[Bodily evidence can reveal torture. 5-year experience of torture documentation]

At the Centre for Torture and Trauma Survivors in Stockholm, 201 subjects from 34 countries were documented during a period of five years. Torture reports differed little between individuals from the same countries or regions, regarding methods and circumstances. Africans from Uganda (n = 22) reported brutal torture and manifested extensive scarring (mean number of scars, 20; range 4-65), whereas subjects from Syria (n = 28) reported falaka (i.e., bastinade), whipping and suspension, but manifested few or no scars (mean number 5, range 0-17). Of the subjects examined, 17% were women, of whom 79% reported having been raped during torture. Chronic back pain was the most common complaint at the time of examination. Correlation was found to exist between sexual torture and genito-urinary symptoms, bastinade and neural symptoms, and electrical torture and symptoms from the joints and gastro-intestinal tract. Severity of physical torture was a correlate of post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the forensic report had no effect on the verdict of immigration authorities regarding individual asylum applications.