A chara, – While I welcome the fact that a representative of the British government and a former member of its army, Bob Stewart MP, has finally admitted to practising torture, ("Ex-British soldier says he was 'kind of a torturer' in Northern Ireland", January 26th), I am puzzled by the prefix "kind of".
For years Britain’s government and army were satisfied with the European Court of Human Rights description that such practices are “inhuman and degrading”, but not torture. The US used this ruling to defend practices better known by the unprefixed and more palpable title, “enhanced interrogation”. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that these practices are torture. Such practices were considered barbaric by a generation that witnessed the evils of the second World War. There is no justification, exception nor “kind of” to be found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when it comes to torture. To quote Margaret Thatcher, “crime is crime is crime”, and to paraphrase, torture is torture is torture. – Is mise,
MAITIÚ de HÁL,
An Cúm,
Baile Átha Cliath 8.