By Sapa-dpa   

Human Rights Watch (HRW) painted a damning picture of conditions in Zambian prisons, saying detainees were routinely tortured and subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of police.    

The New York-based rights body in its report on conditions in the southern African country's prisons, called on the government to investigate claims that police routinely engaged in torture to extract confessions from detainees.  

"Hanging suspects from the ceiling and beating them to coerce confessions is routine police practice in Zambia," HRW's Africa director Rona Peligal said. "The government needs to call an immediate halt to police abuse, investigate violations, and strengthen grievance mechanisms."  

Working with two local rights groups, HRW interviewed detainees at six prisons throughout Zambia between September 2009 and February 2010 about what happens when a person is detained.

Dozens of detainees claimed they were beaten with metal bars, brooms handles, police batons, sticks or electrified rods. Many said they had been bound first and hung upside down. Some female detainees reported that police officers tried to exact sex in exchange for their release.  

The report said several former detainees still bore evidence of torture, such as misshapen fingers, impaired vision, chronic pain and swelling of the legs.  

A 35-year-old female detainee identified as Gladys, who spent 11 days at Lusaka Central Prison, said she was beaten on her forearms with an iron bar.  

"They beat me every day, trying to force me to confess," the report quotes her as saying.  

The alleged abuse experienced by suspects in police custody violated both the rights of the detainees and Zambia's national, regional, and international law commitments, according to Peligal.

This is not the first time Zambia has been rapped for its inhumane treatment of prisoners.  

Earlier this year, a study by the Prisons Care and Counseling Association, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa and HRW found that a lack of proper medical care in Zambian prisons was contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis among inmates.  

President Rupiah Banda's government rejected the findings of that report.  

It was not possible to get immediate comment from the police, as the position of national police spokesperson is currently vacant.  

The last police spokesman, Bonny Kapeso, who is now commanding officer in the central Copperbelt city of Ndola, told the German Press Agency dpa that police were keen to investigate the circumstances leading to the alleged abuses described in the report.

It was up to the Zambia Police Public Complaints Authority and the the country's Human Rights commission to hear complaints about police conduct, he said.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article646467.ece/Torture-in-Zambian-prisons  

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