ABSTRACT
‘Usually, the testimonies denouncing torture that are delivered to agencies working on Human Rights – detailed as they are – merely recount what happened from beginning to end as a chronological narrative. When they mention certain kinds of torture, they are almost always referring to techniques: “they used the bathtub on me,” [or] “the bag”; “they put electrodes on me.” (…). Sometimes the reports are very detailed. And yet, when you ask torture victims privately about the testimony, they usually end up confessing that the testimony does not satisfy them, that it pales before all that was actually done to them, that it barely touches on everything they experienced. “I say: They put electrodes on my testicles, but can anyone imagine what that means? Or the theater and the madness that surrounded me? What I felt? Only someone who has been through that can understand.” (…). For the readers of the testimonies that regularly circulate, it is very important to know that they are only outlines, small sketches of a skeleton that lacks meat; they give data, list techniques, collect specific phrases. (…) Years ago, another victim of torture told me, “If you haven’t been there, you can’t understand anything.”And it’s true.’ (Eva Forest, On Torture, 2006)
