAT, the Metro New York Religious Campaign Against Torture. This organization works to raise awareness about and to stop the use of torture by governments/intelligence agencies as a means of interrogation. We focus specifically on the use of torture by the United States. This picture is from a rally we held near the United Nations on June 26, 2007. June 26 is the International Day in Rememberance of Victims of Torture. I also attended the MNRCAT event on June 26 this year, which was an interfaith service and press conference in the UN Chapel. It was a very moving experience, at which a survivor of torture from Chile spoke. Her story reminded me of those of the Comadres, whom I am going to work with in El Salvador. Many of them were kidnapped and tortured during their country's civil war.At the interfaith service to honor victims of torture, a torture survivor spoke. She is from Chile, and was a sociology student and trade union leader at the time that Salvador Allende was assassinated in 1964. A couple of months after Allende’s assassination, she was abducted and tortured by agents of the Chilean government. She was held captive for several years. She said that what kept her sane and alive was the knowledge that other prisoners were suffering also, and her faith in G-d. There was one thing in particular that really struck me, and has stayed with me. She said that people are detained just because they “do not believe, look like, or speak like those who are currently in power.”
This woman lived in England in exile for ten years. When she finally returned to Chile in the 1980s, she was imprisoned again. This woman was a very sweet, middle-aged woman who could have been anyone’s mother. She has children, but their bond has been stretched many times.
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