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Aid group halts work in Libya over 'torture'
26 January 2012 -- Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has halted its work in detention centres in a Libyan city because it said its medical staff were being asked to patch up detainees mid-way through torture sessions so they could go back for more abuse.
"Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for more interrogation," Christopher Stokes, MSF general director, said in a statement on Thursday.
Rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about torture being used against people, many of them sub-Saharan Africans, suspected of having fought for former dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces during Libya's nine-month civil war.
The agency said it was in Misrata, about 200km east of Tripoli, the capital, to treat war-wounded detainees but was instead asked to treat fresh wounds from torture.
"This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions," said Stokes. Read more
