Torture is an unjustifiable, immoral activity that changes people forever and breaks the human spirit.

   Those were the words of Demissie Abebe, a torture survivor and executive director of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International, and Dr. Allen Keller, the founder of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, to an audience at the Nassau Presbyterian Church on Thursday.

   The talk on the plight of torture victims and survivors was convened by the Princeton Area Anti-torture Advocacy Group to commemorate June as Torture Awareness Month.

   Mr. Abebe, after an introduction by Robert Duncan, chairman of the Princeton group, first told the audience his own story of torture and abduction.

   In 2004 he worked as an accountant and auditor in Ethiopia in charge of tracking how millions in international dollars were used toward improving Ethiopian infrastructure. During his work, he uncovered millions in missing dollars earmarked to build bridges and schools and purchase construction equipment.

   It appeared to be evidence of massive misappropriation and corruption, according to Mr. Abebe.

   ”I told them this is what I am going to report,” said Mr. Abebe, who later was pressured to clean up his report by Ethiopian officials.

   Mr. Abebe’s reward for standing strong in the face of pressure was abduction by the Ethiopian government and days of torture.

   Badly beaten and burned, he suffered injuries to his legs and shoulders and even deeper injuries to his psyche.

   Displaying emotion as he recounted his and other stories of torture, Mr. Abebe condemned all forms of torture and called for a full investigation into torture undertaken by U.S. officials under President George W. Bush. Citing international law against torture techniques as well as basic human rights, Mr. Abebe condemned what appeared to be a double standard, even in the United States.

   ”There shouldn’t be one (standard) for the powerful and one for the poor, like me,” said Mr. Abebe, who emotionally recounted the stories of numerous torture victims he had come in contact with while working as a torture advocate in Washington, D.C.

   Dr. Keller, who patted a visibly shaken Mr. Abebe on his way to the podium, told of his experiences treating torture victims.

   Patients of Dr. Keller’s included a Tibetan monk, artist and poet who had suffered tremendously at the hands of the Chinese after he wrote poetry attacking the Chinese and their occupation of the mountainous Asian nation.

   Dr. Keller said the monk’s Chinese captors forced the poet’s hands into a coal-burning oven where the skin literally melted off.

   Despite such horrendous physical devastation, Dr. Keller said the psychological and social effects are “worse and more painful.”

   ”Torture is a toxic, dangerous thing,” said Dr. Keller, who noted the plight of torture survivors is a serious issue in the United States where it is estimated there are 400,000 torture survivors alone.

   Later, the doctor condemned U.S. officials and politicians who had supported the torture of captives during the War on Terror.

   Dr. Keller also criticized U.S. officials and politicians, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former New York City mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, for defending extreme interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay, such as sleep deprivation and forcing captives to stand in one place for hours on end. Such tactics, which he said are also forms of torture, do not make the United States and the world safer nor more secure.

   Despite claims of the necessity of torture and the evil nature of U.S. detainees, Dr. Keller said the vast majority of captives eventually would be released without any criminal charges.

   Sponsors for the talk include the Nassau Presbyterian Church, the Coalition for Peace Action, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the Union to Reform Judaism, Princeton University, Amnesty International, the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church and the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Trenton.

   Gordon Mikoski, a professor of Christian education at the Princeton Theological Seminary, moderated the event.

   gforester@centraljersey.com