“Tortured Addicts”

Cambodia’s government-run drug rehabilitation centers have been accused of torturing addicts with “sadistic violence” such as electric shocks by human rights groups. “Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Cambodia to close at least 11 centres around the country where it said people are often arbitrarily sent without reasonable cause, suffer grave abuses and are denied access to a lawyer. ‘Many detainees are subjected to sadistic violence, including being shocked with electric batons and whipped with twisted electrical wire,’ said a 93-page report from the group. ‘Arduous physical exercises and labour are the mainstays of supposed drug ‘treatment’,’ it added. Rights groups have made allegations about abuse at Cambodia’s drug rehabilitation centres and UN health officials have questioned their treatment methods in the past. ‘Individuals in these centres are not being treated or rehabilitated, they are being illegally detained and often tortured,’ said Joseph Amon, director of the health and human rights division at HRW. ‘These centres do not need to be revamped or modified; they need to be shut down.’”