MONDAY, 1.30PM
THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission has warned 24 medical doctors that they may be implicated in gross human rights abuses at its two-day hearing this week on the medical profession’s role in supporting apartheid.
The doctors are named in a 200-page submission to be presented to the commission by the Health and Human Rights Project, a joint initiative of the department of community health at the University of Cape Town and Cape Town’s trauma centre for victims of violence and torture.
“To date the TRC has heard only 28 cases of alleged complicity of medical doctors with the security forces in human rights violations,” Dr Leslie London of UCT medical school, and a member of HHRP, said on Monday. “We believe that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and that there are many hundreds of cases of violations that need to be investigated,” he said.
“We want to make very clear our position that these abuses were not isolated events involving a few ‘bad apples ‘. Rather, these abuses arose in a context in which the entire fabric of the health sector was permeated by apartheid.”
The HHRP submission also looks at the role of police and military health personnel in the torture of prisoners and the development of a biological warfare programme, as well as bizarre reports of SA Defence Force use of aversion therapy involving heterosexual erotica and electric shock therapy to “reprogramme” gay recruits. The HHRP also recommends that the commission pay particular attention to the role of district surgeons in facilitating the torture of detainees and refusing to provide adequate health care to political prisoners. The commission has also been asked to look at the failure of health organisations to hold members accountable for their participation in gross human rights abuses.
“These organisations covered up abuses, acted as apologists for government policies … and actively vilified colleagues who were prepared to stand up for justice and human rights.” London singled out the Medical Association of SA and the SA Medical and Dental Council for particular criticism.