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The Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture provides comprehensive medical and mental health care, as well as social and legal services to survivors of torture and war traumas and their family members. In the past year alone we provided these multidisciplinary services to more than 700 people from 70 countries.
Since its inception in 1995, the Program has developed an international reputation for excellence in our clinical, educational and research activities. Our mission is to assist individuals and families subjected to torture and war trauma to re-build health, self-sufficient lives and to contribute knowledge and testimony to global efforts to end torture.
Program Updates
- "Traumatized Detainees" PSOT Letter to the New York Times
Traumatized Detainees
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/opinion/traumatized-detainees.html
January 16, 2012
To the Editor:
“My Guantánamo Nightmare,” by Lakhdar Boumediene (Sunday Review, Jan. 8), is a chilling reminder that most terrorist suspects imprisoned at Guantánamo were released without ever being charged — but not before suffering the physical and emotional pain of abuse such as stress positions, sleep deprivation and the gnawing uncertainty of indefinite detention.
In our 20 years of examining torture victims, we have seen few as traumatized as the several Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and black site (secret prison) detainees whom we evaluated. They deserve an apology and our help.
Sadly, now that President Obama has codified indefinite detention by signing the National Defense Authorization Act, there will be many more torture victims to come — both at our hands and the hands of despots who follow our example in the name of national security.
ALLEN S. KELLER
YANG-YANG ZHOU
New York, Jan. 10, 2012
The writers are program director and policy coordinator, Bellevue/N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture.
