nickThis week’s Rose café was different than the others. Dr. Nick Cheesman came to discuss the topic of torture in southeast Asian. Never have we discussed such a disturbing topic before during a rose café. As I held my tea in my lap, Dr. Cheesman described how victims were found on the brink of death after being hung by their feet and electrocuted. The most shocking part of this talk was finding out that this torture was not being perpetrated by some mentally-ill criminal, but by police officers. Police officers in Thailand and Myanmar started torturing citizens to get them to confess to crimes, and now torture has become a widely used practice towards all kinds of legal offenders. Officers might torture someone to confess to crimes like murder or drug possession, and they even torture for bribes. Most families don’t know how to stand up to the police when this kind of torture happens to a loved one. They might not know where their loved one is being held, and if they do, they are only allowed a few minutes to meet with them. After they are released, many people die from the effects of the torture they experienced. A human rights lawyer in Thailand was working to combat the torture crisis, but he has mysteriously disappeared.

In my time at Cornell, I have rarely reflected on the reality of torture. Now I feel extreme pain and empathy for the vast amount of victims that are experiencing torture every day under the supervision of government workers. It is time to get to the bottom of the torture dilemma by asking and investigating about it. It is not a matter of finding out if torture “works”, but rather discovering the ubiquitous patterns that lead to the internal corruption of our institutions. Southeast Asia may seem far away, but it is important to keep in mind that torture can happen in any place, at any time.