Macedonian police have beaten, tortured and even killed...

Macedonian police have beaten, tortured and even killed suspects held in detention, the Council of Europe said in two reports. Published by the European rights organisation's anti-torture committee following a visit 20to Macedonia in October 2001, the first report contains accounts of beatings meted out to prisoners that were "severe enough to be life threatening". It highlighted the case of a detainee who died in hospital just hours after being arrested by police. An autopsy on the victim revealed multiple injuries to the head, neck and back, as well as internal bleeding. "The deceased would appear to have been beaten to death, most probably by a number of different persons," the report said. In another case, a suspect had a cross carved into his back with a bayonet. Included in the reports are accounts of violent abuse by police using metal bars, baseball bats, mock castrations and executions. According to the second report, another visit in July 2002 uncovered "new evidence of torture", four years after the first visit by a Council of Europe delegation criticised the illegal practice. Several - but not all - of the known torture cases concerned the detention of suspected members of the National Liberation Army (UCK), an armed Albanian guerrilla group. NATO peacekeepers remain stationed in Macedonia ever since conflict erupted between government forces and Albanian rebels in the north of the country in 2001 and brought Macedonia to the brink of civil war. But the torture committee said the battle against terrorism invoked by the Macedonian authorities should "never be allowed to degenerate into acts of torture or other forms of ill-treatment". The Council of Europe called on the Macedonian authorities to issue a statement "from the highest political level" to law enforcement officers, warning that torture would not be tolerated. Responding to the fresh allegations, the Macedonian government said they had put in place human rights training for police officers.